Stabilisation’S
p. 16 · Read in the full issue
£3,000,001 Some Interesting Possibilitie
THERE is a possibility of interest ing developments in connectio with the Papua-New Guine Copra Stabilisation Fund.
When Papua-New Guinea re sumed copra production, after th war, the Ward-Murray Socialis regime took control of the market ing of all produce, through th Production Control Board; and it de ducted from amounts due to planter a sum varying from £3 to £5 pe ton, for “stabilisation of the in dustry.”
The deduction continued for som time after the establishment of th MOF contract (although that 9 years’ contract virtually represente stabilisation); and thus there ha been accumulated a fund of abou £3,000,000.
Little deduction is now bein made on account of stabilisation but some P-NG planters feel tha the deductions made between 194 and 1950 were improper. They re sent the attitude of Canberra, whie is inclined to say that the big fun is Government property, in the dis posal of which the planters hav neither voice nor interest.
Discussions have taken place bet ween the NG Planters’ Associatioi and Mr. Dudley Jones, a Rabai solicitor who has had remarkabl successes in toppling over some c the legal machinery behind whio the bureaucrats have sheltere themselves.
Mr. Dudley Jones has been i Sydney, and in consultation wit eminent counsel; and it is quite pos sible that tne High Court will b asked to say that the Stabilisatio: Fund was illegally collected.
If the High Court should say S( the money, presumably, would hav to go back to those from whom i was collected between 1945 and 195 —an accountants’ nightmare, per haps, but it would represent som really ripe, rich plums for th mouths of P-NG’s deserving plan ters.