Pacific Copra Industry?

Hat Is To Be Future Of

i FTER many summers, Govern ment control of primary pro jcing industries—along with the lied subject of long-term marketing »reements —has become a burning uestion to the people subjected to ich controls.

The Australian wheat industry has :en the most vocal to date. The msequences of Government control >parently have brought about a duction in the wheat area planted st season of approximately one ird, with a possible further re iction of planting in the coming ason, notwithstanding official ipeals for plantings.

Farmers who have switched from heat to other products to escape mtrols will require much more couragement and pecuniary ;>n icement before they will be pre red to change back again.

Government controls were not iknown before the war. But the ost important of them consisted limitation of areas planted—the ;a then being that smaller harvests >uld give enhanced prices. In the pression, this policy was carried the extreme of destroying primary oducts rather than allowing them flood a market already filled with saleable commodities. In USA, is were slaughtered and buried, tton crops ploughed in, other Dps destroyed. In Brazil, vast antities of coffee were burned.

The pendulum now has swung in ' opposite direction; we live in a »rld crying out for food. Govern ;nts may have been reasonably icient in the Depression years in droying food, but their efficiency ce the war, in the reverse ection of stimulating food pro ction, appears open io doubt, ice having obtained control of a )duct by legislative action, how it, most Governments are re :ant to relinquish their powers. ft is an axiom of economics that en the price of a commodity is Stable, ways and means will be md of meeting the demand; ana en production of a commodity omes unprofitable, labour and ntal will be diverted to other tns of economic enterprise.

Fhe fundamental aim of Govern nt control of production and rketing since ihe war does not )ear to have been the welfare of industry controlled, but the luisition of bargaining points in ding with other Governments.

Whatever the Governments may have gained, the primary producer invariably has received the worst of the deal—his welfare has been generally ignored.

The results are now becoming apparent in stagnant industries and receding production.

When these conclusions are applied to the copra industry of the Pacific, the outlook becomes alarm ing.

The removal of Government con

trol over Australian wheat growing, and the granting of world parity prices to wheat farmers for all wheat

sold, would result in a prompt re sponse by the farmers and the renewal of record plantings. Wheat growing is an annual industry, how ever, and the growing of copra requires 12 years or so from the slanting of the young palm to the irst production.

What individual to-day would be srepared to sink his capital and abour in the British Pacific Islands n the clearing and development of :oconut plantations? In some British Islands export duty alone on :opra ranges from 15 to 25 per cent. )f the full value of the crop! In iddition, top-heavy and expensive Administrative staffs have neces itated the imposition of rates of axation, both direct and indirect vhich would have been considered idiculous in pre-war days.

Not even in the best days of oconut cultivation was there ever ny rush to start off from scratch n the industry—that is, from ihe learing of the ground to the ventual development of a well lanted and well-run plantation.

A big influx of new proprietors ook place in New Guinea in the 920’s, but these men were taking ver well-established and mostly ully bearing plantations. In ddition, a big proportion had al

ready had some years of experience as plantation managers with the Expropriation Board, many of them buying on easy terms the plantations on which they had graduated as managers.

The future of the copra industry in the Pacific will depend more and more on the development of new properties and the re-planting of the older ones. There is little induce ment under present conditions for this to be done. Local Adminis tration and Home Governments must be brought to realise this.

The economic outlook, when examined from the standpoint of supply and demand in future years, has never been stronger. If this

were the only factor involved, there need be no fears for the industry.

But Government control has intro duced other factors which have re sulted in a feeling of frustration and uncertainty amongst present planters and a frightening-off of others who may have been inclined to put their labour and capital into the industry. —J.B.

A native school was opened at Kaisinik near Wau, New Guinea, recently. Local natives built the school of bush materials in a pleasant location overlooking the Bulolo River. The two native teachers are from New Ireland and there are already 30 pupils enrolled.

Mr. J. E. Chambers, of 32 Fer guson Road, Banbury, Oxon, Eng land, would like to correspond with someone in Fiji. He is interested in learning local customs and government and the postal system.

He collects stamps which he sells in aid of children’s homes and hospitals.