Transportation In

Bougainville

Some Kinks in the Economic System

By Judy Tudor

SOHANO. March 31. ■pjALF the present European XI population of Kieta, pre-war capital of Bougainville, is rep resented by about five Works and Housing personnel who are believed to be on the brink of constructing the road from Kieta, 25 miles south to Iwi Plantation, and for which £40,000 was granted last year.

There have been roads there be fore. One was made in the Ger man days, as far as Aropa planta tion, but little of it is now usable, the rivers being without bridges and, so it is said, a bridge in one case being without a river.

The peaked mountains go straight up from the present township of Kieta, But it is planned (in com mon with most places in this part of the world, Kieta has plans) to move the town to the adjacent sandy flat which the Marist Mission now occupies, and to put the Mission elsewhere.

Here, too, is to be built a wharf where overseas ships can tie up to load copra brought in by smaller ships from plantations nearly as far north as Buka Passage. Date for the accomplishment of this task is as yet unknown; but it makes sense in comparison with the pre sent haphazard method of copra collecting.

For example, the MV Malaita, on her Sydney-Hebrides-Solomons-New Guinea-Sydney run, spends some thing like a week in Bougainville waters, edging her way in through unlighted and unmarked reefs to precarious anchorages off isolated plantations where she laboriously loads—with the aid of one decrepit launch and maybe four surfboats— perhaps 100 tons of copra at each: place. Malaita, with her crew of over 60, must cost at least £4OO per day to run—yet she goes on errands that a ship of one-sixth her size could do better.

Another 35 miles of road is in construction between Mabiri-Numa Numa-Asitava. Parts are traffic able, and a grant has been recently; made to complete bridges along the route. fITHESE roads are designed to open X up the country, although it is said that they will not affect the present system of lifting copra from plantations by ship.

There is a considerable amount of undeveloped European-owned land in the area which will be served by the roads, but no apparent intention of extending coconut planting. In common with most of

;he SW Pacific, virtually no new ilanting has been done here. No me can tell what conditions will ,e like in 10 years,” planters say, jimly.

On the other hand, there is con iderable interest in cocoa Plant ng—although no one can tell what onditions are going to be like in hat industry in 10 years, either. [frORK on the Buka Passage air fV drome should be finished in three months. When it is open or traffic, Torakina (at present the inly serviceable airfield in Bougam ille District) will be closed. Buka ’assage will then get the benefit )f the Lae-Honiara Qantas service, is well as the fortnightly Sand inghams from Rabaul. Airstrips ire proposed for Kieta and Buin, ilso. . .

Delay in the lifting of copra from 3ougainville-Buka plantations a horn in the flesh of local planters i year or so ago—is now past his ory. With BP’s Malaita, Bougain rille Co.’s Pollurian, and two or ;hree of the Copra Marketing Board’s 300-tonners on the job, here is now competition for cargoes. r\NLY new post-war European in- Lf dustry is the establishment of a sawmill at Mabiri, near *uma Numa. It is a private enter

prise by Messrs. Vic Fryer and McCormack. There should be a local demand for their timber and an Australian market for logs for plywood if and when the Australian building industry recovers from its slump.

Skilled labour is still short in Bougainville—one very small Gov ernment house (of imported materials) at Sohano Government station is said to have cost £6,000, mainly because the Chinese car penters of Rabaul cannot be lured away, except at a price.

No B-P or Carpenter stores in these parts. The local commercial tycoon is Wong You—smiling, rotund, evidently happy and look ing 20 years younger than his alleged age. He came to New Ire land as a coolie to cut copra “in the German time.” Now he has well-stocked stores at Kieta and Buka Passage and in connection with these the nearest local approach to a tavern. You can buy beer and other assorted de lights from Wong You—and sit on his verandah and drink them.

VISITORS to the Eastern Pacific, accustomed to buying baskets, tea trays, sewing-boxes, etc., for 4/-, would weep at the present prices for the so-called Buka basket ware (they are made at Buin, not

Buka). A Buka basket, baby-carry ing type, which in Rabaul before the war cost 7/6, now costs 50/from the natives, who bring them on board the ship at Soraken and other plantations along route of Malaita. Although, it is said,

thousands of baskets of all sizes and shapes are churned out by the natives of Buka, in a week spent in Bougainville waters you will be lucky if you see a dozen.

Maybe it’s the old story of the middleman swallowing the profits.

In Niue, Samoa, Tonga, etc., they take the straight path, direct from producer to consumer.