Only One Crop; and Lack

Lack of Labour High Official’s Comment On BSI Economy

THE problems of the Solomonsa economic future were brieflvj referred to in a broadcast on< January 28 from Honiara by Sirl Geoffrey Clay. He is Agricultural Adviser to the British Secretary ole State for the Colonies, and in thei last seven years he has personally! visited and examined agricultural industries in every British countryy except Fiji, Mauritius and thei Falklands.

His main impressions of his brielc visit, while flying over the archi-i pelago, were the emptiness; thei grandeur and wonder of the up-c heavals which produce the volcanioi cores of most of the Islands; thei luxuriance of the tropical growth! induced by a continuation of soil! and rainfall; and the reliance; everywhere on coconuts and copras production as the basis of the Pro-( tectorate’s economy.

Overall, he said, one could note escape the prime importance of thei problem created by the scarcity oh the labour supply available, note only for the reopening and main-i tenance of existing plantations, buti for the extension and diversification! of production.

Against this background (limited) labour supply) the experiments be ing carried out in the use otc arsenical and hormone sprays im weed control, and re-establishmenti of a low ground cover, and the im-i portance of restocking with cattlel as a means of reducing the , highl cost of brushing, are of great im-i portance.

So, also, is the research work omi control of amblypelta —the pest re-; sponsible for nutfall —which in many;: areas is so severe as to render thei reopening of the old plantations; uneconomic. He was glad to know# that this research—interrupted the resignation of Dr. Phillips— will be resumed with the arrival oftc his successor, Mr. Brown, in Ma p, or June.

No time should be lost in trying§i to establish, by well-organisecfo; trials, the possibilities of tree crops alternative to copra, oftc which cocoa would appear to be oneei of the most promising.

The objective of planters shouldbJ be the production of high produce, and he was pleased to hearu this policy expressed at the Copras- Board meeting which he had thattc day attended. He hoped that inni any campaign for the expansion oftc kiln-dried copra, financial assist ance, where necessary, would beec forthcoming to both natives andbi Europeans. (Next Page) (a

Hopelessness Of The BSI

Outlook

EDITORIAL NOTE: The British Solomons are a large, fertile and fruitful archipelago. They can grow almost any tropical product, and there is a market for most of the things they could grow. Yet, as this skilled and experienced British visitor remarked, this is a country of appalling emptiness, its feeble economy centred upon the one poorly-established industry, coco nuts.

What is wrong? What does it lack? As we have pointed out, again and again, there can be no develop ment in this Cinderella Territory until there are (a) a labour supply and (b) inducements for investors.

There are not enough natives in the huge archipelago (only 100,000) to provide indigenous labour; and the stupid policies of the British Colonial Office have scared off what ever enterprise was inclined in re cent years to take an interest in development.

A British Colonial Office plan to really encourage European enter prise on a big scale (a sine qua non being the introduction of suitable labour from overseas) might achieve something; but there is no prospect of anything like that. There are too many post-war idealists in the picture, Who insist that the archi pelago must be preserved for the natives (although the native popu

lation is small, and almost wholly confined to Malaita); there is no security of tenure for new settlers, because Britain may soon return to Socialist control, and it was a Socialist Government which gave the Protectorate its coup de grace after the last War; and, even if such a plan were* introduced successfully, it would benefit not Britain, but Australia. The present slender economy of BSI is about 80 per cent.

Australian —is now, and always has been. BSI should, of course, have been taken over by Australia after

the War.

In the opinion of this journal, the only practicable plan that has been offered for the solution of BSI troubles is the transfer of Fiji-born Indian agriculturalists and traders, from Fiji (where there are too many of them) to the Solomons (where there is room for a million small settlers) But the high panjandrums of the Colonial Office will not even comment upon it.

The same panjandrums, a year ago, were asked urgently by the Legislative Council of Fiji to make

an official Inquiry into Fiji’s popu lation problem—but they have done nothing at all. That is sufficient comment upon Colonial Office policy in the South Pacific.