Do You Remember?

From PIM of 20 Years ago.

MANY planters were almost ready

to give copra away, as one trouble piled upon another to aggravate the situation. Alternative crops were chief topics of conversa

tion—cocoa, coffee, rice, soya beans,

peanuts, castor oil seeds —all were spoken of in our issue of June, 1934.

The Unilever Combine came in for much criticism —interesting, in view of the warning given by Mr.

B. Fairfax-Ross at the May, 1954, meeting of the P-NG Legislative Council to the effect that after the MOF Contract ends in 1957 Unilever will again be back on the job, a force to be reckoned with.

Here are some other extracts from the June, 1934, PIM: Reasons for the continuing low price of copra were set out as follows: World depression; overproduction; competition of other vegetable oils and whale oil; the domination of the European market by the Unilever Combine; and the de cision of the US Government to levy a processing tax on coconut oil. * * * In the midst of Depression, Lever Bros., only one of the companies that made up the Unilever Combine, had made a profit of over £6,000,000. Editorially, we said of the Combine, “. . . While the unorganised primary producers of the world are on the bread line, this monstrous combine which sits astride of the world’s market and simply crushes every form of competition out of exist ence, goes on paying dividends of 15 per cent.” * * * How history has a habit of saying the same things over and over: Commenting on the annual report of Burns Philp just issued, we said that the Firm was trying to get a share of the tourist business, but that BP stewards drove BP passengers in to dinner at 6 p.m. while, passengers

on foreign-registered ships could eat at a reasonable hour. No doubt, we said, the time would come w'hen all Islands ships were manned by Asiatic crews. In this June, 1954, issue of PIM, we publish some of Mr. James Burns’ comments on conditions on their ships to-day. They are remarkably similar to the things that were said 20 years ago. * * * And again; Someone writing from Fiji warned that Fiji-Indians should not be let into the Solomons; stated that all Indians were pests and that they should be sent back home to India from Fiji.

If Indians must be let into BSIP, they should be hand-picked peasant-farming types who had no interest in politics. * * * The search for gold was being con tinued in the Northern NG mainland.

Messrs Schultze and Schmitz (Snr. and Jnr.) were prospecting up the Sepik (more was to be heard of these men later); Messrs. Alf Belfield and Dick Glasson were on the lower Sepik; Messrs.

Tex Roberts and T. Yeomans were around Wewak; and Messrs. V. Pennefather and Corrigan further up towards Aitape. * * * Tunnel Hill, Rabaul, was no longer a tunnel; our Rabaul correspondent re ported: “Ratavui Tunnel is now no more and the road leading to the North Coast passes through what more aptly might be called Griffiths’ Cutting, for it was on General Griffiths’ instructions that the tunnel was cut away because of the danger of falling debris after earth tremors.” (It is still called Tunnel Hill, although it is now a three-lane, bitumen surfaced road. Probably few of Rabaul’s present residents know where it gets its name.) * * ♦ One of the Things that Were Never Done: The NG Branch of the RSSAILA decided to erect a war memorial, work to start immediately. It was to be a 30-ft. high concrete tower, with 4-sided clock, near the intersection of Kamerere St. and St. George’s Avenue.