[?]s Cigarette Factory

(Continued from Page 123) rted cigarettes and tobacco st out of the picture, and they whether a “concealed subsidy”, le form of possibly £1,000,000 from the Colony’s revenue over e-year period, is not too high ice to pay for the new local ette industry.

Editorial Note

i’s revenue loss reminds us of w Hebrides resident who some ago decided that it would be od idea to manufacture soap ly, with coconut oil as a base. necessary machinery was rted from France and a good of soap was turned out. wever, Australasian soap manu rers were not happy about the industry and soon proved that could undersell the home n article. The manufacturer asked the Government for sort of protection. But the rnment was unenthusiastic— lected duty from imported soap lid not want to do anything to urage its importation not s it could devise some way of g the local industry to make ir lost revenue. The result has that the manufacturer, who ed himself as a pioneer of New idean industry, has now gone if business. ere is a great deal to be said ind against the establishment cigarette factory in Fiji. The rnment merely has to make up lind whether it wants a new

industry more than it needs revenue.

The Papua-New Guinea Administration faced the same problem when it permitted the establishment of a brewery at Fort Moresby —and decided for the brewery, The brewery does not employ many, either—but a great many of the shareholders are local P-NG residents and the profits it makes circulate in that country.

r Mr. Dudley McCarthy, MBE, Administrative Officer in charge of the Welfare and Social Advance ment Branch of the Australian Department of Territories, repre sen t e d Australia at the Suva ference on the South Pacific Commission proposals for the setting up of a central vocational training institution for the South Pacific.