More British Aid

For Fiji’S

Development Plan

FIJI has received another £700,- 000 Stg. under the UK and Colonial Development and Welfare Act to help along the Colony’s extended Development Plan.

The grant was made under the 1955 Act. Under the original Acts of 1945 and 1950, Fiji received £1,000,000, as well as grants from the central allocation for all Colonies for broadcasting, geological surveys and medical research, and there are likely to be further allocations under the new Act.

The unspent portion of the original million will still be available.

The Financial Secretary (Mr. H.

W. Davidson) said at the Budget session of the Legislative Council that Fiji’s new five-years’ plan envisaged the spending of about £F8,000,000. It includes a big road programme, the new Suva and Lautoka wharf systems, extended water supplies, capital expenditure on schools, and loans for housing and agricultural and industrial development.

The Government had tried to persuade the United Kingdom that

£2,300,000 of Colonial Development and Welfare funds could usefully be spent in Fiji in 1955-60, but it had been warned that the amount available for the whole Colonial Empire was limited, and Fiji was unlikely to get the full amount asked for, however worthy the schemes proposed. t Between 30 and 40 American garden-lovers will arrive in Fiji on October 16 to make a short tour of Viti Levu before travelling to

New Zealand and Australia. T party will be led by Mr. Norv Gillespie, well known in the Unit States as a radio, television a newspaper gardening expert. t Within a fortnight in April t: ships, Beaverhank and Nesshank, Apia loaded more than 4,000 tc of copra and several hundred tc of cocoa beans for the Briti market. As a result the Apia she were clear of copra for the fi; time for several years.