Practical Results
p. 26 · Read in the full issue
From Work
Of Sp Commission
THE 3,000,000 Pacific Islanders who come within the South Pacific Commission’s scope are already gaining advantages from the Commission’s work, said the Secretary-General (Dr. Ralph Clairon Bedell) when he arrived at Sydney from Noumea on July 31, to “do some special work on Commission problems” with the Senior Australian Commissioner (Mr. J. R. Halligan).
At present, said Dr. Bedell, the Commission was providing down-to earth explanations on how to grow coconuts in more productive ways, and it was advising on the encouragement of other crops.
In its six years of operation, said Dr. Bedell, the Commission had produced 80 technical investigations, many of which -were already being put to use.
DR. ERIC OJALA, deputy chair man of the Research Council, who arrived at Sydney from New Zealand on July 31, said that the Islands grassland survey recently completed by two Aus tralian officers might produce proposals aimed at making the grasslands more productive, thus increasing beef production.
Cattle production in Papua and New Guinea could be greatly increased if millions of acres of grasslands were improved, Dr, Ojala said. The P-NG cattle population was only 5 000, compared with 30,000 before the war, and meat imports were increasing.