[?]ly Seven Make

Cattle

Udy Scheme

[?]ly Seven Make Grade

Papua and New Guinea De irtment of Agriculture received applications for participation scheme—launched last October freight subsidy on cattle im~ I to the Territory under certain ions. applications cover 4,602 head tie. early January, it was an ed that seven applications for al of 350 cattle had been /ed; 10 applicants (for an ;ate of 2,952 cattle) must make cements to their leases before ire eligible: and in respect of vo remaining applicants—for I of 1,300 cattle—it is said that is no record of these persons g pastoral property in the Dry.” ppears, on the above figures, le number of cattle for which : subsidies are requested rises 'erse ratio to the degree of '■al manifested by the Depart- That is, the seven approved ants wish to import an aver se 50 head each; the second which comes into the “may itegory, wishes to import an e 295 head; the two appli in the third, “wishful-think :ategory, wish to import an e 650 head each, freight subsidies range from * head for young beasts to £55 11s. as thought, when the scheme first announced in early r, that it would cover an ex period, but applications (for

this financial year, anyway) closed smartly in mid-November, which so far as Papua and New Guinea is concerned, gave would-be applica tions scarcely time to think about it.

Perhaps the Administration will again open its heart after June 30.

The scheme, if not wrecked by pro visos, time limits and delay in get ting the cattle into the Territory, should have real merit and be a means whereby the Department of

Agriculture can be of real assistance to the cattle farmers in the Terri tory—which, PIM has heard tell, has not always been the case in the last couple of years. t The two Solomon Islanders who have been selected to represent the BSIP at the South Pacific Confer ence at Suva in April are Silas Sitai, BEM, and the Rev. L.

Alafourai.