Visit of Mr. Howard of

[?] tter to the Editor Visit of Mr. Howard of Unilever

MEETING was held at the Hot L Springs Hotel, Nakama, Savu Savu, Fiji, on March 31, with 3 view of meeting Mr. H. D. ward, who, we were told, was a >resentative of Unilever, and the ;ernational Assn, of Seed Crush banters came from all over the trict; it was the biggest meeting tave ever seen here. lr. Howard arrived by plane from venui, where he had been to meet nters; he was accompanied by . Lament, of the Department of riculture, Fiji. jLr G. H. Wilson, QBE, took the air and asked Mr. Howard to iress those present as to the why i wherefore of his visit. Mr. ward then proceeded to tell us about the poor quality copra had been producing over the ;t years. In fact, we were not iducing any good quality copra all and it was time we did some ng about it. Mr. Howard then it on to tell us what sort of copra crushers required—that is, only ■e white, properly-dried, copra ild be bought, as they wanted it the making of their Lux soaps 1 other products; smoke dried or l dried would not do. The present ility was no good and the shers did not want it. everal of the planters spoke in ly, mentioning such things as thod of production, storage, ship g, etc. The discussion seemed to going round in circles and get l us nowhere. had been listening carefully for le time and during a lull in the ceedings I asked Mr. Howard if would oblige by answering a few stions; he said he would, so I the following, which he answered; Do the people you represent r any copra from Fiji?

Yes.

Have they been buying it dur the MOF Contract?

Yes.

I: And have they been paying high prices the MOF asked?

Yes.

Well,” I said, “they must have n satisfied with the copra or y’re a lot of fools.” then told Mr. Howard that I ught his trip out here was just iropaganda move and an excuse bringing the price of copra down I further, hinting out to Mr. Howard that ing the last two years the price copra has dropped 111 per cent, sked him if his firm or our local shers have made any reductions the prices of the products they ke, during that period.

Mr. Howard could not or would not answer that, and the meeting just fizzled out. Present quality is and has been used for years for the making of soaps, margarine, fancy or otherwise, and will still be used.

A lot of really first-grade copra is at present being produced here, but nobody bothers to separate it, and when shipped, it is all dumped in the ship’s hold with other lower grade stuff. The Government and Department of Agriculture of this Colony during the last 30 years have, to my knowledge, worked hard to get planters to make better quality copra and during that time there has been a big improvement.

I told Mr. Howard that his visit

was a waste of his time, and ours, too. What do you think?

I am, etc.,

J. Price.

Savu Savu,

Fiji,

April 15, 1956.

Editorial Note:

When Mr. Howard was in Sydney in March, after his visit to Papua and New Guinea, he was interviewed by PIM. Like Pacific planters, there were a number of questions about the future of copra which we should have liked Mr. Howard to answer. Mr. Howard, however, said that he was a technical officer and had no part in shaping the policy of the organisa tion which he represents nor could he state what part Unilever would play in the copra market after the MOF Contract expires at the end of 1957. We have no reason to disbelieve

although Mr. Howard naturally will be ig a survey of the industry for his com- Price and other planters have every i to be concerned about the future of opra market after 1957 and they would mpletely unrealistic if they underestimated rer's part in it —neither war nor post-war npaired any of the thousand ramifications e great combine. rever, copra quality—which was what oncerning Mr. Howard —is another matter. first-class copra is produced in the : but there has also, in the past, been at deal of inferior copra. While there a sellers' market (that is, in the im te post-war years) inferior copra was ed but the copra market is now such fhe buyers are already calling the tune, gh British producers in the South Pacific rotected for the next 18 months. This so, it seems prudent for Pacific pro to listen to any advice anyone can in raising the quality of the product, factor in the present and future market had not to be considered before the s the role played now by synthetics in hape of detergents or wetting agents ake the place of soap. There is scarcely isehold in the Western world where a ent is not now used for some task ly performed by soap. Consequently tends to become reserved for the finer soaps and for foods such as margarine ooking fats, and for these it is desir o have top quality copra.

'. G. E. Miller, manager of A.

Bunting Ltd., Samarai, left

ia for Australian leave early