General Farming Will Replace Cane

[?]R to Close [?]usori Mill

The Colonial Sugar Company’s mill at Nausori in Fiji is to lose at the end of the 1959 crushing season. The com pany’s chief manager in Fiji (Mr. Clive Elliott) announced this ►n January 10, two days before he was due to leave the Colony in retirement.

[E announcement did not come altogether as a surprise as this mill has been running at oss. A few years ago the pany issued a warning that tuse of the unprofitable nature the Nausori enterprise such a i could become necessary, tie mill is designed to crush a of 170,000 tons of cane in eason, but it is many years e a crop of that size has been vn. In the last 10 years the ■age crop has been only 88,540 r. Elliot said that the com p’s other four mills in Fiji Id have the capacity to crush cient cane to make Fiji’s >rt quota of raw sugar, and B were being taken to secure ;extra cane at those mills, tius Fiji will not lose out lomically, but other areas of the Iny will gain at the expense of Suva-Rewa area, le announcement has come in ity of time for the Government I farmers to plan for the ageover from sugar to other is of agriculture. r. Elliot gave a firm assurance behalf of the CSR that the pany would provide worthwhile i to deal with the problems sting the future of those now iged in the sugar industry on Rewa.

“We are investigating other agricultural uses for the lands now growing cane,” he said. “The company will work with the growers, with the Government, and with local authorities to make the transition as easy as possible.

“A special officer is being appointed to co-ordinate this work, and the services of company officers will continue to be available for some time after cane growing has ceased, to advise and assist as may be appropriate.”

The Colonial Secretary, Mr. A.

F. R. Stoddart, said that the Government was fully alive to the need for making the transition of the district’s economy as smooth as possible. The Government would work in with all interested parties to that end.

Rewa Valley farmers interviewed after the announcement were some what apprehensive about the future.

They agreed that various crops could be grown, that bananas and dairying would provide valuable monthly payments.

But an adjustment of native leases to provide larger areas, where necessary, and drainage, were essential requirements in planning for the future.

One cane grower suggested that the Government should use the sugar stabilisation fund, or part of it, to

assist sugar producers at Nausori.

Nausori township is likely to suffer a check. uwf P r °£ ress of recent years is likeiy to come to a standstill until the changeover is completed, and the economic return from food pro duction catches up with that previously received from sugar cane.

One Indian businessman, who had t sul5 ul l dm g half erected, said that had he known the mill was to close he would, have modified his plans considerably.

The mill on the Rewa River at Nausori.