Japanese Know-How
p. 159 · Read in the full issue
Fishing
Enterprise
Santo Enlists Japanese Know-How
OANTO, New Hebrides, is to have O its fishery enterprise and fish cannery after all.
Little has been heard of this pro ject f<pr almost a year and at that time it was believed that nothing would come of the scheme, due to anti-Japanese feeling in the New Hebrides and in Australia.
Some British residents were against the fishery because it was based on Japanese know-how; these British residents, through the Aus tralian press were able to stir up some opposition to the scheme in Australia through the well-worn scare line that pockets of Japanese would be established close to Aus tralia’s eastern seaboard.
The scheme to catch and can tuna in Santo with the aid of Japanese fishermen and technicians was the brain-child of Mr. D. J. Gubbay, and it was fully set out in the PIM of May, 1955. The original scheme may have teen modified since then, as it is now stated that the cannery side of the project “involves a French canning company, Compagnie Parisienne Sunbel.” D. J. Gubbay & Co., in the fishery part of the project is associated with Nanyo Boeki Kaisha.
Work is now in progress on a wharf at Palikula (SE Santo) and also a refrigeration plant that will be able to turn out 20 tons of ice per day. There will be a freezing chamber and cold-storage as well as an ice-making plant. A mechanical conveyor will transport the fish straight from the fishing vessels to the plant.
The bulk of the fish taken and treated for export will be tuna, with some bonito. The fish will be caught by Japanese-owned and manned ships which will operate on 12 months contracts before re turning to Japan for overhaul, etc.
There are at present 15 Japanese technicians at Palikula supervising the erection of the freezing plant; 34 more are expected to be given 3-years entry permits pending the time when local people, native or Tonkinese, are trained to operate the plant.
Mr. Gubbay first became interested in the idea of a local fishery and cannery when the American canners, Van Camp, successfully established themselves at Pago Pago under a similar scheme of co-operation with Japanese fishing boats. It is well known that New Hebrides waters are fished by the Japanese. Mr.
Gubbay thought that it would be a good thing if some of the fish from local waters were diverted to the enrichment of the Hebrides.
It would be a much better solu tion all round, of course, if the
New Hebridians themselves bestirred themselves to large-scale fishery with the diligence, enterprise, skill and endurance of the Japanese. But so far as we know, no Hebridean has shown the slightest disposition to do this. And neither has any other native of any of the other South Pacific islands.