Papua "Has No Future"

Only Copra To Keep It Going

A Gloomy Prediction: Eastern

From a Special Correspondent in Milne Bay This country of Papua—and more particularly this eastern end of it—has no future.

Sopra now is the only product it keeps it going, and that is not id. A price of over £5O per ton needed to make it payable. : have just heard that there is be a quarterly adjustment, and it the first one will give the >ra producer another £8 per ton, ry nice, if correct. ?he trochus shell industry took hammering when the price was h, and there is not such a great il around now. Labour is so ex isive and so inefficient, and so y irresponsible, that every op tion has to be supervised.

The days when one could send a cutter for shell, in charge of native, with several months’ lons, and get the boat back with )ad of shell, are gone forever, owadays, if one sends a boat out that the skipper either sells rations for betel-nut and nen, and spends his time an red until the rations are used or sells some of the shell on the ’ home; or else just sails around.

Whatever he does, one can rantee a good story will be told ;he end and that no action can taken against the native. Or, if on is taken, it is too expensive lo any good. The native will be n some PO who has qualified aw from the School of Pacific unistration to help him, while plaintiff will have no one.

The PC's Rooster ie rather amusing case was one ;h a friend of mine had nst two natives, who had stolen eaten two of his fowls. They talked two small kids [into bing into the fowl-yard and hing the fowls, and had then :ed and eaten them on |the ;h —all at night. 1 my friend had was circum tial evidence, and the PO ap ing for the natives almost had believing he had never owned fowls. len the kids confessed, ley also told how they had ed carry a big black rooster i the PO’s place, a week or so re—and this put the PO on my id’s side. Apparently the two had been making a practice of ling fowls and lifted the PO’s xalorp rooster, which he had ;ht at much cost. The boys got months each. ie Co-Ops in this area have n a hammering, with the long ?f dry years. Not much was ! m the good years to increase

the planting of nuts, although some coffee and rice was planted. The rice is negligible; the coffee may come to something.

One thing obvious is that the present conditions lend themselves towards breeding discontent among the natives, particularly among those who have been educated under the new scheme. There is no outlet for them to use their edu cation. While things were booming there were many positions for them.

They are ripe for some form of “communism”. I hope some means of using them will be found but, with the present set-up, anything could happen.

Maybe I am unduly pessimistic but I have only seen this end of the country of late years.