Council Discussion
p. 73 · Read in the full issue
SUVA, August 20.
In the Legislative Council today, members discussed Levuka’s problems now that the copra trade has gone.
Mr. J. Madhaven said Ovalau had lost £150,000 worth of trade and there were “unemployment and starvation in the town”. He sug
gested copra producers should get a subsidy.
Mr. W. G. Johnson said he had ‘every sympathy” for Levuka people who had been affected by the shift in economic emphasis, but he could not sympathise with a suggestion that public money should be spent on a subsidy to keep people affected by that shift in the town for all time.
Mr. H. B. Gibson said the problem needed a lot of deep thought.
The Colonial Secretary, Mr. P. D.
Macdonald, said he couldn’t see how Levuka’s position could be improved with a subsidy, but he was ‘‘much concerned” at the suggestion of starvation and unemployment, and he would have investigations made.