No Roads—As Usual
p. 77 · Read in the full issue
Rich Producers Get No Roads—As Usual
That doughty veteran of the New Guinea planting industry, Mr. Jock Maclean, of Rangarere Plantation, in the Bainings district of New Britain, is still carrying on his war with high authority for the ordinary amenities of plantation life.
Although he has submitted figures from official sources to show that the 23 plantations in the Bainings area producing copra and cocoa pay export tax on their products amount ing to at least £60,000 per annum, the Administration has not pro vided them with any kind of a
trafficable road, and their postal and radio communications are of a primitive kind.
Since he started his campaign in 1955, Mr. Maclean has battered away at Minister, Administrator and Dis trict Commissioner, and now has a remarkable collection of smoothly written replies. But they all add up to the precise fact that the Admin istration takes over £50,000 per annum from the Bainings, and gives little more than nothing back to the planters.
The argument of the Administra tion apparently is that, as the plant ers have always managed to get back and forth to the Bainings by sea, there is no reason why they should not continue to do so.