[?]inville

Neglected Paradise [?]inville [?]ould Be Put "On The Map"

beautiful island of nville, TNG, is being neglected — and, since the ition of the member for ruinea Islands from the tive Council last year, ot even got an official piece. That is one reason dr. R. Bunting, nomin nember of P-NG Legco, 0 the cudgels on Bougain behalf at the May meet- Port Moresby.

BUNTING recently spent ne time on the big island, ich the old geography books the Northern Solomons. He t its agricultural produc eady equals that of the Peninsula, the oldest nd most prosperous part of tain. were 40,000 natives on dlle and large areas of land for settlement both by md Europeans. His advice ie who sought to take up the Territory was to look dlle over first, ay down the 100 miles of coast, was the sub-station This was originally settled ermans prior to World War etween the wars the Man irritory administration had the head station of the r ille District. estimation, it was a great er World War II to move [ station away from Kieta it at Sohano, which is a md unapproachable except Even to get to the local t is necessary to take a would have served the in f the district better if the don had remained at Kieta, as a magnificent natural and is the centre of the nting industry. ould Be Copra Port sent, although copra from plantations is picked up by vessels, the smaller planters tinville must ship all their •om their plantations to or reshipment. Copra pro ilready exceeds that of the Papua—i.e., 14,000 tons a d very shortly cocoa pro will be greater than from J else in P-NG, with the 1 of the Gazelle Peninsula, said Mr. Bunting, should ped as a port for the direct shipment of copra. At pre

sent, the Territory was expecting too much from the small planters of the district who were handicapped in having to ship on local vessels to Rabaul.

If hi<? hone also that exservicemen’s blocks’for the cultivabemadeTallaWe W ° Uld be made available. hr ftimthor Dr. buntner bays boon Bougainville’s requirements will be reviewed “soon” said Dr. J.

Gunther, Assistant Administrator, in answer to Mr. Bunting. The review would be made on the spot, and the development of Kieta port, ineluding the construction of a wharf, would be considered.

However, he pointed out that the development of Kieta as a copra shipment port depended on the Copra Marketing Board establishing a depot there.

At present, only one shipping com-

pany has the right t(D carry copra from Papua-New Guinea to Aus tralia. That company picked up copra from its own plantations along the Bougainville coast, but it had also agreed to pick up privately copra all “ated'to P AusZha ly the C&5. [Burns Philp Line’s Tulagi usually picks up the copra along the Bougainville coast for the Australian crushers. This vessel also calls at British Solomon Islands’ ports, and i n order to provide it with back loading from the Protectorate picks up copra there for Australia. The amount of copra it could pick up i n Kieta, therefore is not unlimited, what Mr. Bunting was asking for, 0 f course, was the development of as a port and as a Copra Marketing Board depot, so that Bank Line vessels can call there and pick up copra for European destinations].