Pacific Commerce and Produce

Solomons Timber Development Has 'Exciting Prospects'

The British Solomon Islands Protectorate is sharing in the growing South Pacific timber boom. From this year timber will become a major industry there and the Government ex pects a capital investment of £1 million to be achieved soon.

WEN at its present modest level, J the BSIP Financial Secretary, r. L. M. Davies, expects the timber dustry to yield a direct revenue of 0 000 in 1964 “We can expect this yield to be ladrupled a/ full thT BSIP Legislative Council in ecember. “In addition there will sizeable effects on he pool of bour imports the yield from mme tax and other duties There is imense potential here which we e about to see mobilised.”

Mr. Davies described the increased terest in timber as “the most imirtant thing which has happened to e Solomons since coconuts were st planted here”.

He said he did not want to over aphasise the importance of the inistry, but it couldn’t be under emlasised, either.

One Japanese and one British commy were already operating and he iped that in 1964 two further commies would begin on a large scale.

He said timber operations were implicated and expensive, requiring eat skill, but the companies would

introduce training schemes, thus set ting a pattern of development which was “exciting”.

Log exports would be the most im portant aspect to begin with, but saw-milling and timber processing in- Solomons was f ? rt “ n vfrt^cos^t^itsdf' deVe '° pment * timber got top bill economic report * replacing copra for the fi ; Bu s ra cture was , y F The )%3 productjon should a record, probably achieving the target G f 25,000 tons. Solomon Islanders continue to produce more than half, with Levers producing 23 per cent, of the total.

Mr. Davies said greater efficiency on existing plantations would mean greater exports.

“At a guess”, the Solomons could probably export another 3,000 to 4,000 tons if all the nuts which fell to the ground were harvested, Over-crowded palms had to be thinned out and new areas had to be planted.

Mr. Davies said annual increase in

copra production in the last four years was about 4 per cent, but the target for 1964 would be 26,250 tons, or an increase of 5 per cent.

Mr. Davies added that cocoa was coping with the sort of anti-climax which sometimes followed a breath taking start. The 1963 production would be about 40 tons from five licensed processing units, but in 1964 there needed to be a five-fold increase to some 200 tons.

First Fiji Wool Export

For Twenty Years

EARLY in December a Fiji farmer shipped a 254 lb bale of wool, grown at Navunivesi, Bua, Vanua Levu, to London. The farmer is Mr. A. Edwards and the wool the first exported from the Colony for more than 20 years.

That is not surprising for there has never been any concentration on sheep farming in the Colony, possibly because of the climate, or because all the best land is required for sugar or copra.

Mr. Edwards sheared 52 of his flock of 89 sheep at the end of Oc tober to get his bale of wool, which he expects to realise £6O to £7O.

He runs 81 sheep bred in New Zealand and eight bred in Fiji. The New Zealand sheep came into the Colony last May. They are doing surprisingly well, although five of them died soon after arrival.

Mr. Edwards plans to shear the sheep again next May.

Mr. Edwards’ father also owned sheep and shipped wool overseas soon after the end of World War I.

Fiji woolgrower Mr.

A. Edwards (right) examines some of the wool which was ex ported to London from his farm in December. Mr. Ed wards' sheep-farming venture is an en couraging experi ment, but until there is a first generation of Fiji-born sheep, it will be impossible to say whether sheep farming in Fiji is economical. Photo: Stan Whippy.

Dividend For P-NG

Copra Growers

CHAIRMAN of the Papua and New Guinea Copra Marketing Board, Mr. I. McDonald, announced early in December that there would probably be a final price distribution of about £lO a ton to copra growers at the end of 1963, This would apply to all copra de livered to the board’s depots through out the Territory from January 1, 1963.

Mr. McDonald said that, on the basis of copra shipped each month, the average London price for the year was about £66 sterling a ton.

This would probably give a final Territory price of about £6B/15/- a ton. Australian currency, for hot-air, and £67/10/- for FMS copra.

Mr. McDonald said that copra ship ment prices had risen from £66 sterling a ton in January, 1963, to £7l/7/6 in December. This was about £lO higher than shipment prices from January to December last year.

The prices to be paid for copra delivered to the Board in December would be the same as those paid in November. These, per ton, were: Hot air £59, FMS £57/10/- and smoke, £56/10/-.

New Ireland Adds

Rubber To Its Crops

VI/’ITH plantation interests and TT village farmers making a start on the planting of rubber in New Ireland, there is an excellent prospect of rubber becoming another im portant export crop in that district according to the Administrator of Papua-New Guinea, Sir Donald Cle land.

Speaking at the opening of the New Ireland District Show at Kavieng on V p m M?/ 5 ’ Sir Donald that ! h a e . P V N< ? D ! par ; ment of Agriculture had fostered the introduction of rubber growing in New Ireland.

A total of 250 acres were being planted at Libba, and there were experimental plots in other areas ,h efer , r J ng ‘° copra - Sir Dona ' d said * h ,k" < ? utput of 25 - 760 tQ ns a year on the latest available figures New Ireland was the most important ?ory a Pr ° dUCinB area in the Terri ' New Ireland’s position as a conra exporter reflected great credit on pro dneers because the district was one areas in ™NG. ' ly War - damaged “Copra production in New Ireland by 76 per cent, tee 52 ' Slr Donald went on, “and

the steadily rising production by village farmers has brought their copra output to about one-third of the district’s total exports.

“Plantation coconut acreage has risen from 52,726 to 59,700 acres over the past 10 years, but the actual rate of planting is considerably higher because of the progressive replanting of senile palms.

“Village coconut groves now total 28,600 acres, making a total for the district of 88,300 acres. This figure includes around li million immature palms, which ensures continued in creased production.”

Sir Donald said cocoa output in New Ireland last year was 330 tons, and was expected to be between 500 and 600 for the current year. Out put in 1951-52 was only three tons.

Village farmers continued to show considerable interest in cocoa plant ing, and were now producing around 70 tons.

Cocoa plantings at the end of June, 1962, were 10,214 acres, com pared with only 438 in June, 1952.

Fiji's Biggest Tourist

Project Yet

¥jTUI RESORTS LTD., formed in November with a nominal capital of £lOO,OOO, has leased half of Yanuca Island, off the southern coast of the mainland island of Viti Levu, with the intention of develop ing it into the largest tourist pro ject so far undertaken in Fiji.

Plans call for a first-class hotel, with a nine-hole golf course, tennis, bowls, a fresh water swimming pool

and facilities for fishing, skin-diving water ski-ing and sailing.

Yanuca Island is about 40 mile from Nadi Airport and is separate from the mainland by a narrow strij of water over which it is intended t< build a bridge.

Two of the directors of Fiji Re sorts Ltd., Mr. P. Slimmer and F Doyle, already have hotel interests i] Fiji.

Better Late Than Never

FIJI’S Development Commissionei Mr. W. B. Rogers, is an optimisl but he is also a realist. Speaking ii the Legislative Council during th debate on the 1964 budget, he re ferred to the 1964-68 developmen plan (in which he will have a bi; role), and said there would be failure in the scheme.

Then, his optimistic nature assert ing itself, he said: “But it is up t< us to ensure that the successes hand somely outnumber the failures.”

He said it had been suggested tha Fiji was too late in starting a pro gramme of land development, and h< agreed. But it was not fatally late and there was a need to press on witl the various schemes with all possibh speed.

In two or three years the Colom should start to feel the benefits o: schemes now being launched, he said and he hoped that in 10 years then would be a substantial improvemen in the Colony’s economic affairs.

Modern Shopping

Block For Tonga

A TWO-STOREY block of shops and offices, now being built ir the main street of Nukualofa, is expected to be completed ir February.

The block is owned by the Tongs Copra Board, and is being built bj its subsidiary, the Tonga Construc tion Company.

The building is 181 ft x 76 ft which gives a ground floor area ot 13,700 sq. ft. The ground flooi will consist of shops, and will have two arcades leading through to the back. The offices will be on the first floor.

Five of the shops and two of the offices will be used by the Tonga Construction Company. The remain ing 14 shops and offices will be avail able for letting.

The block will be the best shopping block in Tonga, and it is hoped tc that it will set the pattern for sub

A native axeman demonstrates his skill at the New Ireland Show at Kavieng on November 25.—P-NG Official Photo.

quent buildings in Nukualofa’s ain street.

The building was designed by essrs. Derrick and Derrick, of Fiji, [cept for the building supervisor, eryone working on the building is locally-trained Tongan.

jnolei Timber Rights

IR. W. SUTTIE, the Director of Forests in Papua-New Guinea, 10 recently returned to P-NG from conference of Australian foresters Hobart, said that Australian and ier overseas timber enterprises :re keenly interested in the Tonolei iber area at the southern end of tugainville Island. There are an imated 500 million super feet of iber in the 110,000 acre area, nders to cut and remove it will >se in January.

w N.Z. Prices For Bananas

t Samoan Growers

IHE low selling price of Samoan bananas in New Zealand had reed depressed living standards on moan planters, Western Samoa’s inister of Finance, Mr. G. F. D. tham, said when presenting his 64 Budget statement to Parliament November.

“It is doubtful if the average New Zealand consumer, who enjoys a high standard of living, is aware of the depressed living conditions so en forced upon the village planter— already without most of the amenities and facilities of more advanced societies—when his share of the ex port trade in the face of rising costs of production in recent years remains static at just under 2d lb for his bananas,” the Minister said.

In 1963, in an effort to find new markets, trial shipments of bananas were sent to Japan and Canada, but costs for containers and transport had been too high to lead to large-scale exports, Mr. Betham added.

NZ Interest in P-NG

Mr. H. B. BOWER, a New Zealand businessman, is very impressed by the rattan cane potential of Papua New Guinea. He made a brief survey of the cane recently on behalf of business interests in New Zealand and other countries. Mr.

Bower said New Zealand agricultural exporters were also showing in creased interest in the Territory as a market for their meat and other frozen food products.