£2Om. On Vital
p. 22 · Read in the full issue
Development
Plan For Fiji
Full details of the Fiji Develop ment Plan, which has been two years in the making, were published in Suva on July 2, as this issue went to press. An outline of some important sections of the plan was published in “PIM” in June ( p. 139).
THE plan is set out in five volumes, and proposes developmental expenditure exceeding £F20,000,000.
It will be considered in detail by the Fiji Legislative Council meeting on July 12.
Fiji has a population approaching 500,000, half of it Indian. This has created a grave problem of sustenance.
The planners have done their best
with Fiji’s traditional agricultural
income-earners—sugar and copra— but new planting in those directions is limited by the availability of suitable land. So new industries must be established.
The plan proposes to seek new income by: • Extended use of agricultural land by measures to increase pro duction of staple crops, such as copra and bananas, and to step up research into the possibilities of rice, cocoa, coffee, groundnuts, oil palms, and extended pastures for livestock. • Greatly extended use of poor class land by a forestry programme under which 6,850 acres of soft woods and 11,625 acres of hard
woods will be planted; and research into the more effective use of exist ing natural forests. • Stimulation of the tourist in dustry.
O Exploitation of Fiji’s mineral resources.
The plan predicts that by the year 2.000, Fiji’s population will be 1.200.000, and that chief income earners then will be wood pro ducts (£100,000,000), tourism (£35,000,000) and sugar (£20.000,000).
Chief expenditure of the £20,000,000 within the next five years is to be under the following head ings— £ Agriculture 1,193,000 Roads 3,396,000 Post and Telegraph 2,395,000 Education 2,068,000 Medical services 2,523,000 Survey teams are to be set up to direct research and planning.
A study of plans for a better road from Nadi to Suva will have top priority (see p. 117 for comment on the need for this road).
To meet the cost of this five-year plan it is proposed to obtain £7,700,000 from the British Colonial Development and Welfare Fund, raise £5,550,000 from local loans and £3,650,000 from overseas loans, and get £2,800,000 from local revenues.
The plan has been received with relief in Fiji, where problems of over-population have become acute.
But much of the plan still is subject to inquiries by expert survey teams, and fears are expressed that this may cause long delays in getting on with development in directions where early action is urgently needed.