Few Bouquets
p. 85 · Read in the full issue
For Uncle Sam
In Micronesia
In 1946 a team of nearly 30 scien tists undertook an economic survey of what is now the US Trust Terri tory of the Pacific Islands. The team’s findings, published in 1951, empha sised the need for measures to change wartime devastation into a modern economy in harmony with the chang ing social structure and mores among Micronesians.
A number of the team’s recom mendations have been put into prac tice: cadastral surveys, land titles registration, improved education and health services, produce marketing co-operatives, and regular inter island communications.
Uncle Sam’s per capita grant ex ceeds by far, similar grants to other Pacific territories by their metropoli tan rulers. Even so, 100,000 Micro nesians on 100 islands with 687 square miles of land (much of it barely arable), do not look like attaining the level of economic autarky they aspire to.
If economic viability is to be the sine qua non for self-government, then Micronesians are moving further away from it. Nothing done so far has brought about economic growth apace with, let alone exceeding, the combination of a 4 per cent, per annum net population increase and
US mainland-type material expecta tions.
Experts like Nathan Associates, consultants to the top echelon of the US Government, believe that outside capital and management, urbanisation of Micronesians with consequent free ing of rural land for modern de velopment such as tourism and mech anised farming, and the integration of the islands with the US economy, are necessary if Micronesians are to enjoy higher standards of living.
The foreword to the 1971 facsimile reproduction of the first edition of Planning Micronesia’s Future (editor, D. L. Oliver) leads to the assumption that this re-issue of a report submit ted 25 years ago is intended to be a p’.ea for more consideration of tradi tional society and its values for greater emphasis on people when driving on the road to the temple of today’s god, Optimum Gross Na tional Product.—HHJ.
(Planning Micronesia’S Future,
University of Hawaii Press, $4).
INTEREST in stock exchange dealings heightened by the recent Australian boom in mining shares, is such that there is a need to set out what the newcomer, and even the old hand, needs to know about shares. James Bourke has done much to fill this need with a com prehensive guide, Playing the Share Game in Australia. (Wilke and Co.
Ltd., $5.75 overseas). He sets out fully how to invest, how to interpret market trends, and explains simply the terms used in share trading. In short, the book is a “must” for the investor’s bookshelf.—HNß.