China’ Somare Says

‘Let’S Learn From

The Papua New Guinea Prime Minister, Mr Michael Somare, has advocated Chinese-type communes and production brigades for PNG but not run by central authority.

He told a university audience in Port Moresby in November that village society itself would have to dic tate the social and political structure of any commune in a given area.

The government’s only role would be to provide the opportunities and the technical aid, not to lay down an obligatory blueprint or inflexible con cept.

Mr Somare was giving his first public assessment of what he learnt in China during his State visit in Oc tober. He spoke to a big crowd of un iversity students and the public at the University of PNG.

Mr Somare criticised PNG’s con tinued reliance on Australia for the supply of huge quantities of small im ports which he believed could be better made at home. He suggested that adoption of some Chinese-style attitudes to self-reliance would solve the problem.

Mr Somare also calimed that Australia was unable to provide ad vice and expertise in the village-level technology which PNG so badly need ed.

He believed China had the answers to this need, although the farm technology of the old China was probably more suited to PNG’s needs than the new intensive farming needed to feed China’s vast population.

Mr Somare gave impressive figures and descriptions of a commune which he had visted near Shanghai, and where more than 27,000 people lived.

He believed the fresh food re quirements and some of the smaller manufactured items needed by PNG’s main cities could come from a similar type of commune development.

But Mr Somare stressed that the motivation for the commune and the final shape taken by any commune should be dictated by the people living in it, not by central authority.

Mr Somare avoided reference to Chinese politics in his address, except to concede that there was a link between Chinese ideology and the type of development which he believed was applicable to PNG.

He said: “But I went to China to look at the way massive development

problems have been tackled, not to look at Chinese politics”.

Mr Somare quoted from the national constitutions of China and PNG to illustrate the wider freedoms which he believed were enjoyed by Papua New Guineas as citizens.

He said he was concerned only with adapting Chinese ideas in self-reliance which were applicable to PNG, and which he believed could go a long way towards decentralisation, develop ment and equitable distribution of recourses.

He believed a basic difference between the two countries at present was that China had learnt to tame its environment, and PNG had learnt to co-exist with its environment. This had made China more determined, and PNG more complacent.

Toasted peanuts,

a new Fiji export

A Taveuni, Fiji, company has developed a toasted peanut enterprise, which has established a market throughout Fiji and is now looking for export trade with New Zealand. The peanuts are produced on the Tarte copra estates, Waimaqere and Nalovo, in the southern part of the island.

Mr Daryl Tarte, Mr Brian Leonard, and four Tarte estate employees, Laisiasa Tuimota, Maika Vosata, Aporosa Waqa and Ilisoni Uganidavui, have formed a company, Taveuni Toasted Peanut Co Ltd, to operate the venture. Special cooking equipment has been installed for the roasting process.

Peanut processing is something new for Taveuni, which is noted more for its heavy rainfall, good quality copra, and the unique orchid, the tagimaucia, which grows only on the shores of a mountain lake above the small township of Somosomo.

Big new fisheries

college for PNG

Construction of Papua New Guinea’s first national fisheries college near Kavieng in the New Ireland province is already under way.

Its first intake of 100 students is ex pected to enrol at the beginning of 1978.

The Japanese Government is

providing K 1.65 million for construc tion of the college under arrangements concluded between the PNG and Japanese governments in I November, 1975.

The grant covers design and con struction of administration and classroom buildings, dormitories, a dining hall, workshop facilities and slipway, plant and a fisheries training vessel.

A contract worth K 700,000 has already been awarded to the Rabaul Building and Maintenance Co for the I construction of college buildings, and a K 400,000 contract has gone to Hor nibrooks Construction Pty Ltd for the i building of the slipway, wharf and

[ workshop.

College courses will be of three kinds: a three-year course for a Diploma in Tropical Fisheries, a one ‘ year course for a Grade-Two Cer tificate in Tropical Fisheries, and a six-month course for a Primary Cer tificate in Tropical Fisheries.

BHP’s O.K. for

Ok Tedi

The chairman of Broken Hill Proprietary Ltd advised Papua New Guinea Prime Minister, Mr Michael Somare, late last year that a consor tium agreement had been signed to carry out major feasibility studies of the Ok Tedi copper prospect in the Western Province of PNG.

The study will take Vh years to complete and will cost K 8.6 million.

Mr Somare said that the two groups who have joined with BHP’s mining subsidiary, DAMPCO, are Mount Fubilan Development Co of Amoco Minerals (a subsidiary of Standard Oil of Indiana), and a group of three West German metal process ing companies collectively known as Kupfer exploration Gesellschaft (these are Metallgesellschaft, Kabel und Metallwerke; Gutehoff nungshutte; and Siemens). Combined assets of the parent companies amount to more than KlO billion.

Fiji plans

a big loan

Fiji has a stay-put budget for 1977.

Rather than increase personal or company tax, the Finance Minister, Mr Charles Stinson, opted for a massive borrowing programme aimed at raising $7O million. With revenue estimated at $133 million, the total budget will be more than $203 million, the first time a Fiji budget has exceeded $2OO million. Even then, Mr

Stinson expects a deficit of about $l4 million.

Taxes have been increased on a number of items. Wine is up by about 10c a bottle, and whisky by about 28c a bottle. Mr Stinson says the rises are aimed at making people drink less.

There are higher import taxes on cosmetics, soaps, garments, shoes, table linen, handkerchiefs, ties and scarves. These are more in the nature of protective tariffs as they are design ed to encourage local industry.

Mr Stinson said the huge borrow ing programme would avert the highest taxes ever known in Fiji. The big borrowing and deficit plans were aimed at keeping as much money as possible in the hands of the people to boost spending on local goods and services, which would help business to recover from the slump which set in about two years ago, and create more work.

PNG coffee has

a copper tinge

Coffee is expected to move into number one place this year as Papua New Guinea’s export earner, ex ceeding even the earnings from the big Bougainville copper mine.

The Primary Industry Minister, Mr Boyamo Sali, reported this to the PNG National Parliament, saying that export earnings from coffee were expected to exceed KI 15 million in 1977. (The Bougainville copper mine would still be the biggest unit in the economy because of internal effects which it generates.) Mr Sali was introducing a Bill to consolidate existing laws on coffee marketing. The Bill will retain all the powers contained in existing legisla tion, but it will also establish a stabilisation fund to cushion the effect of depressed years.