Russian glad-hand

Opportunity Knocks In

The Solomons

The Solomon Islands offers excel lent opportunities for trade ex pansion, investment, consultancy and the provision of infrastructure for a number of new industries in the pipeline, and in this connection Mr H. E. McClelland, former Australian Assistant Trade Com missioner, Pacific Islands, writing in Overseas Trading, the official jour nal of the Australian Overseas Trade Department, outlined some of the developments which offer opportunities for trade.

Thirty-two of 58 foreign-owned companies in the Solomons are Australian. Existing industries cover the manufacture of soft drinks, biscuits, soap, tobacco pro ducts, concrete blocks and corru gated iron.

Opportunities exist for the manufacture or partial manufacture of beer, salt, paint, insecticides, fibre travel goods, matches, textile goods, footwear, wire and nails, plastic ware.

If the Solomon Islands Govern ment approves a detailed proposal, some or all of the following as sistance may be provided: • With site choice, negotiations, security of tenure and information for use in planning and design. • Tax relief;

Norfolk recruits

anti-weed insects

Grappling with its weed problem, Norfolk Island is considering taking a leaf from Hawaii’s book and im porting insects for biological con trol of Hawaiian holly, one of the major villains in Norfolk’s escalat ing weed drama. A small army of in sects is already at work trying to curb the spread of the major villain, lantana. But there’s not much sign yet that they’re winning.

Some people see export possibili ties in coping with another of Nor folk’s perennial weeds, the cherry guava. Its fruit is prized by local re sidents. Although much of it falls unused at present, it seems possible that it could be harvested and pro cessed into jellies and juices for ex port.

• Import duty concessions on capital goods; • Infrastructure and com munications; • Training, employment coun selling and staff selection and • Contracts to purchase output at competitive prices.

Russian glad-hand

for the Tongans

From a Nukualofa correspondent Russia has had a close look at the possibility of opening up regular trade between the Soviet Union and Tonga. Mr Fedor I. Shptoa (com mercial counsellor) and Mr Alex ander A. Malkhanov, from the Soviet Embassy in Wellington, visited Tonga to meet the Prime Minister, Prince Tu’ipelehake, min isters, the manager of the Bank of Tonga and government officials.

The idea, Mr Shptoa said, was to get acquainted with Tonga’s idea of future trade and to discuss what types of equipment and machinery Tonga needed.

Mr Shptoa said the Soviet Union was prepared to supply Tonga with a variety of equipment, such as fully mechanised agricultural equipment, road construction machinery, electrical generators, welding equipment, improved construction materials, prefabricated units for houses, consumer goods and techni cal assistance.

When asked if agreements to assist developing countries con stituted foreign aid or joint business ventures, Mr Shptoa said it was neither. The Soviet Union just helped countries by supplying machinery, equipment and other goods. In return, countries “paid their national product”.

“Everything is negotiable as far as the amount of return of the national product,” he said.

Nothing was signed and nothing was completed, but if Tonga was ready to go into trade, then there could be an exchange of specialists and businessmen.

Coconut wood comes

into its own

Coconut logs, previously left to rot in plantations or to litter beaches; are now being put to pro- I ductive use.

Thanks to a research programme ] by New Zealand’s Forest Research Unit at Rotorua, they are now able to turn the logs into housing timber, fence posts, furniture, charcoal, and. in some cases, artifacts.

Fiji, Tonga and Western Samoa are the principal present benefici aries of the new techniques, but the Cook Islands, the Gilbert Islands, the New Hebrides and Niue are already queueing for them.

The portable sawmills and preser vative treatment plants supplied by New Zealand are serving a threefold purpose. They help to overcome the problem of unwanted coconut logs, provide additional jobs, and pro duce supplies of sawn timber and treated fencing material which would otherwise have to be im ported.

Each country is using the coconut timber for its own needs.

Fiji is using it for furniture and for decorative purposes, Tonga for building timber and Western Samoa for agricultural fencing.

All three countries have developed a process for manufac turing charcoal from coconut wood, and the Fiji Government has spon sored a scheme to develop efficient charcoal cooking stoves and suita ble recipes for dishes to be cooked on them.

Fiji’s Prime Minister. Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, has long advocated the use of coconut wood for housing purposes such as window frames.

A ‘prawn

capital’ in Hawaii

The big Honolulu firm of C.

Brewer & Co Ltd plans to make Kilauea, on the Hawaiian island of Kauai the “prawn capital” of the Pacific.

A recent announcement by the company said that its subsidiary, Kilauea Agronomics Inc, was in the first stages of setting up a major 121.5-ha (300-acre) integrated

prawn operation.

It began construction in July of the first 40.5-ha (100-acre) section of prawn ponds and related water system. The ponds will be rectangu

lar and about a metre deep. Prawn population will average about 200 000 a hectare. The first prawn harvest will probably take place about a year from the date ot initial stocking.

When the first 40.5-ha section is in operation, it will more than triple Hawaii's present capability. There are now only about 12 ha devoted to freshwater prawn farming in Hawaii.

“We fully intend to help meet local demand and do our best to make prawns a viable export com modity for Hawaii, bringing new dollars into the State,” said Mr J. W.

A. Buyers, president and chief ex ecutive of Brewer’s.

With the money and knowhow which is going into this major ven ture by Brewer’s, there could well be a valuable spin-off for other Is land countries who may be con sidering prawn farming develop ment.

How about the South Pacific Commission plugging into it and co ordinating information gained for use by other Island countries? It could save the SPC time arid money, and turn out to be helpful all round.

Big job for

little Pitcairn

The 18 men on Pitcairn Island available for the task worked a total of 2 353 eight-hour man days on a harbour works project, which in volved a new jetty, road works and repairs to installations. The 18 men included one who was visiting “on holiday”. The project, when the work of the medical officers who tended to the fortunately few inj uries. and the women who cooked and cleaned for the workmen, is considered to have involved most of the population of just over 70 and three “imported” Royal Engineers.

A decision to go ahead with breakwaters, airstrip and water sup ply will be made by the engineers in Auckland and the UK Government.

But Captain Hugh Cowan, RE, who was in charge of the current and sug gested works, wrote after he left the island that none of the investigations was encouraging as all three tasks would be large undertakings and ex pensive. Construction of the break water would take about two years and place a heavy demand on Pit cairners able to operate or maintain mechanical equipment.