years, therefore, the seller and the buyer could not

buyer could not, and to a large ex tent, still do not see eye to eye on the issue. Were it not for the NZ Government’s insistence on Fruit Distributors taking all the bananas that the Islands could offer, there would not be a single Island banana on the New Zealand market. Fruit Distributors has often complained and with reason about the Is land banana’s quality.

Fortunately, however, there ap pear to be some definite changes in the outlook of Fruit Distributors Ltd towards Island bananas, and the Islanders are now quite optimistic about the future, at least as far as both parties getting down to looking at the problems seriously.

Perhaps the greatest problem at the moment is lack of proper farm management by the Island growers.

Productivity is still only about one half and, in some instances, even less than what could be achieved.

The Island growers are, by and large, still treating the industry as an extension of the traditional sub sistence farming complex.

They have still to grasp fully the need to look at the industry on a commercial basis.

The other major problem is the comparatively low price now being paid to the growers. Fruit Distribu tors are not prepared to increase the current fob price of NZ6c lb. The retail price on the New Zealand market is about 28c lb. The shipping company, which will never lose on the deal, gets roughly 3c lb in freight the same as the grower gets after paying for his packaging materials and transport. When the grower takes out his labour costs etc he is lucky to come out with 1c lb in his pocket.

So it’s high time the NZ Govern ment and the Island governments seriously considered this unfair situation. One can be excused for referring to it as exploitation. The Island growers would not be over paid at 10c lb fob, and the com paratively wealthy Kiwi consumers can more than afford such a price.

Such a step would be much more effective in helping to develop the Island economies than some of the aid schemes being funded by the NZ taxpayers.

A rise in price and a much more stringent standard of quality of bananas are the key things needed to infuse new life into the industry.

A Stabex transfer

for Tonga

Under the Lome Convention, Tonga will receive almost $1 million from the Common Market to help stabilise the kingdom’s ex port earnings.

This money will certainly be a welcome windfall for the growers and one hopes that such transfers will continue for the primary pro ducers of the South Pacific like other private producers in all developing countries, have been bearing the brunt of the recent eco nomic recession.

It would also be a welcome move, politically as well as morally, for the two senior members of the South Pacific Forum, Australia and New Zealand, to consider seriously the idea of a Common Fund for the South Pacific countries, along the lines of the Lome Convention, writes a Tonga correspondent.

Development bank

poured out the money

The Fiji Development Bank lent money at the rate of more than $1 million a month in 1976-77 to help finance a number of agricultural and industrial projects. There were 1 480 loans totalling $B.l million for agriculture, which included $4.4 million for the new sugarcane pro ject at Seaqaqa in Vanua Levu.

Industrial loans totalled $4.4 million spread over 404 accounts.

Included were 296 loans, totalling $1.6 million, made under the Com mercial and Industrial Loans to the Fijians’ Scheme. Loans under this scheme now total 428 and involve $2.6 million.

Mr Lloyd Guthrey, managing director of the bank, said the board was pleased with the growth of busi ness during the year. There was a net profit of $4O 856 for the year.

Jaycees’ congress

meets in Noumea

The ORSTOM auditorium in Noumea was the seat of this year’s National Congress of the Junior Chamber of France. More than 400 delegates attended, including Jean Seraqui, a Noumea doctor who is the present International Vice- President. The congress approved the creation of the Junior Chamber of Lifou, one of the three Loyalty Is lands.

ftuarri' Qmilinn all uuam. smiling dll

the way to the exit

G uam’s al i en construct ion workers may become extinct in a few years, but they will be better paid along the road to their extinction.

After a long series of proposals and counter-proposals between the US Department of Labour and the government of Guam, a compromise plan has been agreed upon to make construction industry wages more attractive to Guam citizens and train them in construction trades.

Under the plan, effective im-

mediately, alien construction workers mostly from the Philip pines and South Korea received about a 30% hourly wage increase in September. They will receive other increases every six months un til September, 1979, when their wages will have doubled over pre sent rates.

The average hourly wage for the alien workers now is U 553.25. by the end of the two-year programme, the wage average will be about $7 an hour.

The original US plan was to dou ble the wages immediately. Guam officials reacted in outrage, afraid that the overnight action would

force local contractors out of busi ness, nearly double the cost of hous ing and generally spur heavy infla tion, possibly harmful to Guam’s fragile tourist industry which is at tempting to compete with high value destinations such as the Philippines and Taiwan.

Guam Governor Ricky Bordallo, Guam Legislature Speaker Joseph Ada and local businessmen took their case to Washington, DC and appeared pleased with the com promise.

“By going this route,” Ada said, “our economy will be able to adjust itself gradually to the increase.”

Ada added. “It will give local construction companies a chance to breathe so they can re-direct their efforts.”

To accompany the wage increases, the US will fund a major training programme on the island to prepare Guam citizens for construction jobs.

A total of $3.8 million will be spent in the effort to train 1 500 construc tion workers and another 500-700 tourism industry workers.

Explaining the US Labour Department’s actions,a federal offi cial said; “It is quite obvious alien wage rates are artificially held down, and they depress the entire wage structure.”

Tufted Tongan tapa

design rugs?

Rugs tufted in Tongan tapa designs may soon be in production in Nukualofa through a feasibility project now under way. John Ellsworth, an Australian busi nessman, arrived in the kingdom in late August with a shipment of yarn, rug-tufting tools, canvas, latex and other equipment. Frames for the tufting were built by the Tonga Con struction Company.

Frank Wood, technical manager on loan from the Australian Wool Corporation, and Barbara Taylor, Ellsworth’s partner, also came to work on the project.

With the help of the Hon Baron Vaea, Minister of Labour, Com merce and Industries, the three set up in a local youth hall, where in terested women were invited to try tufting and designing their own rugs.

About 12 rugs, in tapa designs and other geometric patterns, were finished in time to be displayed at the annual Agricultural Show in early September. The finished pro

ducts, most of them about 1.5 square metres in size, are suitable both for use on the floor or as an art object and wall hanging.

As envisaged by Mr Ellsworth, the business could expand from rug tufting to a variety -of weaving and related activities, including yarn spinning and construction of spin ning wheels in Tonga. Pricing in Tonga and export considerations on export are yet to be worked out.

Mr Wood, who set up a similar project in Papua New Guinea, said there has been a worldwide surge of interest in handweaving in native designs. “We hope we can take ad vantage of that interest and at the same time provide a new source of income for Tonga,” he said.

Brewery short

of water!

The brewery proposed for Vaitele in Western Samoa may ease a lot of thirsts, but it will increase the thirst of many more unless it has its own water supply. Two Western Samoa Public Works Department water supply engineers, Messrs David Hamilton and Terry Marsh, told the promoters of the brewery they could not rely on the PWD supply.

The brewery would require an ex tremely high quantity of water and the PWD just did not have enough.

The engineers suggested that the brewery should drill its own water holes which should provide the “best beer” but, unfortunately, at very high cost. But the PWD has relented to the extent of agreeing to supply water to the brewery in the initial stages, that is while it drills holes and stores any water found.

But in no way must the brewery place complete reliance on the PWD supply.

New industry in W.

Samoa, “no joy’’ in NZ

The first industry in Western Samoa set up under the New Zea land Pacific Islands industrial development scheme, was scheduled to go into production at Apia late in September, manufacturing metal mesh and vinyl handbags and fashion accessories. The factory, owned by J. Wiseman & Sons of Auckland, was expected to employ about 30 people.

But whether the new factory will be able to develop an export trade

with NZ is open to doubt. Mr Gerald Ryan, chairman of J. Wise man & Sons, in a report to the Prime Minister’s Department said the scheme was apparently facing op position from NZ manufacturers and trade unions.

“It has been no joy to our sales men to be told by retailers they will not buy from us because a large Wellington-based competitor told them our product was being mass produced by cheap labour in the Is lands and that we are depriving New Zealanders of jobs,” Mr Ryan wrote. "We still have 20 vacancies in our New Zealand factory for New Zealanders to work. Perhaps our

competitors could send us their surplus skilled labour . .."

Mr Ryan said he hoped that with in a year the Western Samoa compa ny would be standing on its own feet.

West Germans may

aid the Islands

West Germany planned to extend development aid to the Pacific region but not on a massive scale, Dr Helmut Abramowski, from the Ministry of Economics said in New Zealand recently.

Fishing, agricultural development

and mining were some of the areas where investigations were under way, he added.

Dr Abramowski was speaking at a press conference given for the West German Economics Minister, Dr Hans Friderichs, following the Ger man delegation’s talks with Prime Minister Mr Robert Muldoon.

Dr Abramowski named Samoa, Tonga, Fiji and Papua New Guinea where something would be done but he stressed Germany’s financial limitations on its aid programme in the area. Apart from the financial limitation, there was the problem of the ability of the countries receiving aid to absorb the projects.

“The country which asks for such aid must develop a certain maturity in projects and that, of course, is sometimes difficult,” he said. Some feasibility work was necessary before reaching any financial deci sion.

Dr Abramowski added that West German private businesses were also interested in the Pacific region.

Mr. S. Ravaghan Mr S. Ravaghan has been ap pointed to the new post of Secretary to Tonga’s Ministry of Labour, Commerce and Industries. An In dian national on loan to the kingdom from the Indian Technical

Economic Co-operation (ITEC)

programme, Mr Ravaghan will be replaced in the post in July 1978 by Mr Steven Vete, who is at present assistant secretary to the ministry.