DEVELOPMENT OF FIJI

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29154, 15 March 1960, Page 26

DEVELOPMENT OF FIJI

Commission Proposes Economic Reforms (Special Correspondent N.Z.P.A.)

(Rec. 10 pjn.) LONDON, March 14. Fijians should enjoy as much personal liberty as other British subjects, according to the report of a three-num commission published today. The commission said It hoped that Fijians would be encouraged to think for themselves and act without undue dependence on the British Government or their . chiefs. The commission, headed by a former Governor, Sir Alan Burns, listed 124 main recommendations and conclusions about land resources and population trends, aimed at putting the colony’s future on a sounder basis.

One section of the report read: —“We consider it important thht they should be viewed as a whole. If the people of Fiji honestly want to go seriously about the business of development and to face their problems squarely, they will recognise that all the medicine the commission prescribes, however unpalatable, has to be taken.” New Industries

The recommendations include proposals for improving the distribution of land, improving existing industries, starting new ones—like tea and fish canning—and for greater self-government for the Fijians, who make up about 42 per cent, of the population. The rapid growth of the total population on the 300-odd islands, estimated at 374,000 in 1958 and expected to reach 500,000 in 1968, has been causing concern. The commission recommends that the British Government provide additional family planning clinics and contraceptives for married persons free of charge. Many of the recommendations are concerned with the rights of Fijians. The commission said the Fijians’ easy-going nature and culture, had handicapped them in competition with the immigrant Indians, who were now prominent in business and the professions. The proposals for improving productivity include subsidies for new coconut planting, progressive tree planting to create a forest estate of at least 100,000 acres, coffee, the establishment of a large-scale cattle ranch and a pilot investigation of tea-growing possibilities. Communications The commission also recommends new or improved roads to open up new land or to assist the tourist industry, the extension of the trunk telephone system and a subsidy for internal shipping.

The commission emphatically reaffirms Fijian land ownership rights, but strongly criticises the delay by the native land trust 'board in leasing to non-Fijians land not required by native owners.

It suggests heavy taxation on all land of which full use is not made. The commission accuses the Fijian administration of hampering economic development by “continuing to foster an outdated communal system” and recommends the gradual abolition of a separate administration for the Fijian people.

The commission condemns Government extravagance, in the past, resulting in the liquidation of Fiji’s cash reserves and says there has been too much empharis on the development of social services at the expense of important economic services, such as communications. Realism Urged “There can be no doubt that the economy of Fiji will be in a parlous condition in the near future unless a breath of realism is introduced into Government policy and into the outlook of the general public and especially of the members of the Legislative Council.”

To put all the commission's recommendations in effect would cost the British Government £10,671,000. For some projects the commission suggests an invitation for aid to the Colonial Development corporation. Sitting with Sir Alan Bums were Professor A. T. Peacock, a professor of economics at Edinburgh University, and Mr T. Y. Watson, who served for many years in the agricultural departments of Kenya and Uganda.