Nauru’s Future

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30764, 31 May 1965, Page 12

Nauru’s Future

Cheap phosphate supplies from Nauru Island have been of great value to New Zealand’s economy. This fact, combined with the double relationship New Zealand has with the Nauruans, should compel this country to take an urgent and generous interest in the future welfare of the islanders. Access to the island’s one important economic resource was gained by New Zealand, Australia, and Britain as part of the reparation made by Germany after the Great War. Since then, the Nauruans have enjoyed only a fraction of the benefit derived from the removal of 35 million tons of phosphate rock from the island. The exhaustion of this rock is now clearly in sight; and unless a much more generous provision is made for the future of the islanders the next generation of Nauruans will be left without the mainstay of their economy and without proper compensation. Under an agreement approved by the United Nations, New Zealand, Britain, and Australia share the trusteeship of the island and the three countries share the ownership of the British Phosphate Commission which mines, crushes, and sells the rock. Australia administers the island. The Nauruans have very little experience in managing their own affairs. The statement in Sydney last week by the Nauruan chief, Hammer de Roubert, should quicken the casual interest shown by New Zealanders in the future of the 2700 islanders who are apparently resolved on retaining their integrity as a tiny nation. In comparison with the returns from the phosphate, the cost of meeting our responsibilities would be modest. Failure to meet them would leave New Zealand open to a charge of having exploited the islanders. The future of the Nauruans should not be allowed to subsidise our prosperity, even though current wages and living standards of the Nauruans are high when compared with conditions in many other Pacific islands. Of the 3s 8d paid by the British Phosphate Commission to the Nauruans for every ton of phosphate exported, Is goes into the Nauruan community long-term investment fund. In 1963, the commission mined 1,600,000 tons. Other parts of the royalty are paid to the landowners and into other trust funds. Many Nauruans, as well as indentured workers recruited abroad, earn wages from the commission which are not niggardly by standards in the area. But what distinguishes Nauru is that it is an island with a diminishing natural asset. Urgent attention should be given to the future of the Nauruans, either by resettling them elsewhere or by restoring their land, while those who benefit from the phosphate can make a adequate contribution to ensuring a fair future for the community to which it originally belonged.