DIFFICULT TIMES

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 271, 12 August 1938, Page 13

DIFFICULT TIMES

Fall' In Copra Prices

i ISLANDERS HARD HIT The difficult times being experienced by natives and planters in the Solomons and other islands were described in an interview yesterday by the Bishop of Melanesia, Rt. Rev. W. 11. Baddeley. Copra, from which- most of the islanders obtained their income, had fallen in price in the last eighteen months from £l5 a ton to £4 a ton, he said. In the past it had been as high as £35 a ton.

Some of the natives had made money by selling copra and some by working on the plantations. All had suffered, as many of the planters had ceased making copra and were keeping just sufficient men to maintain tli,e plantations in the hope that prices would rise again. During the last depression the traders had had reserve funds, but these had been exhausted and they, too, were now badly hit. In the New Hebrides the French Government had, for the past two years, subsidised the planters, but tire British administration had not been able to do so. The reason for the fall in price of copra was not known, but it was possible that the increased production of whale oil had been the cause.

The only other industry in the islands was the collection of shell which was used for the manufacture of buttons, said the bishop. In the past there had always been a ready sale tor this in China and Japan at a price of about £BO a ton, but at present there was no market. ’There had been spasmodic poaching of shell from the islands by the Japanese, but the Government bad dealt with it effectively by capturing a Japanese boat with a cargo of shell and arresting the crew of 25. This had discouraged them apparently as there were no further reports of poaching. Europeans in the Solomon Islands had been distressed by the transfer to the West Indies of Sir Arthur Richards. High Commissioner for the Western Pacific. They had felt that he was beginning to get a grasp of the situation, and would have been able to assist them in many of their problems, said the bishop. Now that he had been transferred they felt that they would have to begin all over again.