PACIFIC ISLANDS

Evening Post, Volume XCIX, Issue 121, 22 May 1920, Page 5

PACIFIC ISLANDS

FUTURE OF EX-GERMAN COLONIES AUSTRALIAN COMMISSIONS' PROPOSALS. (UKITED PRISS ASSOCIATION.—COPtRIOHf.) MELBOURNE, 21st May. Th» report of the Royal Commission o& the administration of former German territories in- the Pacific Islands recommends that if control is transferred to the Commonwealth they shuold bo administered as part of Papua, or, if this is disapproved, the territories should' be kept separate from Papua'for the purposes of legislation and internal administration, but that one officer should administer both 'Governments.

I (Received May 22, 10.30 a.m.) j MELBOURNE, This Day. ! The report of the Commission on the ; administration of former German territory considers the cost to the Government will bs £230,000 annually. The report recommends that £200,000 of this sum should be raised by local taxation, principally by import and export duties, and the .granting of a Commonwealth subsidy of £30,000 per annum, the subsidy to be withdrawn later. The report advocates nationalisation of German properties, which would be carried on by the. Commonwealth." A majority report recommends a Government organised on .the lines of the present Papuan Government, with an Administrator, Executive, and Legislative Council, at a cost'of £168,000 yearly. It advises the imposition of a supertax on the. export of copra. It does not recommend the' nationalisation of plantations, stating that that Would involve a capital outlay of at least two and a half millions. A preferential territory tariff, ™in favour of Australia,..and next of the . Empire, is recommended also, and preferential Australian duties in favour of Papua and territories over whicli Australia, has been given mandates The report also urges that liquidated German trading companies and their assets, consisting of town blocks, should be held by the Government and leased.