NEW CALEDONIA

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 87, Issue 1, 2 January 1943, Page 2

NEW CALEDONIA

FRENCH AUSTRALIA RICH MINERAL WEALTH (By W. S. Lowe) New Caledonia, home of the Fighting French in the Pacific, has become a place of new interest to us since the official reports of the landing there of American and New Zealand troops as a check to Japanese designs. For all its comparative nearness we have known little of this neighbour. It is by no means the tropical, jungle-covered island which is typical of the Solomons picture, but, both in climate and terrain, is much more like Australia or New Zealand. Captain Cook bestowed on it its present name because of the high rocky coast, its headlands tipped with clusters of incredibly slender pines—more like ships’ masts than trees. The chief port, Noumea, is no beauty spot, though regular tourist cruises are made from Australian ports in normal times. Its cluster of iron roofs huddles against bare, burnt hills and is topped by the tall smokestacks of Caledonia-Nickel. Of greater interest are the stone walls and buildings of the old penal settlement on a low island in the bay. Like Australia, New Caledonia was at one time used as a convenient, but sufficiently distant dumping ground for criminals from the home country. Farming Industry. If the visitor is unimpressed by Noumea he is thoroughly surprised by the highlands which rise almost imediately from the coast. Most of the island’s 8000 square miles are a plateau of fine grazing land, broken occasionally by a shallow valley* where farm buildings or small villages mark the course of a river. Above the unbroken miles of plateau rises the mountainous backbone of the island, black with hardwood forest. This wealth in wood—ebony, sandalwood, ironwood and rosewood—is little exploited, due to the lack of roads and freight facilities. New Caledonia’s chief wealth is mineral. The island is a “solid block of metal,” its inhabitants boast proudly—nickel, chrome, iron, lead, zinc and manganese. Of these, nickel is of first importance in output, second only to Canada’s. In recent years both Japan and Germany have shown a marked interest in the island’s metal production. In 1535, following their discovery of a new extraction process, a Japanese-owned company purchased some mines which had been neg<cted because of the poor quality ore. Within three years the annual shipment of nickel ore (previously not exported) had reached 33,000 metric tons, all imported by Germany or Japan. In 1938 a Japanese company began a similar exploitation of New Caledonia’s large coal deposits. These facts underline the courage of the French on the island in their decision not to capitulate when France fell. The island is isolated and its mineral wealth provides an irresistible magnet for war-needy Japan. The local population has always strongly opposed mineral concessions to Japanese, and successfully resisted efforts to import Japanese labour. The local Kanaka is very independent, and has persistently refused all inducements to make him work. Consequently labour for the mines and plantations has been almost entirely imported, mainly from Java and French Indo-China. Future in Pacific.

The New Caledonian Frenchman considers that he has been gravely neglected by the authorities in France. There has been practically no development in such essential matters as irrigation, communications or education, and a constant complaint is that no shipping has been available for the products of the island.

The depression years brought stagnation to both settlers and mineral industries and widened the gulf between France and her Colonials, whose claims lor assistance were called "unruly independtnee” at home. I'o-day the average New Caledonian agrees that the large estates on the island should be split up and intensive settlement fostered. The imported labour system has proved a barrier to the real prosperity of the colony, and attempts will undoubtedly .be made after the war to attract an increased white population. Responsible elements also desire closer relations with Australia and New Zealand, holding that the tie with France, though close, is sentimental rather than economic.

After the experience of depression, and now of war isolation and practical independence, it seems probable that a demand will be made after the war for autonomy—some sort of Dominion status within the French empire. In any ease closer relations with the Pacific nations is inevitable. New Zealand should find both a market and a source of valuable minerals and tropical products at her door when the Pacific is again true ro its name.