LAND OF COPRA, GOLD, AND OIL

New Zealand Listener, Volume 6, Issue 137, 6 February 1942, Page 10

LAND OF COPRA, GOLD, AND OIL

This is the second of two articles specially written for "The Listener"

by

B. W.

COLLINS

M.Sc., F.G.S., who spent a year in New Guinea

prospecting for oil.

ber and rice in Indo-China; tin, rubber and rice in Thailand; tin and rubber in British Malaya; antimony and tungsten in China; and oil in Borneo (where Japan boastfully announces her expectation of putting wells back in production within a month)-a formidable list: and all these are now in the hands of the Japanese. Of what else in the way of raw materials is Japan in need, and how far can the Territory of New Guinea aid in supplying them? Japan is largely dependent on imports for her supplies of the following industrial materials besides those already mentioned: aluminium, chromite, lead, nickel, manganese, phosphates, and potash. Probably New Guinea can supply at present, or within any reasonable time, little, if any of these materials. Ores of platinum, tin, copper, iron and manganese, and sulphur, phosphates, mica, and coal are known to exist, but little development work ‘has been done. What then would Japan gain, and what would Australia lose, if the Japanese succeedéd in occupying New Guinea? These Head the List My impressions of the natural resources of New Guinea are bound up with the three words, copra, gold, oil. Numerous and varied are the other raw materials that lie hidden in that thick tropical jungle or that could be produced in New Guinea-but those three at present head the list, or rather, the first two head the list of actualities, while the third is still only a potential asset, though a highly probable one. Copra and gold together accounted for 98% per cent. of the total value of all exports from the Territory of New Guinea before the war. This figure still probably remains the same, although the proportion of copra and gold must have altered considerably..The 1941 annual report of the Bank of New South Wales emphasises the fact that "the position ( copper, iron, zinc, rub-

of copra producers in all the Pacific Islands has deteriorated badly since the outbreak of war. Many growers have had to go out of production. European markets have been cut off, and shipping difficulties have caused some dislocation in those markets which remain. Some form of government action has grown increasingly necessary if growers are to remain an integral part of the economic life of the Islands." But "the value of gold production in these territories"’Papua and New Guinea-*" continues at a high level." What Copra Means " An integral part of the economic life of the Islands "-in fact often known as "the backbone of the South Seas" — copra is the very raison d’etre of European activity in most of the South Pacific. The word itself conjures up pictures of waving coconut palms, blue lagoons, naked brown bodies; and glistening shoulders — romance, history, wealth-to those who don’t know the Islands. But to those who do, copra

means long hours of work, troublesome native labourers, constant scanning of market reports, bills of lading, and that ever-present penetrating half-acrid halfoily smell like rancid butter. There are between four and five hundred plantations in the Territory of New Guinea, and about a quarter of a million acres under cultivation — practically all coconuts, so an average plantation would contain about 500 acres of coconuts and usually about the same area of undeveloped country. The trees are planted about fifty to the acre, and the yield is roughly fifty nuts per tree per year. That works out at half a ton of copra to the

acre, or 250 tons a year for the whole plantation. At £10 ‘per ton for copra, the average plantation would bring in a sum of £2,500 a year- for thirty or forty years-the period of bearing of a coconut palm. Naturally there are many factors affecting this figure, not the least being the price of copra, which, during the last ten or @ dozen years, has fluctuated between £4 and £30 a ton. The kernel having been scraped from the fallen nut by the native plantation boys, it next has to be dried, stored and finally passed as suitable for export by the government copra inspectors. Since 1929, when the New Guinea Adminstration instituted its system of copra inspection, the territory’s copra has earned a high reputation, and Rabaul hot-air-dried copra has often commanded the highest price in the London market. An average plantation employs about 40 or 50 boys-indentured labourers is the official mame. These all have to be paid for in the first place-usually about £5 or £10, which goes to the professional recruiter who has persuaded them

to leave their villages- and then fed, clothed, housed, given medical attention when necessary, and paid monthly by their employer. Ordinary outside workers — nut-gatherers, copra-cutters, grasscutters, and so on-get 6/- a month, Half of this is paid in cash — "long hand," the boys call it — and _ half deferred until the end of their term of contract, which is usually one to three years. Young boys-known as "monkeys" -from about 12 to 16 or 17, who usually do the washing and ironing for their white " masters," cooking, waiting at the table, and general housework, get 5/-. Girls-called "marys" -for the same work get 4/- a month, half in each case "long hand" and half "long paper." What the Natives Prize Beside his wages and food, each boy is issued weekly with an ounce and ahalf of tobacco, a box of matches, paper for rolling cigarettes -- newspaper preferred, and if that’s not available a couple of yards of toilet paper will do instead-and a piece of soap which, strange to say, is nearly always used. Each month he gets a new two-yard length of calico-the sole normal article of clothing, known as a "laplap"-the lavalava or sarong of other parts of the Pacific. A new blanket every year, and a spoon, food bowl, and wooden box or rucksack for the safe keeping of his worldly possessions-given when he first signs on (with a dirty thumb) or "makes paper ""-complete the list. Labour then is cheap in New Guinea, but has to be looked after-and the Government is quick to deal with negligent employers. A good master has to be almost a father to his boys. Sickness, quarrels, and love affairs all have to be attended to. A plantation manager’s job is no light one-no life of ease and gin and bitters. Your typical plantation may be in a variety of settings. Some are within a few miles by motor road to Rabaul, the capital-or rather, the erstwhile capital, as on account of continued volcanic activity there, the Administration decided a few months ago to move to Lae on the mainland. A position such as this means afternoon tea parties for the women, evenings at the club for men, dances, church services, regular weekly air mails, week-end sports, and even access to a library. Or it may be on a lonely strip of coast, backed by bushed mountains and hostile natives, nearest European 30 or 40 miles away, loneliness and even danger, ships calling once a month and so on. Or it may be on some forgotten atoll with a genuine blue lagoon, no other inhabitants except the plantation boys, a hundred miles of open sea to the next-door neighbour, a ship (hence the grocery order) once or twice a year. Take your pick. (Continued on next page)

The RKesources of New Guinea

(Continued trom previous page) The Big Six of Gold So much for coconuts-before the war, despite the mushroom growth of goldmining, still responsible for a third of the total export wealth of New Guinea. In 1937 the value of gold exported annually from the Territory of New Guinea passed the £2,000,000 mark. In 1927 about a tenth of that amount was produced, while the total up to the end of 1926 was only about £100,000 worth altogether. The year 1921 marks the birth of modern New Guinea, for it was then that W. Park ("Shark-eye " to his friends) discovered gold on Koranga Creek, near the Bulolo River, and the Morobe goldfield began to come into the world’s news. But conditions were so hard and costs so high that by 1925 there were only 50 miners and prospectors in the field, few making more than tucker. Then in 1926 the lodes of Mount Kaindi and Edie Creek were found, and the real rush began. The two discoverers, Bill Royal and Glasson, and the next four to follow them, Albert Royal, Chisholm, Money and Sloane (afterwards known as "the big six") made fortunes. Men from all over the Southern Hemisphere flocked to Salamaua-at that time nothing but a swampy, fever-ridden beach with a few native huts-the port of entry to the goldfields. Many died of malaria on the coast, while waiting to obtain native boys to carry their stores and equipment. The little cemetery at "The Port of Hopes" is their mute memorial. Some set out for the inland and died before reaching their goalvictims of fever or of hostile savages. Others survived everything, including the 6,000 foot range of mountains and the fortnight of jungle and swamp between the coast and the goldfields, and pitched their tents or built their huts on the hillside where the township of Wau now stands.

The Air Service It is only 15 years since those days, but Wau is now only 25 minutes from Salamaua. For, parallel with the development of Edie Creek and the Watut alluvial goldfields, there sprang up the world-famous New Guinea air services. Everything from four-ton dredge parts to cows, pianos, roofing iron and beer — besides passengers, both brown and white-shuttle backwards and forwards by aeroplane from the goldfields to the sea. For some items, of course, like the beer, there is only a one-way traffic. But to replace them, on the outward journey, are the ever-increasing loads of the yellow gold, a quarter of. a million ounces of it a year. And then oil. For several years now, each of the biggest oil companies in the world has been spending thousands of pounds exploring for oil — employing scores of Europeans — English, Dutch, Americans, Australians, New Zealanders -and hundreds of natives; penetrating further than government patrols or missionaries have ever been; mapping unknown mountains and rivers; making contact with unknown tribes; and lifting corners of the veil that has hung,for

centuries over the greater part of the world’s largest island. All the indications are there-seepages, type of rock, geological structure-and the consensus of opinion is that it is only a matter of time before New Guinea’s name will be added to the list of oil-producing countries. In fact, rumours persist in coming from the little-known Dutch New Guinea that oil in commercial quantities has already been struck. Drilling was begun in the British half a year or two ago. Tempting to the Japanese There is no doubt that New Guinea is a tempting morsel for the Japanese-over-crowded, hungry for raw materials — even if more for its potentialities than for its present worth. For besides its minerals and the protean coconut palm (from whose products are made soap, candles, margarine, chocolate, fat,

ointments, medicines, cattle-food, fuel, ropes, charcoal), New Guinea has been proved suitable for growing nearly all types of tropical products. Neglected groves of rubber trees, planted by the Germans, may be seen in an odd corner of many a plantation. Tobacco, cocoa, kapok and sisal hemp are already grown on a commercial or semi-com-mercial scale. Successful experiments with rice, tapioca, tea, coffee, the oil palm, and quinine are among the proud attainments of the New Guinea Agricultural Department on their model plantations. Sago, sugar and bananas are native to the country. And native fruits and timber supply an almost inexhaustible field for exploitation. Much has been done in the way of development by the floating population of about 5000 Australians in New Guinea-a mere: handful. compared with the tens of thousands Japan has per-

manently settled in her Mandated Islands-but much remains to be done, Will Japan attempt to take this opportunity from Australia, and if she attempts, will she succeed? Of course; of far more importance to Australia than New Guinea’s trade is the island’s obviously great strategic value, on account of which the colony of British New Guinea was founded 60 years ago. And Australia has always been aware of the avaricious glances of Japan (so much aware that there were only 40 Japanese in the Mandated Territory in 1937, as against 1525 Chinese. Unlike the Philippines, there’s not much danger of a fifth column here). Construction of an air base at Port Moresby, capital of Papua, on the south coast, was -begun while I was in New Guinea three years ago. The north coast and the Bismarck Archipelago are, however, more vulnerable to attack.