Report to the General Assembly of the United Nations on the administration of the Territory of New Guinea / Commonwealth of Australia.

Date:
[1965]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report to the General Assembly of the United Nations on the administration of the Territory of New Guinea / Commonwealth of Australia. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    59/348 (page 37)
    are held at a relatively low level, are distributed to the producers when the accounts for sales are complete. (b) The cocoa price at 30th June 1965 was £81 per ton compared with £187 10s. per ton at 30th June 1964. (c) Prices for coffee, which vary widely accordingly to quality and liquor, remainded reasonably stable throughout the year, easing slightly towards the end. (d) Virginia Bunch and White Spanish peanut prices remainded stable over the period and at 30th June 1965, top price was Is. 7d. per lb. f.o.b. All varieties of peanut kernels sold as oil-milling culls brought a price of between 6d. and 7d. a lb. f.o.b. Lae. Agriculture] production is the basis upon which the early economic advancement of the New Guinea peop'e will depend. Largely as a result of the Administration’s extension programmes their participation in the various cash crop industries is increasing steadily. Copra is the principal p’an^tion crop. Planting of coconuts by indigenous growers continued to increase. Copra produced by the indigenous producers was 26,654 tons for the year ending 30th June 1965. The prospects of increased production of copra by New Guinean producers are good owing to the adoption of improved techniques and to p’antings still to come info bearing. Exports of cocoa beans increased from 15,410 tons to 19.950 tons. Plantings by indigenous producers totalled seven million trees. Exports of coffee beans increased from 6,770 tons in 1963-64 to 8,658 tons in 1964-65 of which 3,849 tons came from indigenous producers. Peanut production has increased but, as the crop is grown widely for local consumption, total production statistics are not procurable. Export production amounted to approximately 1,607 tons. Rice production increased and the Agricultural Extension Service is seeking to maintain interest in this crop because of its sound long-term prospects and the advantages of adding a storable grain to subsistence production. Passionfruit growing in the highlands is entirely in the hands of indigenous producers. Five hundred and ninety- five tons of fruit were sold to processors at Goroka, Chimbu and Mount Hagen during the year. Pyrethrum growing in the Highlands is also entirely in the hands of indigenous producers. The rate of production by mid-1965 was about 100 tons of flowers annually. With the establishment of a factory and extraction plant at Mount Hagen there are prospects for expansion. Sales of vegetables by indigenous growers in town markets, including Rabaul, Lae, Madang, Kaveing, Goroka and Mount Hagen provided a significant source of income during the year. These sales were estimated at 15,000 tons. The pastoral industry is in the developmental stage and is being assisted by a scheme to encourage local breeding under which importations of breeding stock are subsidized. A scheme to subsidize the importation of horses for use on pastoral properties was also introduced during the year. An Administration abattoir at Tiaba near Port Moresby in Panua was opened during the year, and another abattoir is being constructed by the Administration at Lae for the slaughter of locally produced livestock. Livestock importa¬ tions during the year included 944 cattle and twelve horses and the subsidy paid amounted to £39,621. Also imported were 80,563 chickens, 25 turkeys and 464 ducks. The value of timber products exported increased from £1,672,683 to £1,754,978. No new goldfields have been located. Indigenous miners have maintained an interest in prospecting and in working claims in the Morobe, Eastern Highlands, Western High¬ lands and Sepik Districts. National Income Studies have been undertaken over a number of years to determine a satisfactory basis on which to assess the social accounts for the Territory. During 1963 estimates of national income for the Territory of Papua and New Guinea for 1960-61, 1961-62 and 1962-63 were prepared by the Commonwealth Department of Territories in collaboration with the Australian National University. The only significant difference in the Territory estimates from the model suggested in the United Nations System of National Accounts (Studies in Methods, Statistical Office of the United Nations, New York, 1960), is that in addition to including income produced in the geographical area by residents and non-residents (gross domestic product), the gross Territory product also includes all income of residents derived from outside the Territory. The Territory estimates cover both the monetary and the subsistence sectors. The larger part of the indigenous population of Papua and New Guinea is engaged in subsistence agriculture but increasing numbers of indigenous persons are undertaking wage labour in both the public and private sectors of the economy. There is no information available which would account for all em¬ ployers, own account workers, and unpaid family helpers. While there are large numbers of indigenous primary producers individual production is still small. There are difficulties in imputing production values to the extensive substistence area. Although the distinction between subsistence production and market production is clear, any attempt to identify a particular section of the population solely with subsistence would be unreal. Many of the indigenous people are producers and consumers in both the sectors of subsistence and market production. A considerable portion of the wage labour force and their dependants also produce and consume goods outside the market system. Estimates of this non-marketed production have been included in the monetary sector. Subsistence housing does not enter into the market system, although some items of construction, such as nails, have entered market transactions and are accounted for in the assignment of market supplies in the monetary sector. The labour component in subsistence production is substantial. Very little of it is undertaken for monetary pavment and notions of the value of undertakings and obligat’ons vary from area to area even when values are equafed to monetary terms. An attempt has been made to evaluate non-monetary gross private and community investment replacement and maintenance.