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INDUSTRIE 465
native clothing, which does not require European skill. Weaving would be
more difficult to introduce, because it was not practized before the arrival of
Europeans.
Copra processing (soap, coconut-oil, desiccated coconut, coir). Up to 1950 copra
was chiefly transported to Makassar, where some soap and coconut-oil was
manufactured from it. These were afterwards supplied from the Netherlands
or Singapore. An obvious course at present is to manufacture these two
products locally and a good beginning has been made in this direction in East
New Guinea where a factory at Rabaul exports ab. 5 500 tons of oil per annum.
Production of desiccated coconut, as in Australian New Guinea, might also be
considered in a further future for the Dutch part.
Fishing Industry. This is referred to in the chapter on "Fisheries".
Cigarettes, tobacco, lemonade, beer. These are articles, which seem partly
suitable for local production. On account of high freight charges imports of beer
and lemonade are very costly. The tobacco habit has now become general among
the Papuans, so that, taking into account as well the presence of thousands of
Europeans, there is a market ready to hand. It is very important that the raw tobacco
should be grown locally. Beer is now manufactured in East N.G. and
this caused a drop in the prices of imported beer. In Surinam there exist f. i.
cigarette and lemonadefactories, whilst a brewery is under construction.
Matches. There are many places in New Guinea where matchwood (Campnosperma)
is found in large quantities. But a great deal of capital is required for
the manufacture of matches. In Surinam, where the population was under
200 000, a match industry was begun as early as 1892; a second factory was
started there in February 1953.
One paragraph is devoted to a description of shops and other middle class
enterprise, developed partly by Eurasians.
A comparison of New Guinea with tropical Surinam, African areas, and the
South Pacific. There are serious obstacles to the industrial development of
New Guinea. Development has made more progress in the Australian part, but
even here it is in its infancy. One might therefore be inclined to believe that the
possibilities in both territories are limited and will remain so on account of the
sparsity of population and consequent lack of labour, climatic conditions, geographical
position, and difficulty of access to the interior. Consequently coordination
of industrial planning for both halves of the island is recommended.
A comparison is finally made with other similarly placed areas, which are
already supposed to play a definite part in world economy and one which will
become increasingly important.
We refer here f. i. to the areas situated in tropical Africa between the Sahara and