Fiji work camp a waste of finance

by Hugh Rennie

The Recent work camp organised in Fiji by NZUSA was something less than successful.

The work camp:

• Cost students nearly £2000

• Cost the Freedom from Hunger campaign £400.

In return for this expenditure, students cleared six acres of land.

But weather conditions were unsatisfactory for the balance of the work camp, which involved planting the ground cleared with rice.

In the week which was available for planting rice, only about two acres were planted.

The balance of the area was planted by local labour recruited to complete the job.

The approximate value of the rice planted by the students is £180, assuming that the crop reaches maturity.

The work camp was organised by NZUSA and has since been actively promoted by "Operation 21" as an example of student aid to underdeveloped areas.

On his return from Fiji last January, outgoing NZUSA president Alister Taylor announced that six acres of rice had been planted, of a value of £1200.

Both these statements, which received very wide publicity in the New Zealand press, were erroneous.

The scheme has attracted severe criticism from some students on the grounds that the unemployment situation in Fiji is such that the work camp should not have been undertaken.

A particularly bitter criticism of the work camp, by Mr. R. B. Nicholls, who was for a time in control of the camp, will be published by Salient shortly.

The completion of the project by Fijian volunteers would seem to disprove the contention of some NZUSA personnel that the project was one which would not have been carried out had students not gone.