COOK ISLANDS

Auckland Star, Volume LII, Issue 224, 20 September 1921, Page 7

COOK ISLANDS

OUR BABY DEPENDENCY. TROUBLES OF PLANTERS. A CHEERLESS OUTLOOK. (From Our Own Correspondent.) RAROTONGA, September 9. Recent files from New Zealand indicate that interest - has been taken in a private family letter, portion of which found its way into the Press from Auckland bo Dunedin. The letter was written' here to a relative down South, and gave the news and outlook of life down here. As the writer of the letter stated, "what is the use of planting when the Union S.S. Company will not take our produce? and that is what every planter says." The manager of the I'nion S.S. Company I Mr. D. Carter) promptly replied that the Flora just arrived had only 320 tons of cargo, while her capacity is 1200, and to the public it would seem impossible for the, planters here to be correctly ! stating the position, but although the Flora only had less than half a cargo that planter's ha.nanas were left to rot, as the I'nion S.S. Company would not take them, the allotted space to that planter being filled. While some people could not ship their bananas others were either paying dead weight or filling their space with cocoanuts. with the result that the ship had hundreds cjf sacks of nuts which did not realise snipping ex- ■ ponses. The European planters have fared very badly, for they have to employ labour and keep a crew all the time, and during the eeason for oranges they can't get space to ship their produce. The native planters (except a few larger ones who employ labour and are in the same position as the Europeans) can sit tight, and while they are not getting much produce away they are not under any expense. To give an idea of what planters are up against I quote the particulars of a recent shipment which is not anything special. Six European planters, aggregate p.creai;e about 1200; monthly expenses, about £400: space granted, 174 cases among them. On another occasion one planter became so disgusted that he asked for a guaranteed freight for .TOO cases, and got space for 100. while his neighbour, who has 330 acres and monthly expenses of at least £80, asked for his exact requirement*, 100 cases, and got 20 cases. The people who monopolise the space are unfortunately those who don't plant mostly, but have plenty of wild oranges, and get better accommodation than the industrious growers who have crops when the orange season has passed-. The planters are up against a dead-end, for in their hopee of better times they have held on and used up most of their capital, and now cannot plant any more crops because they have not the wherewithal to do so on any large scale. The troubles at this end are bad enough, but the condition of affairs at the lather end is as bad, for the expenses are so high that there i» little or nothing lift for the grower. GROWERS' POOR RETURNS. I give a few account sales to show what the growers have to put up with: Cocoanuts averaged 20/6 per sack in Christchtireh: grower gets 1/6 per sack net. while I'nion Co. gets 11/ freight. Another case: The charges on 24 casen of fruit are .€lO 8/4 plus the charges at this end of £5 16/, or 13/e per case without the fruit. Another instance is that of a grower sending 6 cases of cured lemons, and while the fruit arrived sound it returned 0/0 lees than shipping expenses. Finally, a line of fruit to Auckland grossed £30 odd. which the general public would pay about £00 for retail, and all the shipper got was the price of 4 tins of hard biscuits, 3olb each. These are only a few instances, and I know there are any number of others worse. I quote these because there was no fault with the produce, it landing in good order. A DEPARTMENTAL INQUIRY. Mr. Johnson, who is, I understand, an examiner from the audit department of New Zealand, has been here for three months working early and late endeavouring to straighten out finance. The affairs of Cook Islands have never been in such a bad state since they became parVof New Zealand twenty years ago, an.d there does not eeem. "much chance of any improvement. The tomato crop this year is a failure, and very poor prices are ruling in New Zealand, and owing to heavy gales a great many ■bananas are blown down. Copra is ruling at £15. The outer islands are suffering also, and Mangaia is in a very bad way, not having had a steamer since January last.

Our new resident commissioner has served his proverbial six months without a grumble from the people, and we have every confidence that ho will come up to Mr. Massey's expectations and make a success of it. There is one thing pretty certain, and that ia that he will have to n PP'y to the New Zealand Government j for an increase in the maintenance order I for the upkeep of their baby dependency before lie can make any ehowino- in the matter of Public Works."