SOUTH SEA TRADE.

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 130, 2 June 1923, Page 17

SOUTH SEA TRADE.

N.Z.'S BACKWARDNESS. A GREAT MARKET NEGLECTED. Py OSWALD SCHULZE.) 2L good many factors contributed to Auckland's partial loss of Island trade. especially since the Union Company's boats ceased carrying copra. In the very early days of this trade there was more money lost than gained. I could name a dozen wholesale firms who lost heavily in this trade, mainly owing to the mismanagement of their staffs, who gave excessive credit to the natives and employed as sub-traders men not fit for the position. These factors gradually disappeared as a better class of men entered the trade and the merchants gave less credit. Sydney gradually increased her Island trade at our expense because she could always undersell us by 10 to 15 per cent in all staple goods of Island trade, such as hardware, softgoods and leather ware. As for us to compete in the biscuit and flour line seemed simply hopeless. This I never could understand, considering that our wheat culture averages 35 bushels' to the acre against the Australian twelve. The only thing in which the Australians could not, and never will, successfully compete against us is our meat and butter, by reason of its superior quality. Nevertheless, we did a good volume of trade which kept twenty-four small sailing, vessels going, because our goods were always superior to Sydney's. In course of time, when Godefroy and Son had disappeared from the scene, and the German firm, their successor, had concentrated their business, a good many independent traders sprung up all over the Pacific. I always interested myself in the trade I was engaged in, and tried to divert as much trade as I could by approaching these independent traders, trying to induce them to give Auckland the preference of their custom. Every one of them told mc that they had to deal principally with Sydney, because it was the cheapest place. Some of these I traders were New Zealanders, and whr I appealed to their nationality they sai.i. "We would gladly deal with our coun try, but we have to compete with our opposition." Another serious drawback was that Sydney kept three commercial travellers going to our one. When I approached our merchants on the subject of prices and asked them why they , could not compete with Sydney, they; linvariably replied, "Sydney merchants •buy in larger volume and get better Customs rebates and pay less freight, j Sydney being nearer than New Zealand to Britain," which latter statement I found upon inquiry incorrect. When the coconut oil trade, which was cumbersome and expensive, gave way to the copra trade, the purchasing power of the natives enormously increased, because nuts are more easily and more quickly worked up into copra, and every available nut was utilised. The natives further learned to cultivate other produce, such as cocoa, vanilla, etc.. aud although the native population of the South Seas has decreased by at least 20 per cent, the export of produce is more than double what is was fifty years ago. In a like ratio increased their wants. Some islands have actually lost the art of making native cloth (tappa), and dress like Europeans. Another, and a main factor of our diminishing Island trade is the advent of steam. This is a paradox to the ordinary mind, because !we think where steam enters success 'must follow; but not so in this case, at least not in all its phases. It is a 1 case of carrying all our eggs in one basket, because the transport of the Pacific Jis -in the 'hands of the U.S.S. Company, j and they carry only what suits them 'and restrict the circuit of the voyages, : and New Zealand has to suffer. The Union boats do not carry copra now, on the ground, of being dangerous cargo, subject to spontaneous combustion. There is no such thing as spontaneous combustion in copra. I have been more than thirty years in the copra trade, and ; carried copra in all imaginable states possible—in the shape of half-dried nuts, copra dragged through the surf or wet with rain; and I carried from the Islands to Auckland perfectly dry copra in sacks for weeks, and had 'no combustion. What caused combustion on board the Fteamers was friction. A sailing vessel with such a cargo, orany other cargo, lays quiet to the pressure of the sails, but with a steamer rolling to and fro it is different. If the copra is .firmly stowed it is as safe as jany other cargo. Here is another case i which will support my contention. When ', I sailing vessels conveyed the hulk of the I cargo of the Pacific to Europe the copra , was shot into them and cut up with \ whale spades till it formed one huge ■ I cake, which required pickaxes to dis--5 | charge it. The only precaution taken r j were ventilators—one on either side of ; : the full length of the ship. One could s ! easily imagine that combustion would i i set in here, but of the hundreds of copra l' ships going round the Horn only two J ! were missing to my knowledge. When r j Auckland had twenty-four vessels in 1 . this trade, Auckland and the traders, 3 j excepting the passenger traffic, were better served in a good many respects. 1 Ther.e was then no discrimination as to " which of the Islands the fruit should be '■' imported from. We have not had any fruit from Tonga these ten years. When the steamers ceased carrying copra that was the opportunity of "-c Americans duce away hy any means at all.