COOK ISLANDS FRUIT

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 190, 13 August 1928, Page 1 (Supplement)

COOK ISLANDS FRUIT

TARIFF ASSISTANCE SOUGHT ORANGES, BANANAS. TOMATOES. IMAM COMPETITION ALLEGED. Pleading that an "economic collapse''' lias occurred in their industry, the fruitgrowers and traders of the Cook Islands have asked the Government of New Zealand to impose ta.rill duties on all oranges, bananas and tomatoes imported into the Dominion from other countries. Tn their communication to the Government, the traders and growers, of both races, say that at a meeting presided over by Mr. E. A. Reid, Director of Agriculture, and held at Rarotonga on June 28, 1928, it was unanimously agreed that the fruit export trade of the Cook Islands must be placed on a better basis, otherwise the Islands, and their inhabitants would be faced with economic mill. '""Notwithstanding the improved quality and better packing, resultant from the inauguration of central packing s feeds, under the control of the fnjit inspectors, the prices realised for our iiuit, exported to New Zealand, are getting lower and lower, and at the present time otter no commercial inducement. Requests to Government.

"Among the numerous causes for the present economic collapse, the following are outstanding: (1) High cost of containers; (2) High rates of freight and charges; (3) Competing against similar commodities, produced and exported under more favourable conditions, to wit, cheaper labour and lesser market.ng charges; (4) Banana land becoming stale, owing to lack of fertilisers, unprocurable through insufficient remuneration from the crops; (5) compeition from other countries; (tf) unfaii competition from other countries, which lump surplus stocks to relieve their own markets.

"We therefore respectfully submit to the Rt. Hon. the Prime Minister, and the Government of New Zealand, for their favourable consideration, thnt clauses (3). (5) and (6) be remedied in the imposition of the following duties on imports from countries outside New Zealand: (a) On all oranges <powu outside tha Dominion during the. months

of March to September, inclusive, Id per lb; (b)) on all bananas grown outside the Dominion, sufficient to equalise our increased cost of production and marketing, also to prevent over-supply and dumping, and to afford us a measure of protection, say -Jd per lb; (c) on all tomatoes grown outside the Dominion, say 2d per ]b; (d) no restriction to be placed on our tomatoes during the months of June to December inclusive."' Wages and Timber Costs. The factors in the allegedly unfair competition of Fiji, Australia and United States fruit are enumerated by Mr. YV. G Taylor, who is a grower and also a buyer in the Cook Islands, in a letter to the Minister. Mr. Taylor asserts, inter alia, that wages in liji are only half of wages paid in the Cook Islands; that Australia is using New Zealand as a dumping ground for '»er surplus stocks; that American fruit enters New Zealand duty free, yet American cases containing Cook Island fruit are made to pay New Zealand tariff on foreign timber.

Mr. Taylor also says that the Cook Islanders use New Zealand-made cases, and that they take 9t5 per cent of the value of their exports to New Zealand in trade. He complains that most of the Fiji bananas are grown by Asiatics, and that "when this question of Asiatics affects New Zealand growers there is an outcry; when it affects Cook Islands growers (who are also bona fide New Zealanders). nothing is heard.