FIJI BANANAS.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 35, 11 February 1929, Page 4

FIJI BANANAS.

AUSTRALIAN DUTY BAR. (From Our Own Correspondent.) SUVA, January 21. Interviewed after hia return from Sydney, Sir Henry Scott, K.C., M.L.C., spoke warmly on the subject of having the duty against Fiji bananas by Australia removed. He said: "At present the duty (about 8/4 per case) has proved for all practical purposes prohibitive. On my recent visit I found the same strong feeling in Australia in favour of our bananas. While in Canberra I conferred with Mr. Bruce on the matter of the banana duties, and also discussed the matter with representatives of Queensland, both in the Senate and House of Representatives. I feci certain that Mr. Bruce was not unsympathetic towards Fiji, and would like to place this colony on a better basis. The whole question is fraught with difficulties which few realise, but I have no doubt some good will come from the discussions. The attitude of the Queensland representatives in the Federal Houses was, as one would expect, antagonistic, but I feel they are open to reason. I used the argument that the Fiji banana is so vastly superior to' the Australiangrown that they must create a palate for the Australian consumers and increase the demand for both the Fiji and the mediocre Queensland, that the Queensland banana would find a ready sale with the good Fiji fruit, and thus mutually benefit both countries." Sir Henry strongly supported the idea that a Government official should go to Australia and dismiss the whole question with all parties interested. This course will likely bo adopted in the near future, as his Excellency, whose term of office expires in April, is keenly interested in the movement for the reopening of the Australian market for the Fiji banana.