The Auckland Star WITH WHICH AND INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News The Echo and The Sun. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 1935. THE NEW PACIFIC.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 230, 28 September 1935, Page 8

The Auckland Star WITH WHICH AND INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News The Echo and The Sun.

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 1935. THE NEW PACIFIC.

For the cause that lacks assistance, For the icrong that needs resistance, For the future in the distance, And the good that we can do.

Within recent weeks we have learned that Japan will shortly inaugurate a direct shipping service to New Zealand, that Pan-American Airways, about to link North America with the Orient, will also link Pago Pago (and possibly NeAV Zealand) with their service, and that plans are afoot which likely to bring nearer than had been anticipated the establishment of the trans-Tasman airway. These happenings, while they increase our interest in the marvels of modern means of transportation, also sharpen our awareness of the position which New Zealand occupies as one of the nations of the Pacific. The source whence came the early settlers made it natural that the first generation of our people should look most to Britain, with which they had sloav and infrequent communication around Cape Horn or the Cape of Good Hope. Then, in the early 'fifties, came the gold discoveries both in Australia and in New Zealand. These led to a marked increase in the communication between New Zealand, Australia and the United States. But for the invention of the refrigeration process our trade to-day might have been mainly with Pacific ports. But refrigerated cargoes determined the nature of our development for half a century.

It is customary to say that it is "natural" that Ave should find our chief market and our chief supplier in the United Kingdom. On the contrary, from the economic standpoint it is unnatural. The fact that a million and a half people at the Antipodes are able to maintain a relatively high standard of living by transporting huge quantities of produce— much' of it perishable—halfway around the world, in competition with producers much nearer the market, is an economic phenomenon, and as such it must long ago have appeared to us had not the British market remained open and the British Navy dominant". To-day we face a situation far different. No longer is the British Navy unchallenged, either in the Atlantic or the Pacific, and not much longer may the British market be ours without question or restriction. Once again we become aware of our opportunities in the Pacific.

The "natural" markets of Nqw Zealand are first Australia and the nearer Pacific islands, and then the countries of the Far East (more aptly termed our "Near North"), and those of North and South America. For the reasons indicated above we have in the past given actual and potential markets in the Pacific far too little attention, but it is every year becoming apparent that the most enterprising of the Pacific nations are bent upon making the most of their opportunities in the same area. Japan's development of her export trade needs only to be mentioned. Australia is fast expanding her markets in the Orient. The United States is turning her back upon Europe, perhaps foxever. Just Avhat these developments portend for this Dominion cannot with any certainty be predicted. The one thing certain is that we cannot be indifferent to them. Probably—and especially if the living standards of the Oriental countries can be even slightly raised—they portend a vast increase in trade in the Pacific.

New Zealand's share of that trade will depend largely upon the foresight and enterprise of her Government and business leaders. Entry to foreign and even Empire markets in the Pacific is difficult to gain now, but there is little reason to apprehend that existing conditions will remain unchanged. The nature and extent of our future trade in the Pacific cannot be determined and gauged, but the tourist attractions of the Dominion— if we value them sufficiently to preserve them —represent a certain source of wealth; indeed, the increase in the rapidity and convenience of passenger transport services in the next twenty years may reasonably be expected to make the tourist business one of the most valuable of all. But New Zealand's general place in the Pacific will be determined also by the cultivation of a national individuality and the formation of a national resolve that in all matters affecting our interests we will bo heard and our opinion respected.