The Auckland Star WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News.Morning News.The Echo and The Sun SATURDAY, JULY 1, 1944. TRADE WITH THE SOUTH SEAS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 154, 1 July 1944, Page 4

The Auckland Star WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News.Morning News.The Echo and The Sun SATURDAY, JULY 1, 1944. TRADE WITH THE SOUTH SEAS

R turn of the century Auckland was the home port of a eet of scores of little sailing craft', schooners and cutters of a few » uiden. stoutly built in yards here, at Whangaroa and on the or em Wairoa, manned by skippers and crews of adventurous spirit "wo dared the peril of reef and hurricane to build up a useful trade with the myriad islands of the South Seas. Their tiny ships were to e found in every group from here to the Cook and Society Islands, from far Suwarrow through the Fijis and Tonga to Samoa, to Norfolk Island and to the Melanesians, bartering and pioneering trade over the widest expanses of the South Pacific, owned many by their own captains, .and by such enterprising firms as William McArthur, whose craft were the sole carriers for a thousand isles. Their cargoes of tinned meats, cotton cloth, sewing machines, flour and so on sent back copra, trepang, pearl shell, oranges, limes, kumaras, and, small as each individual cargo was, their sum played a large part in the mounting prosperity of Auckland.

The advent of the steamer brought about the slow ruin of a great trade. Its greater regularity of arrival and its ability to handle the whole of the available crop at any one time resulted in the gradual cutting off from the little sailers of the larger island ports. The smaller were neglected because it did not pay the steamers to visit them, nor could the schooners prosper when the backbone of their trade was broken by the loss of the larger cargoes. So it was that the total trade began to decline, and a grand fleet was slowly driven off the great waters until even its remnant, in such schooners as the Ysabel and the May Howard withdrew as the scope of their operations was narrowed down. Sir Ernest Davis has done a service to the city and the port by suggesting that to-day a great opportunity is opening for the rebirth of this trade on lines suited to present times and methods, using steamers of a size and draught suitable to the needs of the scattered and reef-sown islands of the South Seas. Already, as a result of war conditions, many of the islanders have a wider horizon, an appreciation of the better standard of living which may become theirs by access to the buying and selling markets of the world. They know and appreciate more than they ever did the vast potentialities of their lands, areas which, properly used, will produce thousands of tons of those fruits of the earth which the temperate zones will greedily absorb, and they await the opportunity to build up their trade.

The agreement between Australia and New Zealand specifically envisages our assistance in raising the standard of education and of living in those groups. These can only be raised and sustained on the basis of the now dormant energy and ability of the native-born. The raw material is there, but it needs guidance, more guidance than the missionary, splendid as his efforts have been, and the infrequent visits of the trading ship can possibly supply. We have admitted our responsibility, in the endorsement of the Canberra agreement. That agreement, in so far as it affects the Islands, will be empty wind unless we do something. The only effective thing is the development of trade .nd production in the Islands; anything less would be very much worse than leaving things as they are, and that, in the interests of our own race and our first line of defence, we cannot do. The rebirth of the trade cannot be brought about at haphazard. It must be both designed and continuous, but it must also be carried out on lines which will make its .progress sure. It must not therefore be left to the State; the energy and urge of private enterprise and of the old spirit of adventure, if given the opportunity, will establish a trade which in State hands would never be really born. There must, however, be a solid foundation upon which to build. That can best be provided, perhaps, by organisations which have their roots in New Zealand, which, because of their experience along our coasts, can be expected to develop a great expansion on business lines. But the fact that it is to all intents and purposes a new trade, and one designed to serve a purpose to which New Zealand is committed, calls for some such assistance in its foundation as has for long years been given in Britain, America and in the Scandinavian countries. In all of these the State has offered its assistance by building grants, by low interest loans for new liners, by mail and cargo subsidies until the new enterprise was able to stand alone. This State encouragement has cost nothing in the long run, but in the short it has brought about the firm establishment of great enterprises which might otherwise have been stillborn. The Government has imposed many restrictions upon trade; they will persist after the war. They imperil the prosperity of any new enterprise, and, since the State has its own moral responsibility in the matter of the future of the Islands, it has a duty to make a full inquiry into the needs, the prospects and the degree of assistance required for a better service than the Islands have ever had.