NEW ZEALAND AND JAMAICA

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 109, 1 February 1929, Page 13

NEW ZEALAND AND JAMAICA

Sir, —It would be of interest to know ■whether any formal investigation has ever been made into the question of creating a market for oqj produce in the West Indies? In an excellent article under, the above heading Major J. R. Boose, C.M.G., ip the December number iof the “United Empire,” .the journal of the Royal Empire Society, London, suggests that great possibilities exist for trade between New Zealand and Jamaica. His forcible remarks ought certainly" to arouse interest on the subject in our Government, our chambers of commerce, those , controlling our exports of meat, butter, cheese and apples, as well as all the shyping companies that run their vessels by the Panama Canal route to Great Britain and back. „ ' , t " A recent cablegram tells us that a conference of all the Legislatures of all the West Indian colonies, British Guiana, and Bermuda, is now sitting at Bridgewood, Barbados, to discuss , important questions affecting their welfare. The ' agenda covers a wide field, and tariff and preference andi migration matters will all come in for review.. This conference seems "to me a first-rate opportunity to i submit to the representatives gathered to gether the advantages and practicability of New Zealand supplying their islands with our products. It is difficult to understand why trade with them has not eventuated long ere this. The cargo and passenger boats on emerging from the canal ana proceeding through the Caribbean Sea actually thread their way between Haiti and Jamaica, and in the latter, practically right on the track, is the fine deep, capacious harbour of Kingston, with every facilitv for handling and distributing cargo. Doubtless the shipping companies would raise the objection of the incurring of port dues at Kingston, on top of the canal charge, but surely the trade both out and home would compensate for the additional expenditure. The passengers would welcome a brief stay at Kingston after the long, lonely stretches of sea in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, their only relief being the Panama Canal, through which they are generally very much hurried. By way of reciprocity New Zealand could take some of ; the West Indian sugar, coffee, rum. mahogany. and fruit. America, both North and South, I daresay, would endeavour to counteract the effect '• of any encroachment on the trade in such commodities as they can supply, but the difference in seasons, and the quality of our foodstuffs, and the regularity and convenience of their delivery, should make considerable difference in our favour.—l am. etc., CLYDE. Wellington, January 29.