PROSPEROUS ISLES

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 284, 27 August 1930, Page 10

PROSPEROUS ISLES

Dutch East Indies STRONG BID FOR TRADE “I was greatly impressed with the colonising methods of the Dutch; they control Java wonderfully. The people are all working and seem to be very happy. The whole of the country is cultivated almost to the mountain tops and it is an extraordinarily wealthy place. They grow practically everything there.” These statements were made by Mr. E. W. P. Bucholz, who returned by the Maunganui yesterday from a three mouths’ trip to the East, during which he .visited Java, Sumatra, Singapore and Penang. Mr. Bucholz was impressed by the facilities for shipping which were provided by the Dutch in the islands. The wharfage accommodation was most up to date, two floating docks being established at Sourabaya which were capable of taking almost any vessel. The Dutch were making a determined bid for trade in the East, and their luxurious new steamers were capturing most of the passenger traffic. Java and Sumatra appeared to be prosperous, but business was somewhat dull in Singapore, where the low prices ruling for tin and rubber were causing depression. . . , Mr. Bucholz found that the Australian £1 in the Dutch East Indies was only worth from 17/6 to 18/-, and all through the islands the Straits dollar or the Dutch guilder was preferred to Australian money. The English £l, gold or notes, however, was worth about 21/-. Mr. Bucholz was accomapnied on the trip by Mrs. Bucholz.