LOW COPRA PRICES

Dominion, Volume 25, Issue 91, 12 January 1932, Page 6

LOW COPRA PRICES

Cook Islands Suffer JUDGE AYSON’S VIEWS Administrator’s Visit Copra prices are at an exceedingly low level at present, and are seriously affecting the prosperity of Pacific islands, particularly the Cook group. Where, not long ago, copra was bringing lid to 2d per lb, now the price was about id, said Judge H. F. Ayson, Resident Commissioner of the Cook Islands, who arrived yesterday on a two months’ trip to New Zealand. Like other countries, he said, the Cook Islands were feeling the effects of economic depression.

At present prices for copra, Judge Ayson said, the native producer who grew his own coconuts, found his own labour and did his own cutting and dring, made appproximately 2/- a day. European planters, naturally, found that the cost of production was more than the return they received, and one big European plant, which produced about 200 tons of copra a year, had closed down.

The orange market was also in a very precarious position, mainly owing to the Australian competition. Last season New Zealand markets had been used as a dumping-ground for Austra-

lia’s surplus fruit, and this regulated quantity and price on its own home market. There was a widespread agitation on the part of the Cook Islands /producers fbr a Customs duty which would give them reasonable protection and would equalise, to. some extent, the present unfair competition—as well'as producing a little extra Customs revenue for New Zealand itself. Wise Natite Land Policy. “The wisdom of New Zealand’s policy in not allowing the natives of the Cook Islands to sell their lands has been shown during the present depression,” Judge Ayson said. “They are allowed only to lease their land for a limited term, and then subject to the approval of the Native Land Court. All the natives have freehold lands, with dwellings on them, in respect of which they have no charges to pay—not even land tax —and on which they can raise all the necessary food crops—kumeras, taro, yams, coconuts, and where they can run fowls and pigs. Fish abound in most parts of the islands. So it can be seen' that the lot of the native just now is a most envious one. They are living quietly under excellent conditions and in an almost perfect climate.” Judge Ayson said that some of the ofllce staffs on the islands had been cut down, as they had been in New Zealand. All essential services, such as health and education, however, were being carried on in the usual, satisfactory manner. WONDERFUL ISLANDS Ideal for Convalescents “It's a marvel to me that the Cook Islands are'so little advertised, so little boosted. They are absolutely wonderful, and they form an ideal place for convalescents,” said Dr. B. F. Hindmarsli, of New South Wales, who returned from a holiday trip to Rarotonga by the Makura yesterday. Dr. Hindmarsh said he had never met such a friendly people as the Rarotongans. They were anxious to make visitors welcome and they went to all sorts of trouble to entertain and help them. They were a happy, contended jieople, living a life that was interesting to Europeans because oij its simplicity. As for the climate, one had to experience it to appreciate it; but perhaps the greatest attraction was the general atmosphere of peace and goodwill, all of which combined to make Rarotonga one of the hardest places to leave he had ever known. It was strange that the islands were so little visited by New Zealanders. After all, they were only between four and five days’ journey away,' and for a holiday were not an expensive place to visit.