FREEDOM OF SIMPLICITY

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 9, 12 January 1932, Page 8

FREEDOM OF SIMPLICITY

From twopence per pound avoirdupois, to only one farthing, is a fairly steep fall. When the Rarotongan producer of copra receives one farthing per pound instead of twopence, he suffers a cut of 87 per cent, or thereabouts; and, mathematically, is in even worse plight than the grower of wool that falls from fifteenpence to fivepence. Yet it would seem, from Judge Ayson's remarks, that the natives of the Cook Islands are less deeply affected by price-fall than are the populations of the white countries that have specialised in exports. When carried out in the white style, specialisation in export involves the economic existence of the people dependent on it; and, in certain circumstances, practically the whole population may be dependent on it. But it seems that when the Cook Islander becomes an exporter he does not lose his grip oii the old self-contained island life, whereby the necessaries of a simple existence may be obtained almost in any garden. Being /"able to provide themselves with the necessaries of life," thie Gook Islanders, says the Judge, are to be envied. The spoiled,. children of economic output may indeed envy ;■;.'. .the islanders their simple life'in a kindly climate.' An export that is only pocket money, and can be cut put without starvation, does not make economic slaves. At the same time, it ..-/does not make civilisations as the white man knows them. He cannot have it both ways. Neither can the native.