THE SOUTH SEA TRADE.

Grey River Argus, Volume XV, Issue 1886, 22 August 1874, Page 4

THE SOUTH SEA TRADE.

The " Sydney Morning Herald " of the Bth inst, contains a report that will be read with interest by all persons who wish to see the South Sea Island trade brought to the ports of New Zealand. From this it would appear that a number of influential merchants and shipowners in Sydney had held a meeting to consider the desirability of presenting a petition to the Imperial Government for the repeal of certain clauses in the Kidnapping Act that had the effect of closing what had been a valuable trade to Sydney for the last forty years. The clauses complained of only allow Natives, who are necessary as divers in pearl-fishing, to be carried other than as passengers, although they, had been hired at their own wish. They, it was explained, were also indispensible in a beche-de-mer trade. "The Act," said the merchants, "had been framed in ignorance, to prevent an illegitimate trade, but it had also closed one that was desirable to both parties to the contracts." Five or six vessels were instanced as having been seized, comdemned and sold, to the loss of the owners and of the natives on board, to whom wages were due. Of the trade, Mr A. Stuart said it had of "late years risen to very expansive proportions, and it was of very great importance to the port of Sydney. It employed a large number of vessels, a large amount of capital, and many of their seafaring, men ; and beyond all that, it gave employment to many hundreds and even thousands of natives of the South Sea Islands. It was a trade that had been fairly remunerative to those engaged in it, and it had added very much to the revenue of the port of Sydney, both directly and indirectly. This was a trade that it was well worth the while of any Government cultivating, and certainly one that ought not to be recklessly destroyed." He said also, that "he had been told by a gentleman who had recently arrived from Honolulu that this branch of trade had now become a very large part of the trade of that port— the traders there are now carrying on that very trade which Sydney has carried on for more than forty years. It therefore behoved them to stand up and endeavor to get such alterations in the law as would bring back the trade which was now being taken away from Sydney."