TRADE WITH THE ISLANDS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVIII, Issue 18439, 19 June 1920, Page 8

TRADE WITH THE ISLANDS.

[Per Pekss Association.] WELLINGTON, June 17. "We are not doing enough at our own doors," remarked the Prime Minister to-day at a luncheon tendered by the New Zealand Association of British Manufacturers and Agents to Mr R. W. Dalton, British Trade Commissioner for the Dominion. Mr Massey was referring to the necessity for developing British trade, and he said that we in New Zealand were neglecting to a great extent the possibilities lot trad© expansion that lay in the small islands of the Pacific. The opening of the Panama Canal would mean that the islands would be of the very greatest importance in the near future. He instanced Fiji/ which was part of the Empire governed by our fellow-citizens. The population of those islands was at least 150,000, including some thousands of AngloSaxons. Steamers trading to British Columbia stopped at Fiji; and he would like to see some arrangement whereby vessels trading via tho Panama Canal would also call in at Fiji, both coming and going. If people looked into the matter they would see that New Zealand was not getting her fair share of the Pacifio trade, taking the Dominion's position into account. The population and production of the Pacifio Islands were growing, and New Zealand would have to look forward to doing more in the way of trade with those islands. Th© report of the commission which had been investigating the possibilities of trade with the islands, although not yet ready for publication, was very interesting and suggested very great possibilities.