COMPLAINTS FROM FIJI.

Manawatu Times, Volume XLIII, Issue 1562, 18 June 1920, Page 5

COMPLAINTS FROM FIJI.

NEW ZEALAND "UMRIENDLY." THREAT OF TAX ON SUGAR. (Auckland "Herald" Correspondent.) SUVA, June 4. The people of the Islands are feeling very resentful against Australia and New Zealand over the conditions imposed on trade with the colony. They contend that the trade of Fiji belongs properly to Australia and New Zealand, and yet it. is being deliberately and ruthlessly cast aside. East week the Chambers of Commerce of Suva and Levuka unanimously passed motions condemnatory of the '-selfish, cruel, and un-British action" of Australia and New Zealand, and demanding that the Government take action.

Within si:-, months one, if not two, new lines o: steamers trading direct between the United Kingdom and Fiji will be inaugurated. Another line is being arranged between San Francisco and Fiji. Fiji is securing steamers of her own, and Suva very soon will be the distributing centre for the Western Pacific, and Australia and New Zealand will lose the great bulk of our trade. She must buy in the (dieapest market, and the neighbouring islands wi'd be glad to do the same in Suva, the entrepot of the Pacific. Some of the complaints against New Zealand are as follows: —(1) The export of cement to Fiji has been prohibited, and many thousands ot pounds of work is being held up for lack of it; (2) New Zealand sells lamb to the United Kingdom at 5d per lb, and charges Fiji lOd; (3) she sells butter to lie- own people at l/o per lb and to Fiji at 1/10 per lb; (4) she obtains all her raw sugar from Fiji under the "most favoured" conditions, refines it, and supplies her own people with the cheapest sugar in the world, and in return refuses to till Fiji orders for white sugar; (5) receiving the cheapest sugar from Fiji, she supplies Fiji with dearer jam than Australia does, with only half the treight to pay; (6) she has practically closed her doors to Fiji for the much-needed supplies of kauri. The merchants of Fiji arc now asking the Government to take steps, either by prohibiting the export of sugar to New Zealand or by imposing a verv heavy export duty, to retaliate on New Zealand for her "selfish and unfriendly attitude." They contend that neither Australia nor New Zealand recoji-mses the wealth and coming importance of Fiji. It is the wealthiest country for its size south ot the line, and its business men and institutions hope that the Dominions will reconsider that Fiji, although the Cinderella of the trinity, is a fellow British State, and deserves a happier and more equitable treatment than she is receiving to-day.