ISLAND TRADE.

Northern Advocate, 13 October 1921, Page 7

ISLAND TRADE.

MAY SLIP FROM AUSTRALIA

MR McMAHON 'S WARNING

SYDNEY, Oct. 5. Mr T. J. McMahon, F.R.G.S., the well-known traveller, yesterday uttered a grave warning to Australians to bestir themselves lest they lose the ouik of their Pacific trade. Mi* McMahon has just returned from Fiji, where he remained several months. "I found in Suva and in the islands generally a very keen and energetic class of business men, many of whom arc Australians or th(i ox Australians," said Mr McMahon. "The opening of the Panama Canal has made a considerable difference to the prosperity of the Pacific, and I would like to warn Australia that shipping strikes will have to cease, otherwise the most important port in the Pacific will bo Suva.'' Mr McMahon stated that the white people of Fiji were exasperated by the tax placed upon the banana industry. He contended that there was nothing in the industry in Fiji to interfere with the banana industry of Australia—much Australian money and many A\istralians were engage ! in the industry, and while it was complained on this side that cheap labour was competing against Australian labour in banana growing, it must not be forgotten that the industry had never been profitable owing to strikes in Australia. These strikes more than once had brought the fruit companies in Fiji to the verge of ruin. "The tax was a stupid blunder.'-' said Mr McMahon. "We lose the best quality bananas; we -ose the tax; and, what is worse, we lose from £800, 000 to a million pounds* v."orth of trade annually . Further, not content with this, the Commonwealth Government line is now carrying from Fiji to Loudon, aijd, vice versa, goods which previously passed through Australian ports. Mr Massey Greene, who, I Relieve, is responsible for this blunder, may appease the clarnourings of a few in Australia by doing a great wrong to the general commerce of our country, which can hardly afford to lose trade at the rate of a million a year." Mr McMahon said he was perfectly satisfied that the unrest among tho Indians was purely political and racial. The statements frequently made that the Government, the C.S.R.. and the white settlers were responsible for the strongc immoral conditions under which the Indians lived in Fiji were gross exaggerations. Instead, everything had been done to make the Indian happy and contented, and any lack of success was only due to the Indians preferring their own morals, customs, and ignorance. "I was very much impressed by tho Fijians," said Mr McMahon. "I did not find they were a declining race. In a generation or two they will be a vigorous and progressive race, infinitely superior to the Indian in every way. The Fijian Government has done honour to the rule of England by the way i<- has kept faith with this race." For the Missions, particularly the Methodist Mission in Fiji, Mr McMahon had nothing but praise.