PLIGHT OF TONGA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 17258, 6 September 1919, Page 9

PLIGHT OF TONGA.

THE LACK OF SHIPPING.

MR. DALTON'S COMMENTS.

COPRA GOING TO AMERICA. Some interesting comments upon the shipping facilities of the Tongan Islands are made by Mr. It. W. Dalton, British Trade Commissioner, in a recent report. Mr. Dallon says :— "Tonga has been more seriously affected by the shortage of shipping and the difficulty of getting copra away than Samoa. The lack of means for telegraphic communication in Tonga, even between the islands, adds materially to the difficulties of business men resulting from the infreauency of mails and the shortness of the calls of steamers. Any scheme which may be devised after the war to improve shipping communication with Samoa with a view to a more direct traffic with the United Kingdom can also operate to meet the needs of the Tongan group. " One feature of the shipping position is the absence of means at present for snipping fruit from the Tongan group. Prior to the war this fruit was shipped to New Zealand, but since the war, owing to an alteration of the traffic, Tongan ports are no longer the last ports of call of vessels proceeding to New Zealand. The institution of this change coincided with the appearance of blight in the fruit, which would in any case have rendered it- unmarketable, but now that these blights have been largely if not entirely overcome the lack of means of getting' fruit away is more important. Vavau in particular grows very fine oranges, and bananas are also cultivated in some quantity, but there is no market for either of these products, under present conditions, outside the Islands themselves. " The more serious result of the shortage of shipping, and the refusal of the Union Company to carry copra on their Island steamer, is that in the case of Tonga also, traders have been dependent solely on schooners from America to shift their copra; the trade in this product, which is practically the only exportable product of the Islands at present, has been driven to the United States." Writing from Vavau in the Tongan Group, under date August 16, a correspondent says :—" Great dissatisfaction ia being felt at the action of the Union Steam Ship Company in not carrying , coora, and if this continues much longer New Zealand will undoubtedly lose the market. The Vavau Traders' Association has written the Union Company, but no definite answer has been received. A recent addition to the steamers owned bv Messrs. Burns, Philp, and Co. is the Makoa, which is at present in Vavau, after her maiden trip from ovdney. The Makoa, which is about 250 tons, is an auxiliary vessel, and is to be craved in the inter-island run between Nun afoo, Vavau, Haapai, and Nukualofa, she will carry copra and passengers between those ports."