RECIPROCITY WANTED

Taranaki Daily News, 24 January 1934, Page 9

RECIPROCITY WANTED

FIJI GOVERNOR TO NEGOTIATE. HIS VISIT TO NEW ZEALAND.

Partly upon a mission to explore means of promoting trade between the colony and New Zealand, the Governor of Fiji, Sir A. G. Murchison Fletcher, arrived at Auckland by the Niagara from Suva on Monday. His Excellency will confer with the authorities in Wellington next week, and after attending the Waitangi celebrations as the guest of the GovernorGeneral, Lord Bledisloe, will proceed to Australia, returning to Fiji in the early part of March. In the course of an interview, Sir Murchison Fletcher said that although he had touched at New Zealand on his way to take up his present appointment in 1929, he had never before visited the Dominion in an official capacity. “We in Fiji feel very strongly that there should be a larger volume of trade with New Zealand, which is a very good buyer of our products, particularly sugar and bananas,” he continued. “The balance of trade at present is heavily against New Zealand, and we want to do whatever we can to rectify it. Until a year ago Australia had an advantage over you on account of the difference in exchange, but now both countries are on an equality in that respect.”

PUBLIC WORKS IN FIJI. The financial year was ending with a surplus of between £22,000 and £25,000. The Government’s public works scheme was making good progress. The transinsular road in Veti . Levu was almost complete, and work would be begun soon on the Rewa River Bridge. Later on it was intended to undertake the remaining 60 miles or so of road required to complete the circuit of the island, and branch roads would also be built from the new highway to various sugar districts. Another work included in the scheme was a new block of Government offices in’Suva, replacing a dilapidated old wooden structure that had been in use since the early days of the colony. Sir Murchison Fletcher mentioned that he would have Government business to transact in Australia. In Sydney, as High Commissioner for the Western Pacific, he would meet the Resident Commissioner of the Solomon Islands, Mr. F. N. Ashley. This group was having a very difficult time at present owing to the price of copra, which was practically its only export. His Excellency added that he did not know officially at present with whom he would confer in Wellington, but he hoped to go thoroughly into the question of reciprocal trade. Fiji had many requirements which New Zealand was in a good position to supply if suitable trade arrangements could be made. In reply to a question, Sir Murchison Fletcher said that the present position of Fiji was very satisfactory, in spite of a series of hurricanes and the persistently very low price of copra. Fiji, however, had been greatly assisted by the preferences given to Empire sugar under the Ottawa agreements, and she enjoyed a satisfactorily large trade with Canada in this commodity, in addition to the New Zealand trade. The Dominion, however, was a large importer of foreign sugar, and it had struck him as a little odd to see a steamer in Suva Harbour with Cuban sugar on board for New Zealand. The Australian market, of course, was practically closed owing to the measures taken by the Commonwealth Government to protect the Queensland sugar industry. There was also the quota restriction on Fijian bananas in the interests of the Queensland growers.