LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16749, 2 June 1922, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

NEWS FROM NEAR AND FAR Rarotonga can supply tons of oranges and bananas to the New Zealand market, and would supply them if only the means were available for transporting the fruit. This is the opinion of Mr J. D. Gray, Under-Secretary for External Affairs, wlro has just returned from a visit to the Islands, says the Dunedin “ Star.” I found the general conditions good,”' Bbid Mr Gray. " Most of the people are contented anjJ lvappy. The whole of the island is in good shape and good heart, though, of course, there is a tendency to be despondent, owing to the depressed state of the tropical markets, and there is a feeling that, through some cause or other, they are not getitng as good a deal as they have the right to expect in connection with their great and valuable stand-by—the fruit trade. The Tahiti brought 12,000 cases of oranges; hut she. could have brought 100,000, and made very little impression on the crop still there. The trees everywhere c were laden, and this at the end of the season. Not. a fraction of the bananas available are exported. and there are areas of land which in a few months could be producing thousands of cases more. Of course, the great, difficulty is shipping, and there are manv sides to that question. With the existing facilities I think the Union Company is doing a.ll that can be expected.”

A photograph to send each of your friends is the best way to solve the gift problem- Let Steffano, Webb take it. Petersen’B Buildings, High Street.

Telephone 1989. 1519 There’s no period of life in which the changes are so rapid, the stages so interesting, or the memory so well worth keeping as the period of childhood. Keep the record in a photograph. Begin with a portrait to-day. Wrigglesworth and Binns, 738 Colombo Street. ’Phone 1268. ND.