Gilbertian Regulations

How They Hamper Australia’s Pacific Trade

THE PACIFIC ISLANDS MONTHLY has been established with two main objects.

The first is to provide the residents of the Islands communities with a summary of news of personal interest to them, and with a review of world events and conditions which are likely to affect them. It is not proposed for instance, to supply residents of Fiji or Papua with Fijian or Papuan news. But it is intended to make news of events in Fiji available to other communities in the Pacific who are interested in what is happening in Fiji.

The other purpose is to bring constantly before the public the numerous handicaps and disabilities which either retard the development of Australia’s trade relations with the Pacific Territories, or make it difficult to hold our present connections.

There are numerous stupid and irritating regulations and laws, some Gilbertian in character, which have done much to cripple our trade in recent years, and which will be dealt with in detail by this journal in later issues.

Here are a few of them.

The most notorious instance of the destruction of our Pacific Islands trade by stupid officialdom is the action taken by the Sydney Harbour Trust Commissioners at the end of the war when copra was declared a dangerous commodity. There had been one or two fires in copra cargoes; and the Harbour Trust Commissioners, with altogether insufficient data, imposed regulations in regard to the handling of copra in this port which added enormously to the cost of transport. Up to that time, Sydney was virtually the clearing-house for the South Seas copra traffic.

The result of the new laws was that a great proportion of the copra trade was driven elsewhere, and the loss to Australia, and to Sydney in particular can be computed in millions of pounds.

Although warned in most urgent terms by Pacific traders, the Harbour Trust held stubbornly to its regulations for three or four years. Then it surrendered —but by that time the damage was done, and the trade was gone. It is one of the greatest tragedies in the history of Australian commerce.

“Seeds”!

There is a regulation that, when Islands produce which can possibly be classified as “seeds” is received, the consignees, before they can take possession, must obtain a certificate from the Department of Agriculture that the seeds are free from plant diseases and pests. This regulation applies to copra, for instance, and to cocoa beans. The regulation is a mere ridiculous formality, serving no purpose which can possibly be regarded as useful yet it represents much waste of time and expensive clerical work.

There is a regulation that no shipment of canned fruits may go out of this port until the Customs Department has received at least two tins for “sampling purposes.” It is an entirely useless formality, and is now simply regarded as “a little present for the Customs officials.” Islands traders say that they cannot remember one case in which a shipment has been condemned or otherwise interfered with as a result of an examination of the “samples.”

Shipment Of Liquors

All sorts of difficulties are placed in the way of firms desiring to ship spirituous liquors to certain Pacific territories. The regulations, it is understood, are the result of representations made by missionary organisations, who desire to protect natives against the evils of the liquor traffic. There can be no objections to that.

But if the European population of the Pacific Islands cannot get liquor from Australia, they get it from other countries, who impose no such regulations The net result is that the Australian shippers are considerably handicapped in competition with traders of other countries. It is a matter concerning which many protests have been lodged, but officialdom goes on its own stubborn way. The regulations, for instance, compels Australian exporters to send certain liquors to Noumea, from which port they are reshipped to other Territories. Without the regulation they would be shipped direct, and considerable expense avoided. This applies particularly to wine, gin and whisky.

New Hebrides Farce

As a result of foolish laws, the British planters in the New Hebrides are being driven out of business. The French planters, working under French laws, are permitted to use cheap indentured Tonkinese labour; but the British planters are not allowed to import Asiatics for this purpose and, as a result, they must either work their plantations at a heavy loss as compared with the French; or seek French instead of British citizenship; or sell out to the French. As a matter of fact, many of them are following the latter course.

In 1927, a British Commission, after enquiries, recommended that the British planters be allowed to import indentured labour—but nothing has been done since, and it is believed that the reason is the opposition of certain Australian Governments to the employment of Asiatic labour so close to Australia.

The result is that the New Hebrides plantations are gradually being passed over to the French planters and their Tonkinese labourers, and the valuable trade, which Australia has hitherto done with the British section of the New Hebrides, is, of course, being transferred to Prance.

These are only a few of the matters which The Pacific Islands Monthly will deal with in future issues, and concerning which it hopes to eventually secure remedial action. ... ———