Sterling

Copra, Exchange and Sterling How It Works In Fiji Australian Planters Are Envied

From Our Own Correspondent SUVA, October 2.

COCONUT planters have been heartened by the rise in copra, consequent upon Great Britain going off the gold standard. The view held locally is that it is not payment in gold which affects the prosperity of coconut planters in Fiji, but rather payment in sterling.

We pay our wages, our taxes, our mortgage interest, and our salaries to Government officials in sterling, and so it is more the quantity of the £ sterling we get for a ton of copra, rather than the quality, which affects us. Thus, too, by reason of our close ness to the U.S.A., we can, if we want to, sell out copra in exchange for American dollars, then change dollars into sterling at 3.90 instead of a nor mal 4.85 and feel somewhat comforted by the proceeds.

It must be remembered that we in Fiji, Tonga and Samoa are on the New Zealand basis of exchange, roughly 10 per cent, premium on English sterling, whilst those in the Solomons, New Guinea and Papua are more fortunate in that they still get a premium of 30 per cent.

Thus copra is £12 odd to-day in London. To us it is worth £13/4/-, but to the Australian group it is worth £15/12/-, and it is just that extra couple of pounds which makes all the difference.

However, we all feel jumpy at the moment about the exchanges, and we expect by the time this appears in print, the position will have changed.