Exchange.

Solomons Natives and Exchange.

THE natives of the Solomon Islands, becoming more sophisticated, are be ginning to enquire into the intricacies of the rate of exchange. A resident in B.S.I. in a letter dealing with copra

conditions, says:

“The natives are cooking very little copra, and trading is practically dead. The native student of political economy can tell you why he is not cooking, and tells others why they should not cook. I heard one say the other day: ‘White man, he get ’em ’change, but no givem change along me.’

“From what I can gather, someone has men tioned within hearing of the natives that the exchange was favourable, and meant an in creased price—or, possibly, some enlightened cookboy has overheard a conversation at the table. It got to such a stage that there was almost a boycott of the white trader until such time as he was prepared to pass on to the natives this precious ‘ ’change.’

“However, I gathered when out in the dis trict last week that the native was beginning to realise that, when there was competition, they got better prices than when they cut out a number of the white traders and sold only to the Chinese.”