Levuka

May be Closed as Port of Entry

From Our Own Correspondent.

SUVA, August 16.

MUCH adverse comment has been aroused by a Government proposal to close the port of Levuka as a port of entry. Levuka businessmen are up in arms on the subject, and at a largely-attended meeting recently, it was unanimously de cided to forward a vigorous protest to the Governor.

A special committee is to visit Levuka shortly with a view to investigating the possibility of further Government econo mies. It is a well-founded belief in the old capital that the closing of the port is one suggested economy. The protest is based on the ground that Levuka is in a central position for the shipping of many of the Colony’s products, and that although a lean time has been experienced for the last few years, this will un doubtedly change in the future, and Le vuka again become a shipping centre, of importance. It is pointed out that the closing of the port will effect most ad versely those who have invested con siderable capital in the businesses of the town, and that the proposed action would be false economy.

In a leading article on the subject, the “Fiji Times and Herald” said: "This ten dency to centralise everything in Suva has its dangers, and as far as the adminis tration is concerned, should be guarded against in order to avoid accelerating a movement which has an adverse effect upon the general welfare of the Colony.

It has to be admitted that a port can not exist on the water that flows in and

out of the harbour. Trade has to flow in or out, and at the present time this is not by any means plentiful.

“We would suggest, however, that in a year or two years’ time from now it might be possible to have a really de finite idea as to the future value of copra, and that in the meantime it might be possible to keep the port open with the assistance of necessary economies. If so, it would be postponing a retrograde step which, with some future improvement in the price of copra, might not become necessary.”