Tahiti’S Woes

Union Line to Go; Franc Devalued

From Our Own Correspondent.

Papeete, Oct. 9.

T’HERE have been two recent develop ments which promise to have a pro found effect on the economic welfare of the islands of the South-eastern Pacific.

One is the proposed discontinuance of the Union Steam Ship Co.’s passenger and mail steamers, and the second, the de valuation of the French franc.

The discontinuance of the passenger steamers on the Australia-Cook Is.- Tahiti-San Francisco service will imme diately destroy the tourist traffic (par ticularly from North America) which has been growing in volume during recent years.

This traffic has produced a respectable revenue for Tahiti and its adjacent islands. Many landowners have erected cottages suitable for rental to sojourners; indeed the amount of such building has lather exceeded the demand. Several business houses in Papeete have thrived on revenue from tourist patronage.

Fortunately, the Union Company is continuing a regular service of freight steamers, so that the movement of mails and cargo will not be interrupted. French Oceania is well served, in addition, by the excellent passenger steamers of the Messageries Maritimes Company voyag ing every six weeks from and to France via the Panama Canal.

In view of the withdrawal of the Union Co.’s passenger vessels, a belief has been expressed in some quarters that the Mes sageries liners would extend from their present terminus of New Caledonia to Australia. There is little ground for this rumour, however, the Company having emphatically denied the intention of continuing their vessels to Sydney.

Effect Of Devalued Franc

The devaluation of the French franc is likely to cause some confusion and even hardship until the islands become ad justed to the new conditions.

The chief difficulty is that our supplies of staple foodstuffs —such as flour, beef in tins. etc. —as well as petroleum pro ducts, lumber and such, come from Aus tralasia and the Pacific Coast of North America. This means that prices for all these products, in terms of francs, will rise immediately in proportion as the franc is devalued.

It is not likely that the price of our chief export product—copra—will rise in proportion inasmuch as the entire pro duction of French Oceania is, by the necessity of present economic and trade conditions, sold to France.

The native landowner in the islands is, of course, more or less independent in that he can supply himself with fish from the sea, with plantain from the mountain valleys, and with taro, breadfruit and other vegetables and fruits from plan tations on his own estate. Flour, rice, tea, and tinned foods are, however, substantial elements in the diet of all the islanders and higher costs will work no little hard ship Mr. D. R. Eden, Acting General Manager of the New Zealand Reparation Estates, left Apia, Samoa, by the Maui Pomare on October 15 on an official visit to Welling ton, to discuss with the N.Z. authorities important matters affecting the Estates and the labour situation in Samoa.

Captain J. R. Grey, formerly of the Hoyal Navy, and a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, arrived in Sydney by the Makura on October 17, after having visited Tetiaroa, a group of 13 islands north of Tahiti. He examined the potentialities of the islands and sub mitted a report to their owner, Dr. W. J.

Williams, who retired recently from the position of British Consul at Papeete.