Trading and Copra-Buying

Profits

Letter to the Editor AS a comparison with trading condi tions in the Solomons, it has been interesting to read in the P.I.M. of the supposed unfair treatment the New Guinea natives have received from the traders there.

For a great number of years, now pas sed, to the present day, the native of the Solomons has never received less, and as a general rule, a good deal more, than 50 per cent of the ruling Tulagi price, for his copra. 1 To go back to the boom years, 1919-20. is sufficient. Copra then was fetching £35 per ton at Tulagi, and the native received at his front door. 20/- to 25/- a bag. usu ally 16 to the ton (hags, twine, and often labour to fill, supplied by the trader). So it has gone on to the present day. A few months ago, with copra bringing £l6 to £l7, at Tulagi the native got the lion’s share, viz.; 10/- to 15/- a bag in bulk at his door, and at that same door, as far away from Tulagi as 200 miles he has a trading vessel calling, if not daily, at least twice a week, with plenty of cash and a well-stocked store on hoard.

I hear someone say; “Ah! I knew there was a catch in it somewhere. That well stocked store is just to lure the innocent on board and relieve him of his roll.”

Now, at the risk of being condemned and sent to Coventry by my fellow con spirators, I will point out “that catch” by divulging prices and profits of a few of the main lines: Sold for Cost at Tulagi

It certainly was not on those lines that that trader in Rabaul made £B,OOO in one year, during the copra “depresh.”

I am, etc..

A.M.A.

Tnlagi. 22/7/37.

s. d.

Tobacco. 3 sticks for 1/- -— per stick 0 3 Rice. 15/- per 1001b. bag per baj? 12 6 Meat, 9d per 12oz. tin per tin 0 74 Kerosene, 10/- per 4-j?al. tin per tin 8 9 Small Lantern. 2/- each each 1 8 Wood Pipes. 1/- each each 0 10 Matches, 6d packet packet 0 3 Calicos, 1/- to 2/- per fathom yd. 5d to 0 10