New Caledonia's Trade.
p. 34 · Read in the full issue
Agreement with Australia Long Overdue.
THE Australian tariff on goods from New Caledonia is unnecessarily excessive, in the opinion of M. L.
Reverce, Premier of the Council- General of New Caledonia, president of Noumea, and mining engineer, who arrived from Noumea in the Pierre Loti on January 7 (says Sydney Morn ing Herald).
M. Reverce said that New Cale donia had additional quantities of kauri timber and manganese ore, which it could export to Australia if Australian tariffs were less. New Caledonia was a part of Australasia,
but its people were hardly made to feel that.
M. Reverce, who has interests in nickel and chrome mines in New Caledonia, said that business was brisk only in the nickel and chrome mines, because of the war in the East and the European situation. Other ore mines, in which he was interested, were lying dormant.
Editorial Note: The trade position between Australia and New Cale donia is an outstanding example of political stupidity—on both sides.
Each needs the products of the other, and New Caledonia is a large buyer; but each, as a matter of political habit, sets a ferocious tariff against the other. The negotiation of a trade agreement between the two is long overdue.