Trade Conditions In

Pacific

Value of "Alternative" Industries

ONE sometimes hears it said in Sydney that, as the price of copra had been at a somewhat low level for several months, there must be some diminution in the trading turnover in the Pacific where copra is the commonest article of exchange This might have been true ten years ago, but it is not the case to-day. Prac tically every Territory now has provided itself with an industry which supplies a source of revenue alternative to copra production: with the result that, when copra is at a high price, everyone is very well off indeed, but when copra falls to a low price, the merchants and traders of the various territories can carry on without serious disturbance.

The Mandated Territory of New Guinea has the gold industry, which provides rich revenue; Papua now is producing large quantities of rubber, and, in addi tion, the country is receiving substantial benefits from the expenditure of large sums of money on the search for oil; Fiji’s principal industry is sugar produc tion, and now gold production is coming up in advance of copra production. Both Samoa and Fiji receive substantial in come from the export of bananas to New Zealand. So also does Tonga and the Cook Islands—both were hard hit in the depression, when they were more de pendent on copra, and they have learned their lesson.

If anv proof were needed of the state ment that the low price of copra does not mean depression in the Pacific Terri tories, it is seen in the annual balance sheets just issued by Messrs. Burns, Philp &! Co., Ltd., and Messrs. Burns Philp (South Sea) Co., Ltd.

The senior company made a profit of a quarter of a million (£lO,OOO better than last year, and £25,000 better than in 1937). The net profit of the South Sea Company was down a little, compared with 1938, but it was substantially larger than the average of the last five years.