The "Aronga Mana" Go

In To Business

From Our Own Correspondent THE hope that springs , eternal in the breasts of local planters (and their chiefs) has led them to establish yet another of the well-known “native” enterprises that, aiming to supply the villages with necessary goods at lower prices than the stores charge, follow usually the pattern of the green bay tree’s brief career. hv T t h h. ofSf and St i°t r has S su™ by the Council of Chiefs, and it nas sue ceeded m selling tins of cheaper than other establisfiments, wfiile its comprehensive stock of clothing and footwear is priced about the same as the other firms’. One would judge than at attempt is being made to cut profits in “bread-and-butter” lines, in the hope that sales of other goods wil make up any losses

The CINA, or Cook Islands Native As sociation was probably the most sincere attempt to form a co-operative for the sale of goods to natives at reasonable prices. This firm nad difficulties during the depression, due to transport and marketing, that necessitated closing the local branch, The Mangaia branch was managed in succession by two men of distinctive personality—Major Robert Duncan and the late Richard Steele Aubin, who was with the firm till its Mangaia branch was closed (in 1932).

Sergeant Aubin fell at Cassino in World War n and he is now buried in the Cassino Military Cemetery—a long wnv inHppH from thp islands that hp ™y, indeed from the islands that he lovea 50 wen - The “Chiefs’ Store” has not yet got to the stage of employing a European man ager; and is not expected to equal the CINA in its scope and influence, under present conditions of island trading.