Mad Copra Race Is Over

Talk of a Slump In The New Hebrides

From Our Own Correspondent SANTO. March 20.

BEGINNING with the April-May-June quarter, a considerable drop in the prices of New Hebrides’ copra is ex pected.

France has based the price per ton she has been paying for NH copra on the price the United States pays for Philip pines copra; but she now sees that market showing signs of sliding, and has brought her own price down accordingly.

This month, March, is witnessing per haps the greatest race to get copra in, weighed and bought, that the New Heb rides has ever experienced. In a last attempt to make hay while the sun still shines, certain commercial interests — relative newcomers to the field—have raised their local buying price by 200 francs. This added inducement has brought the copra in but not, it appears, to the detriment of more stable business houses.

The slump, while sudden, was not un expected. It had to come. The fantastic prices which New Hebridean copra, by no means a superior grade, has been bringing over the past eighteen months could not continue indefinitely. The mad, cut-throat, no-holds-barred race, which has been going on between all concerned for two years, has come to its end. The outcome will be unfortunate for some.

As it now stands, the bulk of the price paid for copra goes to the natives. For example: A trader sails into a village and buys copra from the natives for £4O per ton. This he later sells for perhaps £5B to £6O, Australian. A second trader calls at this same village, and, upon learning that a competitor has paid £4O, he offers £45. The natives get the £45. The trader gets perhaps £5!

THE slump will force many small men out of business; and the trader has only himself to blame. There was room for everyone in the beginning, but the unscrupulous methods employed by some forced others to follow suit. It was a case of fighting back or letting the other fellow walk in and drive you out of business.

There was never any unity among traders and, in the heat of the race, they seemed to lose sight of the fact that they were working 24 hours a day to keep the natives rich and idle.

The natives know nothing about inter national economics, or the price the United States is paying for Philippines copra. Nor do they care. All they know is that for every ton of copra they have received a bundle of Australian bank notes which they have counted very care fully and found it either the same as be fore, or more —but never less.

How the trader is going to convince the native that the golden days are over, and that the price has fallen, is a problem which he, having brought it on himself, must face.