Balm for Fiji’s sore point

Fiji has been important to Aus tralia for many years—long before the Australian States federated in 1901, and long before Fiji was ceded to Great Britain in 1874. The Governor of NSW on behalf of the UK government kept a watch on Fiji and it was a governor of NSW who accepted Fiji on behalf of Queen Victoria when the chiefs ceded their land to her on October 10, 1874.

Fiji was an important port of call for ships trading between Australia and the United States, and for ships which passed round Cape Horn on the way to Australia, rather than via the more popular, and easier Cape of Good Hope route.

Australia has provided a lot of capital to develop Fiji’s trade and commerce. Fiji’s biggest industry, sugar, was developed to its present stage by the Colonial Sugar Refining Co Ltd, which went to Fiji in 1882, after several other sugar ventures failed, and withdrew on March 31, 1973—about three months after the end of the 1972 crushing season.

Although not always popular among some sections of the Fiji com munity, it can never be denied that Fiji owes its place in the 20th century in large measure to the Colonial Sugar Refining Co Ltd (now CSR Ltd). While the main object of the company was to make profits, secon dary fields of culture, sport, educa tion and providing amenities for the people were not neglected.

Australian capital established two 3f the major trading firms, which went into many aspects of industry and commerce, and Australian capital »et up the gold fields at Vatukoula, which is now as prosperous as it has

By Norman Baxter

ever been. Australian capital went into many other smaller ventures.

The tourist industry, which really started booming about 15 years ago, also attracted a lot of Australian money.

Since Fiji became independent on October 10, 1970, she has received a lot of assistance, in many forms, from metropolitan countries. Aus tralia’s main effort has been to pro vide technical help, training selected people in a variety of skills needed in a country at Fiji’s stage of develop ment. Australia has also provided a lot of the equipment Fiji needs to develop her resources.

Australian businessmen recognise that Fiji is a growing market. Several trade missions from Australia have visited Fiji in the last 15 years, and the current mission is by no means the last. Once business contacts have been established they have to be kept up.

Australia now meets more com petition from New Zealand and Fiji in the field of manufactures, and that keeps Australian manufacturers on their toes. Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan also provide competition for Australia in Fiji, in rather limited fields.

Australia, for many years, has en joyed the situation of being the No 1 supplier to Fiji. Although that position has been eroded in recent years, it is not likely to be seriously challenged for a long time yet.

It is a sore point in Fiji that Fiji has an annual adverse visible trading balance with Australia. Yet there is little which can be done to change that position. Fiji’s exports are very limited. She could not hope to export sugar to Australia, which is one of the big growers in the world. Fiji can export bananas to Australia, but comes up against a tariff, and anyway Fiji’s banana industry is going back ward instead of forward.

But trade between countries can never be expected to balance. Fiji may have an adverse trade balance with Australia, but through her sugar export has favourable balances with several countries. On the “invisible” side of trading, Fiji does very nicely out of Australia. Australia provides the majority of visitors to Fiji, and certainly the biggest spenders. While it may be difficult to get accurate figures of visitor spending as easily as those for sugar, gold and fish exports, there seems little doubt that tourism is the No 2 industry in Fiji in rela tion to foreign earnings.