Other formats

    Adobe Portable Document Format file (facsimile images)   TEI XML file   ePub eBook file  

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 82

III.—Import and Export Trade

III.—Import and Export Trade.

The import and export trade of Tahiti is large and growing steadily; but the proportion of such trade which comes to Australasia is at present rather small. Fifteen years ago the imports were valued at £120,000 a year, one-third of which came from New Zealand and Australia; whereas last year, out of a total of £179,126 worth of imports, only £12,368 worth came from these colonies. This is a deplorable fact, when it is remembered that page 40 in Tahiti there is an excellent market for New Zealand products, as it has by far the largest European population of any of the islands visited, along with a more general adoption of European habits of life by the natives. The following table shows the volume of trade with different countries :—
Imports and Exports for 1884.
From and to Imports. Exports. Total
France £21,737 £8,018 £29,755
England 13,500 29,500 43,000
Australia 11,468 650 12,118
New Zealand 900 120 1,020
America 91,645 48,914 140,559
Germany 12,810 35,300 48,110
Sandwich Islands 150 86 236
Elsewhere 26,916 22,612 49,528
Total £179,126 £145,200 £324,326
It was only with considerable labour that these results were obtained from the very diffuse statistical information supplied us by the French officials at Tahiti, for the collecting and distributing trade between Tahiti and the neighbouring islands was included in these returns and had of course to be struck out in compiling this table. Appended are the
Shipping Statistics—Port of Papeete—1884.
From and to Arrivals. Departures.
Vessels. Tonnage. Vessels. Tonnage.
England 2 986 4 2,061
Australia 10 3,830 2 537
New Zealand 4 658 1 52
France 3 3,827
Germany 2 1,008 6 2,474
America 19 5,917 21 6,603
Elsewhere (chiefly to adjacent islands) 91 5,271 90 10,079
Total 131 21,597 124 21,806
The fact that no vessels were consigned for France illustrates forcibly what has been so often remarked—that Frenchmen found colonies to make commerce for other nations. I should explain that in the foregoing returns I have classed as "German" the ships and goods consigned to Lisbon—that being the port for page 41 which German vessels generally clear. Of the total imports to Tahiti, fully one-sixth in value, viz., £31,000 worth, are cotton and other soft goods. A portion of this trade might be done through New Zealand; but it will be of greater importance to know those articles which we are in a position to supply better than any other country and the trade for which we ought in the natural order of things to secure. These I shall consider further on. The exports of Tahiti are more varied than those of Tonga or Samoa, and embrace the following, among other products :—
Cotton £55,170
Copra 43,350
Mother-of-pearl and other shells 15,300
Vanilla 2,290
Oranges 2,800
Cotton seed 1,550
Cocoanuts 1,340
Fungus 930
Citron juice 275
Guava jelly 20

The mother-of-pearl is collected in the Tuamotu Islands, and the cocoanuts are nearly all exported to the United States, where they find a ready market.