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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 78

[introduction]

One of the most profitable fields, for New Zealand commercial enterprise is obviously Tonga, which is a sort of island suburb of Auckland, and a place whose trade is yearly expanding, the total imports into that country for the last year amounting to just on £100,000. Leaving out the Kermadecs, where there are less than 20 people, and which are of little importance, Tonga is our nearest neighbour, and its trade should belong to us entirely by geographical right. At one time it was almost exclusively ours, but we have now to be content with less than a half-share: and unless a little more activity is shown we may some day find ourselves pushed out of this field by more strenuous competitors, though it lies at our very doors, just as we have been driven out of others farther away. All the green fruit that Tonga produces comes here because we admit it free, whereas Australia charges a duty, and anyhow it would not carry to Australia if the Tongan people wanted to send it there. This geographical advantage provides Tonga with a valuable market for her goods—indeed, the only one possible for her fruit—and it ought to be a reciprocal arrangement. Yet we find that Tonga gets the bulk of her requirements from elsewhere, taking last year from New Zealand goods only to the" value of £42,969, out of her

page break
Partition of the Pacific

Partition of the Pacific

page 11
[unclear: purchases] of £97,820. Australia's [unclear: it will] be seen, in glancing at the im-[unclear: shown] hereunder, is increasing at a ratio than New Zealand's. This, Tongan people say, is because things sheeper in Australia, and the freight [unclear: there the] same as from New Zealand, the distance from Sydney is nearly [unclear: times] as great as that from Auckland height rates, as given in the Consul's are:—
Per ton.
To Tonga. F'm Tonga.
[unclear: Sydney] via Suva, 2943 miles £1 10 £2 0 0
[unclear: Auckland] 1097 miles 1 10 2 0 0
[unclear: Sydney] (copra) 0 17 6
[unclear: Auckland] (copra) 0 17 6
[unclear: Auckland] (fruit) per case 0 1 4
[unclear: Auckland] (fruit) per bunch 0 1 4

It is hardly to New Zealand [unclear: merchants] that they should have to par exactly [unclear: some price] for the conveyance of their [unclear: for] 1000 miles as is charged for bring-from Sydney, a distance of nearly [unclear: miles]. If the Union Company were [unclear: lian] one, its obvious desire to give [unclear: advantages] over New Zealand be understood, but, this not being the would like to be informed why it Australia gets this preferential treatment.

The imports from Sydney and Auckland, since 1904, are given in the reports as follows, and Germany's of the trade is added to show that is elsewhere, she is pushing her way [unclear: on] the market:—
Auckland. Sydney. Germany.
[unclear: 204] £55,433 £22,932 *
[unclear: 395] 31,950 32.017
[unclear: 376] 41,248 25,551
[unclear: 387] 42,969 36,570 14,627