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Press, Volume LVI, Issue 16727, 9 January 1920, Page 6

We quoted tho other dav some remarks made !iy "an Auckland .shipping authority" to the Auckland "r?tar." on a subject which Aueklandors never tiro of discussing—the greatness of Auckland. ''We must remember," he said, '•'that as tho largest fitv of New Zealand, we are tho greatest port. We are also :in important terminal, whereas an oversea steamer brings us L*ooo tons of cargo. she will take, perhaps, MM tons to une of tho southern cen-

'rcs. ' A "Press'' reader comments on this characteristically boastful utterarice l>v sending us without comment a F'i"o of the litiiUinjz Trade .supplement 01 the '"Overseas Daily Mail,'' on which is printed a man showing hv long lines stretching in all directions how British trade goes to everv corner of the globe. New Zealand is shown on the map. but, the onlv centres that aro in any way indicated aro Napier, Wellington, Nelstm. Christehiirch. and Dunodin! The name of Aucklan<l appears only as that of the little group of sub-Antarctic islands lying far to tho south-west of Stewart Island. From which one gathers that there are some important quarters to which tho greatness and renown of the city on the Waitomata have not yet penetrated. 71 will be rather tantalising to housewives suffering from tho severe rationing of >ugar that obtains just now in Christchurch, to read that the Cuban President is practically inviting offers for half the sugar crop produced by his country in tho past year. Tantalising, because nothing seems easier than to suggest that Mr "Massey shall instantly cable to President Menocal, asking him to quotn for the lot. and because it is all too certain that nothing would come of such nn attempt to bring off a business deal. fillips coming to New Zealand by the Panama Canal pass within sight of Cuba, there would bo little trouble* involved in bringing u cargo or two across. Hut though the American Government will not buy the sugar, it is most unlikely that American speculators will let tho opportunity of securing it pass out of their hands. Sugar is nlmost as scarco in the States as it is in England, and the short, voyngo from Cuba to Now York would cnnble Americans to offer a Jxsttor price for tho coveted sugar than tho British Government wotild probably caro to give.

The excuse that seems to have been mndo for the rifio in tho cost of suits of clothes in Britain is not very clear. From Sir Thomas Mackenzie's reply to it, ono may assume that {ho people responsible for the rise in tho prico have been endeavouring somehow to blame the New Zealand wool-grower. This is really too much. The New Zealand grower receives only a fraction of the price that some growers aro receiving. Everybody else is making profits on tho road from the sheep's back to the tailor's shop, and it is impossible not to ljelieve that somo of the slices cnt by these intermediate traders two -wickedly thick. When wool was Is 2d, one could buy quito a good suit for seven guineas. A rise* of about 50 per cent, in the prico of tho raw material does not justifv a rise of nearly 200 per cent, in the finished article.