SYDNEY'S LOSS IN COPRA TRADE

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2704, 25 February 1916, Page 5

SYDNEY'S LOSS IN COPRA TRADE

Dearth of tonnage lias deprived Syd- ! ney of thousands of tons of copra. The island groups such as Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, and others found .that in sending ■ this class of produce"to Sydney they had to put up with great dclayS,-while the freight from Sydney to Europe has risen extraordinarily. . 1 America lias seized the opportunity, arid vessels engaged in the lumber business between North Pacific ports and the Commonwealth are returning with ; copra to, San Francisco'as occasion permits. Mill-owners of San Francisco have doubled their crushing s planter copra. The freight in these sailing ves- j Sels to San Francisco is about half that from the islands, via Sydney' to Europe. ; This gives the Americans an advantage which they have quickly taken ad- j vantage of. There is a market at Vladivostock for I the oil, and to that port the American 'j product goes. Japan, too, is taking ' ; larger quantities of copra than formerly. In view of the foregoing facts thcro ■ seems an opening for Australian capi- ' tal in the copra crushing business, : either at Sydney or at one of the Paci- i Sc Islands. —"Sunday Times." '•

AVoll-mado bricks ave tlio-- most diir-' I able of building materials. •In tba j British Museum aro bricks taken from the ruins of Ninevali and Babylon, i which show no 'signs of dceay or dis- j integi-afion, although they were neither > burned nor bnked, but, simpl.v loft to | dry in the sun; 1