THE COOK ISLANDS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2375, 16 December 1908, Page 2

THE COOK ISLANDS.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF TRADE. A new company has been formed at Auckland, entitled the Cook Islands Trading Co. Ltd., to acquire and take over as a going concern the

business -of merchants, commission agents, and traders in the Smith Pacific Islands, heretofore and now being carried on by the Cook Island Trading Company, at or in the Cook Islands and in New Zealand and elsewhere, and to carry oil and develop all or any part of the business of the Company. The prospectus is to hand and the following extracts are made therefrom:—

The commercial possibilities of the Cook Islands Group are considerable, but although the export trade increased from £22,379 jn 1900, to £51,578 in 1907, barely ten per cent, of the agricultural land available has so far been utilised. In Rarotonga alone there are still thousands of acres of land 1 available which are admirably adopted for tropical products. Many excellent plantations owned by Europeans have proved an. object- lesson to the natives, who are good imitators, and already show signs of adopting European methods of -cultivation instead of trusting altogether to spontaneous vegetation. The principal products at present exported are Copra, Oranges, Bananas, Pineapples, Candle Nuts, Pearl Shell,, Lime Juice, Becli-de-mer, and Fungus ;*r»4id whilst there is not only every indication of the export of these being largely increased in the near future, there are many other products such as rubber, arrowroot, peanuts, kapok, ginger, cocoa, coffee, tobacco, vanilla, bamboo, and cotton, that are now receiving the attention of planters, and will soon be cultivated on a large scale. The soil, climate, and rainfall of the Islands are very favorable to the prolific growth of all the products mentioned, and particularly of rubber. The demand for rubber has enormously increased, and the price is steadily advancing. A rubber plantation in bearing is many times surer than’ a gold mine, the return in proportion to the cost being higher than almost anything else grown by man. There are also many industries that may be established in the Islands with every prospect of proving highly remunerative. For instance, a jam and tinning factory should be erected, where many fruits that will not stand carriage, might be preserved and exported duty free to New whilst cocoa-nut husks, wldh are now being thrown away-inJnormoiis quantities, ...mgfiV 0e exported as fibre or manufactured into rope or matting. Sisal hemp also grows well in the Islands, and its manufacture is an easy process. A cheap labor supply is available, and the Company has in view other industries that- can ho profitably worked. The exports from Auckland to the Pacific Islands are of considerable importance, and amounted during the twelve months ending 30th September, 1908, to £172,477, but also m this direction there is unquestionably a great deal more to be done than has hitherto been attempted by our merchants,, who should see that the gain to be derived from these lands of promise, comes through the channel of this .Dominion. _ . As the trade with the Islands m-. creases, efforts will he made to secui e a faster service with boats more suited for the carriage of fruit between the Islands and New Zealand than those now in use, and, further, a more equitable basis for freight should also in the near future be the result of united efforts in this direction. Improvements of this nature will of course further enhance the value ol the Island trade. _ , , The fact that between New Zealand and Rarotonga wireless telegraphy will shortly be established must also prove of great 'advantage to the future development of the Island trade, as at present, it takes almost a month to exchange letters, which has made it difficult to; secure the prompt dispatch so essential for the important trade with the Islands in the Southern Pacific. The establishment of a stable Government in the Cook Islands, with the introduction of a more satisfactory system of land tenure, has, during the last three years, greatly accelerated the development of these Islands, and. as the commercial advantages of the Island trade offer are now being more and mofe recognised in New Zealand, their .future progress will even be greater than of late years, and this Company must necessarily benefit by the expansion of the trade. When the Panama Canal is opened a few years hence, trade in the Cook Islands, which are on the line of route, will receive a further impetus that should materially add to the prosperity. Application for shares are now being received at the registered offices, Hobson Buildings, Shortlaiid Street, 'Auckland.