SAMOAN TRADE.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIII, Issue 4371, 27 January 1922, Page 3

SAMOAN TRADE.

DIVERTED TO NEIGHBOURING

COMPETITORS.

NEW ZEALAND’S OPPORTUNITY.

At the present time Mr P. E. Pattrick, Commissioner of Crown Estates and Public Trustee of Samoa, formerly of Wellington, is visiting New Zealand. He intends to return and again settle here at the end pfi this year. Having had experience first as advisory accountant for the military liquidations of German estates there, later as liquidator, and now as Commissioner of Samoa Crown Estates (these comprise all the properties taken over from the Germans by virtue of the Peace Treaty). Mr. Pattrick speaks with authority on Samoa and its trade.

In the course of an interview with a "Dominion” reporter Mr Pattrlcx said that in 1916 the German, firms, which were then operating in Samba, were put into liquidation by the Ne v Zealand military authorities. The largest of these was the powerful Trading and Plantations Company of Hamburg, commonly known. as the D.H. and 8.G./ The liquidator, in accordance with his instructions, closed down all the trading businesses and continued the working of the plantations. (It was at this time that Mr Pattrick’s, services were engaged by the New. Zealand Government.) The trade cpnnection of these firms was thus automatically diverted, to neighbouring competitors; much to the joy and profit of the latter, 75 per cent, of whom were of other than British nationality. These trading stations, which number over thirty and are on the best sites throughout the are still closed, The fixtures and the fittings, and even the copra scales, are still in the stores ready for immediate use. It :s understood that the Government contemplates selling these properties, and Mr Pattrick considers the present a unique .opportunity for a New Zealand tradimg company to be formed to purchase them, and to develop a very profitable; business. There are, he states, nbt only good prospects of such a company recovering most, if not all, of the trade previously enjoyed by the liquidated German firms, but also of its acquiring further business z by increasing the production of Samoa’s staple produce—copra.

Mr Pattrick says the present annual export of this produce is about 12,000 tons, ..but that at least 40 or 50 per cent, more could be produced if the copra harvested by natives were purchased from them green and were dried by the company in hot-air. kilns instead of being dried by the tardy process exposure to. the sun, which the natives still employ. He considers that the suggested company would be well advised to build these kiln driers and, furthermore, to set up a mill in Apia to crush the copra and to treat the husk for fibre. The oil could be exported, while a very considerable portion of two of the byproducts might well be consumed /locally, the one as cattle food, and the other as fertiliser. Referring to New Zealand’s trade with Samoa, Mr Pattrick said he con ; sidered that, although both New Zea-' land and Samoa were primarily agricultural countries, there was considerable scope for development of trade between them. He instanced that the imports to Samoa from New Zealand for the last completed financial year totalled approximately £65,000, whereas the total imports from all s'durces of these identical goods amounted to about twice that sum; The importation of drapery, for example, amounted for the year under review to £50,000,■ white only £20,000 of this came from New Zealand; s Mr Pattrick points out that the success of such a company would depend largely upon two factors—efficient organisation and the right staff. The members of the trading staff would, for instance, have to be able to speak the language the islands because the trade of the outstations is almost solely with the natives. It was rather surprising to hear of cattle .thriving iri. the group, but Mr Pattrick said there were bei tween 7000 and 8000 head' pf cattle on the plantations included: in the Crown estates. The visitor thought there was a good market for some of our primary products, tinned meats and a little • butter, but necessarily that was limited as the population, pwas small • >