PROFITEERING IN JAVA.

Otaki Mail, Volume XXVIII, 21 June 1920, Page 4

PROFITEERING IN JAVA.

I FORTUNES MADE IN A DAY. “Batavia. i- a carnival of profiteering wealth," says Jlr Byron Brown, director of Derbyshire:- (X.Z.), fuel., iu :i letter recently sent l.iy him to his lirm in Wellington. ‘‘ fortunes," he adds, "are made in a day. One sugar company, with a capital of one million, made six millions dear profit Ja-t, year. .Sugar that was sold tit. t-’d two years ago is now Is, and it costs no mole to produce. The natives who do the -work get about Js per day and Jiml themselves. ..lava is a ' study in economies. There are no laws except those made in Holland, and nobody minds except the natives, who will rise in their thirty-seven millions 'OlllO day and deal it out i<> tile sixty thousand Isurupeaus who are now robt bing them. j| ** i here "s no business to be done in j| -!• iv.i until prices come down. The jj Islands are a welter of wealth to a few ) : i ittiopeatis and tile many Chinese. The | latter ate weaderfui business men. i they are bankers, merchants, stock I "t'oker.-. land agents, and hull market- | riggers. I.’iteji wealth is enorjuous, and | they am bolding stocks of everything | with a view of increased prices. They j have vast stores bursting with the pro- | duets ot t !te lit ml, and the American | buyers are sitting on their doorsteps offering fabulous prices, which the Chinese won't accept. “llie buyers ate outbidding each J other, and the Chile ~, holder smiles I blandly, but refuses to sell. Why should he rig the market when the buyers are doing it. for him."'— “ host." KrvraxKfr. _