PAPEETE'S TRADE

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 594, 27 July 1933, Page 2

PAPEETE'S TRADE

TARIFF DUTIES MAY HAVE EFFECT UPON N.Z. "The French are going to give us a bad time in Papeete," said Mr. W. M. Reid, a Sydney exporter, who returned recently by the Makura after a business trip to Tahiti. "The Minister for the French Colonies went there recently, and he said that a duty would be.put on everything that did not come from France, even tinned meat and flour. I don't know how they can hope to do it." The flour would have to come from wheat imported into France from ATgeria, and the process would be a long and hardly pr'ofitable one.- It was also proposed, although not yet confirmed, to grant a bonus on all copra shipped to France. Hithert0 the copra had been shipped to San Franciso. A duty would be imposed on all foreign copra, and with the fund thus created it was proposed to implement the bonus scheme. Mr. Reid said that at present New Zealand supplied practically all Papette's requirements of tinned butter, bacon, and condensed milk, as well as a consideralble qu'afttity of tinned meat. New Zealand was getting' her i'full share of the trade, but the duties contemplated might have a serious ef- ; fect on exports. On the Makura's l'ast trip north Mr. Reid took a mixed "cargo" for Papeete, including rabbits and ha,res, which were intended to keep the' p'lantations clear of vegelation, a large number of birds, and two horses. He -said that the rabbits and hares had : he6n duly liber'ated, hut not without some opposition from certain residents who declared that the animals would become a pest. He' is taking back to . Sydney three seabirds very like alba- ; trosses and called otaha by th'e Tahitians. They are for the Sydney Zoo, and were presented to him by the man who impbrted the rabbits.