SOUTH SEA ISLANDS TRADE.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1375, 6 August 1885, Page 3

SOUTH SEA ISLANDS TRADE.

The Janet Nicoll returned to Auckland yesterday from the Islands, with the delegates sent by the Chambers of Commerce, on the first trip of the steamer to Tonga, Samoa, Socie'y and Cook Groups with mails, under charter wiih the New Zealand Government. Tim del-gatis are quite aathlied that a great field for commercial enterprise exists in the Islands j that the surface has seat cely been skimmed

by existing trade, and N>*w Zealand, if it is not to ba entirely outrun in the place, must •stabish commercial relations on a systematic basis before the opening of the Panama Canal. In Tonga the English influence is steadily supplanting the German, and the Government of the country, which has hitherto looked to New South Wales as its commercial entrepot, seeks to enter into closer communication with New Z 'aland. In Samoa the Gcrmah pressure is more and more driving the natives to seek shelter nnder the protection of the English. The German trade, though still superior to that of other nationalities, is slowly declining, and there is every indication that the Denches Handles house is on the verge of collapse. In Tahiti and French Polynesia generally there is every desire to strengthen the commercial _ relations with New Zealand, and in Co»k Group our colony already has absorbed the principal part of the trade. Indications in favor of binding the whole of the islands visited with New Zealand by means of a trading company with an adequate capital are evident on every side, and it is of vital importance to our colony that such a company should be fully established before the opening of tne Panama Canal. As one strong Auckland company has absorbed almost the whole trade of the Cook Group, so also the establishment of a strong New Zealand company, with suflicient capital, would absorb the entire trade of the islands visited, driving out all competition and establishing New Zealand on the line of the Panama route before the canal is opened. The currency system now in vogue throughout the islands would cause the establishment of any company, supported by a Bank, to be hailed with gratitude by both Europeans and natives.