JtfHE I, 1S85,] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



90S 



PLANTING IN FIJI. 



Lkvtjka, March 21st. — Matters have not improved 

 With us during the past month. On the contrary, our 

 contiuued progress seems to be from bad to worse, and 

 the dread is, that there are depths of depression yet 

 to be sounded before the turning point is reached. The 

 only people all busy seem to be the lawyers and the 

 auctioneers, ami their style of business is scarcely con- 

 ducive to the commercial health of the colony. The 

 general extremity has been their opportunity. Fore- 

 closuies and forced sales bavo provided them with oc- 

 cupation. Bankruptcies have been unpleasantly 

 numerous, and the tone of current rumours indicates 

 the want of confidence in general stability. The effect 

 produced is most disastrous. Ileal estate, whether 

 improved or not, has no actual realizable market value. 

 Properties mortgaged for a third or fourth their 

 estimated worth three years ago are put up for sale 

 now, and are generally knocked down at the upset 

 represented by mortgage and interest in arrears. In 

 a few instances only has there been a slight advance; 

 and there is now a property of over 18,000 acres 

 advertised for sale to satisfy advance and interest 

 to the amount of £11,S00. This consists of seven 

 separate blocks in different parts of the group, 

 some of them being Hewa lands under cane. 

 The greater portion is of first-class quality. Thiee 

 years ago the owner would have laughed to scorn the 

 man who would have offered him £50,000 lor his 

 property. Yet if arrangements are not made to dis- 

 charge the debt, it is doubtful if, when the sale takes 

 place, there will be a single bid in advance of the 

 Bum claimed. The increased cost of labour and the 

 depression in the sugar market is also telling in an- 

 other direction, The first has caused the expense of 

 bringing enterprizes into working order very consider- 

 ably to exceed original calculation, and the second 

 has caused return to fall as far short of estimate. 

 The result in one case has been complete stoppage. 

 The company working under the style of Messrs. 

 Sharpe, Fletcher, & Co. has expended on its Navua 

 mill over £100,000. It has been at work for some 

 time, but returns have kept pace with necessary ex- 

 penditure. More money is required, and this the 

 shareholders are indisposed to put into the venture. 

 The mill has therefore stopped. The hands have been 

 discharged, and only a caretaker h?s been in posses- 

 sion for some weeks. The managing partner recently 

 left the coluny to interview his brother shareholde s, 

 and arrange, if possible, for raising more capital. In 

 this he has evidently failed, and today the property 

 is advertizeel for s.Hs. It is only fair to the colony 

 to eay that the enterpriza has been recklessly mis- 

 managed from the start. 



The Census record, which has been published in 

 the native official journal, the Ka Mata, presents 

 the native chance of survivaliu anything buta satisfact- 

 ory light. The general iuerease for the year treated 

 of was but 33, as compared with 114 for 1S82, and 

 20-1 for 18S1, so that there appears to a steady 

 decadence of vital force. These figures should bring 

 the aggregate of the native populations up to with- 

 in a fraction of 115,000, but the extract number is 

 not stated. The marriages for the term noted were 

 1,078, the births 1,425, ad the deaths 4 30-2 It will 

 be noticeel that the birth rate, set at 3847 per nulle 

 1b a good one, but the death rate, 3S'1S per nulle. 

 is appalling. More particularly does this appear in 

 the fact that 1.540, or 35 2 per cent of the deaths 

 were those of chilelren under one year old. The 

 deaths amoDg the aged were 1,074. or 24 45 percent; 

 and iu referring to this heavy mortali y it is unauiin- 

 OUB'y attributed by the natives themselves to tho 

 neglect of tho weak children and failing elders. It 

 is reported that the people have been strictly enjoined 

 to "take groat care of tho sick, and attend to them, and 

 114 



this they say they cannot do." Tho chiefs also complain 

 that there is a disinclination on the part of the 

 young to marry. "The young women do not marry, 

 but wait till they are old. Also the young men ; they 

 take the old women to be their wives, that they may 

 hang about the house and have their work done for 

 them." The general prospect is not an encouraging 

 one as regards the Fijiins, audit is feared that in the 

 interval it has become much worse. The llosc resol- 

 utions are chiefly noticeable for a prohibition against 

 11 'gt;ing women, as had been done at Ya-awa, and for a 

 recommendation of tho chiefs that those "ne'er do- 

 wells" who will not attend to their plantations shall 

 be publicly flogged. His Honour answers to this 

 suggestion, "I concur generally, but will consider 

 fuitber;" and when it is remembered that these 

 "plantations" include not only fcod gardens, birt 

 Government cane cultivations, &c, for tho raising of 

 native taxes, the question arises — Is there not some- 

 thing strongly suggestive of slavery iu this proposition 

 to publicly Hog their tale of work out of the men?" 

 How does this contrast with the labour laws before 

 referreel to, and what would be thought of the 

 planters if they dared to make this suggestion, which, 

 in the interest of the Government, is concerned in 

 generally, and will be considered farther by the Ad- 

 ministrator? — Argus. 



PLANTING IN COOKG, SOUTH INDIA. 



Iu the last administration report of Coorg, we find 

 the extent of land under food-grains remained stationary. 

 Seventy-three thousand and twenty-one acres have been 

 cultivated with rice, and 1,433 acres with dry crop, or 

 C acres less than in the previous year. The most im- 

 portant, although not now the most paying, iudustry in 

 the province is that of corfoe-plantitig. Thero are 218 

 coffee estates owneel by European ami 4-1,428 by natives 

 covering a total area of 74,074 acres. The area of tho 

 land liclel by the former is 38,213 acres on an assess- 

 ment of 1109,398, anel by the latter 35,361 acres on an 

 assessment of 1105,892. Besides these, coffee to a largo 

 extent is grown on the bane (uplands attached to rice fields), 

 the extent of which is roughly calculated at 1. '1,000 acres. 

 The average size of each coffee plantation held by Europ- 

 eans is 185 acres and by natives 8 acres. The number 

 of persons resident on Eureipeau coffee estates and huge 

 native estates is 26,s n 3, according to the lust census, 

 taken ou the 17th February 1881, but this number is 

 augmented by about 20,000 during the picking season which 

 closes in January. Of the whole area of laud under coffee 

 cultivation, 41,000 acres are said to be in full bearing. 

 Owing to the heavy crop pickeel the outturns estimated 

 at 2 cwts. the acre on native, and 4 cwt. on European 

 estates, come to about 5,109 tons, almost the double of 

 the previous year. Calculating the average cost of cult- 

 ivation at lilOO per acre 011 European estates and K40 

 on native, each cwt. of coffee cost on an average K23 in 

 proeluce. The cost of cultivation, at the rates per aero 

 assumed above, conies to nearly twenty-nino lakhs of rupees. 

 Of this not less than 00 per cent may be estimated a.-. 

 having been tho price of labor. The value of coffee pro- 

 duced, taking the selling price to be on the average K25 

 per cwt. on the spot, come to K25,54,000. 



An agricultural farm has not yet been established in 

 Ooorg, but efforts were made during the year to improve 

 products by the introduction of fresh seed. A fine- quality 

 of rice, which was obtaineel from Alur, has been cnltivati d 

 by the ryots successfully, and another variety known as 

 tho jira, has been obtaineil from Cauara, and will be tried 

 this year. 



Unfortuuately most of the wheat received from Oawnpofe 

 failed to germinate ; while that obtaineel from the adjoining 

 district of Hassan iu Mysore, though it gave every pro- 

 mise of success in the Nanjarajpatna Taluk, was damaged 

 completely by two very heavy and altogether unexpected 

 downpours of rain in the month of December, which 

 ruined at the same time the ordinary Beugal-gram crop 

 growu by the ryots, 



