September- i, 1885.] fHE TROPICAL AGRICULTURISt. 



iSS 



THE NORTHERN TERRITORY OF AUSTRALIA. 

 HoWLET, Jane 3rd. — A subject introduced at the 

 meeting held here recently was that of restricting 

 Chinese imni'gratiou for the future. The past caunot 

 now DC remedied, as the Chiuese are here and we cannot 

 well get rid of them ; but we can and ought to prevent 

 more of them from coming by passing a similar re- 

 strictive Chinese Immigration Act to the one in force in 

 South Australia proper. The Chinese now have every- 

 thing iu their own hands here, and if their coming is 

 not prevented in the iu' lire it will be impossible fora 

 European population to live here at all. The country 

 has never been in a worse state than at present, the 

 primary cause of which is the stagnation in the mining 

 districts. This is caused by the gold fields, and even 

 the reel's (which Chinese are not allowed to work in 

 other countries) being overrun by them, so that the 

 white miners, who could have developed the reefs, have 

 for the most part lelt the cuuutry. Those who are here 

 will not woik amongst a lot of Chinamen, so that 

 every known gold-tield and line of reef being occupied 

 by them, there are actually no places left for a white 

 miner to try his luck in; and as the Chinese who hold 

 the ground have already worked out all the suiface 

 that is easily got (all the mining they ever will do), 

 and the whites are prevented by their presence not only 

 from testing the deep ground but from remaining in the 

 Territory at all. a state of stagnation is the result, which 

 can only becuied by taking prompt measures to prevent 

 their coming here any more, except iu such limited 

 numbers and under such a heavy poll tax as it was 

 found neccjtary to impose in the neighbouring colony of 

 Queensland. 



The pearling boat "Lammeroo" arrived in Port Darwin 

 from Western Australia last week, and two others from 

 the same place will probably be in port by this time. 

 They have done pretty well, and would have done 

 much better had not the weather been so persistently 

 bad as to prevent regular work, besides which measles 

 and fever broke out amongst the crews. 



Messrs. Erickson and J. Wotd, of Port Darwin, are 

 still on the pearling ground at or near Cambridge Gulf, 

 and have gut a cood qiiantity of shell. Two pearling 

 boats anived in Port Darwin last week from Thursday 

 Island, and reported that between 200 and 300 boats 

 would probably arrive shortly from Torres Straits, en 

 route for the western pearl fisheries, as the accounts 

 from there have been good, and the late pearling season 

 iu Torres Straits has been rather apcorote. 



It would appear that the Western Australian jarrah 

 is just as susceptible to the attacks of cobra (fererfos 

 iiarali.-) iu water as it is to those of white auts on shore. 

 The "\Vhampoa"oD her southern trip took down apiece 

 cut from one of the trial piles of the jetty, planted 

 some months ago, which was thoroughly perforated 

 by the sea worm. As the jetty piles are to be sheathed 

 with copper, and the woudhas otherwise proved to be 

 very serviceable for piles, we do not suppose any 

 alteration of timber will be ordered, a?, as yet, the 

 cobra has found it just as difficult to cat its way 

 through melal in the water as the omnivorous white 

 ants have on shore. True, it may be only a question of 

 time and education, but until it is proved that iron and 

 capper are no protection against the insects' eucroach- 

 meiit-i it may be as well to chance it. 



Tbe total inip-.rts into Port Darwin for the quarter 

 ending March 31 amounted to ijiiid'A, of which £5,053 

 were from South Australia, £7,460 from New South 

 Waiej, £2,.iS0 from Queensland, ard £5,803 from 

 Honykong. J'he exiorts during the same period 

 amounted to £-22 021, < f whi.h £2,612 went to Victoria, 

 £14,205 to New .Somh Wales, £4 443 to Hongkong, and 

 £51 to S.uth Australia. The immigration nnmhered 

 174 souls aud the emigration ',11 souls. Sixteen vessels 

 representing a tonnage of 18,82'J tons arrived at Port 

 Darwin in the quarter. — Ausiralian Begisler, 



' PLANTING IN CEYLON. 



Ceylon sets to work with a more purely busineag 

 air, and boldly advertises herself as a "field for the 

 investment of British capital and energy " in the way 

 of growing tea, cacao, cinchona aud other produce. 

 Not coffee, mind ! Oeylou has bought her experience 

 dearly, and no more thinks of putting all her oggs 

 into the coffee basket tlian Jamaica does of putting 

 all hers into the sufjar basket. A few hints, there- 

 fore, as to what Ceylon planters are thinking of, may 

 not come amiss to our re.iders in Jamaica and the 

 West Indies generally. There is, perhaps, a special 

 fitness in asking Jamaica to take a bint from Ceylon, 

 seeing that the able Director of Public Gardens and 

 Plantations in the former island, held only a few 

 years ago the same post io the " Isle of Spices." If he 

 only succeeds as well in ifnmaioa as he did in Ceylon 

 in making the planters Kfrn their practical attention 

 to new products, he will have doubly deserved the 

 thanks of the public at large. After tea, cinchona aud 

 cacao, the latest "new loves" of the Ceylon planters 

 are cardamoms and areca palms. The last named is 

 the most recently introduced to the notice of the 

 planters, one of whom, after making practical experi- 

 ments nith about 40 acres of land under this crop, 

 estimates the net profit at about COr. ('ay S")-'.) per 



' acre. On good soils an even better return may be 

 expected, and further profits are looked for in the 

 utilization of the fibre. As to the maiket, another 

 planter states that "with praclhaVij an unlimited 

 demand, hundreds of millions of people in China, 

 India, &o., using areca nuts, it ranks second to feiv 

 other enterprizes, and offers at the same time a 

 safe investment for limited capital." Much inform- 

 ation on these familiar " new products " will be found 

 in a handbook on " Tea and other Piantiog Industries 

 in Ceylon," and in the periodical publication the 

 Tropical Agriculturist, Loth issued by Messrs. A M. 

 & J. Ferguson, of Colombo, to whom the Colony of 

 Ceylon is much indebted for their persistent efforts to 

 foster Cingha!e§o interests. Mr. John Ferguson, on 

 a recent visit to England, was " interviewed " by the 

 irrepressible, but iudispensable, newspaper reporter, 

 and in the little pamphlet sbove-rr.entiuned he has 

 issued the foUoning revised version of what he said 

 on the all-important question of the class of young 

 men for whom Ceylon has an opening — information 

 which will equally apply to Jamaica and the other 

 West India islands. —f'oto«!'es and India, 



SPIDER SILK. 



We recollect once reading a statement to the effect 

 that spiders' webs were equal and even superior to 

 ordinary silk. liut an experiment tiied by shutting 

 up about sixty spiders together ended disastrously. 

 In the morning only a few bloated spiders were found, 

 which had eaten up the others. Tliere may exist 

 spiders, however, devoid of this cannibid propensity, 

 aud further expcrimmts with the right soit of spiders 

 might be more successful. Meantime the enormouij 

 quantities of strong and dense spiders' webs iu our 

 jungles, which sometimes impede the progiess of 

 travellers, might be utilized. A Madras Government 

 paper which has reached us enibodrea correspond- 

 ence on the subject initiated by Mr. J. F. Duthie, 

 Superintendent of the Siharnn))ore Butauic Gardens, 

 He wrote thus to Sir Joseph Hooker: — 



JJy today's mail I am sending you some queer-looking 

 stuff — spider^s sifk. It was extremely lovely as I saw it 

 when coining down from iUmora the other d;iy. Enorm- 

 ous webs of it stretched between the trees and shrubs 

 overhanging the lake at liliim Tal iu Kumapn. I saw a 

 notice a 8hf>rt time ago iu some paper regarding the use 

 which might be made of these strong wobs ; a particular 

 kind of a golden yellow color, occurring in New Zealand, 

 was siiecially recoiuiuended, aud iu fact it had been muni- 



