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THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [September i, 1885. 



desceut, or by the thud with which it had announced itself 

 as about to begin an independent life: and the owner puts 

 it in a row with several otliers, all iu like ineresting con- 

 dition. I have 8fcn hundreds of these infants lying in 

 a row, and vigorously sprouting all the time. "When the 

 plant is very fairly outside what originally contained it, 

 then it is taken to a place where the earth has been loosened, 

 and stuck in there. A few occasional weedings, and the 

 youthful palm must, like the youthful Arab of Hotham 

 or (lollingwood, take care of itself. These nuts are 

 planted by the seashore (for they best love the coral 

 sr-rand and the kiss of the sea's salt lip) on the little 

 Hat deltas, on promontories, liill-sides — everywhere ; even 

 right in tin- heart of the lull-country, where there is no 

 saltwater (and coconuts were not supijosed to grow 

 many miles from the seashore), thfy are found. But 

 there is perceptible ditTerence between the drinking nuts 

 grown inland and those that flourish on the littoral. 

 One canny practice that the Fijians have may be 

 observed when looking at ridges, especially the crowning 

 ridges of small isbimN, Here, exactly oa the dividing 

 h'ne, palms are put so that a« the mature nuts fall 

 some will roll to one side and others in the opposite 

 direction, and in that way many palms will rise up 

 selfsown on both of the slopes. Any plan for the 

 economizing of personal effort meets the approval of 

 these children of the sun, the Fijians. AVhere an En- 

 glishman seeks to save time, they only desire to save 

 work. In these later years the interests of the coconuts 

 have been taken in hand by men of a civilized race, and 

 they have been planted "" according to Cocker," and in 

 great numbers with almost mathematical precision. 

 Weeding has been systematically attended to, and no 

 detail neglected which could bear in any way upon the 

 very best prosperity and productiveness uf this interest- 

 ing source of income. ^Mother Nature did well, the Fijians 

 did better, the white man has done best. But some 

 visitors in "Wairarapa last year were slow to distiuguish 

 between the irregularity of nature and the regularity of 

 man — the uhite man. Turning into a coconut estate on 

 Vuna Point, where the palms stood in proper regulation 

 order, like troops upon parade, '* Look here !" they cried, 

 *•■ here's a coconut grove ; what a lot of them ! And how 

 singularly even they grow — all the same distance apart. 

 Wonderful !'* And the worthy proprietor, who had spent 

 his hours with tape and line arranging this curious equi- 

 distance, listened while Nature herself received the whole 

 of the praise. Perhaps, the same tourists on their way 

 through Kyneton ascribed the long wheat furrows there 

 to the conscientiously regular action of a small earthquake. 

 And now, as we have seen the nut palms growing as 

 nature, Fijians and settlers have placed them, let us see 

 what use they are put to. The Fijian has the first use, 

 we niight say ; but in some of the Windward Isles there 

 is a creature lower in the scale of being that first begins 

 to utilize the nuts. It is a crab, a huge landcrah, with 

 most powerful and terrible claws, Bergi'S latro^ the Latins 

 call him. Ugavuie (Oongahvooleh) he is styled by the 

 soft-eyed bipeds of the place. Bergus latro " swarms " 

 up a palm, lays hold upon a promising nut, and husks it; 

 gets at it somehow, and enjoys the succulence within. In 

 a list of items presented to the Sydney Museum a little 

 while buck, I saw mentioned the husk of a ccconut with 

 the marks upon it of the claws of that thief, Bergus 

 latro. The natives are said to have an amusing way of 

 outflanking this big crab, and taking him in the rear as 

 he deficends from his airy perch and godlike feast; they 

 tie some grass round the stem of the palm at a good 

 height from the ground. Monster Bergus descends back- 

 ward like the bear, and, in time, comes to the grass, 

 whereupon he straightway imagines himself to have arrived 

 at tena Jit ma, lets go all hold, and the lietiofhncnt can 

 be imgined. After the crab comes the Fijian, as claimant 

 of the seductive uut«. He " goes for them," walking up 

 the tree, not climHng, a« I defy the most agile larrikin 

 to do. Squatted in the crown, he h,Ts a choice before him, 

 for there blooms the tiny blossom and stands the baby 

 nut and there hang other uuts of all stages right up to 

 the mature thing which is ready to drop upon the boeooi 

 of mother earth. Tapping with' his fiuger-nail the smootli 

 (?reen and yellow p-een globe* around him, be can tell 

 ^y the sound what p«rtif:nlRr wif» art in the proper jst;fge 



for drinking purposes, and I much doubt if any Tasmaniau 

 piano-tuner could do the same. Detaching a number of 

 the right sort, that come thumping down, he follows after 

 himself not coming headlong indeed, but with a very 

 factlis descensus movement by aid of the hands and feet 

 alone. A stake is chosen, sharpened at both ends, stuck 

 into the ground, and on the upward point the green- 

 husked nuts are struck, the stake piercing the tough 

 covering and an adroit movement of the wrists wrenches 

 off great portions of this until the white shell is laid 

 bare. So simple does the operation seem, but it is so 

 difficult. AVairarapa tourists lightly thhik themselves 

 quite equal to the performance, and they "job'" the nut 

 on to the stake, happy if they miss piercing their 

 fingers as a side issue, and try, and wrench, and push 

 till their faces grow alarmingly hot, and the perspiration 

 tide-niiu-k rises on their silky coa's between the shoulders. 

 One after another tries and fails, when the brown-skinned 

 lad steps forward again, and with a smiling face easily 

 does the denuding work, and " without turning a hair," 

 as we .say at Flemington. Just a knack, but one not to 

 be acquired in haste by a European. A blow or two 

 with a long knife, or a stone, or another nut, and a 

 round piece is knocked from the shell, and the citadel 

 has fallen — the nut and all it has is yours. Contrast this 

 easo and method with the frantic struggles of our boyhood, 

 in endeavouring to get past the tough l-uisk and hard shell 

 and into the treasure-house of an old coconut bought in 

 the Melbourne streets. Of course, the natives have abund- 

 ant use for the nut, as food, as a scraped concomitant 

 to various made dishes, as a drinking cup, water monkey, 

 material for fibre, and so forth ; but the principal commercial 

 use to which they put it is the manufacture of copra. 

 This copra is formed of the hard, kernel-like lining, cut 

 into strips and dried in the sun. Now, it is an easy matter 

 for a native to make this proiluct copra. He simply 

 collects the old nuts as they fall from the tree, and with 

 one blow of an axe cleaves them in half through fibrous 

 husk, hard shell, and white kernel ; the hemispheres are 

 then hung upon rude stagings, where the sun hardens, 

 dries, or toughens them. "Wet spoils the process, and has 

 to be looked out for. The toughened lining is now cut 

 from the nut by a knife in strips, and these, dried again, 

 are put into coarse bags for shipment. A native who 

 has palm trees can thus easily make copra to pay his 

 taxes with, or to obtain cash from local traders for the 

 purchase of such goods as he requires, and may be 

 considered to be in easy circumstances. Just now the 

 Fijians are not utilizing their nuts as far as they might, 

 and there has been a falling-off in the export for the 

 past year in consequence. 



And now comes in the Europeans' share in the business 

 and utilization of the nut. Not only do they husk and 

 bag the coconuts whole and send them to the neighbouring 

 colonies, but they buy of the natives their copra, and 

 they also make it themselves, for there is no surer income 

 in Fiji than that from a coconut estate. The said copra 

 once purchased is collected iu small craft, such as decked 

 cutter-boats and small schooners, and brought into 

 Levuka. The U. S. S. Co.'s inter-insular steamer also savours 

 strongly of the stinking stuff, and half-poisons her 

 passengers with the vile reek that proceeds from such a 

 villainous but profitable cargo. At Levuka this cargo is 

 stored, chiefly by German firms, such as Messrs. P. Hoerder 

 & Co. and (facile princeps] Mr. VC. Hennings, who is 

 agent for the South Sea kings, Godeffroy k Co., of 

 Soraoa. One English firm, Messrs. H. Cave & Co., 

 is also in the business. Hither come German barques, 

 which bring merchandize from Hamburg, and take back 

 copra, or simply act aw collectors, and sail to Samoan 

 ports, to Tonga, and then to Fiji, picking up contrib- 

 utions from each place until they are full. Knglish vessels 

 arrive from London, and go back to Falmouth, with what 

 Cave k Co. have got stored ready for them. But 

 the Germans are, par e.rceUence^ the copra traders of the 

 South Pacific. Their shipping js ever in these waters, 

 and they work their old ships so economically and pay 

 such low wages that th- y defy competition. From New 

 Britain to Fiji, including the Friendly, Navigator's, and 

 other groups, the copra trade is almost entirely in the 

 Ijan^s of the watchmen of the Khiue, The large amount 

 oi Government copra (paid in by the natives W their 



