September i, 1885.] TilE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



iof 



taxes) is soli! by contract, tenders being made every 

 year, and the successful tenderer takes all that the state 

 has to give him at a certain fixed rate jier ton ; and 

 in more than one instance tiie contractor has burned his 

 fingers. No coconut oil is made now in the group, 

 except a small quantity by the uativi?s for their personal 

 adornment, they being worshippers, just as Mr. Matthew 

 Arnold says the Parisians are, of the Ooddess of Lubricity, 

 In the former days a great business was done in the 

 oil line between here and Australia, and those were the 

 days of abundant casks and hogsheads, oil drums or 

 *' coppers," and great square iron tanks, left about in 

 various parts of the island for the oil to be poured into 

 and kept till the ship came round. One skipper, who 

 sailed from Levuka to Sydney with a cargo of casks of 

 oil, toKl me that when he left these casks were not quite 

 full, that the vessel made a long run out of the tropics 

 iu one direction, consequently lying on one side all the 

 time. That the cold weather into which she ran congealed 

 all the oil to a hard mass in the casks, just as you may 

 see is the case whith the hair oil in a barber's shop, and 

 that, in consequence, w hen she had to ' go about" the 

 cargo had a decided list to one side, which seriously 

 affected the trim of the ship. A similar process of con- 

 gelation takes place in a cargo uf copra on the voyage 

 to Knrope. Looked at in a Levidca store, it seems like 

 a railwaj' cutting composed of brawn. But when this 

 is in the ship's hold it gradually compacts into a solid 

 mass, and then in the cold latitudes it freezes hard until 

 it becomes as rock, auil is a <lillicult subject for treatment 

 by those who wish to get it away into the stores of 

 Hamburg. 



The principal copra merchant of Fiji is Mr. William 

 Hennings, whose elder brother, Mr. Fred. Hennings, was 

 the leading coconut-oil trader before copra became the 

 fa.shion. A good story is tohl in connexion with this 

 gentleman. Some years ago a Sydney draper, visiting 

 an island in which he had purchased a share, found 

 that a boat-load of ^-isitors had come ashore, and he at 

 once proceeded to do the honours of the island. He had 

 been but a few days iu Fiji altogether, but very kindly en- 

 dertook to explain many things; and selecting a quiet and 

 innocent-looking young man, he said good-naturedly to him, 

 "This is a banana tree." "Ah! iudeeil ! " wa.5 the reply 

 gratefully accorded. Presently came another piece of in- 

 formation as the two stood beneatli a gracious jialm, whose 

 feathery crown was rustling in the trade wiml. 7'///.s- is a 

 coconut tree ! " " Oh 1 ah ! yes I " .said the other, and shortly 

 after that they parted. At lunch tlu? two men were form- 

 ally introduced, and the Sydney draper, as soon as he heard 

 his young friend's name, di.^covered that he had been 

 learnedly discoursing ou bananas and coconuts to Mr. 

 Hennings ! 



In closing this paper I may say that the Government Gazette 

 has just beenis.sued, giving certain trade returns for 1881-4. 

 Therein it says that there has been a decrease in the export 

 of copra since ISSl of 1,S8SJ tons, and £17,-100. Theamount 

 exported in 1»S-1 was 5.613 tons, valued at £fi9,GliJ, GG5 tons 

 of this being raised outside of the colony and brought into 

 it, as to a copra rendezvous, before the final shipment 

 to Europe. Last year £17,PS0 worth went to Falmouth, 

 £6,432 to Hamburg, £22,9r)l to Lisbon, and jf 17,244 to 

 Liverpool, £338 to Sydney, and £2,0-.'9 to ]\felbourne. 

 Lisbon an*l Falmouth simply mean that the vessels go 

 there for orders, and then sail to the particular port which 

 is fixed upon as the market. Once I saw a vessel, the 

 " Aurora," last from Siberia clearing out of Levuka port one 

 early morning with a cargo of copra, worth £30,0110, which 

 she was to bear to (iermany. 



It is hehl by some in Fiji that the copra production 

 would be considerivbly increased were the present taxation 

 system abolished, and a payment in money made ojitional. 

 That then the natives would h.ave ailditional stimulus to 

 make the required article and use up the coconuts which 

 otherwise go to waste; that the amount of compefilion 

 which exists among t'.ie numerous traders would secure 

 good i)rices to the prodm-ers, who are naturally shrewd 

 in little financial transactions; and that the traders them- 

 selves could more quickly and economically collect the 

 Btuff and bring it to the depots. That, in fact, trade 

 would be stimulated by that which is the soul of busi- 

 ness — competition— instead of being deadened by what 



Largely approaches to a monopoly. And, lastly, that the 

 i'ljiaiis themselves would benefit materially by being 

 allowed to freely raise their own produce as best they 

 like, and dispose of it when they ])lease, and to whom 

 they plcHsr, and as they please. There are those amongst 

 the well-qualified to form an opinion who hold that the 

 state would, iu this way, get all her taxes, and the 

 commerce of the coimtry be quickened and inijtrove. 

 — Australasian, 



PLANTING IN JOHORE. 



■Vour correspondent "0. R." having asked for further 

 informatiou about arecanut cultivation, I liave made 

 further enquiries, and learn that arecanut trees grow 

 best when planted in the open as a Rei)arate cultivation. 

 When planted in conjunction with other trees, they are 

 iuclined to grow up weak and spindly. Several natives 

 have assured rae that to grow arecanuts successfully they 

 should never be planted closer than !) feet apart, and, 

 if 10 feet, so much the better. They mentioned, as an 

 instance of this, the fact that at a place, up the west 

 coast, arecanuts were planted 6 and (i feet apart, and a 

 few miles further they were planted 10 feet apart, the 

 .soil being the same in both cases. The trees planted 10 

 feet apart give more than double the crop from the 

 close planted piece, and the nuts are both larger and of 

 fino quality. I fancy the arecanuts over here are the 

 same as your correspondent mentions, viz., two, which 

 bear largo, and, comparatively speaking, soft nuts, and 

 o"e with smaller, but very hard nuts. I am told the 

 latter are generally sent to the Indian market. When 

 I told my native friend what " 0. K." says about the 

 saving in gathering the nuts, wheu the trees are planted 

 close together, he asked me, it there were no bamboos 

 in Ceylon, for he says a long bamboo is all that is 

 wanted. Arecanuts planted 10 feet apart iu good soil 

 over here give an average of 750 nuts per tree when 

 six years old, and give a crop every seven to eight 

 months. If there is any further information I can get 

 for your friend on the above subject, 1 shall be ha|jpy to 

 do so. I have seen in a Straits paper an extract from 

 the Ceiilon Observer giving au account of an interview 

 with jtr. Wm. Hole, Private Secretaj-y, to H. H. the 

 Maharajah, of Johore. Mr. Hole rightly enough gives a 

 very glowing account of the revenue derived from the 

 gambler and pepper industry, but I regret to see that he 

 thinks the European planting euterprize of so little 

 account; in fact, he thmks it has been the cause of 

 great loss to the Maharajah through '-the construction 

 of roads and other facilities for them." Now, 1 have 

 not the slightest intention of denying tliat the I\laharajah 

 has given great encouragement to the European jjlanters, 

 having already borne testimony to that effect, but I 

 certainly think it is very unfair to saddle the European 

 planters with the cost of road construction, whereas, as 

 everyone here knows, the gambier and pepper planters 

 derive more benefit from the roads that have been made 

 than the coffee planters do ; and in fact the road.s would 

 have been made although there had not been a coffee 

 estate in the coiuitry. It is true enough that coffee 

 Arabica, of which Mr. Watson was the pioneiT, has 

 proved a failure, but Liberiau coffee h.as taken its jjlace 

 and will erelong more than recoup all the lo.sses incurred 

 on the other. No one has done more towards bringing 

 this about than Mr. Watson has, anil at th<; present 

 time no one has a larger stake in the jilantiug enter- 

 prize in .lohore. While the Maharajah has given every 

 encouragement to the European planters, he has given 

 equal, if not greater, facilities to the Chinese gambier 

 and pepper ])lanters ; who, while they swell the revenue 

 of the country by the taxes on gambier, pepper, and 

 opium, fin the other hand are doing incalculable damage 

 by the indiscriminate manner iu which tiiey carry on tlie 

 eidtivation. For miles on every side of .lohore liahru 

 there is litth^ or no forest to b(^ sei-n iu)w, where some 

 2U or 30 years ago there was nothing but heiivy valuable 

 timber. Now there is nothing but long stretches oflalaug 

 grass with patches of scrub ami a few strips of jungle 

 near the few gambier and pepiier gardens left in thin 

 locality. Now all this is caused by the Gambier nnd 

 Pepper cultivators who made off to fresh laud furthe 



