862 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[June i, 1886. 



iiD(l t-o hear the locomotives scream, anfl the rumble 

 and nith t>f an incoming train. The latter is not 

 IHihaiis far off, and wil! doubtless hv required within 

 a year or two. l>owu in the river is a fleet of huge 

 red punts, of ligliters, tugboats, and launches. The 

 company has in use upon the river three steamers and 

 six steam launches, 50 iron punts of GO tons each, 

 and 10 ligliters or 180 tons each, besides an ocean- 

 going steamer — the *' Fiona." In the crushiug-season 

 which between June and Christmas, the cane is brought 

 from far and near in these big barges to the rivers' 

 bank. A detachment of Indian coolies at once board 

 the red punts and hurl the long canes ou to the 

 carriers, which iu three endless bauds bring their 

 freight to the slow revolving ponderous rollers. There 

 are three double sets of rollers, each cylinder GO inches 

 long, o2 in diameter, and the whole of them weighing 

 together 1(38 tons. The pow**r driving them is that 

 of a 45 h.p.-enyiue, with 05 lb. steam. The cane is 

 not only cruehed but afterwards macerated in boiling 

 water and steam, and further subjected to crushing 

 until it is actually passed four times through the mill, 

 so thorough is the treatment and complete the ex- 

 pression of the juice; 15 tons of cane an hour passed 

 through the rollers is considered a good average, or 

 nearly 7UU0 tons in a week. " It needs scarcely to be 

 mentioned that the largest mills in Australia are small 

 in comparison witli this," remarked an expert, "and 

 it is probable that the world cannot show its eci'.ial." 

 The juice passes into 14 "cold subsiders," then to 14 

 copper circular clarifiers, each with a capacity of 500 

 gallons; thence to 38 *' hot subsiders," and onto the 

 supply tanks. The '* triple effets " are very fine, a 

 new set, with the latest additions and 10 feet 6 inches 

 hiternal diameter, being by far the largest in the 

 colonies— perhaps the largest that have yet been made 

 at all. There are five vacuum pans which strike on 

 an average about 32 tons of stuff which is whirled 

 around in centrifugals (21 of them "Weston's patent 

 4 feet in diameter) that revolve so swiftly that to 

 the unpractised eye they appear to be standing still. 

 By an endless canvas belt the now manufactured pro- 

 duct is passed to the elevator, and into a bio, from 

 which receptacle it is bagged and carefully stacked. 

 When the ships are in Laucala Bay immense quantities 

 of sweetstuff are set down to them by the Leviathans 

 called " lighters," towed by steam-tugs ; and it is carried 

 by barques and steamers to the company's refineries 

 in New South Wales, where it passes into the very 

 purest forms of sugar, and becomes delicately fit for 

 tlie confectioner's delightful and varied art. No incon- 

 siderable quantity of coal is imported from Newcastle 

 to keep these mills going, for, iu addition to the 

 eight engines that drive the rollers, there are 24 

 extra engines for general mill work; 14 locomotive 

 boilers (-iO-b.]!.) generate the steam, and all mean a 

 large cnnsumption of coal, as well as of megass, to 

 keep the inferno red hot. The main building of the 

 factory is 'S'2{i feet x 201. The coal-hoist is an inchned 

 wire tramway, and discharges 12 tons per hour. When 

 work has to be continued through the night electricity 

 and gas are both brought into play for a bright ilu- 

 mination of the premises, and the night is turned into 

 day that the busy scene may go on uninterruptedly 

 and time be saved. 



To keep the monster crushing rollers well supplied 

 with i.rofttable food, the company has seven i>lnnt- 

 ations of its own, with at present 2,5C0 acres under 

 cane, and this (piantity is being rapidly increased. 

 Most of the planters on the llewa grow cane under 

 contract for the mill ; but it may be mentioned en 

 passttnt that these same planters dolefully exclaim 

 that under present circumstances the contract price — 

 which they agree to take for a term of 10 years — 

 does not remunerate them for their outlay and their 

 toil. But on the other hand it is only riglit to say 

 that a gentleman not connected with either party, 

 and peculiarly well litte<l to give an opinion, asserts 

 that the liewa planters would bHve been ruineil out 

 and out before this had it not been for the C.S. It. 

 C'unpany. 'I'herc are about 'JO(H,> acres cultivated in 

 tliis way, and, in adilition, tho Fijians of the Delta 

 grow for the Nau8ori tuill. TUoy have to ^row t^omt;- 



thing to pay their tax asse.ssnient with, which has 



to be done in produce; and, ofc cour.^e, there is noth- 

 ing in this neighbourhood like the sugar-caue. A 

 Government tutor is sent to teach them how to till 

 th'^ir brakes; and at a given lime they attend and 

 load up the barges with the cut cane from the l)auks 

 above. 450 acres (made uj) of patches here and there) 

 may be reckoned to be the quantity of land covered 

 by the native sons of the soil with Saceharuni officin- 

 arum, otherwise called ndovu. The cane on the Kewa 

 this season is pronounced by various authorities to 

 be magnificent, and the whole district looking busy 

 and prosperous. But, as a general rule, so an expert 

 informs me, the crops do not equal the enormous re- 

 turns per acre that we read of as yielded l.iy the 

 land- on the Clarence, Richmond, and Tweed Uivers. 

 Yet, there is this compensatory fact, that the Fijian 

 cane can be cub annually, and does not take two years 

 to mature as in the above-mentioned districts of 

 Australia. It was publicly stated, too. in Levuka last 

 year, by a gentleman who had been a planter in 

 Northern Queensland, that whereas there the yield 

 of sugar was one ton per acre, here in Fiji it was 

 at the rate of two tons per acre. During the wet 

 season cane in this climate deteriorates very quickly. 

 For the removal of their cane when cut the company 

 has tramways with lines of trucks worked by horses 

 and by locomotives — horsework now being an import- 

 ant factor in working, estates to advantage — and their 

 navy does the water carriage, dropping down with the 

 stream to the mill. The C. S, IX. has an army as 

 well as a navy, emploj-ing ma.sses of labourers, tinted 

 and white; 2,000 Indians vo kept busy ou the Uewa 

 alone, also a lesser number of Polynesians, and any 

 quantity of Fijians, otf and on, for job work. There 

 is also a contingent of engineers, artisans, and mech- 

 anics, who are better paid than they would bo in 

 Australia — "and equally hard to please," adds one 

 who speaks from experience. It is contemplated, how- 

 ever, that nearly all the work will yet be done by 

 dark labourer.s, who are said to readily adapt them- 

 selves to anything. There are also many estate mana- 

 gers, over.seers, and specialists who have been trained 

 on the Clarence and at the company's works in 

 Queensland, and over the whole great enterprise (in- 

 cluding a new mill at V'iria, miles further up the 

 river, and large works on the Ba' presides the Hon. 

 James Robertson, M. Iv. C, who is the Company's 

 manager iu Fiji — an energetic, stirring gentleman, who* 

 received a thorough sugar education in Demerara, 

 and made himself favourably known to his present 

 directors by the success with which he ran the Chats- 

 worth Mill, Clarence lliver, iu the season of 18.S2, and 

 the Homebush, Port INIackay. during the following 

 season. Tender him wnrk a trained stalf, including 

 Mr. Kussel Dowling, deputy manager ; Mr. Henry 

 Brook, cane inspector (also hailing from the Clarence), 

 who has the onerous work of keeping this large mill 

 supplied with its proper food ; and Mv. Thomas Fer- 

 guson, chief engineer, prominently known iu the CS.K. 

 as a man who has served them for years, untiring in 

 bis devotion t-o their interests, and pushing through 

 a vast amount of work with great success. 



Immense has been the sum of money already e.N- 

 pended by this great colonial sugar company in open- 

 nig its operations iu Fiji; great has beeu *fche work 

 accomplished, and great will be tiie field ycfc to he 

 covered by their enterprise. — St/ihui/ Morning llevcOdt 



INDIAN TEA DISTRICTS' ASSOCIATION 

 PvEPOKT. 



The following is the sixth annual report of the Associ- 

 ation : — 



The committee of the Indian Tea Districts' Assoei- 

 alio I have the pleasilre to .submit to llie members tlir 

 following stat^Muent at tiu- conclusion of the sixth year 

 of its operation: — 



I'roposcd Increased JMi y. — In defereni* to the 

 tqnninn (X pressed at tlie last annual nie« ttng of the as- 

 sdctution with regard to the reported int( ntiun of 

 Government to increaso thu duty on tea, in order to 

 UJcet n dt&cit iu the Keveuu^ — a putitiou in oppu&itiou 



