THE COCONUT BELT 45 



Each coconut tree, when mature, gives an income 

 of from 2s. to 3s. 6d. annually. The planter with 

 25,000 coconut palms may be certain of a hand- 

 some income for one hundred years or longer. 

 There is another source of revenue open for the 

 planter which is remunerative beyond belief to the 

 man of small capital. While waiting for the 

 returns from his plantation he may trade with 

 the natives by barter of calicoes, beads, ornaments, 

 axes, knives, wire, fishing hooks, scrap iron 

 and mirrors in exchange for copra and other 

 valuable products which all find a ready market 

 in Sydney. The profits of one trader amounted 

 to 400 per cent, in fifteen months in direct trade 

 with the natives." 



The present position in Papua has been thus 

 summarised by the manager of one of the largest 

 coconut plantations in the island : " The territory 

 is situated outside the hurricane zone, has an 

 agreeable climate and a plentiful rainfall, except 

 in the dry belt of the Central Division. Thus the 

 planter has every advantage which Nature can 

 bestow to render his enterprise successful. The 

 soil is considered equal in richness to anything in 

 the world ; and in the course of a few years, when 

 Australia has realised what a valuable asset she 

 possesses right at her very doors, Papua will 

 have become the most prolific and richest exporter 

 of tropical products outside of Ceylon. Land is 



