182 COCONUTS AS AN INVESTMENT 



conservatism of the British investor will prove an 

 obstacle to prompt action, but one thing is certain : 

 those who from over-caution or misconception of 

 the facts hold back until there is a boom, will find 

 themselves excluded from the circle of far- seeing 

 investors who will deservedly reap the greatest 

 financial benefit from the expansion of the industry. 

 It must be remembered that, with the exception 

 of a very few companies recently organised, 

 coconut cultivation even to this day remains 

 almost wholly in the hands of native planters, who 

 are often financed by Chinese traders. The former, 

 as we have already explained, adopt the crudest, 

 most antiquated and wasteful methods of propa- 

 gation, yet even in these disadvantageous circum- 

 stances fortunes have been made by many who 

 have been shrewd enough to realise the value of 

 the coconut. What, then, must be the reward of 

 those who acquire a financial interest in the industry 

 at this juncture ? There is every opportunity at the 

 moment of dealing with the native planter on lines 

 similar to those adopted a few years ago by British 

 experts in dealing with native rubber planters. 

 Then, as everybody knows, small and scattered 

 ownership was replaced by the formation of vast 

 estates, antiquated plants and inefficient methods 

 were swept away and scientific methods of cultiva- 

 tion, the most up-to-date machinery and organisa- 

 tion substituted in their stead, with the result that 



