127 



CHAPTER VII. 



Conservancy of Forests. — Destruction by Fires. 

 — Re-foresting and Preservation of Water. 



In addition to its own indigenous forest products, 

 there cannot he a doubt that the soil rfnd climate 

 of Fiji will greatly favour the growth and bring to 

 perfection the salvlan products of other tropical 

 countries; such as teak, ebony, sal, satinwood, log- 

 wood, mahogany, sissoo, rosewood camphor, the South 

 American caoutchouc trees, the gutta-percha trees, &c. 

 Nutmegs, cloves, cinnamon, camphor, candle-nuts, 

 allspice, &c, might be grown in the forests, as forest 

 produce, as a means of making them remunerative. 

 These articles would scarcely pay the expense of culti- 

 vation in regular plantations ; but when they can 

 be grown in a semi-wild state they are highly re- 

 munerative. In this case the only expenses would be 

 planting and protecting the trees, and gathering the 

 produce, — ordinary forest expenses. 



It will be incumbent on the government of Fiji to 

 keep a considerable area of land under timber, and to 

 plant extensively on land at present umvooded. In 

 Viti Levu the unwooded land may be roughly stated 

 to lie on the north-west side of a line drawn from 

 between Serua and the mouth of Siga Toka river in the 

 south-east, to Viti Levu bay in the north-east of the 

 island. In Vanua Levu it lies on the north-western 

 side of a line drawn from Udu Point in the north-east 

 to the south-west side of Sandalwood bay, at the south- 

 eastern extremity of the island. 



