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cultivation of cane to keep the mills in profitable 

 work. 



All land titles are given by the Crown, i.e., the 

 Government of the colony. After careful inquiry 

 Crown grants are issued as fast as circumstances 

 permit, to the old settlers, who purchased their land 

 from the natives before the sovereignty of Fiji was 

 ceded to Great Britain. Many of these settlers own 

 large tracts of good cane and coffee land, which, from 

 want of funds to cultivate, many of them would 

 gladly sell, at prices from 10s. the acre and upwards 

 according to circumstances of site, — cleared or un- 

 cleared land, stocked with cocoa-nut trees or not. 



As reference has, in previous paragraphs been made 

 to various kinds of agricultural produce, cultivated 

 by the natives to pay their taxes in kind, it may be 

 of interest to allude briefly to some of them. The 

 principal are copra, cotton, maize, tobacco, and candle- 

 nuts. In respect to copra, the plantations or number 

 of cocoa-nut trees owned by the natives is very large. 

 New ones are also being made by them in every part 

 of the colony. The care bestowed on many of these 

 plantations in weeding and general attention leaves 

 much to be desired. Nevertheless the culture of the 

 lives fully equals that of the poorer settlers. 



Some of the cotton plantations owned by the natives 

 are well laid down and admirably conducted. The 

 culture of the plants and the cleanness of the ground 

 from weeds are most recommendable. Others, again, 

 are in a semi-neglected state, the ground allowed to 

 be overgrown with weeds, plants growing too thickly 

 quently three or more) together, and the knife to 

 reduce the plant to a convenient size for picking the 

 crop, too sparingly employed. The natives sometimes 



