A VERY SUGGESTIVE CHAPTER. 159 



trunk of the plant. The fibre, obtained from the petioles of 

 the leaves, is so fine that it is said the finest muslins may be 

 made from it. The preparation of these fibres by hand is 

 both a long and difficult process ; and, in order to export them 

 in any quantities, machinery must be imported. It is very 

 probable that, with a little alteration, the machinery used in 

 New Zealand for cleaning Phormium tenax might be adopted 

 here for Manilla hemp. If the thick laminae, of which the 

 plantain stem is composed, were crushed between smooth or 

 fluted rollers, the hard outer epidermis would be broken up, 

 and the cellulose of which there is a large quantity might 

 be got rid of by washing and beating. In the preparation of 

 an article like this the services of women and children might 

 be very largely engaged. 



The fibre also of the yaJca, the pine-apple, and the aloe 

 might be treated very much in the same way as New Zealand 

 hemp. One variety of the arum is said to yield a very valu- 

 able fibre, and I am inclined to think there are many plants of 

 a similar character not as yet generally known to settlers. 

 Water privileges, to use an American term, are numerous in 

 every district. An overshot water-wheel, made of durable 

 hard wood, fitted with ironwork ready for erection, can be 

 laid down in Levuka at a cost of from 70 to 100, according 

 to size. ' Devils ' for preparing cocoa-nut fibre can be procured 

 at about 50 each, or if contracted for in any number, perhaps 

 for less. Machines for preparing Manilla fibre would cost 

 about 25 each in Auckland. If erected in suitable places, I 

 believe these machines would rapidly repay the expenditure 

 incurred for their purchase, as the coir or cocoa-nut fibre now 

 thrown away would then be all saved. Natives could soon 

 learn to work the machinery when driven by a water-wheel, 

 which is a simple and steady power. At Rambi, Lauthala, and 



