2o 4 ' THE CORAL LANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 



level land in the centre of the island, which was to be had to 

 any extent, as the area of Mango exceeds 8000 acres. 



Nothing has been more discouraging for Fiji planters than 

 the terrible fall in the price of Sea Island cotton. In 1869 it 

 fetched 4s. 4d. per Ib. in the English market; and in 1870, 

 owing to the closing of numerous French factories (where it was 

 largely used in the manufacture of certain classes of silk), in 

 consequence of the war with Prussia, it fell to Is. 4d. per Ib. 

 Its present price is about Is. 8d. The seed used by the 

 Messrs. Ryder came originally from the Southern States of 

 America, the cotton of which the Mango grain has beaten, both 

 in Philadelphia and Paris. The trees are planted in straight 

 rows about 7 feet by 7 feet apart, and viewed from a slight 

 elevation, have a very regular and highly cultivated appear- 

 ance. They are perennial. Picking begins about five months 

 after planting, generally in July, and lasts until September, 

 after which another crop forms, which is generally picked up 

 to the end of February. The month of March being regarded 

 as the middle of the 'hurricane' season, the system is adopted 

 of then pruning the cotton-trees, so as to prevent any serious 

 damage if ' a blow' were to occur. 



The company employ over three hundred labourers on the 

 plantation, hitherto introduced under the Government regu- 

 lations, in vessels belonging to the late firm, from the New 

 Hebrides Group, which lies 600 miles to the westward of Fiji. 

 Now, however, that the Government have taken the introduc- 

 tion of Polynesian labour almost entirely into their own hands, 

 my Mango friends rely on the Nasovan authorities paying 

 the rates of wage already described. The crop of the two 

 pickings referred to is on an average about 800 Ib. of 

 cotton in the seed to the acre. The Mango ginning establish- 

 ment is an extensive one. Six cotton-gins are driven by 



