A FIRST-KATE COTTON-GROWING COUNTRY. 49 



Cotton wants sea-air. What country would answer this 

 requirement better than a group of more than two hun- 

 dred islands surrounded by the ocean as a convenient 

 highway to even small boats and canoes, since the un- 

 checked force of the winds and waves is broken by 

 the natural breakwater presented by the reefs which 

 nearly encircle the whole? Cotton requires, further, 

 to be fanned by gentle breezes when growing, and a 

 comparatively low temperature ; there is scarcely ever a 

 calm, either the north-east or the south-east trade- wind 

 blowing over the islands keeps up a constant current, 

 and the thermometer for months vacillates between 62 

 and 80 JFahrenheit, and never rises to the height at- 

 tained in some parts of tropical Asia, Africa, or Ame- 

 rica. In fine, every condition required to favour the 

 growth of this important production seems to be pro- 

 vided, and it is hardly possible to add anything more in 

 order to impress those best qualified to judge with a bet- 

 ter idea of Fiji as a first-rate cotton-growing country. 



Cotton is not indigenous in any part of the group. 

 Independent of its introduction being alluded to in va- 

 rious works as having taken place in the early part of 

 this century, there is no proper vernacular name for it. 

 In all such cases, the Fijian language borrows that of 

 an indigenous plant resembling the introduced one as 

 closely as possible ; thus the Cassava root received the 

 name of " Yabia ni papalagi " (i. e. foreign arrowroot), 

 the bird's-eye pepper that of "Boro ni papalagi" (i.e. 

 foreign nightshade), and the pine-apple that of " Ba- 

 lawa ni papalagi" (i.e. foreign screw-pine). By the 

 same rule, cotton became known as "Vauvau ni papalagi" 



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