io Coco-nuts The Consols of the East 



They started out from Samoa, where they 

 held interests first of all, and spread to part 

 of Eastern New Guinea, the Carolines, New 

 Hebrides, the Bismarck group, &c. They 

 devoted a good deal of time and money 

 to the raising and acclimatizing of coffee, tea, 

 cinchona, pepper, also rubber and cacao. All 

 these products are now neglected more or less 

 in favour of cacao and coco-nuts. The last 

 mentioned have prevailed (although under 

 English management there are some nice 

 cacao estates in Samoa), and given the best 

 results, probably because they were indigenous, 

 and were brought to greater perfection by 

 attention and scientific methods of modern 

 cultivation. 



For quite a number of years many small 

 men of slender means were attracted to this 

 field of enterprise, which promised rich rewards, 

 and the figures quoted on p. 9 probably led 

 to this development. The impetus thus given 

 served well enough in a few fortunate cases 

 where the planters did not experience any 

 set-back and where all went smoothly from 

 the start, but such were, however, by no means 

 the general rule rather the exception and 

 most of the small holders have disappeared by 

 now, or have been absorbed by the big com- 

 panies as managers, overseers, &c. The big 

 company is now the order of the day, not 

 only in the German Colonies, but all round, 

 and some of these own areas carefully 



