Samoa and New Guinea 137 



sary, as all the nuts are brought to the central 

 kilns. Against this there is the advantage 

 of bringing the fuel (i.e., the husks, which are 

 excellent for this purpose, as they give off a 

 very intense heat) right up to the furnace 

 doors. As the husks of the nuts are not 

 utilized to any appreciable extent for fibre or 

 rope-making either in Samoa or New Guinea, 

 nothing has been lost so far by burning them. 

 The absence of any coir industry in these islands 

 as compared with Ceylon is probably due 

 to the production of coir not having so far 

 proved profitable, although we all know what 

 a profitable domestic native industry this 

 has proved in Ceylon and Netherlands India, 

 where merchants freely buy up the yarn, &c., 

 made by the women and children, principally 

 in their spare time. 



The kilns used in Samoa for copra-making 

 are constructed as follows : A lower masonry 

 structure (18 ft. long by 7 ft. high) contains heat- 

 ing pipes made of sheet-iron (2 ft. diam.) laid 

 lengthways. These pipes have a furnace at one 

 end and a tall smoke stack (25-30 ft.) at the 

 other. The masonry walls carry a broad 

 spreading floor with a roof over the whole, 

 whilst over the pipes is a system of hurdles 

 of a handy size (4 ft. by 2 ft.), numbering as 

 many as 200, on which the coco-nut meat is laid. 

 Fresh air and the necessary draught is admitted 

 by means of small holes through the lower part 

 of the masonry. 



