North Borneo and the New Hebrides 433 



section on planting Manila fibre with coco-nuts. 

 At present the price of fibre is not very en- 

 couraging, but if the cost of production and 

 extraction can be reduced they should still pay, 

 at any rate, Manila hemp (M. textilis) should, 

 and on a mixed coco-nut and fibre estate the 

 minimum cost of production should be reached, 

 through the utilization of the, at present, waste 

 products of these various crops. 



If, with larger estates, it may pay to establish 

 a paper-making factory to treat coco-nut husks 

 only, it certainly ought to pay to introduce 

 machinery to treat the waste, if not the whole 

 of the fibre, off sisal and Manila lands, in con- 

 junction with any bamboos, sugar-cane megasse, 

 and other waste raw material, always to be 

 found on large estates, and produce paper, or 

 paper pulp, from such raw material. If it is 

 found profitable to erect a distillery to utilize 

 the coco-nut milk, now entirely wasted, and 

 make alcohol from it, so also could the same 

 be done with manila waste, since, on p. 328, 

 we show it can be done from sisal refuse. 



The results published of the exhaustive 

 investigations and experiments carried out in 

 the Philippines in connection with the utiliza- 

 tion of all these and of other waste products, 

 should equally hold good with North Borneo, 

 since the circumstances seem similar in both 

 centres. Many of these particulars are re- 

 ferred to in the adjoining pages, so our readers 

 can form their own opinions on the subject ; 



28 



