490 Coco-nuts The Consols of the East 



" Early next morning the steamer arrived 

 at Ilu, a very large leasehold property. This 

 is what is known as grass country, and is fairly 

 expensive to cultivate. One grass plain is 

 1,700 acres in extent, covered with lalang 

 grass, which grows to the height of about 6 or 

 7 ft. It is only in its infancy, and a large sum 

 of money will have to be expended in order to 

 comply with lease terms, as along this coast the 

 firm of Messrs. Lever Brothers hold some 

 200,000 acres, on a nine hundred and ninety- 

 nine years' lease, An enormous kerosene 

 traction engine is used to draw the ploughs 

 in addition to horse traction, which latter, 

 however, is very expensive, as the animals are 

 unable to work for more than about four hours 

 a day, and operations have been at a standstill 

 for about six weeks, owing to the excessive 

 rains. The nature of the ground is, of course, 

 very moist and tough, and the more I saw 

 of the grass country the less I liked the 

 proposition of working it. The manager 

 drove us over a large block of this country, 

 and then through the adjoining property of 

 Tenaru, a large portion of which was grass 

 country. The general manager of the planta- 

 tion informed me that it was his intention to 

 try explosives about every 30 ft. between the 

 rows of coco- nuts, as he was in hopes that this 

 would loosen the soil considerably. This land, 

 as soon as planted, is sown with Mauritius bean, 

 sweet potatoes, or a convolvulus which very 



