238 



COFFEE I ITS CULTIVATION AND PROFIT. 



months. Improvements to be effected to twice the amount of 

 the price within two years if less than upset price ; if more, 

 within five years. On default, the Government resume posses- 

 sion and return two-thirds of the purchase-money. Crown 

 surveyor values and disputes are settled by arbitration. 



COFFEE was first exported from Fiji in 1877, and although 

 the amount was under 200, yet, as several of the most 

 wealthy and enterprising planters are now engaged in its 

 cultivation, Coffee is rapidly becoming one of the chief exports 

 of the island. Average yield 4 to 5 cwt. per acre. The leaf 

 disease which threatened the Coffee in 1880 and 1881 is said to 

 have decreased, at least for the time. 



The quantity of Coffee exported will no doubt increase 

 in future years. 



A good overseer or sub-manager gets from 

 to ^250 now, managers from ^300 to ^400, or 

 perhaps more ; but billets like these are very 

 scarce. 



BORNEO. 



This island can grow good Coffee. A corres- 

 pondent writes : 



" Sandakan, itfh Feb., 1884. 



" Since the country was first started, some 200,000 acres of 

 forest lands have been selected by Cantonese, European and 

 Australian planters. Of this land, some 40,000 acres have 



