188 TEE OBUISE OF THE ' CUBAQOA: 



the cotton-grower of Fiji to compete successfully with any- 

 other in the market of Europe, as the quality of fibre that 

 can be produced here is considered by competent judges to 

 be equal to any that can be supplied by the Southern States 

 of America. The high charges for freight to Sydney are 

 the most serious drawback that the island traffic suffers for 

 cotton. In the badly-pressed state in wliich it leaves Fiji, 

 the freight is 9/. per ton. Until the quantity of cotton ex- 

 ported shall be sufficiently great to allow of a direct trade with 

 Em'ope, there is no probability of any reduction in the charges. 

 The supply of cocoa-nut oil will continue to increase for 

 some years to come, if the demand is as brisk as heretofore. 

 A thousand tons could be ftu'nished by this group alone. 

 To the natives it can hardly prove a profitable article, as 

 their process of manufacture is tedious and laborious. 

 Machinery has been employed to extract the oil, but the 

 result was not so profitable as was generally expected by 

 the introducers, who frequently found their laboiu's brought 

 to a standstill by the refusal of the natives to supply them 

 with nuts in sufficient quantity, as they looked with jealousy 

 on an undertaking that threatened to deprive them of the 

 ■ means of purchasing cloth, knives. &c., from the traders, in- 

 asmuch as the oil that each could personally make was the 

 only article of barter he possessed. Whenever the cultiva- 

 tion of cotton shall give them a better return for then- 

 labour than oil-making, they will of course have no further 

 objection to supplying the oil -mills with any quantity of 

 nuts they may require. 



