What might be done in the New Hebrides. 185 
banana fibre, I am surprised that nothing has been done with 
it. The process is simple, and the result is valuable. 
The banana stems—or rather shoots, for they have no true 
zerial stems—are cutdown after the fruit has been gathered. They 
are split open, and the centre removed, when both centre and 
outside are passed between rollers, which express all the viscid 
matter. After being dried, the fibre is ready for exportation. 
From one kind of banana the well-known manilla hemp is 
made, and also a fine kind of muslin. There is no scarcity of 
bananas here ; they grow splendidly on all the islands, are 
very easily cultivated, und then their fruit is valuable, inde- 
pendently of the fibre. 
In addition to these plants already mentioned, I believe that 
tea, rice, pepper, cloves, and other spices might be grown here 
readily ; so that, almost in the words of Quiros, it might be 
said without exaggeration, that these islands will some day be- 
come so productive as not only td support themselves, but to 
enrich the Australian colonies which lie so close to them, 
and which will naturally become the chief consumers of their 
produce. 
In case any of you may feel interested in the account of the 
capabilities of the islands, and in my’ opinions as to their future 
prospects, and wish to launch out on the experiment of planting 
in the New Hebrides, I must give you some idea of the other 
side of the picture, 7.2, some of the disadvantages and discom- 
forts of residence here. 
If you are fond of ease and the comforts of a quiet home, . 
you had better stay at home. If you are delicate, or nervous, 
or unused to roughing it, you had better stay at home. If you 
have no capital, and no experience, or no partner who has 
either, you had better not come here. If you are fond of 
society, you had better not come here. For if you do come 
