251 
In the height of a good fruit season the supply is so PME that Wet 
quantities of fruit are sold for almost nothing, or even destroyed. 
months ago pine-apples were very plentiful: M. Bastiani, who doe 
large business in preserved fruits, offered to buy a large quantity este 
from neighbouring islands at $ cent each; they had never previously 
been sold for less than one cent apiece, and, sooner than go below this 
price, the Chinese importers threw them all into the sea. Durians, 
early or late in the season, are worth from 25 to 50 cents each ; when 
plentiful they sell for five or six. The following prices may be considered 
roughly to represent the price of fruit when plentiful :—Plantains, per 
bundle of 30 to 40, 7 to 10 cents; pine-apples, per hundred, $14 to $2; 
durians, each, 10 to 15 cents; mangosteens, per hundred, 10 to 15 
ceníts. 
Fruits exported in a fresh state :—(1) mangosteens, e pine-apples, 
@) durians, (4) rambutans, and perhaps some others in small quantities 
record is kept. ‘There is a large trade in fr mh fruit between 
pens Penang, Malacea, and the States of the Malay Peninsula. 
Considerable quantities also go to Sumatra, China, Ceylon, India. The 
value of fresh fruit exported, according to Government returns, is over 
$30,000 yearly, s this includes s» ee trade. 
Fruits export erved ETE and mangosteens, 
the former in serve counter to Europe, China, India, &c. e 
annual value of the preserved fruit ex ported arent a $1 
e 
: 
E 
®© 
ün 
ne-apples, 340,000 tins. About 200,000 to England; some to 
Siberia, North America, Australia; a few to South America and 
"Mangosteens, 20,000 tins. Chiefly to Europeans homeward-bound. 
Guava jelly, pine- apple jam, bread-fruit, 15,000 tins. Chiefly to 
kaai homeward-bound. 
The supply of fruit is now gehe for local wants. All the sipia 
roduced 
fruits would be produced in much larger quantities if there 
market for them. With a railway | = India or Chi pe or ships with ite- ice- 
houses, fruit-growing w would become an important industry. 
Fresh fruits imported :— 
l. Plantains in large quantities, brad from the islands of the Dutch 
rehipelago. The number of plantains grown in the Colony is 
probably not one-tenth part of the number consumed. The 
plantain, mangosteen, pumelo, Chinese date, &c. are picked before 
ripe, and ripen on their way from place of production to place of 
consumption. The quality, however, of fruit ripened this way is 
inferior 
2. Oranges in large quantities from China, from October to February. 
The local orange, obtainable all the year round, are very inferior 
to those imported from China. : 
3. Pumeloes and mangoes in considerable quantities from Siam, Java, 
ke e are among the best E obtainable in the Colony. 
hose grown locally are very inferi 
I Ukae date (Diospyros kaki) in wea quantities from 
China, from October to January. 
5. Apples, pears, grapes, peaches, in small quantities and of inferior 
quality from China. 
The total value "of fresh fruit hr gar 1886 was $183,000, of which 
$85,000 worth came from Chin 
eserved fruits impor 
1. Dried dates in large quiste. from the Persian Gulf. 
