418 
hollow core preach the middle, and their reluctance to take a 
black dye. ore went to Germany and Vienna than to London. 
About three years ago the price of these nuts suddenly jumped 
3 
e side 
able quantity were sold, and the market probably Mesa 
Their value has now sel ass to Tus M. per ton in Sydney, a 
which figure there seems to be a good demand. The ne hos 
inflation in value was due, so I was i orma: to the Somani of a 
ienna firm, who used a considerable quantity for making the 
wheels of roller skates. 
“I consider that there will continue to be a demand for a fair 
quantity at about present prices, with perhaps occasional rises. 
Should the demand for these nuts increase, the quantity shipped 
could be very largely augmented. 
AGRICULTURE. 
“Under this head, I shall refer only to such enterprises as have 
been undertaken by white residents, native planting operations 
British Protectorate of the Solomons presents advantages un- 
equalled by ud place that I have hitherto visited js the Western 
Pacific. Situated as it is within the parallels of 7? to 11? of south 
latitude, it is tds the region of the devastating dn icanes that 
occasionally visit the New Hebrides, Fiji, Samoa, and Tonga, 
whilst it is also exempt from those long periods of drought that 
of the Rubiana Lagoon and elsewhere in New Georgia prove that 
the climate and soil of the Protectorate are eminently suited to 
the production of cocoanuts. So far the only attempts by white 
men at cocoanut planting have been by the owner of Gera Island, 
off the coast of Guadalcanar, by the Marau Company = Crawford 
Island in Marau Sound, by the same company upon a piece 0 
land of about 30 acres on pA mainland at Aola on Guadalcanar, 
and by Mr. Neilson, the trader, at Gavutu, upon his island of that 
name. The plantations of the Marau Company are at present too 
recent to have yet come into Posting) but at Gavutu, whe ere, W whe 
I left in November, 1888, no palms had been planted, there is now a 
plantation of about 15 acres in full bearing. lcan safely say that, in 
spite of the fact that the trees cannot be more than seven years 
old, I never saw cocoanut palms bearing more heavily, and this is 
the case not with selected trees but with the whole plantation. 
They are planted i in lines at a distance of 30 feet by 30 feet, a 
system which gives nearly 50 trees to the acre. The Marau Com- 
pany have lately acquired the two uninhabited islands known as 
North Island and Symonds Island, near Mara iaer d, and are at 
present clearing thet- with a view to mene plan 
“There are hundreds - small low flat islands agho the 
Protectorate composed sand and decomposed coral with a 
covering of vegetable aie most eminently suited for cocoanut 
planting, among which I may mention the long reef islands 
extending along the south coast of Malaita and several islands 
along the northern coast, especially the large island of Leile, 
