888 



TJie Supplement to the Tropical Agriculturist 



Islanders and one Indian. Of these, 34 are 

 coloured teachers attached to the missions ; the 

 remaining 40 represent the alien labour of the 

 division. 



I landed and found the tropics truly, and their 

 flowers and scents, and the smell of Colombo 

 minus the important constituent of dirt. This 

 insistent cleanliness is not present elsewhere in 

 the tropics that I know of ; here was a prison 

 gang of broad-arrow clouted Papuans polishing 

 the street with small brooms, and carefully 

 placing finger pinches of dust in baskets One 

 weary prisoner captured a piece of wind-blown 

 paper, and was too tired to stoop for it. At las'; 

 he picked it up with his toes and so carried it to 

 the dust basket. 



We are told the papaw grows like a weed, the 

 breadfruit, the great lily, 1 ' the hibiscus, and 

 wherever it gets root, the coconut grows. Here 

 is our next extract : — 



Mr. Staniforth Smith, as Commissioner for 

 Lands and Surveys (with control of live stock 

 and timber), Director of Mines, Director of 

 Agriculture, Director of Public Works (includ- 

 ing marine beacons, buoys, lights and shipping), 

 and Chairman of the Land Board, has welt begun 

 to justify the hopes Australians have of the 

 PapuanConstitution. Hehas established a coastal 

 service at the Kemp Welsh River and at Rigo, 

 and about to establish an experimental cocoa 

 and coffee plantation in the hills. Tobacco, cot.- 

 ton, vanilla, and fibres require dry months, and 

 Rigois in the dry belt, as the Kemp Welsh is in 

 the rainy belt. These three gardens will grow 

 all the economic plants of the tropics except cin- 

 chona, which requires an elevation of 4,000 feet. 

 The Government plantations will be both for de- 

 monstration and as supply grounds of plants and 

 seeds to settlers, to be sold at actual cost, with 

 freight added. Application for 126,000 acres for 

 planting have been received, and of these about 

 yo, 000 acres ha vq beengranted. One million Para 

 rubber seeds have been ordered from tht Govern- 

 ment of the Malay States at a prime cost of £400. 

 These seeds will plant only 10,000 acres, and 

 therefore much larger orders will be necessary, 

 as of the million seeds not more than 6UO,000 are 

 likely to prove fertile. The Para (or Hevea Bra- 

 Kiliensis) is deciduous and on private plantations 

 the seeds are mostly picked up with the leaves 

 once a month ; on the Malay States Government 

 plantations the seeds are collected daily, and 

 are therefoie more fertile. The Australian ideas 

 of progress recently imported into the adminis- 

 tration of Papua are being the more energetically 

 developed because the tingalee and Malayan 

 and Anglo-Indian prophecies of the White Aus- 

 tralia spirit spelling ruin in the tropics have put 

 the new Administration on its mettle. A move 

 has been made to the making known of the 

 virtues of many New Guinea woods— the Ilimo, 

 a wonderfully light and very durable tree used 

 by the natives for dugout canoes; the garo garo 

 K-a timber like boxwood j teak and ebony ; 

 several kinds of cedars J and the ulabo or cassi 

 cassi, a hardwood approximating to the jarrah of 

 Westralia. Also two Government plantations are 

 to be founded for Government profit. 



And then we have fuller particulars of planting 



— especially Rubber : — 



AT SOGERI. 



The time was 4 o'clock in the afternoon, and 

 as usual — in this very wet season anyhow — 

 the hot sun became ( vercast, the steam was 

 beaten down by torrential rain. The jungle 

 broke into a grass patch, closed again, opened 

 to bamboo clumps, belts of cabbage palms, 

 and at last led us into the plantation of Soge 

 — the coffee shrubs white with blossom, the 

 Para rubber trees raising their graceful foli- 

 age to the cloudy sky, the mountains so misty 

 as to bo but suggestions of height. We slip- 

 ped on the last slide of the wet, red earth, 

 and the compound of Sogeri was reached. 

 The rain drummed on the palm-thatched roof 

 of the home-stead, but ceased at dusk, and 

 loft us to a clear moonlit night— not cold, 

 but cool enough to call for blankets. And this 

 is not only to say that this soil, rainfall, 

 temperature and altitude make ideal condi- 

 tions for rubber-growing, but that the cool- 

 ness of the nights makes certain the successful 

 and healthful establishment of settlement by 

 the white man. 



After the night of coolness tho wet slopes 

 and valleys of the Astrolabe steamed under the 

 morning sun, but by 9 o'clock the mists had 

 risen and left clear day and clean heat. Im- 

 mediately outside the compound was a living 

 hedge of lime trees (called by the Papuan 

 " Sipora ") and a belt of Koru palm ; and 

 beyond, the green and white which were coffee 

 shrubs, and the patches of red which are the 

 chocolate soil of the Sogeri foothills. East- 

 ward the Eworogo Valley goes to the main 

 range with only a cloud or two lying lightly 

 on it, appearing not distant in the clear air, 

 although the peaks are 7,000 feet high, and 

 the range is a week away. 



Around us are the slopes of the coffee plan- 

 tation, backed by the untouched bush. Coffee 

 shrub and Para rubber and banana grove and 

 belt of areca palm held in the lingers of the 

 jungle's outstretched hand. Browns and greens 

 of rubber trees and palm, and a few flat top- 

 ped placid cedars,, as at Garrick's Villa of 

 Hampton, on the Thames. The coffee blooms 

 three times a year, and is flowering now in 

 dots of white ; and then come the red berries 

 among dark green leaves— a sight of beauty. 

 Three kinds of rubber are here planted— the 

 Ficus elastica, the indigenous Ficus rigo, and 

 the best of all cultivated Para. Coffee will 

 always be a good catch crop on the Astrolabe. 

 The. mild coffee of Sogeri must always be in 

 good demand, as Brazilian coffees, which re- 

 present most of the world ; s supply today, 

 are stronger and more bitter. The Sogeri idea 

 is to plant Para rubber 10 feet or 12 feet 

 apart, giving the trees sufficient growing room, 

 for the first six years, keeping down weeds ana 

 so lessening the maintenance cost, and bleed- 

 ing alternate trees to death at a profit as they 

 come to productiveness, Coffee plants like 

 shade; and so could be grown between the rubber 

 trees, further obstructing the growth of weeds, 

 and maturing in three years. The condition 

 precedent to the making of a plantation is the es- 

 tablishment of native gardens of maize, sweet 

 potatoes, bananas, and taro, to feed native 



