and Magazine of the Ceylon Agricultural Society. 



187 



COPRA INSPECTION IN FIJI. 



The following is a draft of a letter forwarded 

 by the Levuka Chamber of Commerce to the 

 Honorable the Colonial Secretary, Suva, re the 

 suggested appointment of Copra Inspector : — 

 "Sir, — I have the honour- under instructions 

 from my Chamber to reply as follows to your 

 letter on the above subject. Your letter 

 was carefully considered and discussed at a 

 special meeting of this Chamber. The subject 

 is a difficult one and the questions you ask 

 cannot be answered off-hand. In the first place 

 we must make the following admissions : — 



(a) The copra exported from this colony is not, on an 

 average, of the best quality and does not command the 

 best price in the world's markets. 



(6) Under present conditions there is no inducement for 

 producers to improve the quality of their output, because 

 copra is not graded in the local market and first class 

 realises no higher than poor quality. 



(3) Some system of inspection and grading would pro- 

 bably bring about an improvement in the average quality 

 of the copra produced in the colony and thereby lead to 

 the realisation of higher prices for this commodity. 



[ may say, therefore, that in theory this 

 Chamber would favour the appointment of a 

 Copra Inspector ; but we recognise the many 

 practical difficulties which must be faced. This 

 Chamber contains several members who have 

 for many years been deeply interested in the 

 copra trade as traders, buyers and exporters, and 

 yet we find it very difficult to work out the 

 details of a scheme by which effective inspiection 

 and grading of copra would be secured without 

 greatly hampering and harassing the exporter. 

 To secure effective grading, every sack of copra 

 must be marked — and that means a large amount 

 of work for an Inspector at each shipping port. 

 Copra exporters would have to be licensed in 

 each port. We think the best way to recover the 

 cost of inspection and grading would be to treat 

 each port separately and divide the salary and 

 expenses of the Inspector pro rata amongst ex- 

 porters in proportion to quantity of copra ship- 

 ted by each. Before expressing a more definite 

 opinion than that contained herein, the mem- 

 bers of my Chamber would like to have an op- 

 portunity to consider carefully the details of any 

 suggested scheme. Meanwhile we wish to take 

 this opportunity of impressing upon your Gov- 

 ernment the fact that a very large proportion, of 

 low grade copra exported from Fiji, is made by 

 natives and that a substantial improvement in 

 this direction could be effected if the Native 

 Office would take the matter up and urge upon 

 Rokos, Bulis, and other native officials the 

 necessity for more care in the making of copra. 

 We suggest that in many towns it would be 

 advisable to erect drying sheds with proper 

 vatas, so as to replace by a more up-to-date 

 system the present crude and wasteful methods.' 

 — Fiji Times, June 30, 



FARMING OUT RUBBER TREES. 



At Three Dollars a Month. 



According to a native report, certain owners 

 of rubber trees in and about the town are far- 

 ming them out at $3 per tree per month. Even 

 at this price, there should be a good profit with 

 rubbor where it is.-— Malay Mail, July 22. 



TEA AND RUBBER IN TRAVANCORE- 



Mr. H. M. Knight's Opinions. 

 Yields of 51b. rubber pertree. 



In a conversation one of our representatives 

 with Mr H M Knight, the veteran Travancore 

 planter, who was going home after having sold 

 all his estates to Mr A Lampard, of Messrs. 

 Harrisons and Crosfield, he learnt that practi- 

 cally all the land which was suitable for rubber 

 growing in Travancore had been taken up. 



"There- have been very great difficulties in 

 getting the land," said Mr Knight, "and now 

 there is practically none available under the 

 present conditions. Rubber is doing exceedingly 

 well and extraordinary yields are being given. 

 I am told that some trees, only about 10 years 

 old, have given up to five pounds a tree. From 

 my own experience I can say we are getting 

 most extraordinary tea yields. On Surianalle I 

 have been getting 900 pounds an acre at 5,000 

 feet elevation." 



The Estates Sold. 



Four estates were sold by Mr Knight, most 

 important being Surianalle in the higher ranges. 

 538 acres of this are under tea and there is a 

 balance of 793 acres, making 1,331 altogether. 



Lockhart, which is nine miles west of Suria- 

 nalle, on the same range of hills, but a little 

 lower down, contains 279 acres under tea, and 

 120 under coffee, the balance being 321 acres, 

 making 720 altogether. 



Manale, which is in the same valley, on the 

 opposite side, has 218 acres under tea, and 20 

 under cinchona, the balance of 175 acres, making 

 413 altogether. 



Oudampara, a cardamom garden, situated in 

 the Cardamom Hill?, ten miles south of Suria- 

 nalle, has 627 acres under cardamoms, and 19 

 acres grass land, 646 in all. 



TEA TRADE IN BATOUM. 



Tea planting in the neighbourhood of Batoum 

 continues to progress slowly. Land under tea 

 cultivation is annually increasing, and, although 

 private tea growers have, for the most part, 

 abandoned their enterprises, yet the Imperial 

 Do mains authorities continue to augment the 

 area of their plantations. The quantity of tea 

 collected during the year 1908 and three differ- 

 ent periods was as near as possible 203,000 Rus- 

 sian lb., or 200,700 English lb., all of which 

 was bought up for the midland markets of 

 Russia and none was exported. The tea is of 

 fairly good quality, but lacks the aroma which is 

 so prevalent in Chinese teas, still it makes agood 

 beverage, and a number of persons inspired with 

 patriotic feelings appear to prefer the taste of 

 it to China, India or Ceylon teas. Pioneer tea 

 growers along the coast here are now making 

 an attempt to prevail upon small farmers and 

 the natives to include small tea plantations in 

 their agricultural pursuits, but it is difficult to 

 forecast success in a scheme of this kind. At 

 any rate, it will take considerable time to per- 

 suade the native into growing anything but 

 maize within the limits of his allotment. 



