Nov, I, 1893.] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
quick-growing timber, does not need more than a 
strong br* eze to break it down. 
As the French were looking forward to the crop 
this year to help them financially they will feel 
the loss, and the promoters of French settlements 
will be less likely than ever to interest their country- 
men in the prospects here. But a planter who has 
had ever so smuU an insight into the work- 
ing of similar affairs iu Ce3'lon or elsewhere would 
only need to walk through the French properties 
in these Islands to see that hurricanes on the low 
elevations here are not to be placed in the same 
category with the monsoon winds in Ceylon. 
Labour with the French here is plentiful at £8 
per head recruiting money and £d to £4 per 
annum; but it is reported that the labourers on 
their Santo plantation, who number about ninety, 
(90), have long ago worked their time out, and 
are dissatisfied, together with the management, 
which complains loudly of the neglect of the 
Directors and the want of money. 
The superintendence has been changed several 
times in four years, each one adopting quite a 
different system from his predecessor, which alone 
would eventually end in financial ruin, to say no- 
thing of the state of morality and conduct of the 
estate generally. But, of course, iu the event of 
the French being forced to discontinue business in 
the Islands as a Coffee Planting Company, it would 
do harm t > the f u' ure prospects of ever inducing 
the rigl't sort of men to come out, as they would 
not know the reason of non-success by the French. 
The history of the French in Tonquin is being re- 
peat ed here in a small way. There is no doubt 
about the rich mineral wealth of that country, which 
would have been developed by Englishmen whilst 
their army was fighting; but enthusiastic French- 
men in Paris could not get tbeir countrymen to 
leave the Cafes to prospect the hills at Tonquin, 
and the whole business is now merely a matter of 
history ; but they have effectually prevented better 
men from opening the country. 
There is a ctory told here of the French Ad- 
ministrator at Noumea having offered a high English 
authority every consideration short of bribery if he 
would "disclose" to him the "secret" of England's 
success in colonizing. If there is any ground f r the 
truth of the etoiy, it is irobable it occurred about 
five jears ago, at the tin:e when three bundred 
women were abent to bo trmsported from France 
to popula'e the New Hebrides tcgether with the 
Communists, who were to be freed from Noumea. 
The idea, of course, is that it was in this manner 
we secured our Australian colonies. 
Japanese labourers can be had in any number at 
lOd. and one shilling per diem, their passage money 
being the principal expense ; but, a'i their steamers 
are subsidised, uo doubt an arrat gement for a num- 
ber could be made et an average price per head 
at a lower rate tVan tie usual passage money. 
In Fiji the p'anters complain of tbe objectional 
ways of the Indian coolies there, which is low 
the main topic of conversation. Nothing of this 
kind need be feared with Japanese, who have the 
reputation of being hardworking and peacealls ; and 
there is litt'e doubt but that these little people 
would make a paradise of the New Hebrides at once 
by annexing them if not checked by some "dog in 
the manger" policy of other nations; but French 
and English might take the map and see the benefit 
that must arise with a few million enlightened 
hardworkii g people placed here, with various lines 
of steamship communication and many Government 
works, banto alone would take some ^00,000 in- 
habitants, and the shipping, freights, and outlet for 
merchandize must benefit the Australian Colonies, 
Fiji, and even bring the whole chain of Islands to- 
gether to New Guinea. But in these enlightened 
times we are nil doomed to suffer, not so much frcm 
the microbes and influenza as from the working 
man and foreign alien farce "liberty and ecjuality, ' 
and " the land for the people," etc. 
No better place could be found than this group 
^ 9i leBideuce Iqx th« believei's iu Mr. Utiurv 
George. Here is the land for the people, and every 
labourer who leaves for the Queenslai d iDlantations 
is the owner of one or more hundred acres of the 
finest soil in (he world. Everything is equal with 
them, and a returning recruit divides all his wealth 
of money and goods immediately on landing. Na- 
tux'e provides all necessary food, and there is no 
inducement for men to work herp. The Mission 
Societies declare that, unless the natives are obliged 
to work they must die out, and all the murders 
amongst them are family affairs summed up in the 
lines of Dr. Watts — " Satan finds ; some mischief 
s'ill for idle hands to do." All tl:at is wanted in 
this part of the globe to make nature smile and to 
bring ijeace and prosperity is the importation of 
those down-trodden and abused men who are not 
rrquiird elsewhere, either in Ireland or Australia, 
namely, the bloated capitalist, who can invest bis 
capital with greater safety amongst the 43,000,000 
of the Japanese empire than in the bricks and 
mortar of a country ruled by working men candi- 
dates. — Yours, etc , 
A. KUFUS POWELL. 
Santo, New Hebrides {via Sydne^, N. S. Wales). 
May 30th, 1893. 
1\8. — Coffee is now double the price given to 
the estimate by the late Alex. Brown of Kandy 
in the "Planters' Manual," and could be brought 
into bearing in the New Hebrides at little over 
than half the cost in Ceylon provided qualify is 
more a consideration than aroma from the elevations. 
^ 
X0TE8 ON ECONOMIC PLANTS IN TAHITI. 
We gather from a recent report to the Foreign 
Office that some progress is being made in the 
cultivation of useful plants in the island cf Tahiti. 
Amongst the most important of these plants C'ofiea 
appears to have attracted much attention, and it is 
considered likely that the natives may take up its 
cultivation. A beginning on a small scale has been 
made in the islands of Rurutu and Eimatara, and 
foreign enterprise also is at work in the island of 
Tahiti ; it will be an important step if the people 
follow it up. This question has been agitated ih 
Tahiti for the past three years, but with only one 
exception has anything beyond futile attempts been 
made to establish plantations. In these latter at- 
tempts the old Tahiti system was adopted, which 
consists of merely clearing away the undergi-owth 
in the bush or forest and putting plants in the 
unfilled soil without trimming, due selection or care. 
Coffee-culture on recognised principles has been 
adopted by an Englishman with promising success. 
The variety of Coffee known as Tahiti Coffee is a 
very luxuriant grower, becoming in its natural state 
a tree often upwards of 20 inches in circumference 
and fully 20 feet in height, but it is scraggy and 
overgrown, and on this account usually a poor 
produce. The plant was first introduced to the 
Society Islands as early, it is said, as 1823. Sub- 
sequent'y in 1860 the Mocha variety was brought to 
Tahiti by a Frenchman named Bonnefin, who es- 
tablished a p'antation in the district of Faa, which 
proved a profitable business. For some unkno\\n 
reason this plantation was afterwards abandoned and 
has now completely disappeared. The variety is still 
found, however, growing wild in the islands of Tahiti 
and Moorea. 
Recognising that the uncared-for, uncultivated 
Coffee tree in Tahiti was capable of producing an 
excellent berry, though the crops obtained did not 
in quantity compare at all favourably with results 
in other countries, where modern methods for grow- 
ing were adopted, it was decided by the gentleman 
above referred to, to attempt the culture of Oo£fee 
upon recognised principles. 
Seven acres of level \ alley land were carefully 
c'eancd of bush, weeds, roots, and stumps of trees, 
the soil was well prepared by means of the plough 
and horse- Young Cotfte plants were then selected 
from those growing wild in the bush, and the roots 
and bi'ftnchca hivviug been properly ijimmcd, thcjj 
