FIJI BUSINESS

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 118, 15 November 1939, Page 11

FIJI BUSINESS

NOTONLY FRUIT

Many visitors are taking a lively interest in the small stall furnished witty samples of. industries in Fiji. The stall indicates that the Fijians are principally concerned with the direct products of the soil, but there are also exhibits of secondary industries, '-sis well as models of canoes.

Apart from products natural to the Fijian. Islands, such as copra and tropical fruits, the stall contains many; examples of imported crops. Sugar cane and cotton play an important part in the Fijian agricultural scheme* and other crops include kapok, pineapples, cocoa, tapioca, which is. largely grown in private gardens, arrowroot, annatto. frorri which Cheese colouring is obtained, derris root, which is ground to make an insecticide, and chaulmoogra and dilo nuts, from which oil for the treatment ot leprosy is obtained, y a Fijian secondary industries include the making of rope from coconut fibre, the manufacture of articles from tortoiseshell, and the canning of fruits. A secondary industry that has been practised by the Fijians for hundreds of years is the making of tapa, a bark cloth, and this material has been used for covering benches and also as 7a ceiling for the native hut roof that covers the stall.

As the of dried coconut or copra plays an important part in Fijian life a fair amount of attention has been given to this product in stall. Copra was originally made by drying the coconut, kernel in the sun, but the modern .method of kiln drying is being introduced, and a model kiln is included in the-stall. The firing used in these kilns is the shells of the doconuts and these, are arranged so that they burn one by one and give a slow heat.

Copra represents the end of the coconut; but its origin is. also ■ illustrated. There are several seedlingsvery sturdy, infants. Coconuts make impressive "seeds,"' lying "half-buried in tubs;, and the vigorous seedlings that sprout from them are even more impressive. The stall is under the control of one European and one Fijian, the. latter being on,his first visit to New; Zealand. When the weather is fine enough he wears native costume.but in general he finds,, that European clothing is required to "compensate for the colder climate • here.