A NOTE ON RAROTONGA.

Shannon News, 14 September 1923, Page 4

A NOTE ON RAROTONGA.

, AN ISLAND OF GREAT POSSIBILj ITIES. ( Mr. Byron Brown, writing from Rarotonga, says:— “This island is beautiful as a poet’s dream and much more utilitarian. Tis a land of plenty, supineness, and rest, | where every man lives under the shade of his own fig-tree, and the earth yields !of its abundance spontaneously. All this without effort, from trees that God alone planted, and no man. tends. Production could easily be. doubled by scientific cultivation. They have started to do a little in this way ,witk tomatoes, and the possibilities are tremendous. The island exports to- New Zealand about twenty thousand cases of oranges and bananas per month, and from now on will add about, five thousand cases of tomatoes. These are cultivated in small patches among the oranges and bananas, and it is wonderful how such a quantity can be grown in such small spaces. The whole trade of tkc island wants .reorganising on economic lines, and I believe under good management, the growers could get more for their fruit and the consumers in New Zealand pay less. This would increase consumption, and much of the island fruit that now goes to waste, would be exported to mutual profit. The winter elimate of Rarotonga is about equal to the Otaki summer, but the island has more rain,

Lethargy and indolence seems to permeate every channel of trade. No one wants any . new methods; the old is good enough. The possibilities are great, and fortune awaits the plucky up-to-date business man, who will brave ridicule, and wade in. Everybody grouses on general principals and they are so busy grousing that no one has time to improve conditions; and no one would, even if they had the time and capital. Truly, tis a land where every prospect pleases, and not even man is vile.”