COTTON IN FIJI

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 474, 2 October 1928, Page 7

COTTON IN FIJI

INDUSTRY DEVELOPING RUBBER GOING TO WASTE Cotton is doing exceedingly well in Fiji and promises to develop into a payable proposition. Recently two experts were brought out from England and growers are now specialising in two varieties. This information was given by Mr. H. Stuart Forbes, manager of the Vunilagi Estate, Vanua Levu, Fiji, who with his wife, arrived by the Tofua yesterday on a holiday visit to New Zealand. He says that the pineapple-canning industry, which was started by the Government, has now been taken over by an Auckland firm, and is progressing satisfactorily. Under Government control it was not a success. Butter is holding its own and is produced all the year round. There is no winter season. A considerable quantity is now being exported. Acres of rubber are going to waste, said Mr. "Stuart Forbes. The market price is so low that the rubber is not worth gathering. At one time the natives gathered rubber and paid their taxes by doing so, but now this is not done because the price on the market has fallen away. Although copra prices are low it can still be produced at payable rates, and the season promises to be a good one.

Mr. Stuart Forbes manages over 1,400 acres of plantation. His wife is an Englishwoman and her nearest white neighbour is 28 miles away. Even in the islands she says the servant problem is acute.