ISLAND NEWS.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 66, 19 March 1925, Page 8

ISLAND NEWS.

OUR FIJI LETTER. (From Our Orrn Correspondent.) SUVA, March 11. Queensland's Troubles. (Queensland has been showing a very un-British spirit for some time against her small fellow British colon} - , and she has been agitating to prevent Fiji's bananas from entering Australia, partly on some semblance of fact and partly upon a large and organised plan of misrepresentation. i Now the boot is on the other foot, I and Fiji is preparing to protect herself ! against Queensland, who lias now been I proved to have the very dreaded "wilt I dis-ease' , in her pineapples. The Brisbane Press report it as being existent I I on one of the finest farms on the Beerjburrum soldier settlement. Other farms I arc also reported to be effected. As Fiji is looking round for pineapple plants with which to stock up a sufficient area j to commence the canning of pines a la ! Hawaii, it is lucky to know in time that Queensland is a danger spot. Fiji Dairying. The annual report of the Returned Soldiers' Dairy ix-heme at Tailevu has been made available by the Government, ami niakee interesting reading. The actual result of the trading for the year 1924 shows a net profit of £337. as against a loss for 1923 of £666. This profit is in spite of an extraordinary expenditure of £114 in a change of njanagers. Bad debts have been written off to the extent of £350. Butter manufactured yielded £7359. The costs mcL "?d: Management, £052; interest and sinking fund, £140: collections of cream, £152; butterfat, £4777; testing (very low), 15/7; maintenance of buihfings and plant, £S6; running expenses, £395; boxes and wrappers, £252; marketing (including freight to Suva £SS, andcartage and storage £146), £235; contingencies, £110; and there is a small item of "losses from unsaleable butter" of 1/6. In an interesting comparison it is found that in 1923 butterfat purchased was 45,8691b, while in 1924 the amount was 62,7301b. In 1923 the butter manufactured was 59,2091b, while in 1924 it was 7C,5991b, a very satisfactory increase. Mac Donald's Son. Fiji has the honour at the moment of entertaining the son of Mr. Ramsay Mac Donald, the ex-Prime Minister of Britain. He is one of a party of three members of the Oxford Union, which is visiting Canada and the United States, with a view to reporting upon the universities of those territories. They are Oxford's debating team, and have debated in 47 universities in America. They have now arranged to visit the universities in Xew Zealand and Australia and will debate with accredited representatives of those institutions. The visitors are Messrs. J. D. Woodruff and C. Hollis, and, of course, Mr. Mao Donald. The latter is a most pleasant young man. cultured, and a very pleasant personality. He is keenly interested in everything he has seen here, and especially with a drift over j some of the wonderful coral reefs, with all their wealth of colour and remarkable formations of coral and those beautiful coral fish, delightful little chaps, sometimes of a glorious blue, at others of a dazzling red, and at others green and yellow. Each colour seems to have its "different habitat and feeding ground. It was a never ending kaliedescope, which Mr. Mac Donald says he could never tire of. Mr. Mac Donald spoke with mucJi warmth of the splendid hospitailty the team had received all through America, and of the pleasure all three had experienced. They found British manners and customs much more pronounced in j the Southern States than in any other I part of the United States. Here in Fiji they are doing some walking in the primeval bush and have revisited the old Fiji capital of Bau, besides having explored the fine reaches of the large Rewa River and its tributaries. They go on. to Xew Zealand by the] next Tofua and will then proceed to Australia. A Fijian Cricketer. A notable figure in Fijian cricket has finally retired from the game in the person of Mr. J. C. Collins, who reached his 00th year last week. The cricketers of Suva gave him a complimentary match, in which the veteran captained one side making 5 runs. He was later presented with a wad of bank notes. He first played with Levuka in 18S7. and later held the batting average of Suva I for 17 years. He was the biggest scorer I in the Fijian tour against Xew Zealand in 1595. Out of 170 runs, he made 123 not out against Hawke's Bay. Death of Mrs. Ellis. One of the saddest deaths which has ever occurred in Fiji, took place on Feb. 25, when Mrs. S. H. Ellis, wife of Mr. S. H. Ellis, M.C., one of Suva's solicitors, and the daughter of Sir Thomas Mac- : kenzie, late Agent General for Xew Zea-

land, passed away at the Hospital as the result of premature childbirth. Her husband meantime was at Home putting the case of the Tongan Free Church appeal before the Secretary of State. The deceased lady was highly popular and was down on the Saturday to see the Aorangi. She was an artist of some repute, and her Fiji woman's head is the frontispiece on the new Fiji official Hand book, while several of her paintings adorned the Fiji pavilion at Wembley. The funeral was attended by the ActingGovernor and all the leading citizens. Fiji Bananas. The statements in the Brisbane Press and the refutal of Mr. Collard's charges I against Turners and Growers, of Auckland, are regarded locally with some feeling by both Press and banana people. It is asserted that the facts have been ' greatly distorted by both parties, and J also by Professor Goddard, who must allow that he knows very little about the so-called Singatoka disease. The Auckland firm deny what remarks are ascribed to them by Mr. Collard of the Queensland Department of Agriculture. Then, on top of this, the " Brisbane Daily Mail/ in an access of zeal, combined with a certain amount of ignorance, challenges the Commonwealth Government, who as a matter of fact knows more about the whole position than any of the parties named, for dealing out justice with an even hand. The Commonwealth always remembers that there is more than one State in the Commonwealth, although from what the " Daily Mail " says, one would think that all the people in the country will be benefitted by upholding the big combine in Brisbane whose interests are to keep out all bananas except those in which they are interested. Happily for everybody, the Government have acted in a way which will give justice to all parties, and fully safeguard Australia from the introduction of any dangerous pests, of which she has already enough and to spare.