HEMP IN FIJI.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 106, 28 January 1908, Page 10

HEMP IN FIJI.

; " A POSSIBLE RIVAL, HELPED BY CHEAP LABOUR. Our Shannon correspondent writes that Mr. H. Grcig, vice-president of, tho Flaxmillers Association, has lately returned from a trip to tho South Sea Islands. Mr. Greig mentioned, in the course of conversation, that an attempt is being made to introduce our p.liormium tenax into Fiji. Indeed, Mr. Cross, of Napier, and another Napier gentleman, have a patch growing in' the vicinity of Suva. The cocoa-nut palms in Fiji are planted about 10 to 12 yards apart, and the intervals between the trees are choked up witli indigenous weeds, which check tho growth of tho trees. It is.proposed to plant these spaces with something which will yield some return, and which will be a secondary product to copra. Accordingly, experiments aro being made with Mauritius .sisal and with Now Zealand hemp. Any hemp industry which might be established on these islands would be a formidable rival to our own industry, as labour is so cheap" on the islands. Indians arc imported by" the Government, and are paid about os. a week, and find themselves. Living costs them about threepence a (lay. Mr. .Grcig informed the writer that Indians arc taking the place of the natives of tho Pacific Islands, as the native islanders are slowly, but surely, dying out. The rubber and cocoa industries arc making great progress in Samoa, the quality of the cocoa produced being second to none.

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