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Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 8 January 1927, Page 9

Assumption Island, in the Seychelles Group, is only, a few square miles in extent, but it lias enormous natural wealth in the form of guano. As the result of a recent survey, it has been estimated that there are over a quarter of a million toms of this valuable product on the .rocky ledges of the isle, and the gathering, loading and marketing of it bid fair to form an important branch of industry in the Seychelles for many years to come. One of the first, cargoes of Assumption Island guano, says a. paragraph in the. Auckland Star, has been brought to Auckland by the barque o‘livebank, now at King’s wharf. Describing the task of loading, Captain Troberg said his ship had to. anchor a mile from shore, and the natives brought the heavy sacks out in canoes, 1800 separate trips being made. Apart from its natural wealth. Assumption Island is one of the very few-places: in the world where the double eocoanut—a kind of vegetable Siamese twin —is to bo found. The natives, an excellent type, .subsist mainly on turtle flesh and boiled rice. The number of cars carried across the Mokau Diver on the punt during the Christmas and New Year holidays lias averaged about 130 per day. sav.s the Taranaki Herald. More exact information than this is not obtainable, as the lesee-s of the punt, the right to operate which is let by tender, do not have to- furnish returns of traffic to any authority. It is understood, however that the volume of traffic has been much the same as it was a year ago.