RAROTONGA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVII, Issue 8314, 22 July 1890, Page 6

RAROTONGA.

[from our own correspondent.] July 1, 1890. Messrs. Donald and Edknborouuh have recently been extending their business to other islands of this group. To Aitutaki (understood to have been a sealed land to traders residing there) Mr. Mason, lately bookkeeper for the firm here, has been sent, with a full stock ; and to Atiu Mr. Bishop has been dispatched, while an additional trader (Mr. (ieorge Brown) has been sent to Mangaia. For the sake of the tirm named it is to be hoped these new ventures will prove successful. That the Karotongans are quick at learning there is little question, and if any doubt remained, one lias only to pay a visit of inspection to the vessel which the Ngatangiia section of the natives are at present busily engaged building. A short time back 1 gave some some particulars ro ho size of the vessel, &c. ; that was at the time her keel was laid, and the other day 1 had an opportunity afforded, through "the kindness of Mr. H. Nicholas, who placed his trap and pair of horses at my disposal, of having a look at the work so far done. The vessel i-< now in frame, and to commemorate the placing of the first plank in position on her side, a counle of bullocks and some fourteen pigs, with all the usual native side dishes, were cooked (and perhaps 1 need hardly say) and eaten, and in the village high holiday was kept. The schooner, which will be close upon a hundred tons register, is being built in a most substantial manner. Her frames are massive, and consist of nothing but the best native timbers available, and which, I am assured, are in every way most suitable fur the purpose, being of an enduring nature. Her planking and decking is to be of kauri, as the labour of obtaining such timbers from too bush here and preparing it would, it is estimated, cost more than to import your timber. The model of the vessel is more clearly to be seen now, and it. shows a good combination of lines that should prove useful to lie vessel in her future work; stability is there, while also carrying power has nob been overlooked, and yet she has all the proportions that should give her a good turn of speed and make her a capital sea boat. The builders ate determined to hurry on with her building, and at no distant date I hope your Auckland shipbuilders may have an opportunity of inspecting a Karotong.i natives' production, and our people need not fear the closest scrutiny that will, 1 know, be given to her. The order has been sent forward for her rigging, sails, etc., and these are the only parts of her that will be made by other than the natives, this work being entrusted to Mr. Ceo. Short.

William Ewart Gladstone (not the famous G.0.M., but the new schooner building hereof thatneme) is getting along famously towards completion. She is now planked and almost all her decking down, and in a day or two her deckhouse will be started, and generally work brought on towards completion. This vessel i.-> being built by Mr. Thomas Shore for Mr. Henry Nicholas, who obtained the order from Captain XeaLfle, of Rurutu. As with the Ngatati'_ r craft, Mr. George Short is to make the rigging and sails for the William Ewart Gladstone.

Very general regret was expressed at the news of the breakdown of the s.s. Richmond, and it is to lie hoped that the expense will not prove so large as at tirst anticipated in putting the vessel again in repair ; for he 10-s of time alone must bo a very serious matter to her plucky owners. Her absence has somewhat disarranged our communication with Tahiti. She was, it may be said, our only means of correspondence with that place, and with which a large amount of business is done, especially by the Society Commerciale de l'Oeeanie. The erstwhile schooner .Julia l'ryco arrived on the 18th from Aitutaki, and she is again breaking up all previous records. Forty days from here to Tahiti, and now twenty-seven days from Aitutaki to here, is proving that she can simply tear through the water—dead to leeward. She was within forty miles of Samoa once, and at last a fair wind came along, and the skipper, not to bo cheated, and so get away to leeward again, headed for I'almerston Island, away up North, and so he struck Karotonga, and it was, "Oil, joyful day." The food gave out on the voyage, also the wafer, and the passenger and crew (some 3.~>) had to broach cargo.

The constant heavy rains that have been falling for the past two or three months are having a most disastrous efleet upon the coffee crop here. At the best it was but turning out poorly, and hardly anything else could have been expected, in the face of the exceedingly large crop that was gathered the previous season, but owing to the rains the consequences are much more disastrous, for the natives have been unable to do any picking, the result being that a large portion of this even small crop will be lost, the ripe berries having fallen are now faking root. Consequently they are useless for commercial purposes. Now that the coffee crop has proved so great a failure it, is hard to tell to what the natives arc to turn to raise money for ordinary purposes for the ensuing year, for they will not take the trouble to grow cotton to any extent. What little coffee will come forward may be said to be all mortgaged to the various storekeepers here, who have been forced to give very large credit in the face of the long spell of wet weather.