EFFECTS OF HURRICANE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20474, 28 January 1930, Page 12

EFFECTS OF HURRICANE.

FIJI FAST RECOVERING.

DAIRYING COME TO STAY.

" Fiji is fast recovering from the effects of the hurricane and floods which occurred early in December," stated Mr. Henry Marks, Mayor of Suva, who arrived at Auckland by the Niagara yesterday. Labasa, on the island of Vanua Levu, was about the centre of the hurricane, and the property of the Colonial Sugar Refining Company sustained the principal damage, the mill being unroofed and the staff houses being practically demolished. Crops did not suffer to a very great extent because the hurricane occurred between the seasons. . A loss of about 10 per cent, for the year in the coconut crops throughout the group had been estimated, as a result of the stripping of young nuts from the trees.

" Dairying has come to stay, and the prospects are very bright," Mr. Marks cohtmued. Large areas had been covered by the flood waters in December, but that had left a very fine silt, and the grass was now coming on better than ever. Pineapple canning is going to provide a bigger industry than sugar before long, in the opinion of the Mayor of Suva. He said that two'small companies were now exporting pineapple, and great hopes were centred an the operations of the Hawaiian Pineapple Company, which appeared . to be well satisfied with the results of its experimental plots. Large plantations were being established. He believed that Fiji would prove to be a better country for pineapple growing than Hawaii. "Business is steady in Fiji, and the country is without' doubt going ahead. We who live there can see it," Mr. Marks added.