THE KERMADEC ISLANDS.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1904, 15 June 1889, Page 3

THE KERMADEC ISLANDS.

It will be remembered thatr some two years ago the group of islands known as the Kermadecs was formally annexed to her Majesty’s dominions, and has since been incorporated with the colony of New Zealand. Also that within the past few months the leases of certain areas in the largest of the group, Sunday Island, were submitted and sold, the idea of the Lamia Department being apparently that these holdings would be utilised as grazing runs for sheep or cattle. But from an advertisement, coupled with an editorial thereon, which appears in the Napier Daily Telegraph of the 23rd ult., we find that a Company, which has become the lessee of two of these runs (Nos 6 and 7), intends to utilise them to the extent of 24'i00 acres for the growth of subtropical fruits, and is desirous of sub letting its holding in areas of not exceeding 50 acres each, and which it offon 3to settler,s willing to take them up fo r fruit cultivation on the following terms“ The Association will survey the allotments, and an agreement will

ba made between the Association and each settler, whereby the latter will retain his holding for twenty-one i years vent free. The Association will, I however, receive ten per cent, of the 1 gross proceeds of all sales of fruit, produce, or live stock, and such sales shall be transacted through an agent approved both by the Association and the settler. The agreement will also provide that if the settler, or his heirs or assigns, shall have continued to cultivate the holding and be in occupation of the same at the end _of

twenty one years, the Association shall pay to the settler one half of the valuation for improvements, such valuation to be fixed by mutual consent or, failing that, by arbitration. The settler will have entire management of his own bolding, and will provide such stores and implements as he may require. A sum of £5, to cover the cost of survey, must bo deposited with the Secretary on making application, and the selection of holdings will he governed by priority of application; applications being receivable up to the 30th June.” It is added that the , Association has engaged the services

of an experienced medical man, who will reside on the Island, and that negotiations are pending for engaging the services of an expert in the cultivation of tropical products ; and, lastly, it is announced that a steamer to convey settlers to the Island will leave Napier probably during August next. The charge will not exceed L 5 per head. The following information with with regard to the Islands will be of interest to those inclined to look favorably upon the projected Kermadec Fruit and Produce Association. The totalareaof Sunday Island i 57250 acres; it is 674 miles N.E. of Auckland, in latitude 29‘15 degrees south. The climate is mild and equable (the temperature ranging from _ 84deg. in the summer to 46deg. in winter). The rainfall is plentiful, and the soil is of a rich volcanic nature. Writing of the Kermadec Group and its capabilities, Mr Percy Smith in his published report (p. 25) says:— “ Situated as it is, only about fifty or sixty hours steam from Auckland tropical fruits could bo gathered there ripe and shipped to moat parts of New Zealand in a fresh state, instead of in the stale condition in which we now receive them from Polynesia. A climate and a soil which will produce new potatoes and maize any month of the year, and where bananas take only twelve months to grow 20 feet high, and then bear full crops of fruit, cannot but be a valuable acquisition, andjwhen the difficulty of shipping has been overcome, the island could produce enormous quantities of these and other fruits.” The scenery is described as grand and striking, and the Telegraph in alluding to the project of the Association says, “ the terms offered are decidedly novel and attractive, and it will be a matter of interest to watch the development of a settlement in this latest annexed part of the New Zealand colony. In these times, when colonisation proceeds by leaps and bounds, the island that is to-day luxuriant in a vegetation of Nature s planting may in a short time be tilled and cultivated, and the scene of a prosperous settlement. The. position of Sunday Island as a fruit producing centre for New Zealand markets is advantageous, being 1200 miles nearer Auckland than Samoa and Raratonga, the present sources of supply. This will in time enable us to enjoy the luxury of sound ripe tropical fruits instead of the stale immature commodities with which we are now perforce content. Another noteworthy feature is that fruit imported from the Kermadecs would be exempt from the usual import duty, and this in the case of the more valuable products would prove a considerable bonus to the grower. The comparative isolation of the settlement is distinctly qualified by the fact that Sunday Island is on the line of route of the s.s. Mawhera and Richmond trading between Auckland and Samoa, so that communication could be held as required. The island has no harbor, but there are three landings, at one or other of which lauding can be effected in any weather. —Ashburton Mail.