File:Fiji-its problems and resources (1921) (14579981179).jpg

Identifier: fijiitsproblemsr00chap (find matches)
Title: Fiji-its problems and resources
Year: 1921 (1920s)
Authors: Chapple, William Allan, b. 1864
Subjects: Fiji
Publisher: Auckland, N.Z. (etc.) : Whitcombe & Tombs, limited
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

View Book Page: Book Viewer
About This Book: Catalog Entry
View All Images: All Images From Book
Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book.

Text Appearing Before Image:
auto-matic in their production after maturity. The treesgrow and the harvest ripens daily, and simply hasto be garnered. By courtesy of Mr. Powell, themanaging partner, I am able to give the particularsof the largest and most successful rubber estate inFiji. One plantation of the Waidoi Estate consistsof 3,000 acres of land, purchased in its jungle statefor £1 per acre. Of this area only 1,200 acres areflat, of which 450 acres have been planted inrubber. The first tree planting was done about 1908.The jungle was felled and the trees allowed to rot.The area is in the wet belt, and burning was im-practicable. The estate is beautifully situated about12 miles from Suva by launch, which navigates stillwater within the coral reef, and anchors up fromthe mouth of beautiful Waidoi River, about a milefrom the homestead and plantation. The under-growth was abundant and not easy to keep under,but bananas were planted and harvested during thefirst few years, and contributed in relief of the cost
Text Appearing After Image:
Rubber 177 while the trees were young and growing. In theseventh year of growth, tapping yielded from eachtree very nearly lib. of rubber for the year. Thecost of upkeep and collecting the rubber was about£8 10s. per acre, and the gross yield, at 2s. per lb.,was £12 10s., leaving a net £4 per acre as the re-turn for the seventh year of growth. Mr. Powellestimated that by the end of the twelfth year eachtree would yield 41b. to 51b. of rubber, and this, at2s. per lb., would mean a net return of from £14 to£18 per acre. Mr. Foy, of the Bank of New Zealand, who hastaken a great interest in the development of Fiji,and is enthusiastic about its potentialities, looksupon rubber as offering better prospects of returnthan coco-nuts, because of the lesser cost of bring-ing to mature bearing, and the lesser susceptibilityto damage by hurricane. His reports on this sub-ject are interesting and valuable. There are about 2,000 acres planted in rubbertrees in Fiji at the present time (1919), w

Note About Images