The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1880-11-25
COOLIES AND COCoANUTs.
A Glimpse, at Native Life I'm the FIJI
acknowledgements Life inthe South

A Glimpse, at Native Life I'm the Fill
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Life int South
Pacific.
Our soiourn on the island for the next
ten days, however, far more than COM
pensated for the trouble. The house is
finely situated OF a spur overlooklng
the bold hills of Vanua Levu: The
long Undu point closes in the view to-
ward the north, making the part of the
sea visible appear one great AXE, and
all around us and up the slopes of the
hills and at our feet in the plain, the
young cocoanuts are waving. Let us go
down to the beach to visit the ma
chinery houses, and thus get an idea OF
the work upon an estate OF this descrip-
ton.
These vast heaps of cocoanuts are
ga hered from all parts of the island,
which has a circumference of about
thirty miles, and after the kernel has
been extracted and dried on the long
catas or tables, or in the steam drying
house, which is the more approved
me .hod, it is packed in bags for trans
port by the inter-island steamers to
Levuka, or by some o. the small craft
" hich the merchants employ to collect
tleir cargoes. The price in the slAnd
is about $40 per ton. But after the ker-
mel has peen disposed of tn husk is at
tack d, and by means of various ma
chimes popularity called "devils," 1t is
torn into the fiber of which it is COM
posed and c.eaned of its dust (Which is
a vsluable compost), and turned into
bristle5 for brushes, or treated as hpers
to be pac zed into bales for export.
All the laborers who attend to these
machines are Polyneisans, many OF
them on r mbi being the wild-looking
Tokalaus from the Gilbert and Marshall
group. Let us ws tch for moment the
two wh1 are from the New Hebrides
turning the screw-press py when tie
fiber is compressed into bales. One OF
them is Z survivor of the Carl massacre,
who refused to go home when one OF
her majesty ships came to repatriate
the remnant who escaped. Three OF
them felt that they hal had enough OF
the sea and incidents, and preferred to
remain where they were. They are
naked black giants, and as they throw
their fore to turn the handle OF the
screw, capstan-fashion, their muscles
stand out and the whole frame is a
model of herculean power.
The storehouse is full of bales ready
for the steamer by which we expect to
leave. and these find market in sgd
new. while the bristles go to Eng and.
We mass along by the laborers' houses,
and there we find the familiar CO lies,
and hear again the "Salaam, Sahib, u
often heard when I sojourned in Mary
thus. Mr.. Hill is the only proprietor as
vet who has had the good sense to take
up about 100 of the first ship4oad oi
Indian emigrants. They. are quite
friendly side by side with tue Poly:
nesi ans, whom they terri "Iunglis.
A curious traffic has arisen between
| them. the Poiynesians going out to the
woods to hunt the wild pigs, which
th sell to the Indians, who get muct
better wages than themselves, for dol
lar a pig; and on the brea" -frdit, which
grows in profusion, and other extras
the coolies are becoming fat and sleek
Passing on, we get into cocoanu
grove, which stretches long distance
along the coast, the lap of the fall tide
coming up to the very roots OF the hrs
| line of trees. On some of the trees the
nuts are so thick as to defy conn., uta
ton, being indeed too crowded tol
growth. AS many as 300 have beer
counted on one tree, but this is only
when they are as small as apples, fol
they fall abundantly in the struggle o
the fittest to survive. Still further
along the coast we come to other fat
and valleys which are also being cleared
out for planting with cocoanuts or cot
ton, and it is easy 10 perceive that th'
exports from this one island alone will
in not many years, equal the exports from
the whole colony when l arrived.
On one occasion, when the ladies wen
by boat on o picnic to a locality calle'
Get rgia, where the proprietor la
another house, walked with Mr. Hun
ter, the chief magistrate of Levuka
along the coast a distance which wa
stated to be six miles, but which in tn
heat of the day, without a breath OF vim
in the woods, [ took to be double tn
distance. The immense vatu trees wer
shedding their long tassels OF pink an
white flowers, which filled the whol
air with delicate perfume. The pat'
passed through timber which, from il
majestic growth, showed the richness G
the soil, and on our return in the even
ing by sea we had q good opportunity
viewing the finely wooded hills, which
even in the days when Commodor
Wilkes made his survey of the group
caused Rambi to be distinguished anon
the islands.
The Tinonee, the successor OF th
Pretty Jane. and steamer more worth
of the colony, arrived all too soon to Gu
short our expeditions in search OF WOO
pigeons and wild pigs, and our strugg
at lawn tennis when the sun was dir
/ ping behind the mountains OF Vanu
Levu. She was filled up with cotto
and copra from the windward, wit
bales of fiber from Undu Point, an
) when she had taken in the Rambi bale
with some hundreds OF bags OF copl
from Yuma Point, Tavuni, she sailed fc
Leyuka via Savusavu bay, bearing I
homeward to Ovalau, which, after al
can holds its own in loveliness with an
, island of the group.-Contsnporary r
: pieU.