Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1880-11-25
COOLIES AND COCoANUTs.

X
acknowledgements Life In the South
Pacific.
Our sojourn on the island for the nexi
ten days, however, far more than COM
pensated for the trouble. The house is
finely situated on spur overlooking
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 lake, 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
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
which the merchants employ to collect
their cargoes. The price in the island
is about $40 per ton. But after the ker-
mel has Deen disposed of tn husk is at
tackled, and by mesns of various ma
chimes popularly called devils" it is
torn into the fiber of which it is COM
posed and leaned of its dust (Which is
a W luable compost), and turned into
bristles for brus es, or treated as fiDers
to be pac zed into bales for export.
All the laborers who attend to these
machines are Polyneisans, many OF
them on R4mbi being the Withholding
Tokalaus from the Gilbert and Marshall
group. Let US watch for q moment the
two wh7 are from the New Hebrides
turning the screw-press by which t e
fiber is compressed into bales. One OF
them is 2 survivor of the Carl m ssacre,
who refused to go home when one ol
her majesty ships came to repatriate
the remnant who escaped Three oi
them felt that they had had enough OF
the sea and incidents, and referred to
remain where they were. They are
naked black giants, and as they throw
their force 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 q market in sgd
ney, while the bristles 20 to Eng and.
We pass along by the laborers' houses,
and there we find the familiar coolies,
and hear again the "Salaam, Sahib, 2
often heard when 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 of
Ind an emigrants. They are quite
friendly side by side with the Poly
nesians, whom they ter Iunglis.
a curious traffic has arisen between
them, the Polynesians going out to the
woods to hunt the wild pigs, which
5h sell to the Indians, who get much
better wages than themselves, for dol
lar a pig; and on the breaf -frdit, which
grows in profusion, and other extras,
the coolies are becoming fat and sleek
Passing on, we get into q cocoanut
grove, which stretches a long distance
along the coast, the lap of the fall tide
coming up to the very roots of the first
line of trees. On some of the trees the
nuts are SO thick as to defy coml uta-
ton, being indeed too crowded for
growth. As many as 300 have been
counted on one tree, but this is only
when they are as small as apples, for
they fall abundantly in the struggle OF
the fittest to survive. Still further
along the coast we come to other fats
and valleys which are also being cleared
out for planting with cocoanuts or cot
ton, and it is easy to perceive that the
exports from this one island alone will.
in not many years, equal the exports from
the whole colony when ! arrived
On one occasion, when the ladies went
by boat on picnic to locality called
Get rgia, where the proprietor las
another house, walked with Mr. Hun
ter, the chief magistrate of Levuka,
along the coast a distance which was
stated to be six miles, but which in the
heat of the day, without breath OF wind
in the woods, I took to be double the
distance. The immense vatu trees were
shedding their long tassels of pink and
white flowers, which filed the whole
air with delicate perfume. The path
passed through timber which, from its
majestic growth, showed the richness OF
the soil, and on our return In the even
ing by sea we had good opportunity OF
viewing the finely wooded hills, which,
even in the days when Commodore
Wilkes made his survey of the group,
caused Rambi to be distinguished among
the islands.
The Tinonee, the successor of the
Pretty Jane. and steamer more worthy
of the colony, arrived all too soon to cut
short our expeditions IN search OF wood
pigeons and wild pigs, and our struggle
at lawn tennis when the sun was dip
ping behind the mountains of Vanua
Levu. She was filed up with cotton
and copra from the windward, with
bales of fiber from Undu Point, and
when she had taken in the Rambi bales,
with some hundreds Of bags of copra
from Yuma Point, Tavuni, she sailed for
Levuka via Savusavu bay, bearing US
homeward to Ovalau, which, after all,
can holds its own in loyeliness with any
island Of the group.-ContsnporGry Re
atioan