Answers to Correspondents

D.O.M. (Victoria). —There are two

first-class hotels in Noumea—the Hotel

Grand Central and the Hotel de la Gare—where the rate is about 60 francs per day (from 12/6 to 15/-, according to the exchange). If you proposed to stay for a few weeks, you could, by

bargaining, get a much lower weekly

or monthly rate. The accommodation in these two hotels is quite good. There are three second-class hotels, where the food is very good, but the accom

modation poor, and their daily tariff

is much below the figures quoted.

N.C.H., Fiji.—The Curator of the Techno logical Museum, Ultimo, Sydney, has just re ceived some seeds of the Pordii variety of the tung oil tree, from Florida, via Kew Gardens, London. These are ready for immediate planting. The cost of the seeds is 2/6 per lb.

A pound weight consists of 14 fruits, each containing five seeds. Allowing for 50 per cent, germination, 214 lbs. would be needed for planting an acre. The young plants should be protected from cattle. As far as is known no experiments with tung oil trees have been yet carried out in Fiji. . . . Regarding husked coconuts, there is a sale in Sydney for these only during the winter months. It has been found that the milk dries too quickly in the summer. The duty on coconuts is 1/- per cwt., and an addition to this there is primage and sales tax to pay. Write to any of the wholesale fruit merchants who advertise in this journal. . . . Desiccated coconut from Fiji would not be allowed into the Common wealth, as the Federal Government, last April, prohibited its importation except from its Island territories —that Is, Papua and New Guinea.