New Industry For

Tahiti?

From Our Own Correspondent

Papeete, July 15.

RECENT reports from France indicate that the first shipments of prepared orange and pineapple juice from these islands have been successfully marketed, and that there is a prospect of a large and increasing demand for these products in France and elsewhere in Europe.

It is stated that a company is now in process of formation in France with the object of exploiting this industry, and that a qualified chemist will arrive by the next Messageries steamer to take charge of operations in Raiatea and other islands of the Leeward Group.

Some years ago, large shipments of oranges and pineapples were made re gularly to New Zealand from Raiatea by the intermediate steamers of the Union Line. These vessels also brought cases from New Zealand in the form of shocks, as well as other goods, so that there was a reciprocal trade between the two countries.

With the imposition by New Zealand of a heavy duty on foreign fruit, how ever, this business came to a standstill, the intermediate steamers ceased to run, and the fruit shipped nowadays only amounted to a few hundred cases per annum, at times when there is a scarcity in other islands and a suf ficiently high price in New Zealand to enable the importer to pay the high duty.

Fine oranges grow in a wild and semi wild state in all the valleys of the Lee ward Group, as well as in Tahiti, and there is also much land available for the raising of pineapples by native me thods of cultivation.

Mr. J. W. Anslow, who has been a resident of Madang, N.G., for a number of years, is at present an inmate of Brawood Private Hospital, Petersham, Sydney. He is making- satisfactory pro gress.