Copra and the Northern Cooks

From Our Own Correspondent.

Rarotonga, Nov. 28.

Oranges, bananas or tomatoes are not grown at the Northern Cooks. These islands depend solely upon two items of trade, namely, pearls and copra.

Even at those far, out-of-the-way places, flour and meat are regarded as es sential articles of food, while clothing, besides tools and utensils of different kinds, are no less necessary to the people there, as elsewhere.

The islanders appear to have lost heart in pearl-diving, and the price of copra is now so low as to make the outlook for the northern islands appear almost hope less.

It is nothing short of marvellous that the northern people are able to produce sufficient now to make trade with them worth while, more particularly when it is remembered their distance from Raro tonga is up to 750 miles. Sufficient is produced, however, from the faithful old coconut to induce the stores there still to maintain business as formerly, when pearls and copra were booming.