Passion Fruit Rescues

Norfolk Is.

New Factory Is In Operation

TT appears as if the enterprise of Mr.

G. A. Flack, of the Manly Vale Pro ducts Company, has given Norfolk Island a new lease of economic life.

A factory for canning passion fruit, which was established on Norfolk by Mr. Flack last year, commenced opera tions early in January, and regular ship ments of the product are now being made.

Passion fruit grows most profusely on Norfolk Island. Mr. Flack has made con tracts with the residents for the supply of the fruit on a basis ranging from l|d to 2d per lb. This will provide a large proportion of the residents with a source of regular income.

The process is interesting. The passion fruit is brought to the factory and given into a receiving room, where it is quickly sorted over and rubbish removed. It is then weighed. Then the fruit is auto matically conveyed to a washing room.

Thence it goes automatically to tables, where the shells are sliced open by girls.

The sliced shells are carried along by a moving table to other girls who press the half-fruit down on to spinning domes which extract the pulp. The shells are thrown away and the pulp runs down into large containers.

The pulp is then carried along to an other room, where it is brought to a high temperature. Thence it moves into the canning room, where the usual can ning process is employed. The cans in which the pulp is exported are each of about a gallon capacity. It is reported that Australian confectioners will take all the pulp that N.I. can produce.

Norfolk Island is also regaining its trade in French Beans, once a staple industry. The Administration has in stalled a plant for properly fumigating the beans, so that there may be no ob jection taken to them in Australia. It has introduced also a strict system of grading. The result is that the beans have found their way back to the Sydney market, at prices that return a good profit to the N.I. grower.

It is reported that certain well-known agitators on the island are trying to break down the regulations, which de mand a high standard of grading, evi dently with the idea of getting lower standard of beans accepted for shipment to Australia. This move is not likely to succeed, as any lowering of the standard would almost certainly kill the market.