"Nutfall" In Solomons
p. 29 · Read in the full issue
New Hebrides Expert to Investigate
AN entomologist, whose work is well known in the New Hebrides, Mr.
Depurtuis, has gone to the Solomon Islands under engagement to Messrs.
Bums Philp CS.S.) Co. Ltd., to study the problem of “Nutfall” in the coconut plantations in that territory.
As is well-known, “Nutfall” is one of the major problems of the Solomon Is lands. The pest falls upon various plan tations in the principal islands of the group in apparently haphazard fashion, and although different experts have diag nosed various causes, and some planters are convinced that they have found a remedy, the general opinion seems to be that the thing is still a mystery and still requires expert study.
One theory is that the disease is de finitely connected with poverty of soil; another is that some connection can be traced between the incidence of the dis ease and the periodical movements of cer tain species of ant.
Mr. Depurtuis expects to spend some months in the group, and he says that he goes to the problem with an open mind. He says, however, that “Nutfall” is not a thing unknown outside the Solo mons—that on the contrary the disease, or something quite similar, has been ob served in many places where there is ap parently a poverty of soil.
Mr. and Mrs. C. O. Handley and family returned to Fiji by the June “Niagara”, after furlough in Australia. He is ac countant for the C.S.R. Co., at Penang.