Fiji Dairying
p. 40 · Read in the full issue
Dislocated
Effect of Phenomenal Weather
r[E destruction of pastures by exces sive rains and floods, and depreda tions by caterpillars, has seriously dislocated the young and, until recently, flourishing dairying industry in Fiji.
Production by both the Fiji Pastoral Co., and the Rewa Dairy Co. has de creased by 25 per cent., compared with 1938.
As a result, the factories are not pro ducing enough butter for local require ments. and butter has been imported from New Zealand and sold at 1/7 per pound.
Usually, Fiji’s butter surplus is con verted into ghee, for the Indian popu lation: but now there is no surplus, so the Indians again are importing ghee.
These conditions probably will last for several months.
Meanwhile, dairy farmers in Fiji, along with banana-growers and copra-produc ers, are having a thin time —all the re sult of the phenomenal rain-storms of recent months.
Mr. W. J. R. Smith, Postmaster at Thursday Island, was transferred to Brisbane, Queensland, in July.