Demand For Coir

Plant Proposed For Rabaul

SINCE the outbreak of war, the Aus tralian consumers of coir fibre (which, of course, is made from the husk of coconuts) have not been able to get their usual supplies from over seas, and have been severely rationed.

At the same time, the price of coir has risen from £8 to over £2O per ton.

This has been a matter of consider able interest to the producers of coir in the Pacific Islands —of which there are only one or two.

Several years ago, when Messrs. W. R.

Carpenter and Co. Ltd. established their desiccated coconut factory at Pondo, on the northern coast of New Britain, they experimented with the production of coir fibre; and, after a long series of headaches —induced mostly by machines which promised much but accomplished little—they got into steady production, and a considerable quantity of coir fibre in bales is now shipped regularly from Pondo to Australian ports.

A small Sydney company has been experimenting with a new machine, which it claims it has perfected for the production of coir fibre. It has been sub jected to lengthy tests on coconut husks brought in during the past few months, and it is claimed that the performance now is satisfactory. The company pro

poses to establish this coir-making plant at a point not far from Rabaul, where it can draw supplies of coconut husks from a very large area of surrounding plantations.

In the past, Ceylon and similar coun tries, with large coconut plantations and an abundance of cheap labour, have dominated the coir-making industry. But the dislocation of shipping does seem to give the Australian enterprise a chance of establishing itself in the Pacific Islands.