Mangaia's Self-Sown

Orange Trees Failing

From Our Own Correspondent MANGAIA, Cl, April.

TO the consternation of many planters, the orange-season for 1950 upon Man gaia bids fair to be a much poorer one than any previous year’s, excepting possibly those following serious hurri canes of the past.

The trees, all of which are of the “wild” variety and have been neither planted nor kept in order by human agency, are bearing very poorly in some areas; in others there is no fruit at all. The situ ation has been worsened by the depreda tions of bush-beer addicts, who have raided the bearing trees to secure material for their favourite —and illegal— tipple.

The effect upon the islanders’ purse must inevitably be bad; oranges are the chief export of Mangaia, and this year’s results will be of no very prosperous nature.

The Mangaians have been warned for long years of the imminent dying-off or sterility of their trees, but all advice upon the subject was ignored until now.

For the best part of 70 years the islanders picked the trees in plantations which, like Topsy. “just growed” in actual fact, from thrown-away pips. This effortless money-making, _as compared with the other islands’ conditions, where all plantations require care and upkeep, lulled the Mangaians into a false sense of permanent availability of large sup plies of fruit. For the first time in a cyclone-free year, that supply has failed to materialise. From the point of view of those who desire the Island Council to relax its ban upon imported seedlings, the failure is opportune for the institu tion of a replanting policy.

Two, or at most three, steamers will suffice to remove this year’s supplies, and trade prospects for 1950, both for Mangaians and storekeepers, do not ap pear rosy.