Lower Cooks

Tea Possibilities In The

THE rise of Ceylon tea to the unpr cedented price, not even during the hard days of World W' I, of 8/- per lb. has revived the discussu of the potentialities of tea-planting uo* Mangaia and related islands, in the Low Cook Group.

We produce here excellent coffe shipped annually to the great world ou side, after our own needs are satisfie There is no reason to doubt that certai hillside lands of this isle, suitably irn gated, could produce tea as well—liij Ceylon. Mangaia is both mountainous an warm, and usually there is little wind.

To start any project it would be nee© sary, of course, to bring in seedlings an an expert to direct their planting an care. This should not be too difficult. Tl' problem of water is less tractable.

Locals recall, with a sigh, that Indis tea was once obtainable from NZ groc© for 1/6 per half lb. packet, by mail, freight, if ordered in quantity. TW cheapness, however, would not appear prevail now even in India, for a gift pactoJ received from Darjeeling by the write; from a friend, was marked at 5/10 a II which presumably is fairly high in thr region.

If tea could be produced, like cofft> locally, another means of earning wouj be placed in native hands, and an in ports problem solved for the white res;

dents.

Eti.

Mr. J. F. Colquohoun, a Boy Scoo Commissioner from the United Kingdom arrived at Suva on March 13. He hr been visiting Australia and New Zealan and while in Fiji will discuss Boy Scoo matters with Church and civic leaders the Colony.