Mangaia Now Pineapple
p. 154 · Read in the full issue
Producer
LOCAL residents of over 20 years 5, standing recall the “good old days” when oranges brought two-shillings a case; and home grown pineapples, locally, were two a penny!
To-day, pines fetch from 10/- to 19/- shillings per case when sold to NZ, and oranges 16/-.
The rise of the Mangaia pine apple from being a botanical curiosity, introduced around the late ’twenties, to the enormous stretches of cultivated mountainside that now form local plantations, is yet another evidence of Mangaian in dustry, and of better conditions in the Lower Cooks. A jeep-ride in land reveals mile on mile of grey green plants, in orderly rows up the slopes, and on the formerly useless dry lands beside the main highway.
But one fly remains buzzing in the Mangaia ointment. Its pines are not of a type suitable for can ning. Hence, all hopes of interest ing outside capital are vain —Own Correspondent.
The Rev. Paula Havea passed through Sydney recently on his way home to Tonga after 32 years of Methodist Missionary work in. the BSIP.