A Fijian Industry
p. 77 · Read in the full issue
Was Still-Born
Tapioca grows well in Fiji; and, by a simple milling process, there can be obtained from this tapioca a quality of starch which is in demand by confectionery manu facturers.
Knowing this, Mr. C. N. Francis
induced a firm of confectionery makers in New Zealand to give Fijian tapioca growers a 5-tons trial order —he thought that thereby he might introduce a small but valu able industry.
The New Zealand company after wards reported that the experiment was a “wash-out”. The tapioca has to be so well milled that the starch is high-grade; but the shipment from Fiji was so badly treated in that respect that 'it had to be milled all over again.
The company appealed to Fiji for better milling. The machinery re quired for the process would not have cost more than £lOO. The people concerned would not provide the machinery. The industry died practically before it was born.