a powerful steam-engine, and these give about 1 lb. of clean cotton to 4 of seed cotton, or as the bales weigh about 400 lb., half a bale of clean cotton to the acre annually: the return from the estate for the year ending September, 1879, being just 350 bales of clean Sea Island cotton.

Notwithstanding the wonderful success indicated by these figures, the company does not confine itself to their GoldMedal cotton. Some 700 acres of the island are devoted to coffee-planting, there being now 150 acres of superior coffee coming into bearing. Altogether there are 1100 acres under cultivation in Mango, as a good deal of space is reserved for a crop of maize; and there are also plantations of bread-fruit, bananas, and other food for 'labour,' while the careful cultivation of limes is another marked feature of Mango.

Sheep and cattle thrive well on the island, and since I was in Fiji, Angora goats have been introduced, of which there is a flock of more than 300, so that a good export of Mango hair may be looked for. Goats' hair does not exhaust the products of well-cared-for Mango: the vast amphitheatre of the interior is studded with cocoa-nuts, which at present yield some 120 tons of copra per annum, and should furnish an equivalent quantity of fibre. The seed of the Sea Island cotton is also exported by the Mango Island Company in common with other cotton settlers. For the introduction of this small branch of Pacific exports I take some little credit, as it was formerly entirely wasted. In Mincing Lane, as I have said, it fetches from £7 to £9 a ton. What becomes of it after it reaches my broker friends I do not know exactly, but I have heard that its product returns to Fiji as the 'finest Lucca oil.'

Mango is splendidly watered, and its scenery is perfect, even for Fiji. The almost land-locked lagoon is one of the gems of Coral Lands.

level land in the centre of the island, which was to be had to any extent, as the area of Mango exceeds 8000 acres.

Nothing has been more discouraging for Fiji planters than the terrible fall in the price of Sea Island cotton. In 1869 it fetched 4s. 4d. per lb. in the English market; and in 1870, owing to the closing of numerous French factories (where it was largely used in the manufacture of certain classes of silk), in consequence of the war with Prussia, it fell to 1s. 4d. per lb. Its present price is about 1s. 8d. The seed used by the Messrs. Ryder came originally from the Southern States of America, the cotton of which the Mango grain has beaten, both in Philadelphia and Paris. The trees are planted in straight rows about 7 feet by 7 feet apart, and viewed from a slight elevation, have a very regular and highly cultivated appearance. They are perennial. Picking begins about five months after planting, generally in July, and lasts until September, after which another crop forms, which is generally picked up to the end of February. The month of March being regarded as the middle of the 'hurricane' season, the system is adopted of then pruning the cotton-trees, so as to prevent any serious damage if a blow' were to occur.

The company employ over three hundred labourers on the plantation, hitherto introduced under the Government regulations, in vessels belonging to the late firm, from the New Hebrides Group, which lies 600 miles to the westward of Fiji. Now, however, that the Government have taken the introduction of Polynesian labour almost entirely into their own hands, my Mango friends rely on the Nasovan authorities—paying the rates of wage already described. The crop of the two pickings referred to is on an average about 800 lb. of cotton in the seed to the acre. The Mango ginning establishment is an extensive one. Six cotton-gins are driven by

a powerful steam-engine, and these give about 1 lb. of clean cotton to 4 of seed cotton, or as the bales weigh about 400 lb., half a bale of clean cotton to the acre annually: the return from the estate for the year ending September, 1879, being just 350 bales of clean Sea Island cotton.

Notwithstanding the wonderful success indicated by these figures, the company does not confine itself to their GoldMedal cotton. Some 700 acres of the island are devoted to coffee-planting, there being now 150 acres of superior coffee coming into bearing. Altogether there are 1100 acres under cultivation in Mango, as a good deal of space is reserved for a crop of maize; and there are also plantations of bread-fruit, bananas, and other food for 'labour,' while the careful cultivation of limes is another marked feature of Mango.

Sheep and cattle thrive well on the island, and since I was in Fiji, Angora goats have been introduced, of which there is a flock of more than 300, so that a good export of Mango hair may be looked for. Goats' hair does not exhaust the products of well-cared-for Mango: the vast amphitheatre of the interior is studded with cocoa-nuts, which at present yield some 120 tons of copra per annum, and should furnish an equivalent quantity of fibre. The seed of the Sea Island cotton is also exported by the Mango Island Company in common with other cotton settlers. For the introduction of this small branch of Pacific exports I take some little credit, as it was formerly entirely wasted. In Mincing Lane, as I have said, it fetches. from £7 to £9 a ton. What becomes of it after it reaches my broker friends I do not know exactly, but I have heard that its product returns to Fiji as the finest Lucca oil.'

Mango is splendidly watered, and its scenery is perfect, even for Fiji. The almost land-locked lagoon is one of the gems of Coral Lands.

Mr. Rupert Ryder was one of the members of the interim government formed pending the acceptance of the group by the British Empire, and was, until lately, a member of the Legislative Council. He and his brothers are in their way little princes. They have successfully turned a doubtful venture into a great success.

CHAPTER XXIV.

THE REWA.-LET FIJI FLOURISH.

A FEW hours spent in the interinsular steamer brings the traveller from Levuka to Laucala Bay, and rounding Suva Point he enters the noble harbour of Suva. A ridge of hills, averaging about 500 feet high, and covered with the densest undergrowth, bisects the peninsula. Three rivers, the Veisere, Lina, and Tamavua, enter the bay, and now Suva is made the capital of the group, the water supply will have to come from the last-named river. At present Suva is deplorably off for good fresh water, in which respect Levuka offers a most favourable contrast.

The population of Suva from the latest returns has only increased to a little more than 200, but already it boasts a good hotel kept by the famous Fijian restaurateur, Mr. W. T. Sturt, who formerly kept the principal hotel at Levuka. A great deal of the Rewa sugar is exported, and if the local mosquitoes were also shipped in anything like proper quantities, the steamer Suva would confer a double blessing on the place. For mosquitoes and sand-flies Suva has no rival in the group, and until more buildings are erected in Suva these pests will continue.

A road is in progress from Suva to Naitasiri, but when I left the group but little was constructed. The country in the interior after leaving the Rewa is generally a succession of bush-covered hills. Between Na Ato and Viti Levu Bay on the northern shore of 'big Fiji' is a beautiful grassy basin of large extent, with some clumps of fine trees. In fact, this is a magnificent pasturage country. A well-wooded fringe of fine land borders the bay at its extremity, while steep cliffs and ridges hem in its sides. The district of Raki-Raki is remarkably fertile, and there are several flourishing plantations of pea-nuts, much appreciated by the youth of America, and which are now regularly exported from Fiji to Australia and New Zealand.

It is said that the finest salad-oil can be made from these pea-nuts, which grow most prolifically in the island. Tobacco does remarkably well in this part of Viti Levu. The finest tobacco plantation in Fiji that I know is that of Mr. Leveney; but I learn that on the north-west of the island at Ba, a Mr. Roberts, who has had some experience in the cultivation and curing of the weed in Missouri, is distancing all competitors. As in the case of every other product of this wondrous group, tobacco-growing is in its merest infancy. The Ba valley is superbly rich, and only waits for the tiller and the reaper. The great feature of Viti Levu is, however, the noble Rewa, or Wai Levu, ‘great-water,' the largest river in the islands, and navigable for 91 miles. It empties itself into the sea by four mouths, and the deltas are fertile and cultivated. One of these deltas is traversed by a canal which saves a distance of 21 miles between Rewa and Bau, and also a considerable distance between the latter place and the main channel of the river. The canal is 2 miles long and 60 feet wide, and admits of the passage of the largest canoes.

It