Copra is the staple2 industry of the New Hebrides, as they say in the geography books, but the output of it is about as reliable as the rainfall, for the supply depends not, as might be expected, on the demand, but on the whim3 of the natives; if they feel industrious4, or are hard pressed for tobacco and provisions, they will go into the bush and bring in a sufficient quantity to meet their needs; but as a rule they will only collect it from their own particular trees near their village and will not go far afield, where they could get double the amount for half the labour.
Cocoa-nut palms grow in patches all over the islands, and particularly along the coast, and they make a charming picture viewed from the sea, with their swaying trunks, and the quaint5 cluster of leaves at the top: storm-tossed as they are, owing to {184} being top-heavy, they all lean in one direction, the way the wind blows strongest, and give the islands a wild appearance. The rustle6 of their leaves as one walks beneath them makes a strange noise, and the falling of the nuts on a windy day is a thing one has to be careful to avoid, as a good-sized nut would seriously injure, if not kill, the person on whom it fell.
I have seen a natural grove7 of these trees nearly a mile long; the dark stems and sage-green leaves against a blue sky, a bright yellow road underneath8 which scintillated9 in the sun, and at its far end was all blurred10 by the heat which rose as heat does from a stove making everything quiver, presenting a beautiful picture not easily forgotten.
All along the coast of Malekula and Tanna the cocoa-nuts grow in abundance. At Samari, New Guinea, there is one giant tree standing11 by two others and away from the rest, the height of which has been the means of many a sovereign changing hands. For the first thing a new chum, fresh trader, or captain is asked is to guess its height, and few ever guess it correctly, for a more deceptive-looking tree was never born. It grows just behind the village and towers over everything, and is a landmark12 that guides many a wanderer by land and sea.
THE ISLAND OF SAMARI, BRITISH NEW GUINEA
{185}
The copra trade is of course carried on all over these and the adjoining islands, but one sees more of it going on in the New Hebrides than in the Solomons or New Guinea.
Copra is the white of the cocoa-nut and is not eaten by the natives at all; all they do with the nuts is to drink the milk and use the fibre. Nearly everything out there is made either of the leaves or fibre, and even the trunks of the tree come in very handy for manufacturing articles. When gathering13 copra the natives scale the trees to get at the nuts, and having collected a good supply they sit down, break them open, and lay them out to dry in the sun.
The oil of the cocoa-nut is chiefly made in England and America, and the only process the nut goes through in the islands is that of drying. When the nuts have been collected they are split in halves very carefully with an axe14, and then the halves are laid out in the sun. Very soon the heat loosens the kernel15, which comes away and is then broken up into pieces. It is again put in the sun on mats, where it remains16 until it is thoroughly17 dried; then it is collected in sacks and sold by weight. Some traders, however, go in for making cocoa-nut oil, but not many, and if they do, a different process {186} has to be gone through. The nut, instead of being split open, has the husk cracked on a sharp pointed18 stake, it is then torn off and the inside split in two. Next the kernel is scraped out on an iron scraper, which is attached to a stool on which the native squats19 during the operation, and the white part drops from the scraper into a vessel20 underneath, and is then put into a cask to rot, after which it is pounded and made into a pulp21 and placed at the end of a tilted22 trough—a hollowed-out log or old canoe—until all the oil runs out of it. This oil is then strained and put into casks.
The stench of a copra boat is proverbial, and this, without the copra bugs23, is enough to make one keep clear of them as much as possible. Each trader has his copra shed and drying ground, and when Burns Philp’s trading boats call, the sacks of copra are taken out by the resident trader’s “boys” and again sold, this time to be shipped home for further handling. When the oil is extracted in England, nearly double the quantity is obtained from the same amount of nuts, and the refuse is made into cakes for cattle.
A TRADER RECEIVING COCOA-NUTS, AOBA, NEW HEBRIDES
When the trading steamers come it is quite an event in the monotonous24 life of many of the small traders. Mails and provisions are sought with an {187} eagerness that is delightful25, for when a man has talked nothing but native languages, and seen nothing but black men for weeks, these visits are naturally the important event, and a newspaper or two, if such luxuries can be found, no matter how old, are seized on by traders as if they were gold.
Copra is practically the only industry that flourishes without artificial aid. Even that is now being helped along, as the natives see there is money in it, and some of the thrifty26 chiefs are making their men plant the trees and look after them.
Traders and settlers now have plantations28 of coffee, bananas, and a few other profitable products, as I have already mentioned, and this industry is beginning to be successful. Taros29 and yams are cultivated by the natives, and require a good deal of attention, and so nearly all the work is left to the women. Yams vary from about the size of a small marrow30 to a much larger affair. The “Chief’s Yam” is pale pink in colour, and the ordinary ones are like a white mealy potato. In taste they resemble a cross between an artichoke and a potato. Nearly all the villages possess a yam-house, which is a sort of platform made of bamboo with a thatched roof over it; the yams are hung from the top or lie on the platform to dry. {188}
There is a kind of arrowroot which grows wild in the bush, besides a few other native vegetables, but the latter are not of much account unless they are cultivated.
The knowledge of agriculture learned by some of the natives who have returned from Queensland comes in useful. Sometimes evidences of it are to be seen here and there, but it is a lamentable31 fact that they do not make better use of their opportunities.
Whilst in Queensland they work well, especially the women, and nowadays there is no difficulty experienced in getting labour from these islands. When the labour boat calls, the recruiting agent is soon able to fill his vacancies32, and the men he brings back laden33 with goods make an excellent bait for others.
When engaging the natives a small quantity of money in advance is, I believe, paid to them as an inducement to go, and then they sign on for two, three, or more years to work at the Queensland Sugar Refining Company’s places at Bundaberg, Mackay, and elsewhere on the Queensland coast.
When there, they live chiefly in compounds, and seem to enjoy the change of life. Their chief duties are to cut the sugar-cane, stack it, and put {189} it on the trolleys34, which carry it to the refinery35 works.
COPRA BOYS OFF TO THE SHORE, NEW HEBRIDES
The tremendous heat of these fields is beyond description, owing to the number of the canes36.
Many of the natives who have gone for a term of three years become so fond of the life that they remain on for much longer periods. Many have been known to petition the Queensland Government to be allowed to remain in the country altogether. They mix up with natives from all the islands, and intermarry in quite a friendly way. If by chance a native of Malekula happened to be left, on his return, in the Solomon islands by mistake, he would probably be made into mincemeat: but abroad they get on very well together.
The labour trade in New Guinea was stopped some years ago, partly by Governor Macgregor, and partly through the natives’ objection to work. In this trait they resemble the Fijians, and consider work is a form of slavery and so beneath them.
There is very little real affection between the natives, they part from one another when going to Queensland with hardly any show of regret. Sometimes when a woman is going her companions cry, but such scenes are exceptional.
On their return, however, things are very {190} different, for they come laden with new and interesting goods and money.
The chief immediately appropriates all the best of these articles, and by so doing confers a great honour on the home-comer. The returned one’s relatives then swarm37 round him, and each takes what he or she fancies; and the welcoming party, consisting of fellow-tribesmen, receive their little lot for having welcomed the returned one home. The remainder of the goods are taken to their owner’s shed, where they probably remain a few days. Other claimants soon come forward, so that in less than a week the hut is empty of all save the worker and his three years’ experience.
In the old days the labour traffic, or “black birding” as it was called, was one of the most disgraceful trades ever carried on by British subjects. So bad did it finally get that the Government stepped in, and warships38 were kept on the lookout39 for these slave-traders, and eventually, after a lengthy40 period and, strange to say, much opposition41, the labour traffic was made into an honest business.
THE “BLACKBIRDERS.” THE LABOUR TRADE IN THE SOLOMONS
The method adopted by the early kidnappers42 was to fit out a schooner43 in Australia in much the same way as a slave-boat, with a large hold arranged with tiers of platforms, on which the natives slept {191} at night. The owners would start out, having secured orders from the Queensland sugar-planters for so many natives at so much per head, and with these signed orders they would visit the islands. At first some of them, according to reports, did try persuasion44, and even went so far as to barter45 with the chiefs for a certain number of natives, but if this failed, as it often did, they simply went ashore46 and carried off every man or woman they could lay hold of, rowed them out to the ship, and then literally47 pitched them into the hold. Others they would entice48 on board by offering to give them presents, and when once on board they never saw the shore again.
During the commission of inquiry49 into the ways of these slave-dealers50 some ghastly facts were brought to light, not only on the part of the dealers, but also of the planters, particularly in Fiji where many of the natives were sold. Here it came out that two Englishmen, who were in the habit of brutally51 ill-treating the natives, once overstepped the mark by tying a woman to a tree and thrashing her, and afterwards they rubbed the juice of the Chili52 pepper into the wounds. This was quite an ordinary form of punishment; but when they cut the same woman’s toes off, the natives banded {192} themselves together, burned down the whole plantation27, and killed the planters’ children. The two planters, sad to relate, escaped.
But those days are passed now, and the planters are very different men, and live their lives in peace and tranquillity53, and many of them treat the natives so well that they will do anything for them.
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cultivation
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| n.耕作，培养，栽培（法），养成 | |
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staple
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| n.主要产物，常用品，主要要素，原料，订书钉，钩环；adj.主要的，重要的；vt.分类 | |
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whim
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| n.一时的兴致，突然的念头；奇想，幻想 | |
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industrious
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| adj.勤劳的，刻苦的，奋发的 | |
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quaint
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| adj.古雅的，离奇有趣的，奇怪的 | |
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rustle
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| v.沙沙作响；偷盗(牛、马等)；n.沙沙声声 | |
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7
grove
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| n.林子，小树林，园林 | |
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underneath
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| adj.在...下面，在...底下；adv.在下面 | |
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scintillated
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| v.（言谈举止中）焕发才智( scintillate的过去式和过去分词 )；谈笑洒脱；闪耀；闪烁 | |
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10
blurred
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| v.（使）变模糊( blur的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）难以区分；模模糊糊；迷离 | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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12
landmark
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| n.陆标，划时代的事，地界标 | |
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13
gathering
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| n.集会，聚会，聚集 | |
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axe
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| n.斧子；v.用斧头砍，削减 | |
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kernel
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| n.(果实的)核，仁；(问题)的中心，核心 | |
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remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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squats
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| n.蹲坐，蹲姿( squat的名词复数 )；被擅自占用的建筑物v.像动物一样蹲下( squat的第三人称单数 )；非法擅自占用（土地或房屋）；为获得其所有权；而占用某片公共用地。 | |
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vessel
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| n.船舶；容器，器皿；管，导管，血管 | |
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pulp
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| n.果肉，纸浆；v.化成纸浆，除去...果肉，制成纸浆 | |
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tilted
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| v. 倾斜的 | |
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bugs
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| adj.疯狂的，发疯的n.窃听器( bug的名词复数 )；病菌；虫子；[计算机]（制作软件程序所产生的意料不到的）错误 | |
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monotonous
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| adj.单调的，一成不变的，使人厌倦的 | |
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25
delightful
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| adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的 | |
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26
thrifty
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| adj.节俭的；兴旺的；健壮的 | |
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plantation
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| n.种植园，大农场 | |
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plantations
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| n.种植园，大农场( plantation的名词复数 ) | |
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taros
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| n.芋，芋头( taro的名词复数 ) | |
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marrow
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| n.骨髓；精华；活力 | |
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lamentable
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| adj.令人惋惜的，悔恨的 | |
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vacancies
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| n.空房间( vacancy的名词复数 )；空虚；空白；空缺 | |
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laden
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| adj.装满了的；充满了的；负了重担的；苦恼的 | |
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trolleys
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| n.（两轮或四轮的）手推车( trolley的名词复数 )；装有脚轮的小台车；电车 | |
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refinery
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| n.精炼厂，提炼厂 | |
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canes
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| n.（某些植物，如竹或甘蔗的）茎( cane的名词复数 )；（用于制作家具等的）竹竿；竹杖 | |
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swarm
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| n.(昆虫)等一大群；vi.成群飞舞；蜂拥而入 | |
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warships
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| 军舰，战舰( warship的名词复数 )； 舰只 | |
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lookout
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| n.注意，前途，瞭望台 | |
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40
lengthy
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| adj.漫长的，冗长的 | |
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41
opposition
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| n.反对，敌对 | |
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42
kidnappers
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| n.拐子，绑匪( kidnapper的名词复数 ) | |
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43
schooner
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| n.纵帆船 | |
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44
persuasion
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| n.劝说；说服；持有某种信仰的宗派 | |
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45
barter
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| n.物物交换，以货易货，实物交易 | |
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46
ashore
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| adv.在(向)岸上，上岸 | |
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literally
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| adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实 | |
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48
entice
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| v.诱骗，引诱，怂恿 | |
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49
inquiry
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| n.打听，询问，调查，查问 | |
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50
dealers
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| n.商人( dealer的名词复数 )；贩毒者；毒品贩子；发牌者 | |
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51
brutally
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| adv.残忍地，野蛮地，冷酷无情地 | |
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52
chili
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| n.辣椒 | |
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53
tranquillity
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| n. 平静, 安静 | |
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