II.—Population, Soil, and Products.

The foreign population does not exceed 30, and is concentrated at Awarua and Ngatangihia, on Rarotonga. The Europeans number 25, of whom over 20 are New Zealand colonists, and a few Germans; while there are 25 Chinese, some of whom keep stores, while Others work on the plantations. The natives show a higher degree of industry, and a more ready adaptability to European manners and clothing than those of any of the other groups visited. They have passed a law forbidding the importation of foreign labour, and the extensive plantations, cotton-ginning works, etc., are worked entirely by natives. Boat-building, coach and dray-making, and house-building, under European direction, are also most successfully prosecuted by the Rarotongans. Many of them also engage as seamen on board the trading vessels that visit the port, and are found docile, teachable, and capable of work. The sale of intoxicants to natives is forbidden, and they are also prohibited from making orange beer, but in spite of these restrictions they occasionally indulge to excess in the "home- page 50 brewed" beverage named. The soil of Rarotonga and several other of these islands is of the richest description; this is shown by the fact that in a single year Rarotonga alone sent 4,000,000 oranges and 40,000 gallons of lime-juice to Auckland-On Mangaia, the soil is poor; but the natives, by incessant labour, have rendered it very productive, and it contributes largely to the exports of the group, besides supporting a considerable population. The chiet products of these islands are cotton, copra, coffee, lime-juice, oranges, bananas, pine-apples and arrowroot; but nearly every variety of tropical plant would grow, and with the necessary labour the productiveness of these islands could be increased tenfold.