Coconuts in the Russell Islands

Abstract

HE RUSSELL ISLANDS, a small group in the southern Solomons (Fig. I), have been the site of an extensive copra industry for nearly halfa century. Commercial coconut plantations date from about Igoo, when two planters established themselves on Banika Island-Captain Svensen at Banika Plantation on the north shore of Renard Sound, and Billy Pope at Yandina Plantation on the south shore. A few years later Lever Brothers, the largest soapmaking firm in the British Empire and one of the most powerful and widespread corporations in the world, prospected the islands for favorable plantation sites. In I907, representatives of the firm bought Captain Svensen's plantation as a nucleus for their holdings. Since then, they have established plantations on the north shore of Pavuvu Island at Somata, West Bay, Kaylan, and Pepesala and have enlarged the plantation on Banika until it occupies most of the northern half of that island. The islets of Kokia, Faielau, and Ufa were also developed. Two other corporations were prospecting at the same time for plantation land in the Solomons-Burns, Philp and Company Ltd., and the Malaita Company. The Malaita Company bought Yandina Plantation from Pope while the Levers were acquiring Banika and later extended it to include nearly all the southern part of the island except for the hill lands surrounding a small volcanic cone; the islet of Talina was likewise cleared and planted. Shortly before I940 the Malaita Company disposed of its holdings to the Fairymead Sugar Company, which now operates the plantation. Altogether, there are now some I2,ooo acres of coconuts under cultivation in the islands,' in addition to a strip of native planting around the principal village of the group, on Loun Islet. The development of the Russell Islands as the chief producing area of the Solomons has been based on several circumstances, among the most important of which are certain physical characteristics of the land, adequate anchorages, availability of acreage under the land laws of the Protectorate, and a near-by labor supply.