Sugar, the great staple production,
gives employment in its cultivation and manufacture to nearly 4,000
hands. Only a fifteenth part of the estimated arable area is under
cultivation. Over 6,000 natives are returned as the possessors of
Kuleanas or freeholds, but many of these are heavily mortgaged.
Many of the larger lands are held on lease from the crown or chiefs,
and there are difficulties attending the purchase of small
properties.
Almost all the roots and fruits of the torrid and temperate zones
can be grown upon the islands, and the banana, kalo, yam, sweet
potato, cocoanut, breadfruit, arrowroot, sugar-cane, strawberry,
raspberry, whortleberry, and native apple, are said to be
indigenous.
The indigenous fauna is small, consisting only of hogs, dogs, rats,
and an anomalous bat which flies by day: There are few insects,
except such as have been imported, and these, which consist of
centipedes, scorpions, cockroaches, mosquitoes, and fleas, are
happily confined to certain localities, and the two first have left
most of their venom behind them. A small lizard is abundant, but
snakes, toads, and frogs have not yet effected a landing.
The ornithology of the islands is scanty.
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