The pilot vessels at Broadsound, Mackay, Townsville, and Cooktown have
been frequently utilised during the last twelve months in conveying
cocoanut and other trees, to the various islands and reefs adjacent to
our coast, where they have been planted, and the lightkeepers in the
neighbourhood have been instructed to protect the young plants as far as
possible. Tree culture, especially the cocoanut--for which the coral
islands form congenial homes--is important, not only commercially, but
as contributing to the safety of navigation, the existence of trees
rendering the outlying islands and reefs more conspicuous, and are more
serviceable than beacons. As an article of food, the cocoanuts would
prove invaluable to shipwrecked crews. Those planted on some of the
islands are thriving well, especially some 200 young plants on the
Lizard Islands. The trees that have been planted recently require
protection in some way, or they will disappear, as did the fully-matured
trees which existed some years ago on the Frankland Islands.