FIJIAN VILLAGE

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 53, Issue 210, 17 June 1933, Page 8

FIJIAN VILLAGE

SIMPLE ISLAND LIFE.

CULTIVATION OF BANANAS. The contrast between a city with a population of 200,000 and an isolated village of 200 souls, inhabited by only one white man, is sufficiently striking at any time, but the difference is apt to be accentuated in a. period of depression, for the economic problems which exercise the waking thoughts of city dwellers cast no shadows worth troubling about over the lives of the villagers to whom this article relates. Yet these two worlds as far asunder as the Poles in most things, have one common interest. The link that binds them is the humble banana. Part of the money which Aucklanders pay for the purchase of this fruit indirectly finds its way into the hands of Fijians cultivating their patches of banana trees at Ono, on the island of Kadavu, 50 miles east of Suva.

The needs of these natives are simple They have an abundance of vegetables, the women fish with nets and baskets while. the men are at work on their small plantations, and a cigar may be manufactured by the simple process of rolling tobacco in a banana leaf. Thus most of the money received in return for the bananas, collected by cutters every three weeks or so during the season, is expended in kerosene for lamps, tea, of which the natives are inordinately fond, and possibly a few yards of red silk from the Chinese store for the adornment of the women folk.

Singing at Their Work. Tho village of Ono may be taken as typical of a series of Fijian settlements, situated- far off the beaten track where men and women, sing while performing the daily round and life is singularly free from trouble. A recent visitor to the village was Mr Anthony L. Brown, a young Englishman, who returned to Auckland this week after a holiday which was spent in searching out places which the usual typo of "tourist'' never sees. As the guest of the bull, or "headman" at Ono lie had exceptional opportunities for studying the natives at work and at play. The voyage from Suva to the island of Kadayu was in itself an adventure, for the 30-ton cutter Mary Work, in which he travelled, was manned entirely by Indians, and the only other white, man on. board was the banana buyer. In the village itself the only white resident is a French Catholic missionary.

Cases in which to pack the bananas are left by the cutter at each visit. Most of the natives work on the cooperative principle, three or four oi them cultivating one banana patch, usually situated two or three miles from the village. At Ono there is also a native inspector, who .superintends the packing and rejects fruit showing signs of scale. When the cutter arrives the buyer, acting on behalf of a Suva firm, checks the boxes and pays the natives.

"Casii on uerivery."

, "Cash on delivery" is the first principle of business at Ono. The current price is 2s a case, but Od is deducted in return for the compensation the Government gave the natives for damage done during a recent hurricane. Some of the natives aie in such a small way of business that it often happens that two or more have an interest in one ,casc, and resort has to be had to the higher mathematics before a fair apportionment can be made.

Usually there are about 400 cases to load. These are transported in dinghies to the cutter, which has to anchor in a passage off the village. Life moves restfully there. The bananas are carried on the stalks from plantation to village; necessarily a slow task, and the dinghies can accommodate only about 20 cases, so that many trips have to be made also between shore and ship.

The native dwellings, termed burris, are simple structures, built a foot from the ground. The intervening space is packed with shingle, over which native mats are laid. The only furniture is a community bed. The natives lie width-wise on the bed, which is necessarily of exceptional length in the case of large families. Mats are spread on the floor for visitors, and an empty bottle or tobacco tin usually suffices' for a pillow. Damcimg with Two Girls.

The natives are exceptionally fond of dancing. Some years ago a European introduced a dance, known to the natives as the tralalia. It is usually performed only when visitors are being entertained, and marks the only occasion on which men. aud women dance together. As a rule two girls and one man dance the tralalia together. Itis not, Mr Brown explained, because there is a. shortage of males, but because the men are usually too tired to dance without the support of two partners, one cm either wide. On the occasion of a "beanfeast" the naitves usually dance until dawn. The band consists of a sort of choir, singing part songs, and its efforts are reinforced by such "musical" instruments as hollow bamboos, beaten on the ground, and wooden drums, held by one person and played by another with two sticks.