FIJIAN AFFAIRS.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 187, 10 August 1925, Page 9

FIJIAN AFFAIRS.

NOTES FROM SUVA.

THE LABOUR PROBLEM

COTTOX PRODUCTION.

(From Our Own Correspondent.! SUVA, July 29. The Government is making an effort to remove all the cotton cultivation on to the big island of Vanua Levu. The j chief excuse is that in this way the local j labour supply will be left available for the sugar company, while the cotton I r growers will have the local people to I work the cotton fields. But already, i ' ! r while the cotton growers on Viti Levu ! 1, • • n have been to a great extent victimised t by the- removal of the ginnery from Lautoka, and the Government is doing v all it can to help the company, the latter is going afield into the proposed area of the new cotton growing district in search of labour. This is, of course, most unfair, but only on a par with the policy of the company,,viz., "self first r and all the time." In a chat with Mr. c Dalrymple-Hay, who is one of the lately- s arrived settlers in the colony, he said that he foresaw a fine ruture for the r growing of a first-class cotton, and he would have some 100 acre sin crop by November, but he said the scarcity of labour was a serious matter, which had ( to be faced. He was communicating with a number of people in New Zealand ' , and laying the position before them. c There was no doubt about the facility x of growing the best of cotton, but the j c labour supply, which under normal con- ' ditions should have been sufficient, was ' c being decimated by the agents of the * C.S.R. Company, who were penetrating j everywhere in search of men. This was j l making the lot of the small planter very * difficult. As the Fiji cotton has been ! proved after two years to have realised ! € the top price in London, and the crop | c grows so cleanly and easily here, it seems j t grossly unfair that a big corporation s should be supported by the Government i in making small settlement almost im- 1 possible. There is an absence of even t handed justice, which is being increas- \ iugly resented by the people of the i colony. Fiji Butter in London. It is most gratifying to those who 1 have shown faith from the beginning in 1 the successful future of dairying in the i Colony to have the cabled news that the ( consignment of butter forwarded from . the Rewa Co-operative factory to Lon- 1 don, via Auckland, has sold at the excel- i lent figure of IS4/ per cwt. This butter _ was graded locally as second-clas6, and j its realisation of 1/7 per lb shows that the Fiji article can hold its own against i any other country. , Fiji Co-operative Dairying. | • The first annual meeting of the Rewa j , Co-operative Dairying Co. was held at 1 Xausori last week. The balance sheet | • has not been made available to the Press, which is understandable when one hears that with a paid-up capital of £4."i0 the ye.vr's transactions showed a , loss of £500. But this does not fairly represent the position of affairs. All through the year suppliers were being - paid the remarkable pr ; ce of 1/3, and ' even higher, for their butteifat, in spite of the fact that they were making no ' provision to meet their obligation to the i ! Government, who had started the company by advancing £5000. The sup- j ' pliers very ill-advisedly hogged all the] 1 receipts, letting their obligations lie tin- ! heeded. But the Government decided that the screw must be applied, and so |' the acting-Treasurer attended the meet- ' ing. and the gathering passed a motion ! authorising a levy of _d per lb on butterfat of all cream supplied to the' factory from August. I!>_4, to -June .'ill, 1925, "to allow the settlement of our j indebtedness to the Government." It j was further decided that the price to be! paid to suppliers from August 1 of this 1 year shall be 1/1 per lb. From this Id I will be deducted for share payments. The factory is turning out splendid butter, which excels in quality any other' made in the Colony for the present, and j the future of the company is assured i if the shareholders are compelled to ; stand up to their obligations. Suppliers' benefited by a bigger price than that i paid in the Dominions .to cream sup-1 pliers, so far as can be ascertained. Thati is something in favour of dairvinjr in ; Fiji. | Gold in Fiji. j The presence of gold in the colony has j long been known, and the report a year ' or two ago that it existed in good f quantities in the Yanawai district in ! Vanua Levu were so persistent that the I Government got Dr. Henderson down I from Xew Zealand to report. His re- ' port affirmed that the country showed j similar characteristics to Xew Zealand | and he gave some encouragement to ] prospectors. Xow. Mr. Blair, who has • a mining property on the Waidina, has | shown a splendid sample of shot gold taken from his show. There was quite ■ soz in a bottle. The quartz-is a dark-1 ! grey and is quite plainly heavy with j metal. He intends to develop the mine. Wireless in Fiji. Amateur wireless receivers in the 1 colony are in most eases getting excel--1 lent results of late. The best station ;is undoubtedly K.G.O. Others which I are heard well from the Pacific slope ' are K.F.I. in Los Angeles, which 1 comes over well to Fiji but not so • fine a quality of transmission as K.G.O. • Our old friend C.F.C.X.. Calgary, Canada, I has not been heard for some time. It looks as if the summer conditions in I Canada in the Rockies cut down this ' station's distance, since K.G.O. comes in 1 consistently. On July 17, K.G.O. was • giving us music at 5.25 p.m. at moderate volume with the loop. Usually the wave - is not strong enough until sunset for loop reception, Recently Suva heard a - lecture at the Royal Colonial Institute, t London, when the Xew Governor Genx eral of Australia made an interesting speech. On Saturday last we heard the j after dinner speeches at a function given j in honour of the visiting American • Admirals, and among others Admiral \ Coontz made a very amusing speech. s We could hear the knives rattling on the f table in applause, so vividly that we =, instinctively put out our hands to join j in. The London reception was rather , a good result for our set, and Fiji is t proud of the result. 1 Honour to Trader. 1 .On July 14 in the presence of all the I residents of Wallis Island, the residents 1 presented an old colonist. M. Jules Brial i with the order or decoration of Chevalier s dv Merite Africole. The distinction was - amoiif the Xew Year honours, but little r Wallis is so far away, that it took six - months for the news to reach the island. x aI. Brial is a very old and respected t trader and received many hearty congratulations.