Untitled

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 13411, 1 May 1909, Page 7

ACROSS THE BLUE PACIFIC.

FIJI AND ITS h\<:k PROBLEMS.

(MA. V 'iMT-i RI^Kr.VE!).)

bw'it FN •■''-TV* CHTT.D, THE *«jia"n -mi: impohtp:i) coor./K Wil \T WILL AUS- ■ TBILIA DO IN PAPUA ?

isrtrisiix whittkk roa "the rHKss."

fflt FISANK 1 o,c .- KIUTOIt OF THK "LON"3 H.A'i>" Mau.szim:.)

HONOLULU, April D. The Pacific, "cur Pni'ho," if we have the courage and the imagination to bq get our course hi national purpose, is, theso months, blur, bright, and justified of its name. The future highway to- Europe, without a doubt, this unshaken sapphire .v>n, with its course "domed by brilliant islands, dividing the passage* into accurate weeki;; seven days to Fiii. yet seven to Honolulu, another seven to Canada. The nation ■which dominates this ocean will have thehrgemo.y tho world. To oceans of older fame the past; to the Pacific the future. Fiji, a week's sail from Sydney, via "New Zealand (the better route) or -;• Queensland; a little lets if a swift boat went directly, breaks away from the ■•'. world of Australia absolutely. The > streets of its capital (Suva) mrjht bo ■i. one of tho Indian towns Kipling wrote of, thin roads-of coral dust, fringed ; with rank tropic grasses, tho sensitive plant (Mimosa prudica) predominating ..- .{and excellent food for cattle it makes), •r. .paraded by a few languid Europeans and many salaaming Hindus and proudlooking Fijians. Beautiful, erect, bronzed figures theso Fijians, with tho manners of gentlemen, and on their ■'' faces the engaging smile of grown-up childhood. Tho island opposite Suva Harbour is Lorer Island; the small, nearer island, the coolie station, where tho imported slave labour from India is " quarantined before being drafted on to - tho plantations; Truly w© are away from Australia., Tlae Fijian was much blessed by Nature until the white man come. His native woods gave him', practically without cultivation, alt that he needed of food. The making of war implements ', and of a little oloth from bark were ', the only demands made upon his in- -■ - dustry* Ho lived a life of sweet indo:lence, carrying a spirit cf gay childhood into the last years of life, bringing * to courtly perfection the graces of manner so that to-day the Fijian peasant often puts to shame, with his instinc•tive good breeding, the rich European .tourist. - With, the white man came sugar plantations and cotton fields. The Fijian heard the words "work" and "wages." He laughed brightly, and went on chasing the butterfly happiness. To work s . a little, which, for the fun of the / , thing, he was willing enough. Indeed, any new sort of task had for a little while a fascination for liis childiefh na- ,. -tore; But steady toil ho abhorred, and , waxes he had no use for. i .A "■rofctood for an hour or two from we/verandah of my host at Fiji his ' r 'H!f n J?i' u ' den °*°y 8t "work. This was ■: :v* BP?<* garden boy, noted in the town :-: ; , for his industry. And he played with his work with a naivete that (-. ?'** charming to one who " k had not to be his paymaster. Almost £.■;', oar© of clothing, Qns fine bronzed \ Jnasdcs rippled or glanced to show f. .that he had the strength for any task •. «" he had but had tho will. Perhaps ? , thd; lestflietic idea filled Mm of just y\ keeping 'his bronze skin a little moist, ?•"■•". so as to bring out to the full its satin ; i grace without blurring the fine ana- ;..'-.. itcmioai lines with drops of visible ' t s r !J t S*° lan g , " <l grace deserved that it.should have had some ouch prompti -H?& >*, a b , ird ahghted in a tree, flic V rijian frankly dropped his hoe and ;;;.pwaied it with stones which, his Uw*ngnt smile said, were not maliciously ;!,«>' , Wt, but stimulatory. An .insect, ./.a passing wayfarer, the fall of a leaf, ! i » «oud m tho Sky, all provided equally *■;■:-, *2 c d reasons for stopping work. Finir'tSy three a little shower came, and >■ the model hoy of Fijian industry L »»»Mulry ceased toil for the day. There was no need of assurances from -iwe-officials of Fiji that the natives % i*? 0 - • not work at any coolie labour." ; :Tae triumphant conclusion that, there- ?; tore, labour should be imported from ; ; indu to work in the sugar plantations, ; fwmed less obvious. For the result r.» an earthly paradise spoiled. Comthe growth of riches, the -white ,„ rl nan s advance, porhaps need the sacriBut it is not "progress" which J '^:' e * B .J e justified by cant as to "taking »hjte mart's burden." Hero in : «Ji the white man, for the soke of his ■; sf™.hath riches, spoils the happiness ;;. or two black races, one of them a ■ K°P of Kuch childishness . mat one may even forgive them their occasional cannibalism. ■"- j -|2 honr problem, as it stands toFiji, is of some interest to Aus~!iv' •we havo'exactly the same *>'i£ M, '* ,oin "J our own possessions of - < r& .§ ua - '. Tho Papuan, too, has no need >, f ana no inclination for -work. Nnturo $Vj£, tempted hin from the curse of fygam. But the* dominant white man of plantations and paddy-fields. • i Hi 0 ,? much - possibly, to expect from :,• Australian idealism that it will , «onsider Papua for the Papuans, as v J? Cr «iiy as Australia for the Austra- «"- .\ et can we organise to import ; cophe labour under indent from coun- ?;. met .where the black man is more in- ; jwnoos, or undertake the cruelty of wrjang th e unwilling Papuan to labour wnipn he hates? V, sweet, well-fed idleness is r ;^atur0 s dower to the Pacific Islander. Here w the life of the Gnrden ■"< until tho white man comes J"n. Jus work, ns an angel with a :'. ; 1 5 ,!1 "! , nK Fword. and it is to fall. ' tr : -!? w - tno """"ito ninn came, and the ■ ji? d ?,° wa * l hro «Rht to Fiji, tho Fijian awindles (j« : ,t now the native population is being decimated by an enidemic ot dysentery). Yet the Fijian does not : Kern prone to white vices. Cricket is criminal practice. For cricket, .11 his chiefs will allow him. he will for- ,- get even to plant his little field of tars • + r t °* Rut even cricket he -tv--/? in tho s-'-irit of nn amiable child. -nuh sufficient of chidin-: lie will give ■Up ltr.ir,rdcii>.tion in cricket, end tho ttemWs cf tl-r team which recenllv ■Tl A;:jtra ' li;i '' r d 11 '" ™" ci *» • •Spoiled by Australian pelting have now consented to po back to old habits of ■"'lO instead ct "becoming professional * en ,l P^ r r'°tunHy ad-mired p!.iy?rs. . /The worker* of Fiji are Indian cool--,-.Jps, mostly ;'na Bengal, brought in ttsder indent, and the risiht to l>e ■fetnrnr-d to their b.nd on completion of tht»ir trrm of service. The coolie is ■a willing worke.-,- and his servile salaam *s he pas.?« s the white man in the +I ree i s furt} differentiates him from ". *ae Fijian, who is polite but r.ot ab- . = Xcar Suva is a little village populated entirely by time-exnired coolies, > i-fho liave stayed; in Fiji to make a liv- ■ *ng by doinsc odd jobs, by growing vegetables ai:d rice. Men, women, and

S AND AUTHORS.

children work in the fields; and they prosper amazingly. Practically their only amu.seirient i/> potty pilfering, and that is not expensive— to thorn. There were alarming cables in the Australian papers the other day- as. to an impending ion cf the coolies in Fiji. Tlie planters !cugh at such ideas. The Bengali hi not an snsur:vetionary tyi>t\ though b<: may tall; eedition. You will hud to-day p'ar.ter.3 living solitary lives on 'plantations many miles from any pslice protection, with q hundred or so coolies -under their command. The only serious trouble, the coolie- gives is with his quarrels oyer women. The indent system provide-.,- that one Hindoo woirt'n shall In* .••r-v-jrted for every three Hi::d«>o workers. 'I liU, oi course, necessitates a disgusting system of i>olyandry, and n the one cause of c-'»o!ie troubles. _ "Kith all this imported labour, there w still a domestic service problem in Fiji. Household labour Ls d<iir and inefficient. The Fijian won't work except fitfully. Tho Hindoo or the Jap demands a huge price for his services as cook or house-boy. Some of the resit.onts, therefore, call for the importation of Chinese. There is already a colony of Sumoans, the women of which aro tho hi undresses, an <l the Rahabs ot tlie community, the men rino handsome looking loafers. There will'be one day a strange mixture in this Paciiic ! group! j Fiji aspires to b© a tourist resort, and the I mon Steam Ship Company is lf.V- liC? a £' X toUn ' st i»t«i, to cost tlo.lXX), at buva. On the way acro<-a wo heard niucji from an energetic gentleman, who, I learned, was Mayor o< the town of Suva, of the wonderful p:ci.uresqueness of tho harbour, and oi tr.e nitivcii. The natives were thy slrong point, They would n*»t our Aornngj, i-s she entered the harbour, in war oanceis, in yet more dangerous trading canoes, selling coral and the tiopic fruits of tho lund. Well, on a net night wo nosed our way cantiom-Ij past klan<k «nd reefs, and* very early in the morning entered tho round bn.sin w-u>b isMiva Harbour, guaixkd from tbe Pacific by coral reefs, on which the ■surf foams m delicious, dazzling -whibeaofo, faced by a range of hills, nmvbflked in the oven of Nnture, with all the fantastic outlines of the fire still frro from the attrition of tho century. 1 here were no natives. Time posted , the sun rose; a doctor visited the shin and pronotcnoed it free of disease; no " x- V& 2r l * wa,to '" until I had theener Retio Mayor within earshot, and then discoursed to a group of parceners who were native-wnitine, "As a mati Icr of fact, yon know." I said in loud confidence, "there really aren't any natives. The natives aro a fiction of the Tourist Bureau. By-and-bye, perhf.ps. the Mayor ar.d the Town Council will paint themselves and dress up in coir matting, and, flourishing sharks'tceth swords, will come along and strive to give an air of picturosquen?«, to tho tropical scene. But ibeTe are no real natives." The Mayor of Suva seemed almost about to lose the lofty serenity which by right belongs to a successful trader nnd the elected Mayor of his town. He prepared a remonstrance. A steward atoiounced "some natives are coming in a stenm launch." "There!" L said triumphantly "Nntves in a steam launch! Of course they are not real natives. It is th© Mayor and the Town Council in mas. querade!" Then I closed the dienicsion.. The Mayor forgave, mc, and, going aw:H.v, heaped coals of fir© on my head by presenting mc -with a dieck chair/ Perhaps it was a hint that my imagination- -wanted a rest