Fiji and Its People.

Evening Post, Volume LXIII, Issue 40, 15 February 1902, Page 3 (Supplement)

Fiji and Its People.

NOTES OF A REGENT VISIT. The Bishop of Wellington has been contributing to the last three numbers of the Church Chronicle some interesting notes of his recent visit to Fiji. This island group has been commanding of late a great deal of attention in Australia and New Zealand. The discussions that have been taking place concerning its present condition and future fate have, it is true, been more or less political, but they have naturally aroused curiosity of a more general character, and the personal impressions of an unbiassed and observant visitor cannot fail to prove acceptable to our readers. The following extracts from the Bishop's notes may help to a better understanding of the actual state of affairs in the islands. FIJI AND ITS INHABITANTS. "Fiji, or Viti, is the name given to a circular group of islands, the diameter of the circle being about 250 miles. Rotuma, a little island about 300 miles north of the group, also belongs' to Fiji. The total area is about 7500 square miles, which is approximately that of the principality of Wales, and a little less than that of the province of Wellington. More than half of this area is covered by the island Viti Levu, or 'Great Fiji,' at the south-east corner of which is situated the capital of the colony, Suva. Vanua Levu, or 'great land' (vanu— the Maori whenua), is about half as large as Viti Levu, and considerably larger than any other island. I have not seen the returns of the census taken last April, but I believe the constituents of the population to be approximately as follows : — Europeans, 2500 j half-castes, 1200 ; Polynesians, 1900; Indians, 15,000; Fijians, 99,000; making a total of 119,600' or thereabouts. So in population, as in area, Fiji resembles the Wellington province, or our diocese less South Taranaki. The Europeans and Polynesians added together equal our Maori inhabitants in number, the proportion of Europeans to Polynesians being about five to four ; the remainder •of our population is represented by Fijians, half-castes, and Indians, there being about cne Indian to every seven Fijians. The European population, which, numbers about one forty-seventh of the whole, is at present at a standstill. Of the Polynesians a small number come from Samoa, but the larger part are Melanesians from the Solomon Islands and the New Hebrides. These immigrants are steadily diminishing, chiefly, I think, because the re-sc-urces of their own islands are being developed. Nearly all with whom I havt. spoken are looking forward to a return to their old homes. It is possible, however, that if the Australian Commonwealth continues to discourage the importation of coloured labourers into Queensland, the number of Melanesian immigrants to Fiji may increase ; but in that case I think that the increase will not be permanent. The native Fiji population is also decreasing, though the Government are sparing no effort to ascertain the causes of this decrease, and to check its progress. There are good grounds for believing* that it began before the coming of the Europeans. On the other hand, the coolies from the N.W. provinces of Indja, are fast in- | creasing. Unlike the Fijians and Melanesians, they are industrious and thrifty, and a large number of the 'free Indians,' i.e., those whose indentures have expired, make their homes in l<"iji. They are employed during their term of service chiefly in the sugar plantations. I have heard good accounts of their general conduct ; but they are said to be very quarrelsome, and several murders have been committed by them lately. Jealousy has been the motive of these crimes and is probably connected with the paucity of women among this class of immigrants. It seems not unlikely that in future the bulk of the inhabitants of these islands will be Indians working under -ft small .sroujp,_ but somewhat larger

than at present, of English planters. There is no love between the Fijian and Indian ; I have heard of two cases only of intermarriage. HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT. "Until a quarter of a century ago there was no settled Government in Fiji. Inter-tribal wars were frequent, and now and then, as in England after the withdrawal of the Roman legions some one tribe would become so powerful that its chief would for a time be practically supreme over the' whole, or the greater part of the archipelago. Such a chief was Cacobau, the "King" of Bau who in 1874 brought about the cession of Fiji to "Great Britain. The immediate cause was a demand by the United States for the surrender of certain islands, and the payment of a large sum of money, as compensation for injuries alleged to have been inflicted on an American." Bishop Wallis met two of Cacobau's grandchildren, one of whom is a native chief; he was educated in Sydney and came to New Zealand in 1895 with the Fiji cricket team. "Since 1874 Fiji has been a Crown colony. The Governor,, who is also exofficio High Commissioner of the Western Pacific, is supreme in Fiji, but is subject, of course, to instructions from Home conveyed through the Secretary of State for the Colonies. Laws or 'ordinances' for the colony are enacted "by the Governor with the advice and consent of the Legislative Council." The Council consists of twelve members, half of whom hold official positions in the colony, and half are appointed by the Governor. But in effect both this body and the smaller Executive Council are merely advisers of His Excellency — he seeks their advice, but is not bound by it. In dealing with matters which concern the natives, the Governor is accustomed to convene a Council of Rokos, or rulers of the twelve provinces, and other representative Fijians. These Rokos, who in nearly all cases are natives of high rank, assemble every year their subordinates, the Bulis or rulers of the districts under whom are placed the Turangas ni koro, or village rulers. The Turanga is, however, if I understand his position rightly, not so much the sovereign of his little kingdom as the President of the Council \ of Elders who rule the village or commune. The relation of the Fijian to the J commune is very ©lose, closer, I think, j than that of the Maori to his tribe in j early days. The Fijian may not leave his own people, except for a short period, without the consent of the native rulers. Until lately he has owned no property of his own ; all his earnings belonged to the village j if he needed a house, it was built by the villagers. Whatever may be the merits or the demerits of this order of things, it is not the creation of the English Government, but it is the survival of the old institutions of the native race." Bishop Wallis explains the change made in taxation by Sir Arthur Gordon, who in 1876 replaced the old native system of money payment by payment in kind. Upon ti.e much-debated, merits of the present method the Bishop, a^ a stranger without intimate knowledge of its working, does not venture an opinion. DECREASE OF NATIVE POPULATION. "It is unfortunately certain that the Fijians are ' steadily decreasing in numbers in nearly all parts of the colony. . The Government of the colony is working hard to check the decrease. I have had an opportunity of reading the report of a Commission appointed to enquire into the decrease of the native population presented in. 1893, which appears to me exceedingly valuable ; and may give us hints for dealing wisely with our own problem regarding the Maoris. j "The decrease is more difficult to under- | stand, as the birthrate among the Fijians is very high ; highei, I think, than in any European country. It must be remarked, nowever, that marriage is far more frequent in Fiji than in Europe. "The Commissioners ore of opinion that the decrease began in Fiji, as in other islands of the Pacific, before the coming of Europeans. They believe that in about 1782 there was a terribly destructive epidemic of the lila balavu, or wasting sickness ; and ten years later a second epidemic of a dysenteric or choleraic character. Since the coming of the Europeans foreign diseases have been introduced ; 1875, the year after the Cession, occurred a most disastrous epidemic of measles, which destroyed more than a quarter of the population of the islands. The evil results of these attacks are to be traced not only in the number of deaths but also in the enfeebling of the constitutions of many of the survivors. "Mortality among young ctuldren is astonishingly great. Half the children born appear to die in their first year. This is largely due to the indifference to sickness and suffering which is unfortunately characteristic of the Fijian. There is also a horrible disease known to medical men as yaws, by the natives called coko. Fijian parents are convinced that no child can grow up strong in body and mind unless he contracts this disease ; and as they believe that white men, having had no experience, know nothing about it, there is great difficulty in eradicating this conrictioiv I haye 1 been..

told that mothers constantly bring their babies into contact with, those who have caught the disease, in order that they may catch, it also. 'They regard it,' says the Commissioners, 'much as English mothers regard teething— a necesary, normal, and desirable process, harm* ful only when it accidentally goes wrong., "Drunkenness- is rare among' the natives.. Any person selling alcoholic drinks to a Fijian or a coolie is liable to a heavy; jine, which is doubled for a second offence. Permissions to use alcohol may be given by the Governor only; but are generally refused. lam told that the ordinance -with regard to the sale bf liquor is strictly enforced. On the other hand the excessive drinking of the narcotic kawa, or yagona as it is called here, which is not a fermented beverage, is said to have mischievous results, one being a lack of control over the legs. The Wesleyans discourage its use altogether. "Kidd, in his 'Social Evolution,' reminds us that peace has had much to do with the decadence of native races. In the old days of inter-tribal wars, it was necessary for men^o keep themselves in bodily vigour, alert, and ready to defend themselves, or to act on the offensive at a moment's notice. The 'pax Britannica' > has removed this necessity ; and as the wants of the Fijian, like the Maori, are few and easily supplied, and as he, again like the Maori, is naturally inactive, it is nofc surprising that he has become weaker. The ehiel recommendations of the Comanißsioners are directed to improvements in sanitation ; greater cleanness in native dwellings, raised bed places instead of the mats on the ground which the Fijians love, better and more varied food, the supply of pure drinking water s and the like. They propose that boys and girls should be forbidden the us« of tobacco, that parents should be punished for exposing children to infection with yaws, and that annual bounty should be be given to parents of five living children. "I am persuaded that whether or not the causes of the decrease of population have been discovered, th© Government is working hard to counteract it, by the. enactment and enforcement of sanitary regulations, and the establishment of hospitals for natives (I have visited two, one at Suva, and another at Wainobokasi) with schools for training native doctors. It was pleasant to me to find in the Director of the Suva Hospital an old college friend of mine, Dr. G. W. A.i Lynch. STRANGE MARRIAGE CUSTOMS., "Marriage between cousins is very, common in Fiji, and it is surprising that the children of these marriages are found to be healthier and more numerous than those of other unions. AH cousins, however, are not allowed to massy ; account is taken of the sex of the parent. Thus a man may, and in most cases is expected 1 to, marry the daughter of has father's sister or of his mother's brother; but it would be accounted by Fijians that his union with the daughter of his father's brother or his mother's sister would be as shameful as a union with, his own sistert The native terms for those who may, and properly ought to, and again, those who ought not to, intermarry are respectively veidavolani and veiganeni. Flxst cousins whose 'fathers were orothers, or whose mothers were sisters are veiganeni; other first cousins are veidavolani. The children of veidavolani are yeiganeHi — that is,, their marriage is forbidden; the children, ol veiganeni are veidavolani— r that . is, f&ey are expected to marry. So firmly established is the rule that a man is bound to a first cousin witjh whom he is veidav volani, that if he marries another woman, his children by that marriage are veiganeni with the children of the cousin he should have married, as much as if he had actually married her, and the children of them both had been really brothers and sisters, not, as they are, merely second cousins. Their children again will be, in accordance with the rule I have mentioned, veidavolani. These marriages, as has been said, appear to have good results., so far as the offspring are concerned ; but they are becoming less popular, partly because they are felt to be 'insipid,' inasmuch as they limit the choice of a partner. The Commissioners quote a saying at Bay when married people dc not agree together, 'of course they do not ; they art veidavolani.' It may, be added that s man who is veidavolani with a first cousin necessarily stands in the same relation to all her sisters, and if she die, may, and is expected to marry one of '.hem. In the samo way, a woman will marry the brother of her deceased husband. Bishop Wallis pays a generous tribute to the missionary work done by the Wesleyans, and says: — The Wesleyan missionaries whom I saw welcomed my assurance that we of the Church of the Province of New Zealand had no intention of interfering in any way with their work among the Fijians, and fully admitted that it was our duty to do all that lay in our power to minister to members of our own Church, both English and Melanesian. They hoped also that we might be able to help the coolie population, whom they have made some .efforts to read*."