SOUTH SEA CRUISE

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXIV, Issue 246, 29 September 1934, Page 6

SOUTH SEA CRUISE

Attractions of the Islands RISING INDIAN PROBLEM “The attractions of the South Sea islands are quite irresistible, and call one back to them insistently,” said Mr R. G. Matheson, of Hastings, in speaking to the Hastings Rotary Club yesterday on a recent ocean cruise to Fiji, Samoa, and Tonga. The total distance of the journey, he said, was 3400 miles. A week after the sailing list was advertised for this special ocean cruise, Mr. Matheson said, he was told that there was only one berth left. He set out from Hastings on a morning on which there had been a 14-degree frost, and in three and a half days was in Fiji, and among warmth and tropical conditions.

After going on to say there was no doubt about the genuineness of the feats performed by the Fijian firewalkers, Mr. Matheson said that about 180,000 people, including 90,000 Fijians, 75,000 Indians, and 25,000 Europeans, lived in the Fiji group. Suva, the capital. was a modern city with large buildings, and the Grand Pacific Hotel was a splendid place.

Alongside the doors of the museum were two stones, and the speaker was told that they were cannibal stones used at one time for dashing out the brains of victims. The gardens and parks, with their indescribably beautiful flowers and climbing plants, and the splendid’ private homes, were features that caught the fancy of every visitor.

A surprising discovery from the speaker’s view was that there were dairy farms and three dairy factories in Fiji: and another surprise was to discover so large a river at the Rewa, which was as wide as the Wanganui river at the Wanganui bridge, and carrying apparently just as much water.

The Indian quarter “gave one the horrors.” Nothing more squalid or disgusting could be imagined. Few of the Indians returned to India to live after their indentures expired. An educated Indian told the speaker that he would not dream of going back to India. In India, he said, he was a speck—a nonentity, nothing. In Fiji he was a free man; he had some dignity and an identity as a free citizen; and best of all, there was hardly any observance, of the rules of caste. The Indians would no doubt dominate Fiji eventually, and their dominance would most likely give rise to serious problems. Speaking of a native entertainment which he attended, Mr. Matheson said that among a number of remarkable performances, the most interesting was a competition in which a Fijian boy made fire in only three minutes by rubbing sticks together. Another very interesting item was an action song representing the departure of the Fijian contingent for the Great War, their reaction to shell fire, their various experiences of military service, and their return to their homes. It was just as graphic and understandable, said Mr. Matheson, as though one were listening to an account read from a book.