INDIANS IN FIJI.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIV, Issue 1188, 10 December 1924, Page 3

INDIANS IN FIJI.

WORK OF THE Y.M.C.A. The New Zealand Young Men’s Christian Association decided at the beginning of, the present yeur to take up the interests of the Indian community in Fiji, and with that object in view appointed Mr A. W. McMillan as field secretary in that colony. On his -initial' trip to Fiji in August lust Mr McMillan was accompanied by Mr H. D. Grocott, national honorary secretary for foreign work, who, on Monday .evening, met ■ the board of directors of*the local Y.M.C.A. and gave an account. of the visit. “The population of the group,” said Mr Grocott, “Comprises approximately 80,000 Fijians, 65,000 Indians, and 4000 Europeans, and the Indians are naturally increasing in such numbers that it is estimated "they will be the dominant race in ten years’ time. A largo majority of the Indians are engaged in agriculture, particularly in -sugar . production on tlic western and northern coast of Viti Levu. The recent decision of the Colonial Sugar Refining Company to lease its land in small areas to suitable Indians in place of cultivating the crops by paid labour is largely availed of, and is producing a prosperous and contented settlement. There is a pressing need for, a general system of education of Indian children, which number 14,000. At present the only instruction of these children is that given to about ten per cent, in the schools of the Methodist and other missions und a school established and maintained by N. M. Nardu, a philanthropic Indian, which are giving valuable service.” Mr McMillan had been invited, continued the speaker, to co-operate with the Government in formulating an educational policy for the Indians. The instruction in agriculture received by the Indian labourers, under the ' indentured labour system, which .existed for 40 years, and which was abolished in 1920, was proving beneficial, und the Fiji Indian was now generally more efficient und modern in bis methods of cane production than was the labourer in Fiji. . The breaking-down of the caste system and lesser adherence to religious observances consequent upon removal from India had brought about moral laxity in Fiji, and there was a valuable field of services in inducing a process of restoration of the social purity which characterised natiyo life in India. Alt' 'McMillan,' who until last Alarch had been in the service of the London Alissionary Society in the United und Central Provinces' for 23 years, is a fluent speaker in the Hindu language, and has an intimate knowledge of the Indian temperament.. He has been received with the utmost cordiality by the Indians in Fiji, who are looking to him for direction and lead in their uplift movement. He has alsrt been' well received by the leading European residents and Government officials. who agree that there is a large field for service amongst the Indian race in their midst. Next year Air AleAlillan will visit New Zealand, to give the various associations an account of his work. He will be in Palmerston North in February. At the close of Air Grooott’s address, the board resolved, to give, financial support to the Fiji Indian' work by subscribing the quota asked from Palmerston North.