FIJI AS IT IS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XX, Issue 6820, 26 September 1883, Page 6

FIJI AS IT IS.

No 111. . ■ (by oub special reporter.] THE NATIVES. The natives, of whom there.are 110,000- in the group, are a strong, robust, and. healthy race of people, and live to a great age. In physique and intellect they are nothing inferior to tho Maoris of New Zealand, whilst in some respects they are superior. In their homes and houses tbey aie a pattern ot cleanliness, although this may be accounted for in some measure by the fact that they do i not require to have and never do have fires !in their houses. The little, fire they require for the preparation of their food is either made out o£ doors, or, if the weather be wet, in some outhouse built for the purpose. They are, like the Maoris, hospitable'to a fault. It is on record that the natives living at Natawa Bay, near where there are some hot springs, celebrated for their- remarkable curative properties, . were completely ruined by the hospitality which custom and tradition all .over Fiji enforced them to show to the large number of people which were constantly coming to the springs with their complaints. Their food consists

of yams, bananas, and breadfruit, whilst they cultivate the sugar cane, large quantities of which they chew. Fish, fowl, and pork are also favourite dishes with them. Yams are the staple food, and a good deal of instinct and ingenuity are displayed in the cultivation of the crop. Their drink is confined entirely to water and cocoa nut milk, the selling or even giving of liquors of any kind being most strictly prohibited by law. In this respect they stand out in marked contrast to the natives of New Zealand, where, had thesame : strictures been placed upon the sale of alcoholic liquors, or even our existing laws been carried out, we should not now have had to deplore the declension of our native race. Sir Arthur Gordon, if for nothing else, certainly deserves credit for having preserved the natives of Fiji from ,the evil effects of intoxication. This one good thing he has at any rate done for them. As house servants they are clean and tidy, handy and obedient, and are almost universally employed. In all the bouses I went into they were to be seen, whilst at the table they boou become accomplished waiters. In dress they still adhere to the simple "sulu," or piece of print (coloured or white), worn round the hips, nor have they ever been encouraged, either by the missionaries or the Government officials to adopt any other style; indeed Sir Arthur Gordon is said to have congratulated the missionaries for not haviug attempted to alter their custom in this respect. . Hence it is that all the servants at Government House (most of them young men) have nothing more on them than the boys that run about the streets:of Suva, i Hats or caps of any kind they never,, any of' them, wear; nor are they required, for the thick mass of brown tiair by which their heads are covered is quite a sufficient protection even from the hot tropical sun of Fiji. Smoking is a favourite habit with them, and is largely indulged in, both by men and women. The tobacco used they grow and prepare themselves, and 1 dare say is quite good enough, although not being a smoker myself I cannot speak of its quality with any degree of authority. . . , . For the educational and religious advan-

tages which they enjoy, the natives are almost wholly indebted to the Wesleyac Missionary. Society, whose agents have been labouring amongst them for tbe-last; fifty years, and it i« no small thiog to be able to say that as the result of their labours during that period every native on the group has been brought under the influences of Christianity. Over 90 per cent, of the total population are adherents of the Church. There is not a town, or even village of any size, where the Gospel is not preached to them in their own language; every Sabbath, whilst not a man, woman, or even child, but can read their Testament, and think for themselves. That is saying a great deal for a people who, previous to the... time we have mentioned, were sunk in the.very depths of heathenism, and renowned for their cannibalistic habits and practices.'' And I was pleased to observe that the "white.: residents of the Islands are prepared to acknowledge this fact—that the work of the missionaries has been a glorious success. A Catholic mission has been established at Levuka for some few years, but has so far not made very. much progress amongst the people. At Navaloa the Wesleyan Missionary Society have a, training institution;-: to which the more advanced and promising young men are drawn from the "native' schools which the missionaries have established in every town throughout Fiji. They there not only receive a good education, but are taught to cultivate the ground on a dif- ; . ferent and better system than that usually adopted by the natives themselves.' After; receiving a sufficient training to qualify them for their work, they are sent out , again,some as missionaries and others as teachers, and so the work of Christianising the.racegoes on. There are at present at the Navaloa Institution about 90 of these students undergoing preparation. It may be worth mentioning that so'satisfied do the Government

appear to be with the educational advantages which the natives already enjoy, that nothing in beiDg done by them in thia respect; ■■■.. On,, the other hand they seem quite content toleave the matter in the hands of those wh,o. have carried it on so far successfully, and... that too without any State aid having at anytime been afforded them. No attempt has hitherto been made at any of the schools to teach the native young people to speak, the English language, because previous to the annexation there was no necessity for it, arid since that period the Government have rather discouraged the idea, as tending to Englishify the natives, which is decidedly againstithe. whole teuor of their policy, which policy is to preserve to them their distinctive'nationality in every way possible.

THE LABOUR QUESTION. A stranger would naturally suppose that a native population 110,000 would surely be sufficient to supply all the demands. .for labour of the 2000 white residents in the islands—that there would in fact be enough, and to spare. And so there would be: ;but for the prohibitive restrictions which have been introduced by tbe Government,; making native labour no longer available. It is an indispensable condition that with the ex-, penditure of a largo amount of capital there should .ilso be a corresponding amount of. labour available, and it is the' absence of this condition that has brought the planters, of Fiji face to face with a question most difficult to solve, viz., where shall we obtain, our supply of labour from ? Previous to'the cession this supply (which was comparatively small then to what is required at the present" time) was obtained from two sources, viz., the native Fijian and the Solomon or other Polynesian Islands. But as there'sw ere ao "ordinances" in those days for "the regulating of the traffic, the system "soon became very much abused, and. kidnapping and slavery led to reprisals and massacre*. One of the first things, therefore, the Colonial Government did, was to take the labour question entirely under its own control, and by rushing to the other 1 extreme, rendered the employment of any kind of labour almost an impossibility. So, many of the Fijian natives are required to be employed working for themselves, in order to raise their taxes, that but a comparatively Bmall proportion of them are available for employment by the planters. Hence, they are obliged to look elsewhere for their supply. Coolies have beeti introduced from India, and Chinese are now, being brought over, and still the demand remains unsatisfied. The Government have! therefore handed the Island labour trade over to private enterprise again, but at the same time surrounded it with, the most stringent regulations. Every vessel going out amongst the Islands on a labour cruising expedition, is obliged to carry a Government agent. The engagement and introduction of labourers is submitted to the closest possible scrutiny, . and his conditions of employment and existence are laid down with the utmost possible minuteness. He must not be sent to work before seven in the morning, nor be worked more than nine hours in the day, nor over five and a-half days a week, Saturday afternoon being strictly observed as a half-holi-day. His food, clothing, housing, and nursing are all strictly regulated by law. Hospital accommodation is to be provided on every station employing more than ten hands, and must be everything that an experienced medical man can suggest. The introduction of Coolie labour—some 3000 Coolies have already been imported—will, it is feared, prove a very riaky experiment, and it is a question whether the Government had not better have facilitated and encouraged the employment of the Fijian native labour rather than hava obliged the introduction of a class of people so terribly subject to diseases as.the Coolies are.' Witness the receat introduction of small-pox and cholera by the

Poonah. However, strict the_.quarantihe regulations may be, and however long they may keep them' separated from the natives, there is no doubt the germs of the disease will still remain, and there is no telling when or how soon after their liberation it may not break out-again, and it once it get a hold of the natives, the results will moot assuredly .be disastrous. The question then of where an adequate labour supply is to be obtained from, and how kept up, is the one which is causing the greatest amount of anxiety at present amongst the planters, and until some fresh and more liberal measures are adopted, there seems to be no solution of the difficulty. Ido not think that were the labour ordinances less stringent, the planters of Fiji are a class of men. to take advantage of that fact, and thus seek to oppress and override : the native, l't would not be to their interest to do so. They would recog- j nise the fact of their dependence upon them for their supply of labour, and would, I feel ' sure, be quite prepared to treat them accordingly. I have never understood that the natives were treated in any other way. but justly and well, even before the annexation of. the colony, when things were very different to what they are now. Then the European, not having that stake

and interest in the country that he possesses to-day, had no particular motive for seeking to secure the welfare of the native. But now the whole aspect of affairs has changed. Privatu enterprise has forced the country ahead, security has been given to the lives and property of the natives, capital has been introduced on a large scale, and the interest of the white man has become so intimately connected with and bound up in the native that he finds he cannot get on without him. Does it not stand to reason, then, that, rather than run the risk of alienating the natives by treating them badly, the planters should seek to secure their co-operation and support by giving them for a fair day's work a fair day's wage? A certain amount of Government inspection where a large number'of natives are employed is no doubt ntcessary, and I am sure that to a reasonable extent no planter would object to it, but to have to put up and comply with all the regulations and ordinances which are now i n force, it is no wonderthat there are greitcomplaihts. Fiji will never bo a whitw man's country. That is quite certain. The Government have recognised that fact from the very beginning, and based their native, policy accordingly . The climate is too warm for Europeans to be constantly engaged during, long days at oat door labour. Work on the plantations must; and will always have to be done, by natives, hence the necessity for the making of such law 3 and regulations as will, while;giving ample protection .to thu natives tueiriseilves,'" at the same time enable the free use, by the

planters, of any labour that may be available. On some of the plantation*; . notably the Colonial Company's property, - Rewa", River; ■ Sbarpe, Fletcher, and Co.,' Starilake, Lee, and Co., the Deuba Company on the Navua River, Holcnhurst atXTaviuna,; and' at Manga Island, large numbers of.native < are employed ; in some cases,:.overlooo;'\ ; Th ;i rate of wages is Is a 'lay and found in food, clothing, and' bedding.Long; nan ow '. wooden buildings are erected for thuir acoo'Mmodation. One' for .a " living,; and ; for a sleeping room. The : sleeping room is : :200 feet by 20 feet,' with a door -..at-, each end, ■ \au'd . each- , side.! , about half way down; ;A long alley, " runs ...the,' whole length of'the centre, of the bull ling, about 0 feet wide. On each side of .. this., alley a floor is raised a foot or 18 inches above the ground, and. the whole floor is partitioned, off into small cabins, about feet 'wide; being . 7 feet deep. They are open to- the alley, or centre of the main building. :In each'of these cabiris.fro.m .'four to six of the natives sleep. In the other building, which is about the same, .size,.; 'a. long table.;. runs the whole length of. the room;'round which the natives sit and take their meals., ..The. " station bell '' ..rings : them; up in the morning, at the appoiuted hour, to their-, meals at the proper... time;, and to'''their V.work; They work in. gangs; of from 50 to 100, with a European over--1 seer l -to -look' after. them, and ' sometimes, when there are natives from.various .tribes; or different Islands working in: the same, gang, it takes him all his time, to ■ keep, them from' falling out with ons ; , another., Pitched ' battles and : hand-to-hand: lights: would often be indulged in -but for 'the. promptitude'and vigilance of the overseer. [To be continued.! ■