FIJI.

Otago Witness, Issue 1341, 11 August 1877, Page 6

FIJI.

The Augusta has just arrived, after making one of the fastest runs yet known from Fiji. She is only eight daya from Levuka. Of this, three days were spent between Levuka and Kandavu. The resb of the passage was done in $ye, with a gale astern the whole way. The weather was very severe, and the Augusta proved herself quite able to cope with it. The news she brings is not striking, but very satisfactory, showing that the Colony is over its worst days and taking a new start on a fresh career.

Cotton — which every one thought done for ever— is again paying those who have been able to stick to it, and whose plantations are suitable in soil and climate to the growth of the more costly kinds. Private letters tell me, as an illustration, of om> planter in an island to windward who found to his own surprise that the account sales of his orop placed a thousand and fifty pounds i to his credit after repaying the advance made upon it on shipment. As for a long time past planters have been lucky if the returns covered the advance, it is easy to conceive the new hope that such results have excited. There are large areas ef country in Fiji exceptionally fit for cotton from the sandy nature of the soil and dryneaa of the climate. They are also fit for the cocoa nut, and the copra industry is competing with cotton in these soils. In the richer soils sugar is extending. The two mills on the Rewa River are in full work night and day, and the planters there are all busy, satisfied, and making money. The rise in the price of sagar has been met by a corresponding rise in the price given: by the mills for the cane. Added to this, experience in cultivation enables the growers to produce a cane of greater density and to get heavier crops to the acre. Forty tons is now considered only a fair return, and the prospect before the planters, when they are better supplied with mills, anil there ia more competition for the cane, hm become very encouraging. The labour question has also advanced another stage. The Commissioner of Lands, Mr Mitchell, is to go to Sydney at once in the Ly-ee Moon, and to proceed thence to Calcutta, in order to obtain 500 coolies from the Indian Government as a first instalment towards the future labour of Fiji. He takes £5000 with him to pay the expenses of their passages, and when they arrive, they will be placed with planters under the supervision of the Government, and under regulations satisfactory to the Government of India, to whom that of Fiji will be responsible. There are many who believe in the possibility of obtaining all the labour that is required from - the numerous islands in the Pacific, and who would prefer that to resorting to India. Unfortunately, the baseless cry of "slavery!" has been raised ia the Colonies and in England, and the feeling thus excited is an obstacle to the immigration that might otherwise ' be safely stimulated. Getting men from India instead is the next best thing, but in the loug run the islands are sure to be the chief source of supply. The good done by bringing these savages to Fiji, and making them, nolens volens, live together on the same plantation in peace and friendship, is now too widely recognised by naval officers, and' other competent judges, for the prejudice against the island labour trade, properly regulated, to, endure. It will soon be found that the' Natives themselves miss the comforts and wealth they acquired and learned to value by their stay in Fiji, and they, through the missionaries living among them, will be heard to speak when they find the market | practically closed against them. The capital is still at Levuka, and there [ seems some doubt as to its removal for & considerable time to come. My information states that the engineers have not been successful bo far in obtaining an adequate water supply, | and that there is little disposition on the part of the merchants and others to move frem Levuka. A township will be laid out and established at Suva, but probably no active steps be taken to remove the seat of Government until the growth of trade has attracted a population. Such, at all events, is the prevailing opinion in Levuka.

The land titles are being proceeded with vigorously, and at least 200 will be issued during the next two months. The new plan of setting the Commissioners to work separately, instead of together, as heretofore, ia working well, and the business is being got through proportionately fast. A Machinery Ordinance of a very useful character haß aIBO been passed. It provides that anyone erecting machinery on mortgaged land for sngarmaking or for other purposes, with the joint consent of mortgagor or mortgagee, shall have a preference lieu for seven years on the machinery and plantation. This ought to do great good. The mortgagee in most cases will be only too glad to see his security mv proved by the erection of machinery to turn the land to account, while the mortgagor will be relieved from the necessity of paying off the first mortgage before he can enter into negotiations with the second. The advance required will thus be confined to the cosb of the machinery, and will, of course, be obtained so much the more easily. Coffee-planting is extending rapidly, and I hear of 400 acres cleared for this purpose in the small island of Mango alone. It is found that coffee of a very superior quality can be grown at low levels in the friable soils of this and the other windward islands. The bushes already in bearing at Mango are only" throe years old, and I am told by a gentleman, experienced in coffee growing in the East, that they produce a berry equal to anything he has ever Been. The cultivation is also being taken up actively at Taviuni, in which splendid island the sugar cane on Maifcland and Bichardson's plantation is looking all that could be desired, though their operations are impeded for want of labour, and the quantity of sugar produced is far below that of which the plantation and mill are capable.

The arrow-root production i 3 as yefc practically confined to the plantation of Mr N. Chalmers, by whom the finer qualities have been introduced into Fiji. Bis operations aro therefore watched with much, interest, and 1 am glad to learn from a gentleman recently an Koro that the result ia fully answering his expectations. The crop is yery heavy, and the machinery workiog con

,stantly and well. A. small shipmelit of three ; tons' of as fine quality as could be desired i comes to Auckland by the Augusta, but the : greater part of the crop — something like 80 'to 90 tons — will find its way at present to ! Australian and English markets'. . "Mr. Chalmers has been the most energetic of' .'planters during the nine years 'that he' has) 'been in Fiji, and there are many old frjendß in Otago who will be glad to hear of His suq^ .cess. t ,- ' \ ,', ' -;_ I Sago is also being looked to as among; the = more immediate additions to the exports oft the Colony, while pepper, vanilla, and silk are awaiting development.' These 'are-' in'' dustries — silk especially — that will' probably 5 be more successfully taken up" by.?the' Natives themselves, when once they learil their value and the facility with which they, can earn money. The experiment •'in," tobacco growing in Viti Levu - is , being, watched with interest as &n industry much more suitable to white men. Of the suita-. bility of the soil and climate there can be hodoubt. That is proved by the eas.e with* which the Natives have long 'grown the crop/ and the abundance of the return. /The; preparation requires skill and local 'experience, -which are necessary in order to ascertain the! most profitable kinds for cultivation.,, f lt. is". on these points that information is moat required. When it is obtained, the production; ought to be considerable. ' • : t Now, looking at these prospects my ■Fijian correspondent asks me, and -I ask in turn, is New s Zealand going to cut '&gkon-' nection just when it ought to bo'm'pst proStable to both Colonies? No more attractive" business could be found than that of putting' up sugar mills, for example, under -the' •security of the new Machinery Ordinance. ■It would pay well in itself, but it would pay still better through the collateral' trade' that wouldfollow ; for whereverthe mills areowhed there will the sugar trade centre, and there will the planters be attracted for' their • holi- 5 day. There also will their children * b§ ' dent* education, and for the change of climate; so necessary for them. Can you noV'inl .Otago, make some effort to secure these, ad.', .vantages.? Auckland is the, natural; centra 1 for the trade.; but Auckland ia not -.making,, [and doe 3 not seem inclined to make, any ef-C ,fort. I feel well assured that it!iß''in -'yonr power in Dunedin to take up the business, 1 and as well assured that it would- prove' a growing and profitable addition_to^your.cpm^ merce and a large field, fo'i .the employment' of your steamers and other .y!essek'.y, The. Government have applications from for 3000. labourers ; that alone ought to give, an idea of the extent which, it. is contem-plated-to give to operations—and fthis ; is * only the beginning. Aa titles are issued' the-: demand will .become verymuch-gteafcer/'and' trade and production increase 1 acbordiiigly.' V*