FIJI'S DRIFT

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LII, Issue 16211, 8 December 1926, Page 10

FIJI'S DRIFT

TO STACNATICJX STATE

GREAT FARMING COUNTRY. "For tho life of ■file 1 cannot 'understand it. Here is one of the most delightful little countries in the world being allowed to drift into a state ot stagnation. Man, if wc had such land in New Zealand: what a wealth of production would! wo vget off it. It's amazing to mo that something is not done to save it going to ruin." These remarks were made by Mr N. (Spike) Smith, the well-known farmer at Otorohanga, in the King Country, who returned to New Zealand from Fiji by the Tofua. Mr Smith spent three months in Fiji.

"Why there isn't a decent road in the whole place and hardly a telephone wire," he continued, "to my mind they want some new blood down there. The land! can be easily cultivated and would grow anything. I saw fatbullocks, five to six years old, which would' hold their own with anything in this ■ country. They were great animals and were like Topsy in Uncle Tom's Cabin, they 'just growed.' " "How about dairying-?" was asked. "That country could be made just as good as any part <>f the Waikato," lie replied. "I had ample opportunity of seeing tlnx whole place while I Mas there, and I reckon a. man could 1 get hold of .sortie of the best of it for a tenth of what has been paid for WaiWaikato land. Some of it is fine bush country and! with top-dressing could be made to produce butter-fat as good as any hero

"But tho great trouble down there is the native lease question," Mr 'Smith went on. "A man takes up a piece of land iii Fiji' aiid makes if productive. As a matter of fact he is only improving it and making it a good home for the native owners. The position is exactly tho same, as that in the King Country. It is a case of a settler paying for his own improvements instead! of being paid for them.

"There' does not .seem to be any inclination on tho part of the pbwjers that be to help the place along." he went on. "To me it appeared strange that in § British county "such things should be allowed to exist, let alone continue. If Fiji wishes to encourage settlement and progress as it should then there must be a change in the present administration."