THE FIJI ISLANDS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19844, 19 May 1927, Page 7

THE FIJI ISLANDS

MISSION WORK EDUCATION OF INDIAN CHILDREN (Special to “Chronicle.”) AUCKLAND, May 18. “Suva probably has more taxis in proportion to its population than any other town in the world, and they are all driven by Indians.” This observation was made by the Bev. F. B. Redgrave, General Secretary of the New Zealand Anglican Board of Missions, who has returned from a tour of the Islands mission stations. He was speaking about Indians in Fiji and their rapid increase in the Islands. “The Fijians,” said Mr Redgrave, “are all baptised Christians. Most of them belong to the Methodist Church, which claims 70,000 out of a 1 population of 80,000. “The Christian churches have been criticised for starting schools to educate Indian children,” said Mr Redgrave, “but they are determined to have the schools, and in many places they have their own with their own teachers, who not infrequently are giving seditious teaching. . “There is no poverty among the In-' dians,” he continued, “and even agricultural labourers in the sugar cane areas save money.”