THE FUTURE OF FIJI.

Westport Times, Volume IV, Issue 750, 15 December 1870, Page 2

THE FUTURE OF FIJI.

The special correspondent of the " Argus " has conc'uded an able series of articles on the Fijis. Amongst his closing remarks are the- following : " What ever difficulties may intervene, there is no doubt of the ultimate prosperity of theFi jis. There is a wide field for enterprise in this fertile but yet uncultivated domain, which requires only labor aud capital to utilise its undeveloped resources. They who go forth wilh brave hearts and willing hands to replenish the earth and subdue it, have before them the prospects of those rewards which have already been reaped by the first hardy settlers of New youth Wales and Victoria. Theirs is the glorious task to redeem to peace and usefulness a generous soil, to make the rich flats teem with sugar-cane, the vacant valleys laugh with cotton, and the tropic wilderness to blossom like a garden With the labor question once placed on a satisfactory basis, and a regular and abundant supply of field hands from China or India guaranteed, there is nothing to prevent the Fiji Islands, with their great advantages of soil and climate, and a geographical position which opens to them the markets of Australasia on the one side, and thosi of the American Continent on thi.other, rapidly becoming the Mauritius of the Pacific. Within the past six months the trade of the group has received a great impetus. Steam communication has been opened between the ports of Melbourne, Syd-iey, and Auckland, and the islands, and in the second week of September last there was colonial sh pping to the amount of 3000 tons lying in Levuka harbor alone time. This progress has been made in spite of the strong disposition shown by the Imperial authorities to discourage a European settlement of the group. When a young community has so far struggled into notice in this unpropitious way, by the force of energy and endurance of its settlers, there is nothing extravagant in the prediction that with a settled government under the auspices of England, a trade capable of almost infinite expansion will be permanently established. When the Istands were offered to the Queen, 10 years ago, the American influence among the white residents was predominant. The circumstances are now entirely different, and, if such an offer were repeated, it would be deserving of more serious consideration. Since the proposed cession was declined in 1862 the group has exported produce of the approximate value of £390,000, of which -£143,000 was derived from cotton; and something like 40,000 tons of colonial shipping have entered the port of Levuka since the same date. Trade follows the flag, and it is unnecessary to enlarge on the advantages which would accrue to Great Britain by fostering the commerce of this stripling community, which must some day be an icportant English possession.