JOTTINGS BY THE WAY.

Western Star, Issue 143, 3 June 1876, Page 5

JOTTINGS BY THE WAY.

• [bX A. EIYEBTONIAIf.] ' VI. —FIJI. -The'Natives are scattered over these two ..islands bin -village communities of * to 700 each. The Legislative , .fOoiiffpil has assessed Kandavu at •£2OOO, .annual taxation. In -order that the natives may be in a position to pay this, -Board: .is appointed consisting of the :-:Boko,‘-a great .chief, the Police Magistrate, a (government official (whose duty it jS;to give direction and counsel),- and a number of natives elected by the people. This Board : has to consider what the • ground is best fitted to produce; blocks „• of land are selected for plantation within,. V easy’ distartce of the village. Pour or five villages have a block of some fifty acres' put under their care. Each comitjffiunity receives’its own particular portion of' the ‘block f6r cultivation, and all and tools, and the Board : : rpays the (government in produce the r amouut iat which the district under its control is. assessed.. • The value of produce . ' remaining after payment of the assessv jnent is, under the direction of the Board, (distributed among Lithe. various village GbrnmunitiesP ’ ; With. 'the -Hoh: ‘-B. Thurston, and is .fitted, we think, to lead. the natives into .. BaFit| : :of indastry and self-reliance. We would recommend visitors to Piji, to whom cdihforfc land time are of any • ■ value,'not to travel by the Pacific Mail . .. Company’s: boats. We have been here V now eight full days waiting for the steamer to take us on to Levuka ; and the accommodation here in Kandavu is : atrociously .had. A 'great, part of that time we had to live on salt'b eef and ship . biscuits, an(t.while operating with a knife and fbrteon a morsel of the former article - we had ample time to calculate bn reagonable -gpounds'.lhat it had 1 lain buried beneath Ocean’s brine, for a quarter of a century,' The saddest story, has an end- *, ing,. and so. had the salt beef, and as we - had. no immediate prospect of getting v. -away we exercised ourselves, greatly in wondering what would come aiher. At last something did come. We missed a t goat from the .flock, and on turning a • corner wo saw the venerable victim of : circumstances lying in its blood under - the cruel.knives.of two Fijians. Bearded ■ * ghats'look very, picturesque on the rocks; ~ Viiwe-Iffie to see them there, but we can’t "say that we like to see them' on the table. •• 'We: tried"to'persuade ourselves that it -■ “.was all a f polish * prejudice, and fiercely <. P set. ourselves ftf conquer-'it, But- it was £ : ho use, and Mgr two days we lived on :r h.little.else, ir tfcin. cocoa nut milk and yams I,yaud'Biscqft.: At'last the joyful .morning ' ■ of out deliverange came. A great shout ■ _ rose inthoairi from a group of natives, ‘ Steamer’s coming.” Where is she ?» we ask. -‘‘. Oh, you’ll not see her for some ■’ hours,” we are told ; and on inquiry we learn that the native dwellers on the hills ten miles away discerned her on the 'far horizon, and. raising a shout, they ' ...passed .the word do v.m to the tow A that the long-look'ed-for vessel was coming at last. We paid our bill, which amounted

to £3 exactly for the week, and as we passed out of the room our host observed, with a burst of confidence - which quite touched us, “ I’ll be glad to see you back again, for I’m of your persuasion,”