TWO SYSTEMS OF PRODUCTION

Te Ao Hou, Summer 1953, Page 29

TWO SYSTEMS OF PRODUCTION The major part of the copra from coconuts is produced by the Fijians on land owned in common. The remainder of the copra comes mainly from large estates worked by Indians and Fijian wage labour. The banana industry is run by the Fijians, on land held in common. Fiji thus has two systems of production. One is traditional in Fiji, where the land is owned by the tribe or group, and not by the person, and cannot be sold. Production is for the group. The second system is where there is ownership of land by one person or company, hiring workers for wages. Most of the people, in fact, do not work for wages, but of those who do more than half are Indians, the rest being Fijians, other Pacific Islanders, Chinese and Europeans. In Suva and the townships, Indians largely do the shopkeeping, drive the taxis and run the laundries. In Fiji, there are about 130,000 Fijians, and about 140,000 Indians. Despite the European diseases of measles and influenza, which reduced the Fijian population from about 200,000 in 1874 to 83,000 in 1919, the Fijians, like the Maoris, have made adjustments with the European world and are a vigorous people, increasing in numbers. But the Indians, who for some years have been in the majority, are increasing still faster. They have more women of child-bearing age, they have children earlier in life, and fewer of their children die. That means that at the present time the rate of increase of the Indians is greater than that of the Fijians. The Fijians are not interested in individual money savings. They have the community—not the individual—philosophy. They are not interested in commerce. They are co-operators, holding land in common and working for the group. There is no inter-marriage between Indians and Fijians.