Page image

those of the remainder who had not died, stayed to become the parents of the present Fijian-born Indians.

THE PICTURE TODAY This is the picture today: Fiji produces most of its own food, such as rice, vegetables, milk, meat, fruit. Its export crops are sugar cane, coconuts, bananas and pineapples, with some peanuts, ginger and tropical fruits. The other important activity is gold-mining. When the indentured labour system ended, the Colonial Sugar Refining Company, which owns and leases large tracts of land, rented out a few acres each to the Indians, who thus became tenant farmers. Though the Fijians grow a little sugar cane, most of the production is in the hands of the Indians, half of whom have land bought or leased from the Fijian tribes, and half of whom are tenants of the Colonial Sugar Refining Company.

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.

THE INDIANS OF FIJI The Indians have been brought to Fiji and promised equal rights, but find it most difficult to buy land. The Indians are thrifty, hard-working: and fine cultivators, and have strong family attachments. The home country of the India is India, but his family home is increasingly in Fiji, for he was born there. Of the countries outside Fiji, India is where his sympathies lie. Some of the Fijian Indians feel, in The ‘Emperor’ mine in Fiji. Gold mining only started seriously some fifteen years ago, but production now is some £7,000,000 per year.

Log in or create a Papers Past website account

Use your Papers Past website account to correct newspaper text.

By creating and using this account you agree to our terms of use.

Log in with RealMe®

If you’ve used a RealMe login somewhere else, you can use it here too. If you don’t already have a username and password, just click Log in and you can choose to create one.


Log in again to continue your work

Your session has expired.

Log in again with RealMe®


Alert