A HISTORY OF FIJI 297 



the missionaries had attempted to foster and preserve it, for it perished 

 chiefly because of its inadaptability, and the absence of a market for its 

 wares. The cheapest calico is softer and more enduring than the best 

 of tapa, the coarsest canvas sail is superior to that woven of pandanus 

 leaves, the beautiful adze of polished stone fails wholly when placed in 

 competition with even the "trade hatchet." 



Yet in each group there was at least some native art which, had it 

 been cared for by the whites, might have been preserved so that in a 

 more or less modified form it might have furnished a permanent and 

 progressively important means of livelihood to the natives, and thus 

 have become a means of maintaining their racial entity and self-respect. 



Art was the highest expression of their intellectual life, an absorb- 

 ing field for their ambition, a means of gratifying their instinct for 

 the beautiful, and a record of their history and their conception of the 

 universe. It meant far more to them than it does to us with our 

 widely varied interests, and to this the European was blind when he 

 permitted its destruction. 



All over the south seas in proportion as white men have become dom- 

 inant native arts have withered. Once the canoe was built of separate 

 pieces skilfully calked and lashed together, and its outrigger was a 

 marvel of flexibility and strength. Yet everywhere it degenerates into 

 a crudely hollowed log, crossed by two rough sticks to which the out- 

 rigger is rigidly tied. The house, once shapely in form and carefully 

 thatched, degenerates into a mere shack, and every carved bowl, paddle 

 and implement becomes rude, ugly and misshapen. All care in manu- 

 facture degenerates, and in proportion does the light of their intellec- 

 tual life fade out. A hopeless apathy, a listless lack of interest in all 

 around them overcomes their dulled minds and their lives, like those of 

 prisoners, are no longer worth the while of living, for hope can not 

 flower within the stifle of the cold gray walls of bigotry's bastile. 



Pleasures and sports suffer as do the arts. The surf-board riders 

 of Hawaii are now rarely seen, dances and songs are being constantly 

 suppressed, and many happy things that once filled their minds with 

 joy, and were beautiful in their eyes, have vanished never to be theirs 

 again. But one resource is left to their idle minds, and clandestine 

 immorality saps their strength. As the Government Commission in 

 Fiji reports 



premature civilization, mental apathy and lack of ambition under the new con- 

 ditions are among the most important causes of the decline of the population. 



This carefully selected commission was appointed by the British 

 government in Fiji to inquire into the causes of the decrease in the 

 native population, and after long investigation the conclusions of the 

 commissioners were published by the Colony in 189 6. 2 It is probable 



2 Eeport of the Commission appointed to inquire into the causes of the de- 



