3oo TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



are sadly needed in the Pacific, and the dawn of the first real progress 

 will appear when men like Booker Washington arise among the natives 

 of Fiji. The establishment of non-sectarian manual training schools 

 such as his, in so far as possible under native teachers and supported by 

 native efforts, might soon revolutionize their whole system of life, and 

 change them from well-behaved captives into purposeful men and 

 women. 



The missionaries now conduct nearly all the schools in Fiji, and it 

 is much to their credit that illiteracy is almost as rare as in Germany, 

 all the present generation being able to read and write their own lan- 

 guage. These schools are fundamentally good, but the natives should 

 be taught not only how to pray, but also how to labor and to live. The 

 missionaries would doubtless welcome an opportunity to extend the 

 scope of native education, but the expense of establishing trade schools 

 is too great for their resources and the project demands government 

 aid. That the return to the state would ultimately far more than 

 repay the outlay can not be doubted, for even the non-altruistic Dutch 

 well know the profit accruing to Java and hence to themselves through 

 the establishment of agricultural schools for natives. 



Every indication of an initiative among the Fijians in the direc- 

 tion of craft-development should be wisely encouraged instead of being, 

 as at present, smothered under the cloak of a paternalism that oblit- 

 erates error only by crushing endeavor. 



It may be confidently hoped that the British government which has 

 labored so persistently and at such constant expense to develop Fiji 

 "for the Fijians" and not for the surfeit of those who would selfishly 

 exploit the natives, will take this final step and render it possible for 

 the natives to raise themselves to a position of self-dependence. This 

 was, indeed, the confessed intention of certain high officials of the col- 

 ony whom I enjoyed the pleasure of meeting when in Fiji. So con- 

 sistent have the English been in their effort actually to civilize and ele- 

 vate the Fijians that their policy has been pursued for years despite 

 financial loss and the frequent protests of the whites, as is evidenced 

 by the steady decline of the white population from 2,750 in 1871 to 

 2,036 in 1891, since which time it has slowly risen, becoming 3,707 in 

 1911. The public debt in 1910 was £104,115 and the native taxes 

 amounted only to about £16,000, the principal source of revenue be- 

 ing derived from customs receipts which were £129,552, the latter be- 

 ing, of course, an indirect tax upon the colony itself. 



Since 1874, settlers have been discouraged from employing Fijians 

 upon their plantations, for the native population was rapidly being en- 

 slaved by the whites. In order to supply the necessary labor, Hindoo 

 coolies from Calcutta were imported, but it seems unfortunate that 

 these usually remained in Fiji after the expiration of their terms of 

 service and there are now 40,300 in the group. They are a clannish, 



