678 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTtJRIST. 



[Mabch I, 18^4. 



Ou the Navua I heard the weather had been as 

 bad, if not worse, throughout the year. At present 

 we are passing through the hurricane mouths. Last 

 year we had two shght and one stiff blow, the latter 

 doing a great deal of damage. This year it is hoped wo 

 shall escape. 



Coffee Curing Mill. — Did good work. Unfortunately we 

 could not tax it very much as the quantity sent down to cure 

 was but small. Considering it was the first time the manager 

 had ever done similar work, he did it well, but still it was not 

 up at all to the Oeylonstautlard , as a lot of silver skin was 

 left on most of the beans. It is to be regretted, the pro- 

 prietor has not more work for it to do after going to 

 the expense of its erection : we can only hope better days 

 are in store for him, as well as ourselves. 



Labour This ve.xed question as usual occupies most 

 attention. Recruiting vessels have been most unfortunate 

 this year, but few of them making more than two trips 

 and even then returning with a short complement. Vessels 

 have found it useless in most cases to go to the New 

 Hebrides, the nearest ground fer Polynesians, as the men 

 won't readily engage and have gone to the Solomous and 

 to >Jew Britain and Ireland. I saw a lot of newly arrived 

 New Britain men at the depot when I was at Suva: they 

 were a fine lot of men, well formed aud looked strong, 

 but I hear they catch colds and coughs very readily and 

 are in reality delicate. If so, it is a great pity, as the 

 weather here is so changeable. On the Navua where there 

 are a good many at work, I beard that in rainy days as many 

 as iOand 25 per cent were laid up. Government did not send 

 out a single vessel during the season, all those that went 

 were sent by private enterprize, by planters clubbing to- 

 gether. In some cases where vessels retm'ned with only a 

 few men, in one case I know only five came; the loss ex- 

 perienced was very heavy. In the case I refer to, the five 

 men must have cost over XI50 each ! It has been such a 

 risky undertaking that I doubt if many will embark in it 

 next season. Companies and large jsroprietors with ^ugar 

 mills must go on, either by getting the Polynesians or 

 coolies, much as they may dislike the latter. The Polynesian 

 business was so very expensive, that the Colonial Sugar Com- 

 pany have thrown it over altogether and are going in for 

 coolies and Chinese. Some of the other companies also 

 wish to get the last named labour, but as yet they have not 

 settled the preliminaries with the Governmi-ut. At pre- 

 sent, if Chinese arc introduced by anyone, they can leave 

 you at the expiration of twelve months. This of course 

 would never answer, and those who are willing to introduce 

 that class of labourers wish the Government to pass some 

 ordinance to compel them to serve as an indentured labourer 

 for say, three or five years. I dare say, some arrangement 

 of this sort will be arrived at. Chinese can be got, so one 

 of the mill proprietors told me who had gone into the 

 question, to come here and work for 12s to 16s a week, 

 finding themselves. TiU this question is settled coolies 

 must be employed and a lot of requisitions for them have 

 been forwarded this year. Coolies have, and are still 

 causing a lot of trouble wherever they are employed, aud 

 will continue to do so as long as evei-y trivial complaint 

 of theii's is listened to, and men not punished when bowled 

 out in instituting lying cases. I took care during my 

 travels to go into the cooly question, and what I heard in 

 the Eewa opened my eyes. The percentage of cooUes 

 really in (a small one by the bye) those who shammed 

 illness and those who were lazy and would not c;o to 

 work was from -10 per cent, the miuimum, up to 60 

 the maximum. These retuius, I know, are correct, 

 because the managers themselves informed me. Just im- 

 agine 45 per cent of your labom'ers in their house every 

 day ! men who liave cost you over £20 a head aud are 

 indentm'cd to you for 6 years. The loss by theii' not 

 working alone amounts to a considerable sum, leaving alone 

 work uncompleted and getting behind. I remonstrated 

 and said : " Why not take them before the magisti-ate and 

 get them pxmished'r" The answer was : "This had been 

 tried over and over ag.ain. Managers had taken as many 

 as 40 cases aud over ag.iinst their coolies in a chiy. The 

 men would be found guilty and fined say Is (the max- 

 imum is 08, and this is not often inflicted). They would 

 pay their fine aud go back and be just as bad as ever." 

 Travelling is so diflicult and takes uj) such a long time, 

 that the managers natm'ally say they cannot afford the 

 time to go and be coiistautly instituting cases against the 



men, especially as it seems to have no good effect. If 

 a man has to go 20 miles or more to court, it takes him 

 a day to get there, as the roads are so bad ; or, if, he can 

 go by river, he has the tide against him sometimes, or 

 there 's a flood on ; then there 's the probabiUty of the 

 cases not being ti-ied the day after his arrival at coiu-t ; 

 then there 's the same bother getting back : in all three 

 days are wasted at least. Well, of course, a manager 

 cant be constantly at this little game neglecting his work 

 most probably in his busiest tune to get his coolies 

 fined Is, 2s and 3s each, with the certainty of theii- being 

 just as bad as ever on their retni'u to the plautatiou. If 

 the coolies were to get a severe punishment for, say, the ^rd 

 conviction it would be a different thing, it would then be 

 worth one's while to go down constantly until the cooly got 

 a proper punishment, saw it was no good malingering, 

 and went to work. 



Another thing which one looks forward to, more than any 

 thing else out here, if he 's always at court punishing his 

 men who wont go to work, he gets a bad name, gets 

 marked by the Government and most probably gets the sack 

 by his employer. Cooly malingering is a serious^evil and ought 

 to be put down, but I don't see any chance of its being put 

 down as long as a cooly can pay his fine and go back to his 

 plantation. The cooly according to the ordinance, must get 

 the option of a fine, before he can be sentenced to imprison- 

 ment. 



The new Fijian labour ordinance, which I referred to in 

 my last, has been passed and is in force now. Whether 

 Fijians will be readily procurable under it, remams to be seen. 

 There has been a regular squabble over the ordinance, be- 

 tween some of the unofficial members and the Governor. 

 The former say, that alterations &c. which were pro- 

 mised have never been inserted aud that they were 

 misled by the Governor throughout the Council sittings. 

 One member in consequence resigned his seat and 

 another wrote a very stiff" letter to the Governor on the 

 subject, a copy of which was inserted in the Fiji Time/ 

 and which you doubtless saw. The writer in questionac- 

 cuses the Governor of havmg been so verbose and ambigu- 

 ous in his speech as to have misled him and others, aud 

 concessions which were fought for in the ordinance and 

 which they took for granted, were allowed, were in reality 

 withheld. The letter to say the least, was very hot. 



A. R. W. I see, has a hit at me about the labour ques- 

 tion, but really I can't make out what he is driving at. If 

 he means to insinuate that Ceylon planters can treat their 

 coolies anyhow because, as he says, they come over to 

 Ceylon in a state of semi-starvation, it only seems, he does 

 not know what he is writing about. It is not worth 

 while defending the Ceylon pl.anters. Their kind treatment 

 of their coolies is too well-known to require anything 

 being said to uphold their character. For every labourer 

 employed in Fiji there have been thousands employed 

 in Ceylon, and one very ^ddom bears of any cruel 

 treatment towards a cooly, although there are magis- 

 trates "everywhere — rerb. sap. If he means to say 

 that planters in Fiji, who were formerly in Ceylon, 

 are in the habit of ill-treating theii' men, then again 

 I disagree with him and say they treat theii' labourers as 

 well, if not better, than the Fiji planters. The case 

 which seems to have stirred up A.E. W,, and winch, he says, 

 I chose injudiciously, was that of a planter who had put 

 ou four mustard plasters in a Fijian labourer's chest who 

 complained of pain there and then put his legs into a 

 sack, tying the mouth loosely round the man's waist. The 

 Fijian complained to the magistrate, saying that the 

 bag was tied round his neck aud roimd his waist as well, 

 thereby preventing his removing the plasters which caused 

 him pain. This yarn, those who know the Fijian character 

 would readily disbeheve. I saw the planter after he came 

 out of prison (I mentioned in my f oj-mer letter he got two 

 months' imprisonment with hard labour for what he had done) 

 and he told me what he stated were the actual facts of 

 the case, and I see no reason to disbelieve him. He stated 

 that the Fijian had been ill for some time, complaining of a 

 severe cold in the chest. Several remedies were tried in- 

 eff'ectually, so one day, ho put on four piasters, two of them 

 being very sm.all ones, covering the man's chest well with 

 them, and, as the man complained of having cold feet, ho, 

 the ijlanter, picked up the nearest tiling at hand which hap- 

 pened to be a bag, told the Fijian to he down and then put 

 iiis legs into the bag tj'iug it loosely round the mtuts 



