64 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[July 2, 1883. 



state of affairs, and as long as it lasts the planters 

 may make up tlieir miud» to be sat upon. Just 

 to give you examples. Since the sliort time I 

 have been in the colony no less than six planters 

 have been had up i'-^v manslamjhtcr, two have been im- 

 prisoned, leaving aside others who have been fined 

 heavily for trivial assaults, and nothing has ever been 

 done, although every planter who was tried for inan- 

 slauobtir was found to be cjmUless. Even as I write, I 

 hear there are two more manslaughter cases pending 

 against two planters, and another is in jail under- 

 going three monthi' impiisonment with hard-iahour for 

 what do you fancy? He got one month for giving a 

 Fijian labourer six lashes with a rope, and two mouths 

 for puttings fom' mustard plasters on another labourer ! 

 What aggravated the last oftence was the fact of the 

 planter putting tlie man into a sack, and tying the 

 mouth round the waist. The labourer asserts he 

 was also tied round the ankles and knees, but this the 

 planter says is false. Even granted the man was 

 tied, the punishment inflicted is disproportiouate to 

 the offence altogether. There were about 120 labourers 

 on the plantation, and twentj'-five said they u ere ill 

 on that day. The man who got the plasters com- 

 plained of a cold and pain in the chest. I wonder 

 what the planters with you would think if they 

 got well fined or imprisoned every time they were 

 had up for striking Ramasamy with the chance of 

 all your men being removed from the estate if you 

 were convicted three times of assaulting your labourers ! 

 I assure you I consider it a dangerous thing to work 

 labour in Fiji now, if one is determined to get 5 fair 

 day's work out of one's men. They are almost ture 

 to complain of getting too much work to do. .and then 

 there is an enquiry and the Government keep an eye 

 on you. Assaults, even of a most trival nature, are 

 dangerous to indulge in, amongst coolies more especi- 

 ally, as they are, out here, the most litigious 

 fellows out. A cooly went and complained to the 

 magistrate the other day that I had called him 

 a " bloody fool." This is a fact and will prove 

 how fond they are of cases. What I complain of 

 most of all is that, when coolies take cases against 

 you, and you are fortunately able to disprove them 

 and to shew the man has been perjuring himself, no- 

 thin" whatever is done to him. Coolies here have only 

 to take a dislike to you and combine and take cases 

 and they are sure sooner or later to get you into 

 serious trouble, and, believe me, they are quit ■ capable 

 of doing it. Now, if a man, wheu bowled out in a 

 lying case, were punished, say by a severe imprison- 

 ment, or better still a few lashes administered before 

 his fellow-labourers, it would act as a deterrent, and 

 cases of the ohar.acter I have mentioned would cease 

 to be. A cooly complained that his master had out- 

 raged a girl, a perfect; child. An enquiry was instituted 

 and the man was found to have told a deliberate false- 

 hood ; yet nothing whatever was done to him as far as 

 I can ascertain ! All these sorts of things combined 

 make it, as I said before, dangerous in Fiji to work 

 men, as one stands a chance of losing one's character. 

 In my last letter I mentioned that the Government 

 had only succeeded in getting one vessel to recruit 

 Polynesians last season and that the estimated cost was 

 £16 per head. The vessel was uusuccessful and the 

 meu have been given out at i'30 per head to those 

 planters who care about giving that; figure. When I 

 first came out, going on for 5 years now, men used 

 to be £9, including depot expenses. Compare that with 

 £30 now ! ' Slen not only cost more, but are not nearly so , 

 easy to procure. Some vessels find difficuliy in getting a 

 full complement and a good many last season only made 

 •2 instead of 3 trips and even thea returned without 

 a full load. The men also are not of such a good 

 stamp a-i they used to be : mere boys and old men are 

 allowed to come. Owing to Queensland and other 



places competing with us, there is no doubt that 

 Polynesian hibour will get scarcer and that wages will 

 still go on increasing. In a late minute of the Go- 

 vernor, he coniplains and writes very strongly about 

 the mortality amongst Polynesian labourers in Fiji, 

 and h'nts that the immigration will, in all probability, 

 be put a stop to, if the mortality still goes on at the 

 same r.ate. He also says that animal food must be 

 given to the men and that a clause will be inserted 

 in the ordinance to that effect. This will of course 

 increase the yearly cost of men and it is to be hoped will 

 help to lessen the mort.ality. In Taviuni for 1881 the 

 deallirate was, I think, 39 per 1,000 and in other parts 

 60 and even over. On some estaies on the Rewa the 

 deaths were so numerous amongst the Polynesians that 

 the allotment was stopped for a time. Strange to say, 

 the coolies escaped and were healthy enough. The 

 labour quesiion is, I can assure you, a most serious 

 one in Fiji, and I should not be at all surprized to 

 hear that the Polynesian immigration was put a stop to 

 within two or three years' time. What arrangements 

 have been made to introduce coolies this season I 

 do not know, nor the number applied for. Planters 

 must fall back on Indians whether they like it or 

 not. If labour goes on increasing in cost as it has 

 done the last two years, I do not know what cultiv- 

 ation, except sugar, where a lot of hands are required, 

 will pay. Coeount planters who want but few meu 

 will be able to carry on. Taken altogether it is a 

 blue lookout, and the more one considers the sub- 

 ject the greater pity it seems th.^t we cannot freely 

 make use of the large native population in Fiji, the 

 Fijiane themselves. This we cannot do for reasons 

 too numerous to mention. One will suffice. Fiji was 

 taken over to try and preserve the native race, and 

 Government thinks that, if they were allowed to do 

 as they liked, they would die out. Therefore, they 

 are induced to stay at home as much a^ possible and 

 keep themselves to themselves, to cultivate Govern- 

 ment gardens to enable them to pay taxes. How the 

 policy will answer, and whether the native race loill 

 "be preserved, remains to be seen. For my part I fancy 

 they are certain to die out gradually, as natives 

 have done in other places, and, if another epidemic, 

 like measles did before, happens to break-out, off 

 they will go rapidly. In the meantime, Sir Arthur 

 Gordon was right when be sa'd " it was not a country 

 for the white man." Fiji has great capabilities and 

 only wants a liberal policy to be carried out to de- 

 velop her resources. Land wants to be thrown open 

 and cheap labour got; she would then soon go ahead 

 and shew a good export list. At present we are gradu- 

 ally going ahead, but very, very slowly to what we 

 ought. We are almost in a half stagnant state, so to 

 speak. With the almost unlimited extent of land we 

 have — and a great deal of it very good laud — and the 

 large native population, the progress made since the 

 British took over the colony has been but slow. Not 

 a single public Government land sale has taken place 

 since my first arrival in the colony, and only one, of 

 one small block, ever since the annexation in 1874 ! 



Several Oeylon men have ari-ived lately and all are 

 on sugar plautatiims. There is a greater demand now 

 for overseers, as they are termed here, and salaries 

 are increasing. Formerly they used to get £100 to 

 £150 and find themselves. The latter sum was con- 

 sidered a good screw generally, though the overseers 

 would get, say £5, £6, or £7 a month, aud be found. 

 The find would consist in Hour, tea, salt beef, &c. ; 

 no liquor. The fare was not luxurious by any means, 

 nor did it tend to make one an epicure, A good 

 overseer, or subinauager would get from i'150 to £250 

 now; man.asers from .£300 to £400, or perhaps, more, 

 but billets like these are scarce, very, aud have only 

 occurred of late, since sugar cultivation, properly speak _ 

 iug, commeuced. 



