80 



and destroying the trees which are grown on it. This, 

 unfortunately, occurs too often, as the low-lying and 

 miss-covered hills on the windward side of Ovalau, 

 Vanua Levu, Viti Levu, and other islands testify. 

 This lias, also, heen the cause of unwooding the leeward 

 parts of Viti Levu, and Vanua Levu, the consequence 

 of which is that these districts are often weeks with- 

 out a shower, and the land is parched by drought, and 

 rendered almost barren. In short, it is apparent that, 

 with a dense population to support, and the annual 

 requirement of new land whereon to grow food crops, 

 if this system of agriculture be not abolished it will 

 bring ruin on the whole country. In the cultivation 

 of yams and dalo, or in the management of a canoe 

 on a rapid river, the .Fijian could give a lesson to a 

 more civilised being ; but, for the general welfare of 

 the country, it will be necessary to teach him another 

 system of agriculture, by showing him that by the use 

 of manure, crops of the same sort can be taken off 

 the same land for a succession of years. The intro- 

 duction of cereal food, as rice, flour, corn, &c, for the 

 use of the people, would help greatly to alter the 

 present vicious system of cultivation. 



In digging and preparing the soil, forming aque- 

 ducts, &c, theFijians seldom use any other implement 

 than a pointed stick made of some hard and tough 

 wood, and the hands. Even now the spade or hoe is 

 seldom used, but they are becoming more common than 

 formerly ; and t lie use of these and other implements 

 will in time prevail. The native jnan of digging is as 

 follows. The men provide themselves with a digging 

 stick each, and by repeated blows of these make holes 

 round a piece of ground of about 2 feet in diameter ; 

 then by using the sticks as levers this piece of soil is 



