186 



another brings from Fiji, there cannot be a doubt as 

 to which of the two countries the majority of these 

 people would prefer to go. Little dependence can 

 ho placed upon them preferring either. Their chief 

 reasons for expatriating themselves for a few years 

 are scarcity of food, quarrels, cruel inter-tribal wars, 

 and, above all, a desire to obtain fire-arms. 



A number of Fijians are engaged on the planta- 

 tions. However, as a rule, they do not like to leave 

 home, friends, families, wives, and children, and enter 

 into an engagement to work for a year to the J?apa- 

 lagai, on a distant island, and for from SI. to 4d. per 

 annum and found. There they only hear of home 

 and friends by occasional rumour. But they have 

 not much objection to work for 11. 10s. or 21. per 

 month and food, for a month or two at a time, pro- 

 vided the work is within an easy distance of their 

 dwellings, which they can visit on Sundays or other 

 occasions. 



To neither of these could a capitalist depend for 

 labour to work his plantations. It would follow that, 

 when he most wanted labourers, none were to be had. 

 Painfully, such is sometimes the case at present. To 

 put an end io uncertainties on this matter,and to obtain 

 cheap and good labourers, as well as a source to draw 

 them from, that can be dependedcd upon to yield a 

 large supply on demand, the Government of Fiji have 

 arranged with the Government of India to get coolies 

 from India. With India to draw upon, no planter, 

 who possesses meansj need, in Fiji, fear the want of 

 Labourers to cultivate his fields. The engagements 

 with these labourers are that they stay 10 years in 

 the colony, and serve their first employer, at whose 

 requesl ;m<l expense they were introduced, five years. 



