LE VUKA. 45 



When I say that, in a population of some 700 souls, there is 

 a capital club, two boat and yachting clubs, besides cricket, 

 archery, and shooting clubs ; that Levuka possesses an ad- 

 mirably conducted mechanics' institute, with a good reading- 

 room and library ; that concerts, professional and amateur, 

 are neither few nor far between ; and that the wise a trois temps 

 is thoroughly appreciated I fancy my readers will agree with 

 me that emigration to ' cannibal ' Fiji is not altogether such a 

 miserable prospect as they perhaps imagined. 



In addition to a Town Board with a warden, Levuka rejoices 

 in that peculiarly British luxury, a School Board. There is a 

 Avell-conducted gaol and lock-up, but very few whites, I am 

 glad to say, have patronised ' Seed's Hotel,' as the Fiji Argus 

 called the institution under control of the Chief of Police. 



The Good Templars have a hall, in which temperance lectures 

 and entertainments are frequently given. 



The principal wharf is at the south end of the town, and is 

 carried out to a depth of more than six fathoms of water, so 

 that the Sydney steamers of 1500 tons come alongside to 

 discharge and receive cargo. Two ship-building slips have 

 been erected in consequence of the great increase of this branch 

 of Polynesian industry. 



Levuka may be called the Babel of the Pacific. The white 

 population is a wonderfully diversified one, for in a small town- 

 ship of about 700, there are representatives of nearly every 

 civilised community : English, Scotch, Irish, Germans and 

 French abound, while Eussians, Swedes, Norwegians, Danes, 

 Dutch, Italians, Spaniards, United States citizens, West Indi- 

 ans, Canadians, South Americans, Australians, Chinese, Hindoos, 

 etc., are numerous. Among the Polynesian races, representa- 

 tives may be found of nearly every group or island in the broad 

 Pacific. Fijians, Samoans, Tongese, Tahitians, Caledonians, 



