BRITISH NATIVE POLICY FIAT JUSTITIA. 125 



therefore, which is not very difficult to define. Is the revenue 

 to depend upon this uncertain and unintelligent state of affairs ] 

 The Fijian is no more a producer than the native of the Indian 

 seas who dives for pearl-shell until he has exhausted the bed, 

 or the half-bred Indian of South America who destroys whole 

 forests to obtain india-rubber or cinchona bark. And what has 

 been the result in all parts of the world, whether civilised or 

 uncivilised, when there has been a constant demand for any 

 natural production, and no foresight has been exercised to 

 maintain the supply ? We know that if the supply is not 

 increased in exact ratio to the demand, harder work, worse 

 pecuniary results, misery, and sometimes famine, follow. As 

 Eoko Tui Ra said lately at Draiba, " Of bccJw-de-mer there will 

 soon be none, for the drying-houses encompass the whole land." 

 But how are they going to make the supply overtake or keep 

 up with the demand ? The natives cannot sow or plant beche- 

 de-mer as they do cotton or coffee seed. It will be the same 

 with pearl, tortoise-shell, and other things upon which the 

 natives, until lately, entirely depended to provide their money- 

 tax and their little luxuries bought from traders. The supply 

 will become smaller by degrees and beautifully less, or I am 

 very much mistaken. 



'A few years ago Scottish fishermen got but three-and- 

 sixpence per hundred for their haddocks, and earned a decent 

 livelihood ; they now obtain twelve shillings and sixpence, but 

 work harder and obtain a bare subsistence. The same thing 

 may be said of oyster-beds. Constant demand has caused the 

 exhaustion of what were once natural reserves. Men. have cut 

 away their supplies without a thought for the future, much in 

 the same manner as we are, or, I hope I may say, as we were, 

 doing here.' 



The Fijian is now growing coffee, sugar-cane, cocoa, vanilla, 



