I2 8 THE CORAL LANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 



the cultivation of articles of export by the natives has been 

 largely promoted.' 



Competition among the merchants being as keen in Levuka 

 as it is everywhere else, the Government manages to get a 

 very good price for the native taxes, and any surplus beyond 

 the assessment of the district is of course returned to the 

 Fijian producers. In the year 1878 the amount of tax pro- 

 duce sent in as taxes, exceeded the assessment to the value 

 of two thousand pounds, and this has been sold for the 

 benefit of the contributors. In 1879, one province alone had 

 five hundred pounds returned to it, but the full statistics have 

 not yet reached this country. Of course there may be harsh 

 and overbearing bulls and rokos, but to rokos and bulis the 

 Fijians have for centuries been accustomed, and it is evidently 

 the duty of the Government that these officers should be very 

 carefully looked after by white magistrates. As regards the 

 natives, notwithstanding the efforts that have been made 

 to prejudice them against the tax in kind, I believe that the 

 majority infinitely prefer it to a money-tax. 



' A few days before I left Fiji a native of great intelligence 

 spoke to me of the efforts of certain whites to excite a prejudice 

 against the Government. He spoke bitterly of the mischief 

 which might be done by these intrigues, and added : " We 

 Fijians are great fools, and there are many of us who are 

 likely to be gulled ; but, after all, we are not such fools as to 

 have lost all memory of the time when these gentlemen, who 

 are now so solicitous for our welfare and our rights, had 

 all things in their own hands ; and you may take it for 

 granted that most of the ignorant villagers who answer 

 ' E dina saka ' (' Quite true, sir ') when it is suggested to them 

 that they are oppressed, are perfectly aware that a money -tax 

 would cost them double labour, and laugh secretly, though 



