BRITISH NATIVE POLICY FIAT JUSTITIA. 129 



respect leads them to yield a seeming assent to a white man's 

 assertion." 



' The statement that the payment of a tax in cash would 

 require double labour is, though startling, perfectly true. 

 Taking the article copra, for example, it will be found that the 

 mean or average price offered by the traders to Government in 

 1877 was 10 10s. 6d. per ton (2240 lb.). The average 

 prices given by local traders to natives at the time was 5 per 

 ton; and, as payment was generally made in articles sold 

 at a large profit, even that value can only be regarded as 

 nominal. 



' It follows, therefore, that if the native under the present 

 system had to pay ten shillings worth of copra annually by 

 way of taxes, he would have to provide 106 lb. weight of that 

 article only ; but if he had to pay ten shillings in money, he 

 would have to sell 224 lb. weight to the trader in order 

 to raise the amount of money required. 



' I do not suppose that the people of Fiji, more than people 

 in other parts of the world, like taxation in any form ; but, as 

 a general rule, they are quite aware of the advantage to them 

 of the present system, as contrasted with that of which it 

 takes the place ; and that they have, at all events, thriven 

 under it, not half an eye is required to perceive. Everywhere 

 the increased areas of cultivation, the enlarged towns, the good 

 new houses, the well-kept roads, the cheerful and healthy- 

 looking population, present the strongest possible contrast to 

 the aspect of the country in 1875. This was fully admitted 

 to me, not long before I left Fiji, by a leading planter, who 

 said that nobody who had eyes in his head could deny that the 

 natives were very much better off than they were three years 

 previously ; but he added (and there was much significance in 

 the admission) that this was by no means an advantage to the 



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