SAW SAVU TO TAV1UNL 197 



It has been ray wish in these personal recollections to give 

 my readers some little insight into the interior economy of a 

 Fiji planter's existence ; an extract from a letter of mine home 

 will further explain how apostolic was our daily life : 



' I really don't know where a large proportion of our guests 

 would have been but for my stock of trousers and shirts. 

 Everybody goes about from house to house without baggage 

 of any sort, gets soaked through by rain, fording streams, or 

 at sea, and then comes down on his host for clothes. Walter 

 (my brother) and Dick Heyward are both wearing other 

 people's coats and my understandings. Donald has on a 

 portion of my Bordeaux suit and a shirt of the Dods', while 

 Black's rig is, I believe, representative of every settler in 

 the bay. Such a possessing of all things in common I never 

 saw yet.' 



In my Polynesian wanderings, miles from Wai- Wai or Savu 

 Savu Bay, I soon got used to this ' primitive Christianity.' 



A visitor is always expected to give a helping hand when 

 required, and this expectation is invariably complied with. 

 One fellow will superintend a gang of labour, another will 

 assist in the kitchen, a third will see that some bush is 

 cleared, or a cargo of produce for the interinsular packet is 

 properly loaded in the plantation boat. There is active 

 healthy employment for anybody and everybody. I am 

 writing of course of pioneer days, and of a bachelor establish- 

 ment. The time is approaching, and more rapidly than most 

 people think, when planting in Fiji will be on the same level 

 as it is in the West Indies and Ceylon, when perhaps railways 

 will exist for produce transportation and personal travel, and 

 telegraphic cables (perhaps telephones) extend from island to 

 island. The nineteenth century moves apace, and the advanced 



