THE FIJI ISLANDS 475 



country by H.M.S. Dido, and in a short time about 

 40,000 of the natives are believed to have perished. 

 The health of the European planters and other 

 residents is very good, the average death - rate being 

 under 16 per thousand. Malarial fever is not common. 

 Dysentery occurs, but is usually not of a severe type. 

 The condition of the natives is not so favourable, 

 civilisation being followed here, as in so many other 

 islands of the Pacific, by the introduction of new 

 diseases, and a corresponding increase in the mortality, 

 and the annual death - rate probably averages over 40 

 per thousand, the infant mortality being especially 

 great. Nor is this compensated by a correspondingly 

 large birth-rate, the latter, as far as can be gathered, 

 not much exceeding 36 per thousand. These figures, 

 however, are only approximate, owing to the difficulty 

 of obtaining accurate returns. 



4. Flora and Fauna. 



The dense vegetation of the islands is thoroughly 

 tropical in character. On some of them grow millions 

 of coco-nut palms, of which the Europeans own numerous 

 plantations. The sandal- wood, tlie chief object of the 

 trader's search in earlier days, is now practically non- 

 existent as an article of trade, being confined to a 

 few localities in the south-western parts of the two 

 larger islands and to gardens. There are various 

 conifers allied to species found in ^e^w Caledonia, and 

 from the dakua or Fiji j)ine {Dammara vitiensis) a good 

 deal of resin was at one time obtained ; but this tree, like 

 the sandal-wood, is now becoming more or less scarce. 

 The vesi {Afzelia hijuga) and dilo {Calophyllum ino- 

 pliylluin) are much used for boat -building. In some 



