482 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGKAPHY AND TRAVEL 



the Goverumeiit Technical School at Yanawai in Vaniia 

 Levu instructs about 70 native youths in agriculture, 

 boat-building, and other industries. 



7. Agriculture and Trade. 



The Fijians have always been good agriculturists, 

 managing their crops with skill and industry, and show- 

 ing considerable cleverness in their system of irrigation, 

 which is carried out by means of built watercourses and 

 bamboo pipes. They cultivate tobacco, maize, sweet 

 potatoes, yams, kava, taro, beans, pumpkms, and other 

 vegetables, and not a little of their produce is exported. 

 The taxes are often paid in kind. Living in so genial a 

 climate and having so few wants, the Fijian does not of 

 course labour with the persistence and energy of the 

 European, but he is by no means an habitual idler, 

 although he does not bear a good character as a worker 

 among the w^hites. His independence and the high 

 value he puts upon his services prevent his emjjloyment 

 to any great extent in the plantations. The labour 

 question has, indeed, been always more or less a difficulty 

 in the archipelago. In 1870 the first batch of Indian 

 coolies was imported, and since the establishment of the 

 sugar industry many more have been brought into the 

 country, until at the beginning of 1892 there were 

 domiciled over 8000. The coolie works for Is. per 

 diem, binding himself to his employer for a term of 

 years, the employer having to defray the cost of his 

 passage both ways, which amounts to about £20. The 

 experiment has proved successful on the wliole, though 

 crime has considerably increased in consequence, and the 

 propensity of the Indian to go to law on every possible 

 occasion is a further drawback. Recourse is also had to 



