THE FIJI ISLANDS 485 



prises a loan of £150,000, bearing interest at 4|- per 

 cent, of which £18,700 only has been redeemed. The 

 revenue rose from £40,000 in 1876 to £91,522 in 

 1884; in 1891 it was £71,249. The expenditure in 

 the two last-mentioned years was respectively £98,467 

 and £67,819. In 1888 the revenue first showed a 

 1 valance over the expenditure, a condition which has been 

 since maintained. It is derived in great part (to the 

 extent of £21,000 in 1891) from native taxation, but 

 chiefly from Customs dues (£31,000). 



9. Population, Communications, etc. 



That the natives of Fiji have decreased in number to 

 a very considerable extent there is no doubt. In 1859 

 it was estimated that they formed a population of 

 200,000. On the 5th April, 1891, the census returned 

 them as only 105,800. The frightful epidemic of 

 measles in 1875 is said to have carried off over 40,000 ; 

 but apart from this unusual mortality, there has apparently 

 been a steady decrease for a long period. Whether it 

 still continues at the present moment, and if so, to what 

 extent, is not easy to ascertain, for the returns are 

 believed to be not very accurate, and though a decrease 

 of near 9000 was shown by a comparison of the two 

 censuses of 1881 and 1891, it is thought by the authori- 

 ties to be erroneous. The vital statistics seem to be 

 equally untrustworthy, but the probability is that the 

 Fijians form no exception to the general rule which 

 obtains in so many parts of the world, but more especi- 

 ally in the islands of the Pacific, that the native races 

 are sooner or later inevitably doomed, if not to actual 

 extinction, at all events to something approaching it. 

 The last census gave the entire population of the group 



