464 AUSTRALASIA. 



duced as labourers on tlie plantations. Every year the mortality is also greatly in 

 excess of the births. 



A great variety of plants are cultivated in the archipelago. A species of yam 

 supplies the staple of food for the natives, who also raise large crops of the tare 

 or dato ; but the sandalwood so largely exported at the beginning of the century 

 is nearly exhausted, while the dakiia, or Fiji pine {dammara Vitiensis), resembling 

 the New Zealand kauri, has become very rare. The shores are fringed by hun- 

 dreds of thousands of cocoanuts, owned, however, not by the natives, but by the 

 planters, who export the oil and copra to Europe and Australia. One of the 

 plants most utilised for the local industries is the malo {hronmonetia 'papyrifera) , the 

 bark of which is pounded by the women to the consistency of a stout pliant fabric 

 used as a loin-cloth or toga, and even for making fancy paper. Naturally of a pure 

 white colour, this cloth is d3^ed in various designs by a process which resembles 

 printing, b}^ means of carefully prepared bits of bamboo charged with pigment. 



The natural or acclimatised flora abounds in j^lants valuable for their fruits, 

 edible roots, drugs, spices, fibres, colours, gums or resins, and if the plantations 

 have hitherto proved little remunerative, the fact must be attributed not so much 

 to the destructive cyclones as to the evils associated with the prevailing system of 

 contract labour. During the first years of the colonisation the American Civil 

 War rapidly enriched the planters by the sudden impulse given to cotton growing. 

 But since that time labour has become too dear to allow this industry to compete 

 with the growers of the Southern States, and Fiji now exports only a few bales of 

 cotton. Tobacco is raised exclusively by the natives, and at present the chief 

 agricultural industries are the preparation of cocoanut oil, copra, and sugar. Up 

 to the year 1882 the public lands sold to planters had a total area of over 280,000 

 acres. The foreign trade is mostly in the hands of the English and Australians, 

 although some Hamburg houses are also represented by a few local agents. 



Lctuka, the former capital, being inconveniently situated on the east side of 

 Ovalau Island, the centre of government was removed to the new capital, Suva, 

 near the southern extremity of Yiti-Levu between the deltas of the two largest 

 rivers, and not far from Reim, the largest village of the interior. But the port of 

 call for ocean steamers lies in Ngcdao Bay, south of Kandava Island, where the 

 waters are deeper and less obstructed by reefs. Savu-Savu Bay, south of Vanua- 

 Levu is also frequented by skippers. Near the port copious thermal sjjrings 

 bubble up on the beach. 



The natives take no part in the administration of the archipelago, which 

 is a Crown colony, with a Governor and executive council named by the Queen, 

 and a legislative council of thirteen members, seven ex officio and six chosen by 

 the Governor. Fiji is divided into twelve districts under paid chiefs. 



The yearly budget has fallen off with the decrease of the population, while 

 the public debt grows from year to year. Fiji has, in fact, disappointed the 

 expectations of the first white settlers, and the local traders have already several 

 times petitioned the Victoria Parliament to undertake its administration. In 1881 

 the volcanic island of Hotuma, lying 300 miles to the north-west, was formally 



