I 



REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 147 



sea a few miles east of Suva through an extensive delta, is a broad 

 stream navigable for light-draft steamers for a distance of 30 miles or 

 more from its mouth. Launches make daily trips from plantations 

 up the river to 'Suva, and it is important as an avenue for the trans- 

 portation of cane to the mills, substantial steel barges towed by 

 launches being used for the purpose. The natives also carry their 

 fruit and produce on bamboo rafts, which are floated downstream to 

 the delta and thence to Suva. The valley of the Rewa is populous 

 and fertile, and a number of plantations are located on its banks. 

 Oranges and related fruits, which in a feral state abound in the Society 

 Islands, were rarely seen growing wild in Viti Levu, and the fei, 

 although it probably occurs, does not hold an important place in the 

 diet of the natives, who subsist largely on fish, yams, taro, and bread- 

 fruit. As in all the volcanic islands visited, as contrasted with the 

 atolls, the meat of the cocoanut is not much eaten, though its oil is used 

 in preparing certain dishes and its water is used as a beverage. A 

 sort of glutinous pudding, prepared by pounding up cooked taro with 

 cocoanut oil, is highly regarded as a delicacy, and the stone pestles used 

 in its preparation are found in every household. The Fijians, like the 

 Samoans, Tongans, and other Polynesians, drink kava, which is an 

 infusion of the comminuted roots of a species of ipepiper (Micropiper) . 

 Formerly the green roots were reduced to a pulp by mastication, but 

 for hygienic reasons this has been prohibited; and the dried roots are 

 now pounded in a mortar or grated. The beverage is not fermented, 

 and intoxicating properties are denied to it by recent investigators. 



The weather side of the island is well wooded and fertile, the veg- 

 etation is luxuriant and in general more massive in character than in 

 Tahiti, and the filmy growths of tropical forests are less conspicuous. 



The Fijians are a sturdy, independent race with dark skins and 

 fine physiques. The women have less beauty than those of the Maori 

 race, but many of the men are fine specimens of vigorous, athletic 

 manhood. As a rule they are not given to toil, and to supply labor for 

 the plantations there have been large importations of Indian coolies, 

 whose physical inferiority to the natives is striking. 



* In the coastal regions of Viti Levu there is more or less admixture 

 of Tongan blood, and the color, especially of the chiefs, is lighter 

 than among the mountain people of purer Papuan descent. For the 

 most part the natives live in houses of pure Fijian architecture, those 

 of the chiefs, especially, being well constructed and often neatly kept. 

 Some of them have the beams and pillars neatly and ingeniously 

 ornamented with wrappings of cocoanut fiber sennit in various 

 designs and colors, and in the house of the chief at Rewa the wood- 

 work is hardly to be seen for the closeness of its ornamentation. 



As chiefs of districts and villages the old native ruling classes have 

 been given a certain amount of authority under the British colonial 

 government, and the natives are well satisfied and contented without 

 having lost their natural independence of character. As a race they 



