PLANTING AND AGRICULTURE IN FIJI:— 
PREDICTION AND FULFILMENT. 
We take an article from the Fiji Times, in which 
the editor laments, that with the single exception 
of sugar, production in Fiji has fallen far short 
of what Sir Hercules Robinson predicted at the 
banquet given to him in Sydney on the occasion 
of the adoption into our Colonial Empire of the Fijian 
Archipelago. The soil is specially suitable for sugar, 
and for this article there is a good market close at 
hand. The same may be said of tea, if, which we doubt, 
a steady supply of cheap labour can bo always counted 
on. Next to sugar, copra, and tho other products 
of the coconut tree are staple exports, but it is 
in regard to bananas and other fruits that Fiji 
ought to go ahead, so that it may hold the 
same rotation of fruit supplier to Australia that 
Jamaica does to tho United States. We are not 
surprised at the docadenco of cotton, once the high 
prices of the period of civil war in America 
collapsed. Cotton requires cheap labour, and even 
tho cheapest labour in the world does not suffice 
to rondor tho preparation of many plant libres, 
beyond juto, profitable. As to rice, even here in 
Ceylon, we import about a third of what we use. 
While tho natives of Fiji prefer root culturo to 
rioe growing, tho latter cannot make much progress. 
Mai/.o is an exhausting crop; but in Fiji it ought 
to bo largely grown as a cattle feed. The whole 
question of production in Fiji, as in other tro- 
pical lands, depends mainly on abundanco of cheap 
labour, and in this respect Ceylon has a great 
advantage over the Pacific colony. If the insane 
idea of the union of Fiji with Australia is carried 
out, tho introduction of black labourer will be at 
ones stopped in favour of the whito labourer, 
and then Fiji will suffer as Northern Australia is 
suffering. Tho article in tho Fiji Times runs thus: — 
In I >■-< umber, 1874, -Sir Horculee Kobinsou, Ibu first 
titulixr tJovernor of Fiji, was invited by tho leading 
merchants of Sydney to a complimentary banquet in 
hi D Uf of tho annexation of thin Colony to tho Uritinh 
Crown. In speaking of the newly-acquired group. 
Sir lli-rriili-a Bind thai : — " Tin- islands are unsurpassed 
iu ft-rtility, ami are capable of yielding tropical mid 
MOll tropical products in every variety — .such as sugar, 
cotton, niai/.i-, rice, c -il. ■ . lob in' -, libri-, and tho varied 
pfuduct- oi the coconut palm. L'ndur audi condition*, 
capital will assuredly flow into the i-laU'U, attracted 
by the prospect of profitable investment. Tho value 
6. 
J of property will increase. Tbe great natural resources 
of the country will b .; developed. Fresh markets will bo 
opened to trade. And the group, from its position, will 
become a centre from whence tho blessings of Christian- 
ity and civilization will radiate through the almost 
numberless snrrouuding islands of the South Pacific." 
Leaving theso blessings out of the calculation, in- 
asmuch as they can scarcely be assessed at a money 
value, let us see how far the predictions of Sir Hercules 
Robinson hive been sustained by actual fact, so far 
as tangible results are concerned. 
Of sugar, there is no cause for the relation of a 
woful tale. Although prices have declined and the 
total values, therefore, appear lower in tho lleceiver- 
General's returns than is desirable, production has 
been and is on the increase. From 96 tons in 1875, 
valued, at the then current rates, as worth £3,417, or 
nearly £35 12s per ton, the export in 1887 had gradu- 
ally reached 12,831 tone, valued at £205,291, or close 
on £10 per ton. Had values in 1887 been equal to 
those of 1875, the return for this article would have 
figured at £156,783. As it is, we must be content 
with the fact of increased production and the enter- 
prise and industry of whicu it is the visible sign; 
and, still going on the same direction, hope for the 
speedy realisation of the brighter prospects which 
have been so long predicted. 
It is a sad reflection on the Colony that the same 
spirit of steady progress is not only not to lie ob- 
served with regard to cotton, but that studied and 
systematic neglect of this profitable industry has be- 
come thoroughly developed. In 1881, there were ex- 
ported 150 tons, valued at £15,309, or £102 portou. 
In 1887, cotton was evidently much higher iu the 
market and was estimated as being worth something 
inoro than £120. Yet only 21 tons, returned at £2i694, 
were exported. Why, or wherefore, is one of the mys- 
teries which hitherto have puzzled the political 
economist when attempting to forecast the future of 
Fiji from ascertained results. 
Tbe third article, to which Sir Hercules Robinson 
reforrod, was maize. During the last three years tho 
export of this cereal has been protty uniform, and 
tho home ccnsuniption has probably increased. Tho 
high rate of freight and the risk of markets will always 
tend to keep this iu tbe back ground as an 
article of commercial exchange; and it will only bo 
when local supply largely exceeds local demand, and 
an arrangement can be made for carriage at a moder- 
ate rato that this will make any figure iu tho table 
of exports from this Colony. 
It must be borne in mind that Sir Hercules Robinson 
► poke with authority. Not with authority merely 
official, but with the authority of oue who had lived 
for a considerable perm I in tropical countries and 
was thoroughly acquainted with the conditions neces- 
sary to production. Win n, therefore, be referred to 
Rice as one of those articles for tho growth of which 
I'lji is evidently suited, be was alive to tho require- 
ment-, essential to its sueeesstul cultivation. Those, 
ho was convinced, exist here. Accepting that fact 
as unquestionable, what presents itself P The re. 
turn of rice— grown in Fiji during the lost four 
eiirs when the demand lor the article is revealed 
y the inexorable logic of figures? No. Hut the 
amount of money sunt out of tbu Colony, to tho 
e 
