July 1, 1900.] THE TROPICAL 
PLANTING LIFE IN FIJI. 
BY AX OLD KESIDENT. 
In the year 1867, on a fine and pleasant tropical 
eveninig, we dropped anclior in Levuka liarbonr, 
after a very enjoyable trip in the barque "City 
of Melbourne " troin Sydney. After a short stay 
of two mouths iu Levuka, we left for the interior 
of Viti Leva, to take up our residence and pre- 
pare a future home for our family. Tlie lirst 
sight of our future home was anything but pro- 
mising, on account of uncertainty of the feeling 
then existing amongst the natives, and the dense- 
ness of the timber land on wliich we had deter- 
mined to settle. Tlie nearest neighbour was at 
a distance of several miles. The natives were 
very treacherous and uncertain in those days, 
and you never knew hovv to take them until 
it was too late. I remember distinctly the first 
time we had to fire on them, when they started 
to destroy the cattle fences ; fortunately none 
were ever hurt, and I have ascertained since that 
the shots were fired simply to frighten them, and 
had very little effect. 
We secured the estate known in those days 
as Nai Vuka, the bundaries of which were two 
creeks running into the main river. Since then 
it has gradually become an Indian settlement 
called Illahabad, Vv'e cleared off the dense .scrub 
and bush, and had all the land ploughed up and 
planted with cotton, which certainly flourished 
in those day.s, and fortune smiled on us for a 
very short period, until we witnessed our first 
hurricane. It started blowing a fresh breeze 
about three o'clock in the afternoon, and gradu- 
ally increased in violence as the darkness came. 
We sat around the dining-tabie watching the 
barometer very closely and anxiously till about 
two in tho morning. The glass showed 27 '29, 
and we thought it advisable to take to the 
hills, as the river was rising so rapidly and the 
house collapsing on all sides. About half an 
hour after leaving the dwelling, the whole build- 
ing fell in, carrying destruction everywhere. 
When the wind subsided, we left the hills to 
view the damage ; we had to man the whale- 
boat and row over the estate as far as our former 
habitation, which then had about Hve feet of 
water inside the lemains. Out of about ten 
buildings not one remained standing ; we took 
refuge under the lee of a blown-down bungalow, 
and prepared a meal, the first for twenty-four 
hours ; and by night on the third day we had 
a temporary residence erected. The main por- 
tion of the estate was under water for about 
six days, the men in the meantime, some eighty 
of them, existing by drivin'.^ for food on the 
plantation. It was a hearirendingsight to wit- 
ness the complete destruction everywhere the 
eye could see. Everything looked so well and 
promising for a big crop, and in forty-eight hours 
we were, comparatively speaking, ruined, 
I have witnessed some fourteen hurricanes 
since, but none to compare with my lir.st hurri- 
cane. Every planter on the Riva river .suffered 
very severely, and it took them years of hard 
work and economy to get their heads above water 
and make another start. Our fAst shipment 
of cotton, some sixty odd bales, brought us only a 
poor return, and barely paid the expenses of 
ginning, labour and freight, and left us such 
a small margin for profit that planters gave 
up cotton planting. They then went in tor 
Buoar-growing, which also proved such ruination 
kUat many growers were hopelessly in debt, an4 
AGRICULTURIST. 2? 
they were unable to recover themselves, mainly 
because the first sugar-mill ordered did not come 
to hand, and the crops were allowed to rot where 
they were grown ; and then hurricane No. 2 did 
the rest, — it was indeed a case of the last straw 
th.1t broke the camel's back. 
The average cotton-planter expected to have 
hi.s fortune made in first years at most. The 
truth is, that many a planter is a man of birth, 
education, and talents, a gentleman who would 
be an ornament to any society, but having the 
misfortune to have a limited supply of money, 
not enough to maintain him in the society to 
which he has been accustomed, he, with the pluck 
and enterprise of the Anglo-Saxon race, throws 
him.self into a far country to battle with the soil, 
and wring a fortune from Mother Earth. Unfor- 
tunately Mother Earth is not always kind, and 
many of these gallant fellows are struggling oa 
in debt and poverty, though still gentlemen, and 
keeping a firm face to the foe. Others are retired 
naval or military othcers, who during the cottoa 
excitement sold up, retired, and thought in a 
few short years to realise what a lifetime of pro- 
fessional exertion would never have done. Pro^ 
fessional men abound ; impatient of their slow 
toil in the colonies or the mother country, they 
too rushed to the land of promise, and drifted 
into the position of planters. But the majority 
of successful men are the canny Scotch agricul- 
turists, who simply invested their little money 
here because the land was good. We have also 
the experienced, sturdy, but withal gentlemanly 
and well-educated Australians, who being dis- 
appointed by the depreciation of squatting pro- 
perty in their own colony, have come to woo 
success as squatters in a new country. 
KoEERT Crawford Bentley. 
— Caledonian Jottings. 
MALARIAL MOSQUITO. 
AN EXPEDITION TO THE FEVKR-STRICKENJ 
CAMPAGNA. 
A scheme, somewhat dramatic in its details, 
has been sanctioned, says Renter's Agency, by the 
Colonial Othce, to prove to the public at large thab 
malarial fever is directly attributable to mosquito 
bite. 
Two doctors who have never sufFeied from 
malaria have volunteered to live in a specially 
constructed hut in what Dr. Manson, of the 
Colonial Office, describes as one of the deadliest 
places on earth, for the whole of this summer. 
These gentlemen are Dr. Louis Sarabon and Dr. 
G C Low, and both have made .special studies of 
tropical diseases. Dr. Low, only' a few days ago, 
made the important discovery that elephantiasis ig 
distinctly traceable to mosquito bite and not t* 
drinking impure water. Dr. Sambon has givea 
some particulars of the expedition, which begins 
work on 1st June. It is intended to prove that 
malarial fever is caused by inoculation from in- 
fected mosquitos, and that a person who has 
never had malarial can live with safety in a 
malarial region provided he be not bitten by these 
insects. To this end Dr. Manson, Dr. Sambon, 
and a number of other doctors visited Italy and 
arranged a conference with the Italian doctors ia 
Rome. 
ONE OF THE DEADLIEST SPOTS. 
"We then went out to the Roman Canipagna,'* 
said Dr, Sambon, "and it was there and thea 
deoiaed that ng better place could be found fo| 
