THE FIJI ISLANDS 
475 
country by H.M.S. Dido, and in a short time about 
40,000 of the natives are believed to have perished. 
The health of the European planters and other 
residents is very good, the average death - rate being 
under 16 per thousand. Malarial fever is not common. 
Dysentery occurs, but is usually not of a severe type. 
The condition of the natives is not so favourable, 
civilisation being followed here, as in so many other 
islands of the Pacific, by the introduction of new 
diseases, and a corresponding increase in the mortality, 
and the annual death - rate probably averages over 40 
per thousand, the infant mortality being especially 
great. Nor is this compensated by a correspondingly 
large birth-rate, the latter, as far as can .be gathered, 
not much exceeding 36 per thousand. These figures, 
however, are only approximate, owing to the difficulty 
of obtaining accurate returns. 
4. Flora and Fauna. 
The dense vegetation of the islands is thoroughly 
tropical in character. On some of them grow millions 
of coco-nut palms, of which the Europeans own numerous 
plantations. The sandal-wood, the chief object of the 
trader’s search in earlier days, is now practically non¬ 
existent as an article of trade, being confined to a 
few localities in the south-western parts of the two 
larger islands and to gardens. There are various 
conifers allied to species found in New Caledonia, and 
from the dakua or Fiji pine {Dammara vitiensis) a good 
deal of resin was at one time obtained; but this tree, like 
the sandal-wood, is now becoming more or less scarce. 
The vesi {Afzelia bijug a) and dilo {Calophyllum ino- 
phyllum) are much used for boat-building. In some 
