APPENDIX.
GOVERNMENT AND THE FIJIANS.
Among the many difficult problems which awaited solution when Sir Arthur Gordon assumed the task of government, none seemed more hopeless than that of devising a system of native taxation which should be at once just and remunerative. The atrocious wrongs connected with the poll-tax, devised by Thakombau’s government, had led to its abolition in favour of a labour-tax, the working of which, however, was found to be impracticable. It was therefore necessary to devise some system which should be more acceptable to the people, and more satisfactory in its results. After mature consideration, Sir Arthur decided to adopt the course so strongly recommended by Mr Thurston—namely, to cause every district to make a garden or plantation, the produce of which should be sold to the highest bidder. From the money thus received the Government should claim the sum at which the district had been assessed, and the surplus should be restored to the cultivators. The promulgation of this scheme led to a storm of the most virulent abuse. It was said that Government was about to absorb the whole trade of the isles; that the measure was cruelly antagonistic to every interest of the white planters; that it was certain to prove a gigantic failure; and, in short, it was about as unpopular a measure as was ever devised.
Sir Arthur is, however, one who has been well described as “doing his own thinking for himself.” Unheeding the storm of tongues, he caused the chiefs to establish gardens in every district, and though, at first, from many causes beyond control, they seemed in danger of utter failure, which should fulfil the prophecies of the unfriendly, after a while they prospered to such a degree as to astonish even the keenest advocates of the scheme, and became not only a large source of revenue, but also produced a surplus which has greatly enriched the several districts.
The matter is one of such importance to the colony that a few further particulars may prove interesting.
The following extracts from the ‘Fiji Times’ reveal something of the manner in which the poll-tax was collected, and the labour market supplied, immediately prior to annexation—i.e., in 1874.
“The native poll-tax, and the manner of enforcing it, is creating considerable dissatisfaction on all sides. Only last week, it appears, a whole town was summoned for arrears of taxes. Nineteen men and twenty women were sentenced, in default of payment, to hard labour—the former for 35 weeks, and the latter to 19 weeks; subsequently they were hired to planters at 1s. per week, until the amount of the tax, together with 5s. for summons, and 10s. for serving it in each case (although only one summons was issued), be fully paid. This is collecting taxes with a vengeance, and such proceedings are eminently calculated to engender ill-feeling on the side of the natives, and to create disturbances in retaliation for such extraordinary treatment. It is no wonder that Her Britannic Majesty’s Consul and the Commodore were everywhere met by natives, imploring to be relieved from the severe rule of the de facto Government, and beseeching those high officers to annex the islands to Great Britain.
“We know that but a few weeks back one minor chief proposed, and was with difficulty prevented from, the commission of suicide, simply because he and his people were deprived of liberty under these most atrocious regulations.”
“To the Editor of the ‘Fiji Times.’
“Levuka, September 19, 1874.
“Sir,—At the risk of being troublesome, I have again to draw attention to the manner in which this Government are oppressing the unfortunate Ra Coast natives. From two labour boats which arrived here this morning from that district, I gather the following reliable information. My informant states labourers are obtained as follows:—
“‘Any men and women whose taxes are in arrear are summoned to appear before the warden, to answer to the same. The usual method pursued is to send a general summons, embracing perhaps all the adult population of a large town, and 1s. mileage is charged individually for service of summons—a summons which in many cases has never been served. These unfortunate natives are compelled to attend the court, and, in the absence of any advocate, are mulct in the sum of 5 or 1 dol., as the case may be (male or female), together with the costs of court, including the mileage, which amounts to about 4 dollars per man: of course they cannot pay, and are then sentenced to work out the amount, at the rate of 1s. per week, and are compelled to engage with planters for one year. Then what follows? Husbands and wives are dragged away from their homes, their little surroundings become lost and destroyed. They have to endure a bitter and compulsory bondage of twelve months, with the prospect of returning to their cold and desolate hearths—with fresh taxes in view, ad infinitum.’”
Another correspondent writes—
“I am informed that the wretched natives who are unable to pay their taxes are made to work on plantations at the rate of forty days for 4s., sixty days for 6s. At this rate, the unfortunate wretches would have to work for 280 days in the year to pay the yearly tax imposed upon a man and his wife.”
And yet another—
“The vile atrocious wrongs which have been perpetrated in connection with the labour traffic and the collection of taxes upon the helpless, frightened natives—of both sexes—by a cowardly set of officials, assisted by a brutal, licentious soldiery, and connived at by the executive, because the money—blood money, with God’s curse surely stamped upon every coin—flows into the treasury, are a foul blot, even upon the worst Government with which this unhappy country has been afflicted; and yet, sir, we are met on all sides with the canting cry, ‘Oh! what a good thing for these poor natives to be taken away to the cotton plantations. You must civilise them first, and then Christianise them.’”
In Sir Arthur Gordon’s report on this subject, he says:
“The tax imposed on natives by Cakobau’s government was a uniform poll tax of £1 per man and 4s. per woman throughout the group. I, however, find it difficult, and indeed impossible, to suppose that revenue was the object contemplated in the imposition of this tax, or that its payment was ever seriously looked for. If any such expectations existed, they were doomed to disappointment. The largest sum ever obtained in any one year from a population of, at one time, certainly not less than 150,000, was £6000, and of this sum a large part, as I will presently explain, was not, in fact, received from natives as payment of their tax, or indeed from natives at all.
“I believe that the main design of the native poll-tax, when first imposed, and as it existed on the arrival of the British Commissioners in Fiji in 1874, was that of furnishing through its instrumentality a large supply of labour to the plantations of the white settlers. And in this respect it no doubt worked successfully. The unknown consequences of disobedience to the ‘Matanitu’ (the equivalent of the Indian ‘Sircar’) exercised a mysterious terror over the minds of the natives, which induced them in many cases, in consideration of the advance of their taxes on the part of a planter, to contract with him for a year or more of gratuitous service. These, however, were of course the exceptions. In the majority of cases, the tax was simply not paid, and could not be paid. When this happened the legal penalty for default was six months’ imprisonment, which was spent in labour on the plantation of any settler who would pay to the Government the amount of the defaulter’s tax. But though six months was the limit allowed by law for such assignment, the magistrates of that day were not very scrupulous in their reading of the Act, and sentences of a year, and even eighteen months, seem to have been pronounced; while by the imposition of heavy costs, and the assumption that the default of their payment might be similarly punished by ‘imprisonment on a plantation,’ even these periods were almost indefinitely extended.
“Sir H. Robinson felt strongly the impossibility of maintaining such a system, which he rightly described as one by which the services of the entire male population of whole districts had been in effect sold to European planters in other and distant islands. He at once abolished it, and substituted an arrangement by which all but adult males were excused from taxation, and the tax of these men fixed at twenty days’ labour in the year, redeemable by money payments of various amounts, according to the supposed wealth, or poverty, of the district in which they lived.
“This, therefore, was the problem which I had presented to me: Should I continue the labour-tax of 1874; should I re-enact and attempt to enforce the direct tax in money of the old Fijian Government; or should I endeavour to provide some substitute for the existing system which should bring larger returns to the treasury, and yet be neither oppressive nor opposed to the traditionary habits and feelings of the people?
“The labour-tax in its existing form was clearly unsustainable. It is impossible to transport the whole population for twenty days to those places where public works are being carried on. Such places are few, and in most districts of the colony there are really no public works on which the inhabitants can be employed. In such cases either works have to be invented which are not needed, and which lead to an employment—(or rather a waste)—of labour in no way beneficial to the colony, as well as an expense of supervision wholly thrown away, or the tax must be quietly permitted to fall into disuse.
“The practical alternative, therefore, was the renewal of the poll-tax of the old Fijian Government, or the substitution of some as yet untried system.
“If the idea of re-enacting a poll-tax be abandoned, no other direct money-tax could be imposed. In fact, there is a species of absurdity in the imposition of pecuniary taxation on a population, nine-tenths of which possess no money. I know it has been said that if they do not possess money, they, at least, might all become possessed of it by engaging to work for planters. I confess I am unable to see the force of this assumption. The ordinary wages given by a planter to an able-bodied man were, in 1875, 1s. a week, or £2, 12s. per annum. This is a small sum from which to pay a tax ranging from £1 downwards, even if the wages be paid in money, and not, as was invariably the case, in ‘trade,’ of often questionable value. Whether it is to the native’s advantage to leave his taro patch and yam plantations, his own village, his generally comfortable home, and his family, to work on some distant estate for 52s. a-year, may be questioned; nor do I think he can reasonably be expected to do so, except under strong compulsion.”
Sir Arthur proceeds to give some of the reasons which led to his deciding on the “district garden” scheme. With regard to its practical working, he adds—
“The receipts from the native taxes, which in 1875, under the old system of collection, amounted to but £3499, 2s. 5d., reached in 1876 (during only a part of which year the new scheme was in operation) the sum of £9342, 16s. 3d., in 1877 that of £15,149, 14s. 8d., and in 1878 amounted to nearly £19,000. The exact figures for this last year have not yet reached me.
“The expenses incurred in 1877 in collecting and shipping the produce to Levuka, and in payment of the eighteen persons engaged in these duties, amounted to £1341, 11s. 9d. A further expenditure was also incurred for the purchase and gratuitous distribution of seed, tools, bags, &c., amounting to £386, 5s. 10d. I have not yet received the accounts for 1878, but if the expenses be assumed as equal to those of 1877, there will be a clear profit to the Treasury on this tax of over £17,000, while the expenses of collection will not have reached £2000.
“Let us turn, however, to the more important question of the social influence of the new law.
“To answer this question, the nature and working of its machinery must be first described.
“The amount of the tax to be paid by each province, estimated in pounds sterling, is annually assessed by the Legislative Council, the assessment being based, as regards each province, on mixed considerations of the amount of the population, the nature and productiveness of the soil, and the degree of civilisation which the province has attained.
“There are twelve such provinces, not including the two highland districts of Viti Levu.
“Tenders are called for, for the purchase of the articles of produce in which the tax may be paid.
“These articles have hitherto been: coppra, cotton, candle-nuts, tobacco, and maize; to these, coffee, which the natives have now begun to grow largely, will soon be added. Bêche de mer has also been accepted from some places.
“The highest tender is accepted in the case of each article, and to the successful tenderer all the produce delivered or collected in discharge of the tax is transferred on its receipt by Government.
“The amount of the assessment fixed, and the prices offered for various articles of produce by the successful tenderer or tenderers, are intimated to the Roko Tui or native governor of each province.
“The apportionment of the shares to be borne by each district in the province, and the selection of the article or articles of produce to be contributed, are then made, nominally and according to law, by a Board appointed under the Ordinance, but practically by the Bose vaka Yasana, or Provincial Council, which, as I have previously explained, consists of chiefs of districts, styled ‘Bulis,’ under the presidency of the Roko Tui, frequently, though not always, aided by the presence of the Governor’s Commissioner.
“The next stage is the apportionment of the tax of each district by the Bose ni Tikina, or District Council, consisting of the town chief of the district, under the presidency of the Buli. By this body the share of each several township in the district is determined.
“Lastly, the individual share of produce to be contributed or work done by each family in each village is settled by the town chief, aided by the elders of the township.
“The mode in which the articles are raised is left to the people themselves to determine, and the methods adopted have been very various. In some places each village has grown its own tax produce along with what it grew for sale or domestic use; in others, several villages have combined to grow their produce in one large plantation. These latter are what, by those who wish to discredit the scheme, are called ‘Government gardens,’ but, in fact, no such gardens exist. The soil and the produce both belong to the people themselves.
“This machinery recognises the primitive community system, on which all political and social institutions in Fiji are based, and which, even in the matter of taxation, I found to be still in use as regarded the rates for local purposes, such as payment of school-masters and village police, which, quite irrespectively of the Government (and, as some would say, illegally), were imposed by the Provincial Councils in a species of voluntary assessment.
“This species of taxation is, consequently, familiar to the natives, and thoroughly understood by them,—a fact which causes the pressure of the impost to be more lightly felt than it would be if demanded directly from the individual by the Government. It, moreover, renders the natives themselves, to a very large extent, active and responsible agents in the collection of revenue.
“Both of these are, I need hardly say, points of very considerable importance.
“But these were not the only results which the system was aimed to effect, nor are they the only objects which have been attained by its adoption.
“As was anticipated by the framers of the Ordinance, the cultivation of articles of export by the natives has been largely promoted.
“Fijians are by no means habitually indolent, as by many careless observers they are supposed to be; and they are passionately fond of agriculture: but their cultivation, though very neat and careful, is chiefly that of food plantations and articles for domestic use.
“Sugar, tobacco, and the paper mulberry are, and have long been, almost universally grown in addition to root crops and plantains; but they are not, as a rule, grown with a view to exportation; although cocoa-nuts have been manufactured into coppra, and yams in large quantities have long been sold, or rather bartered, by the natives, to the white traders.
“Under the new system, the area of native cultivation is rapidly increasing, and the lesson which it was desired to inculcate has been already more than partially learnt.
“Another consequence of the adoption of this law has been that of giving to the people a juster idea of the value of the produce which they raise.
“When a money-tax was insisted on, it was necessary that at certain fixed periods every man should make a payment in cash to the tax collector.
“Very few natives (except perhaps in the province of Lau) hoard or possess coin. Their wealth consists in the accumulation of masses of property, not in money; and as the day on which the coin had to be produced came round, an unscrupulous itinerant trader (and such traders are not always remarkable for a high tone of commercial morality) could obtain almost anything, and almost any amount of anything in the possession or under the control of natives, in exchange for the coveted and indispensable piece of coin necessary to pay the tax. That coin the trader sold as an article of barter on his own terms, and those terms were usually hard ones.
“Even at the best of times, when this pressure did not exist, the native only received about half the price which the very same traders, with the knowledge they still will obtain a handsome profit by their purchase, are now ready to give to the Government for a similar amount of produce.
“This has opened the eyes of the natives, and in their private trading transactions they now in many cases ask and obtain prices more nearly resembling the true market value of the article; while for the surplus produce raised by them of those articles in which the tax is paid, beyond what is required to meet it, the Government practically obtains for them a price equal to that which it receives itself from the contractor for the tax produce; and that too paid in cash, and not (as had previously been the case) in goods which the trader valued at his own discretion. As I have before observed, the details of last year’s operations have not yet reached me, but I know that several hundred pounds were in this manner gained by one locality alone in 1877.
“Since this paragraph was written—indeed this very morning—I have received letters from Fiji which inform me that the amount of tax produce sent in during 1878 in payment of taxes, in excess of the amount required to meet the demands of the assessment, and which has been sold for the benefit of those contributing to it, has realised between £1500 and £2000.
“It may seem strange when thus speaking of apparently large transactions between the natives and white traders, that there should have been any difficulty on the part of the former in finding money to pay a money-tax; but in point of fact hardly any money was received by them. Objectionable as it seems to be thought by some to receive produce instead of money from the natives, these same parties see no objection to forcing on the natives as payment for their produce imported goods estimated at a wholly fictitious value.
“A native, we will suppose, makes and wishes to dispose of coppra, which he offers to the white trader who ‘works’ that district. Say he has got half a ton. This, according to present prices paid to the Government, would be worth £6, 10s.
“The trader probably offers about £3 (until, perhaps, very lately, it certainly would not have been more, and probably less), and this he pays in cloth, knives, &c., of which he estimates the value at perhaps double the proper amount; so that he obtains £6, 10s. worth of produce from the native for goods worth £1, 10s.
“The native was often aware he was imposed on; but until the new system of taxation was introduced he had no alternative but to take what was offered, or leave his produce unsold.
“He can now sell at the prices which have been publicly tendered.
“The system of making an unduly large profit is so regularly recognised, that, in most of the shops in Levuka itself, there was in 1875 a ‘native price’ on articles, which was usually double the amount which would be asked of a European. There is still, I am informed, a ‘native price;’ but whether the disproportion between it and that asked of white customers is as great as formerly, I am not aware.
“The action of the Government affords a most valuable protection to the native producer, by insuring him a market where he will receive cash for his produce at a fair rate; and, paradoxical as it may seem, it is, nevertheless, strictly true that the reception by the Government of produce in payment of taxes has been an important step towards the introduction of cash transactions in the dealings between the traders and the natives....
“It does not require half an eye to perceive that the people have thriven under the new system. Everywhere the increased areas of cultivation, the enlarged towns, the good new houses, the well-kept roads, the cheerful and healthy-looking population, present the strongest possible contrast to the aspect of the country in 1875. This was fully admitted to me, not long before I left Fiji, by a leading planter, who said that nobody who had eyes in his head could deny that the natives were very much better off than they were three years ago; but he added (and there was much significance in the admission), that this was by no means an advantage to the planter, whose difficulties in obtaining labour were thereby materially increased.
“Not three years have since passed by, and already we see that it has secured an ample revenue, that it has stimulated the industry, and has doubled the produce, of the colony; that under it the population are more prosperous than they have been for a long time, and are, notwithstanding the incessant efforts of mischief-makers, content and trustful, as they will, I firmly believe, continue to be.
“I am especially desirous that it should not be forgotten that this is but one in a series of measures which should be regarded together as a whole, and which have for their objects the preservation and social development of the native race.
“A. H. G.”
THE END.
Transcriber’s Note: Map is clickable for a larger version.
FOOTNOTES
[1] The present population of Fiji, in 1880, is estimated at 110,000 natives, 1902 Europeans, and 3200 Polynesians.
[2] From a Paper read before the Royal Colonial Institute, 18th March 1879.
[3] The revenue for 1879 was estimated at £75,150.
[4] In Morayshire.
[5] Set all awry, in token of the death of her Commander.
[6] Méké describes either a song or a dance, or both combined.
[7] Acanthaster solaris.
[8] This little beginning promises to become an extensive movement, a visit from Bishop Selwyn having stirred up interest in the matter. I hear that the Chief Justice, and a considerable number of young men, now attend the afternoon meeting as teachers, with the happiest results, the immigrants fully appreciating the kindly feeling thus shown to them.
[9] More probably derived from the same root as the Maori word kuri, dog.
[10] Ivi—Inocarpus edulis.
[11] Ndelo—Calophyllum-inophyllum.
[12] Vutu—Barringtonia.
[13] Tavola—Terminalia.
[14] This statement was repeated so often, that at last Dr Macgregor, curious to discover a cause for so strange a fact, took the trouble to weigh six ounces of the root, which he gave to be chewed in the usual manner. When deposited in the bowl he weighed it again, and found it had increased to seventeen ounces! The inference is obvious, and needs no comment. After this discovery the drinking of yangona (Piper methisticum) fell greatly out of favour with the gentlemen of our party, and was principally reserved for ceremonial occasions.
[15] That such fears would not be groundless, you may readily infer from the following horrible story reported last year in the ‘Levuka Times’: “News reaches us from windward of a sad accident which has resulted in the death of upwards of twenty people. It appears that a canoe left Loma Loma with twenty-five natives on board, bound for Totoya. They were going about when a sudden squall sent the sail against the mast, capsizing the canoe. The unfortunate passengers clung to the cama, and might have escaped with consequences no worse than those which would have attended discomfort and exposure, but for the horrible fact that the capsize occurred in a locality infested with sharks. These ravenous monsters seized their victims one by one, devouring twenty-three out of the twenty-five unfortunates whose lives were thus placed at their mercy. Of the two who escaped, one is a woman; but her situation is very critical, the whole of the flesh having been taken off one leg. The matter is altogether too dreadful to admit of comment.”
[16] A Hunter’s Life in South Africa. By Roualeyn Gordon Cumming.
[17] Palolo viridis.
[18] Viti Levu—pronounce Veetee Layvoo.
[19] Before we left the isle, Captain Knollys succeeded in drilling a set of men to carry Lady Gordon in a wicker-chair; and on the occasion of certain special festivities in the town a second chair was rigged up for me. So probably future residents will have chairs and bearers, as a matter of course.
[20] I.e., the root of the drala-tree.
[21] It was at this town that Jackson (an Englishman, who, thirty years ago, was detained among these people for two years) witnessed an incident of peculiar interest, as an illustration of sacrifice to the Earth spirits,—a custom which British antiquarians tell us was formerly practised by our own pagan ancestors, and of which traces have till very recently lingered among us. A new house was about to be built for the chief, Tui Drekete, and the people assembled from all tributary villages to bring their offerings, and dance and make merry. A series of large holes were dug, to receive the main posts of the house; and as soon as these were reared, a number of wretched men were led to the spot, and one was compelled to descend into each hole, and therein stand upright, with his arms clasped round it. The earth was then filled in, and the miserable victims were thus buried alive, deriving what comfort they might from the belief that the task thus assigned to them was one of much honour, as insuring stability to the chiefs house. The same idea prevailed with respect to launching a chiefs canoe, when the bodies of living men were substituted for ordinary rollers—a scene which Jackson also witnessed, and quotes to prove how cruelly the tributary tribes were treated by these Rewa chiefs, one of whom he accompanied to a neighbouring isle. They came to a place called Na ara Bale (meaning “to drag over,” literally corresponding to our own Tarbert), a low, narrow isthmus, joining two islands together. By dragging the canoes across this half-mile of dry land, they were saved a long row round the island. On landing, they found the villagers entertaining the people of another village which had fallen under the displeasure of Rewa, and at the bidding of the chief these people allowed their guests to be surprised in the night, when forty were captured; and each being bound hand and foot to the stems of banana-trees, were then laid as rollers, face uppermost, along the path by which the canoes were to be dragged across the isthmus. The shrieks of the victims were drowned by the hauling songs of their captors, and, with one exception, all were crushed to death. One poor wretch lingered awhile in torture till the ovens were made ready, in which all were cooked, the guests of the previous day affording the feast for this.
[22] The ridge-pole of a new house is frequently wreathed with long trails of the exquisite God-fern, the Wa Kalo.
[23] I think the most incongruous instance that has come under our notice of this adoption of certain English goods, was when a large number of the wild heathen mountaineers assembled to meet the Governor—many of them atoning for lack of raiment by the care bestowed on their mass of hair dressed in upright spiral curls, which makes the head resemble a gigantic mop. Of course during the interview they remained bareheaded (as essential a mark of respect in Fiji as is a huge turban in India). But when they subsequently replaced the accustomed veil of thin gauze-like tappa, they proceeded to tie it up with red tape, little dreaming what visions of dull routine were therewith connected in the minds of the white strangers.
[24] Mr Mandslay told us of some very quaint mékés sung by the children at Nandi. They were reciting their lesson in natural history, and related many novel facts wholly unknown to science, concerning birds and insects, whose cries and songs they imitated. They specially described the mosquito, by humming and buzzing, all in measured time, and with uniform action, clapping their arms, and legs, and bodies, as if smarting from bites. Then, as if irritated beyond endurance, they threw their arms wildly about, till in despair they ceased, as if nerved for endurance, and resigned themselves to listen to the mosquito’s songs, whereupon the mosquitoes applauded their patience, and shouted Vinaka! Vinaka! (good! good!) The mosquito, it seems, is the only creature that truly mourns for man, for he can no longer drink his blood and sing songs to him; whereas other beasts rejoice over his death as that of a foe, more especially the ants, to whom his teeth are as precious as those of a whale are to a Fijian!
[25] In Northern China I find the same greeting, “Ypaisui!” “May you live a thousand years!”
[26] These are tales of the past. We must now look nearer home to find such barbarity. In the long series of atrocities which, within the last few months, have distressed Ireland (the shooting of landlords and burning of property), one incident has forcibly reminded me of pre-Christian days in Fiji, when a poor fellow having been put in charge of a house from which the tenant had been evicted, five or six men in masks entered the house, seized him and nailed him to the door by his ears, which they then cut off. And among the trifling incidents of daily life, we hear of ladies and clergymen being pelted with large stones, and pursued for long distances, solely for having ventured to examine the Protestant schools. Whether do you consider Ireland or Fiji the safer place of residence in this year of grace 1880?
[27] We happily escaped any severe hurricane during the two years I remained in the group; but the following extract from the ‘Times’ tells of a storm at the close of 1879 which proves that the oft-told stories of devastation and ruin which at last we heard almost incredulously, were only too true. The labours of years were all swept away in a few hours, and crops of every sort totally destroyed.
“Cyclone in the Pacific.—A storm in December did very great damage in Fiji. The banana plantations were laid level with the ground. At Naida a tidal wave went two miles into the bush, sweeping away and destroying everything before it. The cutter Alarm was washed up into the bush. The Byron, cutter, foundered at Nunda Point, and the owner, Mr M’Pherson, and one Fijian were drowned. Among the drowned was also J. B. Grundy, manager to Mr William Bailey. S. L. P. Winter and two Fijians were lost in a half-decked boat at Bau. Two natives were drowned and every house blown down at Radmarre and Madroch. The whole country is described as denuded of timber, and the native food crops destroyed. Her Majesty’s ship Emerald, which had on board Sir Arthur Gordon and suite, en route for Rototumah, encountered a cyclone off that island, but managed to weather it safely. The Stanley, of Queensland, 113 tons register, caught the full force of the late gale. She had 150 islanders on board for Fiji, who were kept under battened hatches for thirty hours at a time. Fifty subsequently died, and one committed suicide on being discharged from Levuka Hospital. Ten more deaths were expected.”
[28] “We shall meet again.”
[29] A few weeks after his arrival in Ceylon, Sir William Hackett died at the dreary rest-house in Newera Elya. Enfeebled by long residence in the tropics, he was unable to rally from an attack of illness which he deemed too trivial for care. So passed away a just judge, and a man who had made himself greatly respected in the little infant colony, whose code of laws he had been selected to draw up and administer.
[30] In old heathen days the tattooing of a woman was as important and compulsory a religious ceremony as the circumcision of a lad. Special penalties in the future world awaited the woman who contrived to evade this rite. Retributive furies armed with sharp shells would fall on her and tear her flesh for ever and ever.
[31] At a great meeting of chiefs at Bau in January 1880, on the return of Sir Arthur Gordon from England, the menu included 104 pigs and a large shark, cooked whole; I suppose the latter is the modern substitute for the bokola of old days, without which a feast would have been thought poor indeed. The speech made by the Vuni Valu on this occasion is worthy of note. At the conclusion he said, addressing the still powerful chiefs: “Now you have plenty of money, the native officials receive their salaries regularly, the people are flourishing and have plenty of goods. You chiefs are at rest mentally, not as of old. Need I ask you, Is it a good thing to be under Great Britain? Would any one like to change again, I ask? Let any one who will, speak, lest it should be said we have been deceived or robbed. It is not so. We still hold our positions. The chiefs still are chiefs, whilst the people are better off than they ever were before. If we had not given ourselves to Great Britain, we should probably have been at war among ourselves long ago. Let no man say we have given away our rights. No; we have secured them.”
[32] I believe the annexation of Rotumah to England has now been decided on.
[33] Casurina.
[34] I regret to have to add the name of Dr Cruikshank to the number of those who have passed away in their prime. He died at Levuka in 1880.
[35] I sent home seed, or morsels of seed-bearing frond, of many rare and beautiful ferns, but notwithstanding all the care bestowed on them by experienced gardeners, I do not believe that one has survived the voyage.
[36] Since writing the above, I have seen two springs of pure cold water on the summit of the dormant volcano of Fuji Yama, in Japan, at an altitude of about 13,000 feet; also those in Haleakala, the great extinct volcano in the Sandwich Isles—altitude 10,000 feet—whence it would appear to be the nature of extinct volcanoes to produce such springs.
[37] The demon drink did its work, and this magnificent chief died not long after the above was written. He is succeeded in his rank and office by Ratu Lala, his son by Andi Eleanor—a fine young fellow, who has been brought up in the special care of Mr Thurston, and has received a sound English education at Sydney. A short account of his installation as Roko of the district will be found at the close of this letter.
[38] In truth, such scenes as these often carried me back in fancy to our own Northern Isles as they must have appeared 1300 years ago, when St Columba came over from Ireland to Scotland in his open canoe, covered with hides, to preach Christianity to the wild heathen tribes of Caledonia; the “painted men” (whether tattooed or merely dyed, matters little), whom he found living in huts, probably more miserable than these, and clothed, not as here in paper-cloth, but in the skins of wolves and wild deer, and possibly wearing, as their most treasured ornament, a wild boar’s tusk, much as these people do. We know that the celebrated monastery on Iona was merely a collection of huts clustered round just such a humble wattled church as the one here described; and having seen these, I can readily accept the tradition which ascribes to St Columba the foundation of three hundred churches, half in Scotland, and the rest in Ireland. For wherever he or his disciples travelled, they established new monasteries on the model of Iona, and these in their turn sent forth teachers, who preached everywhere; and each tribe or clan that accepted the new faith, built for itself a church of wattle-work; and the building was kept up, and the priest was supported by voluntary contributions of the clansmen, paid either in kind or in labour, just as the teachers of a Fijian village are paid to-day. And as in the olden days a very few advanced villages would make a mighty effort to build a stone church, such as the famous Candida Casa of St Ninian in Galloway, or the “White Kirk of Buchan,” so here, with far less reason or comfort, a zealous tribe will (happily in but few instances) exert itself to the utmost to distinguish itself by building a “White Church” of coral-lime—a landmark to be discerned from afar.
[39] At the request of Professor Liversidge, of the Sydney University, I asked Dr Bromlow, of H.M.S. Sapphire, to take water from these springs for analysis. The following table gives the proportion of salts in a million parts of water, or milligrammes per litre:—
| Silica, insoluble, | 131.33 |
| ” soluble, | 5.78 |
| Alumina and traces of iron, | 74.92 |
| Chlorine, | 4506.06 |
| Calcium, | 1428.84 |
| Magnesium, | 3.04 |
| Potassium, | 72.03 |
| Sodium, | 1298.28 |
| Sulphuric acid, | 219.29 |
| Undetermined or loss, | 73.34 |
From the foregoing it will be seen that the greater part of the salts in solution consists of the chlorides of calcium and sodium.
[40] This ceremony is called bole bole, meaning to challenge.
[41] This is by no means an exceptional instance. A favour conferred seems to be generally considered as giving a claim to further kindness. The experience of the missionaries has always been, that if their medical skill availed to restore the sick to health, their patients considered themselves entitled to receive food and raiment, and also to have a right to demand anything else they fancied. Mr Calvert quotes the case of a native whose hand was shattered by the bursting or a musket. The captain of a small fishing vessel took pity on the sufferer, had his hand amputated, and kept him on board for two months. At parting, the patient told the captain that he must give him a musket, in consideration of his having stayed on board so long; and on this being refused, the man went ashore and proved his sense of obligation by burning the drying-houses in which his benefactor stored his fish.
[42] Last year this flock had increased to about two thousand five hundred head; and so excellent is the quality of fine long silky hair yielded, that at the great International Exhibition, held at Sydney in 1880, the second award for Angora hair was made to R. B. Leefe of Nananu.
[43] By recent accounts, I hear that much of this cotton has again been taken into cultivation, and that large areas of the flat land near the Raki Raki river have now been ploughed and turned into a sugar plantation.
[44] Since the above was written, the home at Nananu has shared in this too common fate. A few months later, the family were awakened by sudden cry of fire, and, as usual with houses of such combustible material, a few moments sufficed to reduce the pleasant Robinson Crusoe home to ashes. The long-treasured piano, books, knick-knacks, all irreplaceable treasures, were gone, and the family left with only the night-dresses in which they stood. Of course it does not take long to rebuild a house in the Fijian style, and perhaps the new house is better than the ramshackle old place; but in so remote a home, new ornaments and books and keepsakes accumulate slowly; “and we cannot buy with gold the old associations.”
[45] We flattered ourselves that our description and illustration were fully understood; but evidently the design had originated in some other district; for when, a few weeks later, the specimens I had ordered were sent to Nasova, I received a dozen hideous articles of ponderous weight, utterly worthless. These people can only carry out their own ideas.
[46] Solanum anthropophagorum. It was also commonly used by the cannibal Maoris of New Zealand.
[47] Tin can.
[48] This fine chief died suddenly during the great meeting of chiefs at Ban in January 1880.
[49] Wheels are no longer unknown in Levuka. A passable road having at length been constructed along the beach, a covered cab now plies to and fro between the furthest point of the settlement and the Government offices at Nasova, a distance of nearly two miles, carrying passengers at 6d. a-head. Among further symptoms of progress in 1880, I note the opening of a hotel on the upper Rewa River, and another in Taviuni; also the establishment of regular steam communication all over the group, as also with Tonga, New Zealand, and Sydney.
[50] Metrosideros tomentosa.
[51] During ten years of travel among brown and yellow races of every hue, continually spending long days alone with my paint-box in most wild and remote places, I have always done so fearlessly, being convinced that among these people a white woman leads a charmed life. While revising these pages I have received awful proof to the contrary from the following paragraph in the ‘Times:’—
“An English Lady Murdered in New Zealand.—New Zealand newspapers to hand by the last mail contain details of the murder of Miss Mary Beatrice Dobie, daughter of the late Major H. M. Dobie, of the Madras Army, by a Maori at Taranaki, New Zealand, on the 25th of November. Miss Dobie, who was twenty-six years of age, formerly resided at Irthington, Cumberland, with her mother and sisters. At the time of the murder she was staying with her brother-in-law, Major Goring, and her mother. On the afternoon of the 25th of November, Miss Dobie had gone out for a walk towards Te Ngamu, and as she did not return a search-party was organised, and bonfires were lighted along the coast-line. The body was found forty yards off the main road. The throat was cut from ear to ear and life was extinct. Near the body was a bunch of wild-flowers, evidently gathered by the deceased. The ground showed traces of a desperate struggle, and the flax-bushes were bespattered with blood. The spot is a very lonely one, about a hundred yards from an uninhabited house at Te Ngamu. An inquest was held, at which evidence was given implicating a Maori named Tuhi, who subsequently confessed to the crime. Miss Dobie, who was well known in Auckland, had gone to the place where she lost her life for the purpose of sketching Ngamu Bay. She was an ardent admirer of New Zealand scenery, and many of her sketches have appeared in the ‘Graphic.’”
This sad story comes home to me the more vividly as this attractive and accomplished lady visited Fiji with an elder sister shortly after my departure. They were for some time guests of Sir Arthur Gordon at Nasova, whence they made expeditions to many parts of the group, and afterwards proceeded to New Zealand to join their relations.
[52] He did, however, return with us to Fiji, and shortly afterwards was sent home in command of his men. He died in Edinburgh, not long after his return.
[53] Here is the analysis of a famous sulphur-bath at Sulphur Point, about a mile from Ohinemutu. The cures it has effected are so wonderful and undoubted that it is generally known as The Painkiller.
Analysis.—Sulphate of potash, 2.96; of soda, 34.37; chloride of sodium, 59.16; of calcium, 3.33; of magnesia, 1.27; of iron, 0.25; silica, 16.09; hydrochloric acid, 7.60; sulphuretted hydrogen, 2.01: traces of phosphate of alumina, lithium, and iodine;—total, 127.04.
[54] Since the above was written I have spent two months in the Hawaiian Isles, and have lived a never-to-be-forgotten week on the very brink of the great active crater. I consider that it is wellnigh impossible to compare the two scenes, and that in order to obtain a just idea of volcanic forces it is highly desirable to visit both—that is to say, such an active volcano as that on Hawaii, and such groups of geysers and solfataras as those of New Zealand. In the former, nature admits you, as it were, to her mighty arsenal, and suffers you to stand and gaze while she is in the very act of forging the strong ribs of the earth. There she shows you sometimes a vast lake of molten fire—liquid lava—sometimes dancing fire-fountains—sometimes all beauty, at others all awe; blackness of darkness, sulphureous fumes, fearful detonations; sometimes a column of fire shooting heavenwards, and falling to earth to pour down the mountain-side in overwhelming streams of fluid fire. Her finished works, too, the varied lava-beds, whether smooth or contorted, are unlike any other scenes in creation.
But nowhere on Hawaii have I seen or heard of anything in the slightest degree resembling the strange and beautiful objects to be seen in the volcanic region of New Zealand—which, like that of the Yellowstone in America, seems to be nature’s laboratory, where chemical experiments of all sorts are being tried on a gigantic scale, producing things of beauty in infinite variety.
[55] Lygodium reticulatum.
[56] Lady Rachel.
[57] News has recently been received that four of these native teachers have been treacherously murdered and eaten by the cannibal people of the Duke of York Island, on which they, with their wives and little ones, had settled in the hope of forming a separate mission. The murderers threatened also to kill and eat the widows and orphans, and urged the natives of New Britain likewise to dispose of their teachers, and especially of the white missionary. The latter, being a Christian of the muscular type, deemed it wise, once for all, to teach these murderers that the shedding of blood involves punishment in kind; so mustering his little band of Fijian and Samoan catechists, he crossed over to the offending isle, rescued the widows and orphans, and routed the horde of savages, who received a somewhat severe lesson on this occasion. These distressing tidings reached Fiji just as a fresh detachment of teachers was about to start for New Britain. Their determination was in no degree shaken. One of them expressed the feeling of all when he said: “If the people of New Britain kill and eat my body, I shall go to a place where there is no more pain or death; it is all right.” One of the wives was asked whether she still intended to accompany her husband to a scene of so great danger; she replied: “I am like the outrigger of a canoe—where the canoe goes, there you will surely find the outrigger!” Brave helpmeets these!
[58] The Walai. Entada scandens.
[59] Great was the dismay and alarm of all the men who have gone into coffee when a most promising estate was recently found to be infested with that most grievous plague, the leaf disease. The estate was taken possession of by Government. All the bushes were burnt, the land strewed with lime, and the place put into strictest quarantine, no man being permitted to set foot on it without a pass. It is hoped that these stringent measures may have proved effectual in stamping out the disease, which otherwise would blast all hope of success in this new undertaking.
[60] Alas! a very few hours ended the struggle for life. Ere the vessel reached Sydney, one more of the little band, who in the spring of 1875 left England so full of high hope, had passed away, and his body was committed to the deep.
[61] It may be considered a sure symptom of a reviving faith in the commercial prospects of Fiji, that sundry capitalists in New South Wales are at this moment, 1880, engaged in the erection of large sugar-mills on the Rewa, Raki Raki, and Taviuni, while others are in prospect. That on the Rewa is the property of the Colonial Sugar Refining Company. All its appliances are to be of the most perfect description, and it is estimated that its prime cost will be £100,000, that it will give employment to 100 white men, and be capable of turning out 500 tons of sugar per month. So at least we may now hope that the broad acres of sugar-cane will no longer be left rotting in the ground for want of mills; and carriage will be made easy by the use of steam-punts capable of navigating the rivers, and so collecting produce.
It will be strange indeed if the speaking results of collecting native taxes in kind, instead of, as heretofore, in coin, does not give an impetus to cultivators throughout the group. Mr J. B. Thurston, the Colonial Secretary, who from the time of annexation has been the strenuous advocate of this policy, says that when, about four years ago, he distributed his first thirty bushels of maize to be sown in native gardens, he was laughed at, and asked if he ever expected to see a bushel of that maize grown? Last year he answered the question by exporting 30,000 bushels, and sees no reason why the amount should not ere long become 300,000. Already the people have been taught to raise coffee, cotton, and sugar on these district gardens, with the result that where five years ago the revenue derived from native taxes was almost nil, it last year amounted to £22,500.
[62] The question whether it is desirable to introduce rabbits into the group is one that has caused much discussion. There are a multitude of small isles on which they might be reared with profit; but with the melancholy example of the devastation caused by their introduction into Australia, the danger is one not to be lightly incurred. We hear of large, once flourishing, stations in Victoria, which have been literally abandoned owing to the multitude of rabbits, where the attempt to raise crops has been given up as hopeless. One estate, not far from Melbourne, formerly supported thirty thousand sheep. Now it scarcely yields grass for five goats; and the man left in charge of the deserted house and farm-buildings has to buy meat for himself and fodder for his horse. No wonder that the planters of Fiji do not care to introduce the rabbit here.
[63] The sea-island cotton from Mago has now earned a world-wide reputation. It has gained the gold medal both at the Paris and Philadelphia International Exhibitions. That Fijian cotton should receive such high honour in America is indeed a triumph.
[64] Our police records have quite recently reported cases in which waxen images have been moulded to represent persons against whom some miscreant had a grudge. So late as 1870 a man at Beauly in Scotland was proved to have made an image of clay, which he buried near the house of a farmer to whom he owed a grudge, fully believing that, as the rain washed away the clay, so his enemy would pine and die. And in the same district a woman was found sticking lumps of mud on the trees with the same object. In 1872, two onions, stuck full of pins, and ticketed with the name of the intended victim, were found hidden in a chimney corner in Somerset. And as regards other forms of witchcraft, I have just heard (Aug. 1880) from a large landowner in Skye, that he has had a letter from his tenants, signed by several influential members of the Free Church, complaining of a family—a mother and five daughters—who, by evil arts, take away the milk from their cows. Of this elaborate proofs are given. The case was mentioned to another man of the same district, who was asked what he thought of it. He answered—“He couldn’t say. His own cow had recently been thus charmed; but he knew another skeely woman, and sent for her. She came and made a turn round the cow, and twined red worsted in its tail, and the milk came back. For this he paid her five shillings, but she told him that her charm would only work for three months, and if after that the cow ought still to be giving milk, she must be sent for again!”
For many curious statistics on these subjects, see ‘From the Hebrides to the Himalayas,’ by C. F. Gordon Cumming.