The Future of The

Natives Births Exceed Deaths Fijians Becoming Rural Producers

Written for The Pacific Islands Monthly by Rev. T. N. Deller, of Bau, Fiji.

THE islands of the Pacific are peopled by Europeans, Asiatics and Natives.

The Europeans and Asiatics are well able to champion their own cause and their future is assured.

The native races are in a different category and, for some years, will have to be treated with a degree of charity by the Governments administering their islands, and by all who have the welfare of the Pacific at heart. Up to the present they have produced no leaders of outstanding ability who are able to take up the cudgels on their behalf and represent their cause to the world.

It was the general conception, some few years ago, that the natives of the Pacific were a diminishing quantity, and the most generous attitude to wards them was one of toleration for, perhaps, a couple of generations, until they passed into inevitable extinction.

But this is not the outlook to-day.

In most of the islands the birth rate now exceeds the death rate; and the

natives are not only increasing in numbers, but they are waking up to a sense of their own importance and natural ability. The question now is; Are they to remain the hewers of wood and drawers of water, or are they to become fellow citizens in the Pacific Islands commonwealth? The answer, of course, will be given by the natives themselves, and by the Governments responsible for their well-being.

It is obvious that a peaceful, pros perous and enlightened community is a greater asset to the coutnry than a community where there are different strata of society, marked by a defined colour line. The mingling of the vari ous races is not here suggested; there is a manner in which each race can live its own life and work for its own individual progress and the progress of the community or country. It is co operation and not exploitation that makes for real progress.

The day of the native races is dawn ing and, with the better educational facilities now being offered in the vari ous countries. will soon be upon us.

Many of the rising generation will be attracted by clerical, commercial and industrial pursuits, but the large ma jority will find a livelihood as rural workers and independent farmers on their own lands.

In Fiji everv encouragement is being given to the Fijians to branch out on their own. The C.S.R. Company have opened up part of the Bau Levu estate to ex-students of the Navuso Agricul tural College and, already, a number have settled there and are planting sugar cane. Other ex-students of this same institution are working their own lands; and at the village of Naila, not far from Nausori, they have a large area under cane and other crops.

At Ba and Nasigatoka, the C.S.R.

Company have opened up large areas to Fijians, and is assisting them to settle on the land with their wives and families.

Ninety-five per cent, of the bananas exported from Fiji are grown by Fiji ans, and more than half the copra pro duced in the Colony is grown on native plantations.

If the large native population be comes enlightened and civilised, a door will be opened to commerce and indus try, leading to boundless opportunities.

At present the natives’ wants are few; but the day is not far distant when he will desire better clothes, home com forts, better foods and other facilities that are now only being enjoyed by the more enlightened races from older countries. Supply is regulated by de mand; and with the increasing of the demands of a community, there is a corresponding development.

Fijian man—a fine type of the South Sea natives, who are quickly being educated and Europeanised.