Men Who Knew Yesterday

Life of Mr. A. B. Brewster, Formerly of Fiji

Ti/fR. Adolph Brewster Brewster, one of the founders of Suva, the present capital of Fiji, and who was associated With such men as Sir William MacGregor, Sir George Le Hunte, Sir William Allar dyce, and many others whose names are connected with the early days of the Colony, passed away at Bath, England, in October of this year.

Born in Australia in 1855, Mr. Brew ster was sent to England to be educated.

On his return to Melbourne, just after the gold rush had petered out, he became interested in a company which had re cently been formed, and which was negotiating with King Cakobau, of Fiji, for land for the cutivation of cotton.

At that time, in Fiji, Cakobau was in dire straits with home affairs, but more so with the American Government, which demanded £lO,OOO indemnity on behalf of American residents, who claimed that property belonging to them had been damaged and stolen by Fijians. The peti tion to Great Britain asking her to annex Fiji having been declined, Cakobau eagerly seized the opportunity offered by the Polynesian Company to settle the claim for £lO,OOO in return for 200,000 acres of land. Eventually an agreement was signed by Cakobau who, in addition to the above terms, was to receive an annuity of 1,000 dollars.

Of the several blocks of land making up the 200,000 acres, the most important was the 27,000 acres embracing the Suva district. This block was surveyed into building allotments which were offered to the Australian public.

Mr. Brewster was one of those who took up land in that district and he ar rived in Suva in 1870. Owing to the American Civil War, the l prices of cotton and sugar were high, and many had flocked to the Colony in the hope of mak ing an easy fortune. Mr. Brewster estab lished himself as a sugar planter and, with his father, erected the first sugar mill in Fiji.

It was not long before he had a glimpse of tragedy at first hand. Two cotton planters in the Ba district, Messrs.'Speers and Macintosh, were murdered by moun tain cannibals. Mr. Brewster was a mem ber of the expedition organised to avenge their deaths. When passing Viti Levu Bay, on the return journey, fhe party heard the dreaded Lali Mbokola (or dead men’s drums) beating out their message ot death-signals that another unfortun ate victim was to the stone ovens.

The prices of cotton and sugar fell in later years to such an extent that it became unprofitable to produce them, and the Polynesian Company, which had met with every kind of obstacle from the outset, collapsed.

In 1884, Mr. Brewster joined the Civil Service and rose to be Governor’s Com missioner in the provinces of Tholo North

and Tliolo East, Deputy Commissioner of the Armed Native Constabulary (in which he held the rank of major), and he was an official member of the Fiji Legislative Council.

Eighteen years later Mr. Brewster ac companied a contingent of Fijians, to at tend the Coronation of King Edward VII.

By a notabm coincidence, a nephew of his, Major Clive Brewster Joske, 0.8. E., M.C., led other representative Fijians to England, in 1937, to the Coronation of King George VI.

Mr. Brewster retired from the service in 1910, after 26 years of honourable service, and settled down in Bath. Be cause of his knowledge of the customs and life of the Fijians, the two books he wrote. Hill Tribes of Fiji and King of the Cannibal Isles, are recognised as standard authorities on the early life of the natives.

It is worthy of note that it was due to the efforts of Mr. Brewster that the historic War Club of Cakobau, now in use as the Mace of the Fiji Legislative Council, was returned to the Colony by his late Majesty King George V., after having been away from Fiji since it was

presented to Queen Victoria on the ces sion of Fiji in 1874.