Mount Kasi

And Some Impressions of Fiji

A GOLD mine in Fiji!

Try to put that across in Dungog or Gundagai, and even the simplest hayseed will look knowing and inquire as he clings tightly to his wallet: “Be longs to your uncle, eh?”

And yet there is a gold mine in Fiji. In fact, there are three, and their combined production is getting well on towards a million pounds worth of gold per year.

This is a short account of a visit to one of them.

With C. and his wife I landed at Suva from the “Aorangi" one aiternoon in Julv last. It was nouring with rain real tropical stuff such as inspired Somer set Maugham or would gladden the hearts of those responsible for Sydney’s water supply.

Suva is much boomed these days as a tourist resort, and a large contingent landed from the “Aorangi”. The small custom house was a bedlam. Accommo dation had fortunately been arranged for us: but, after all the hotels and boarding houses had been crammed there were some thirty people left with no roof for the night, until SO S. appeals to local private residents had secured this for them.

Mount Kasi mine is not on Viti Levu island, of which Suva is the main town and the capital of the Fiji group, and we had to go some 120 miles north-east, to Vanua Levu. For this, a tiny island trading steamer had been chartered, with an ex perienced skipper. It had no accommoda tion for passengers, but two stretchers were lashed to a small deck behind the bridge under a canvas awning. We were warned that it was rough outside the reef, and that we would have an uncom fortable passage.

It was, and we did.

Mrs. C. wisely decided to stay in Suva, but C. end I dulv sailed at 10 p.m. While still well in sight of the lights and com forts of Suva, the engines broke down, and we circled slowly and drunkenly around, in dangerous waters, while re pp irs were effected.

Soon we passed beyond the reef, and our troubles started in earnest. The little ship developed a lovely corkscrew motion, compounded of pitch and roll. Our stretchers strained at their moorings all night and. as we had not been moored to the stretchers, we found it very hard to stay put. Fumes from the engine-room came up alongside the stretchers and added to the joys of life.

Came the dawn, as in the old, silent pictures, and I regret that I was not in a state to appreciate fully its real beauties.

To port lay Wakaya Island, where Von Luckner was captured by a smart piece of bluff, with Makogai, the leper settle ment, further west and north. To star board was Nairai Island and, right ahead, the large island of Koro. Vanua Levu was still invisible, and we had to tra verse the Koro Sea. with a local repu tation like that of the Tasman or the Bay of Biscay, before we reached calm water in Savu Savu Bay about 4 p.m.

In food we had taken no interest dur ing this journey; but no sooner had we passed inside the reef than C. dealt faithfully with a large plate of pork, to my great admiration and envy.

Disembarking to a small launch, we passed a few miles up the Yanawai River to the mine-landing stage, and then pro ceeded bv foot about 21 miles, rising over

I.oooft. to the mine. There is a motor road, but it was impassable after rain.

The mine camp comprises an unex pected sort of settlement in the midst of dense jungle. There are 15 Europeans, in comfortable quarters (five with their wives) some 40 half-castes, and 200 Fijians and other natives. The half-caste people are a tremendous help to mining enterprise, and constitute the bulk of the skilled labour. They are skilful and in telligent. amenable to discipline, stand the climate, and are prepared to work long hours cheerfully in an emergency.

The Fijians are aptlv described by the manager as “likeable, exasperating, smil ing”. Some of them are splendid physi cal specimens, but nearly all are lazy and unreliable.

In common with Emperor and Loloma mines, Mount Kasi ore deposit is very puzzling, and has no exact parallel any where else. The whole hill is a volcanic eruption of andesite, and gold is widely distributed, although concentrations of an economic value occur in somewhat erratic fashion. Payable values have been found on the lowest level so far examined at Mount Kasi, and it may be that these values will persist at greater depth, within better defined limits than on the surface.

If so, this will be an important mine.

The treatment plant has a capacity of about 3,000 tons of ore per month, and the process is a comparatively simple one of fine grinding, cyanidation and filter press ing.

The white staff is almost all Australian,

with a general manager trained in Sydney University Mining School and with wide general experience. They are tackling the problems in a thoroughly efficient manner.

Prom Mount Kasi height, the view is quite superb, with the jungle mountains of Vanua Levu to the north and most of the important islands of the Fijian group showing up to the east, west and south.

We left Suva by the “Niagara” and, on the same ship, Sir Arthur Richards travelled to Auckland. He had done a splendid job in Fiji as Governor, and had been promoted to Jamaica to clean up a difficult situation there. One was struck by the difference between Fiji under trained administrators, and New Guinea under political appointees. Fiji has its problems of mixed races, but is solving them with harmony. Sir Arthur s words at one of his farewell functions contain wisdom which should be widely spread—“ The Europeans must give a lit tle more, the Indians must ask a little less, and the Fijians must learn to work”.

On this policy, with its wonderful re sources. Fiji has a great future.

The Fijian native band performed at the wharf and their music and singing were really fine. I mentioned to a Suva resident that their beautiful farewell song “Isa Lei” seemed to have borrowed something from Hawaii, but I was squashed and told that the Hawaiian melodies were borrowed from Fiji. So now I know. —R.