Forgotten Vanua Levu

Scope for Great Development in the Post-war Period

By “Hiereus”

VTEARLY seven years have passed since Sir Arthur Richards, then Governor of Fiji, said, to Legislative Council, For too long has Vanua Levu remained the Cinderella of the Pacific’— and yet, during those years, little has been done to develop the resources of the island.

I have been studying the statistics of the Census, and have learned that, while Vanua Levu contains nearly one third of the land area of Fiji, its popula tion was, at that time, only 32,000 slightly over one-sixth of the total popu lation, averaging 15 people to the square mi if-. , ~,,, £ probable that the present popula tion is smaller than that of 1936, owing to enlistments in the military forces and drift to employment in Viti Levu. There is an acute labour shortage * n Vanua Levu, especially in the copra producing districts.

Yet, as one explores this island of 2,163

a^ ar^c(^e^ e f’or^^^opment,^°i^%nly m its

resources were made more widely known and more inducements were offered to settlers.

Labasa, in the centre of the northern province of Macuata, is the only township on the island, and this would not exist either, if it were not for its sugar mill.

Cane is grown extensively for several miles around, and recently the area under cultivation has been extended and could be extended even further.

The south side of the island is almost entirely taken up with the production of copra. Some years ago, banana growing was started, but came to nothing, owing to marketing difficulties. The efforts of an American company to grow pineapples near Naduri were ended in the depression.

In the Wainunu district, in the south west of the island, tea, coffee, cocoa, betel nuts and rubber are grown in a small area centring on Davutu.

The Mt. Kasi gold mine ceased to oper ate in 1943, owing to wartime difficulties.

Gold has been discovered in payable Quantities at Waimotu, in Natewa Bav. also, but nothing will be done there until after the war. There are sawmills at Dreketi and Buca Bay. Rice is grown by Indians, in many parts of the island, but chiefly at Wainikoro, Seaqaqa, Lekutu and Bua.

SUCH, briefly, is what is being done, or has been attempted. Under a pro gressive administration and with funds available, more could be done, new industries developed, and the island made to support a much larger population.

No one can predict the future of copra: but on the whole, copra planters seem optimistic and disinclined to believe that copra will slump after the war, as in the past.

The copra districts of Vanua Levu have been so drained of mannower, owing to wartime demands, that planters are unable to keep their estates weeded, and cut sufficient copra to make a livelihood.

Wages are high, and there is no guaran tee that recruited labour, for which a heaw deposit has to be made, will remain.

Some planters are carrying on without any labour: while others allow an Indian family to settle, plant rice and cut copra on a share basis. Some homesteads have been abandoned, and the jungle allowed to creep back again.

Fview of these things, the time is opportune for discovering whether some other crops cannot be grown to supplement conra production. As I have already stated, rubber, tea. coffee and cocoa are grown on the island, thoueh only in small quantities in the Wainunu district. Hitherto, the world’s supply of these commodities was obtained chiefly in East Asia, Brazil and West Africa. But this war has taught us the need of having our raw materials widely dispersed, and not concentrated in one area. If pro ducers were given a reasonable assurance of markets probably these and other crops would be grown.

In the past two years the Colony has faced an acute shortage of meat. Here, too, much more use could be made of large areas of Vanua Levu for stock raising.

With regard to the mineral wealth of the island, I have been told by an expert that it is nrobably greater than that of Viti Levu, but as yet it has hardly been tapped.

SUCH are a few of the possibilities of the island, but some sort of policy is needed if Vanua Levu is ever to come into its own and cease to be allowed to progress haphazardly.

Firstly, more interest and attention should be given the island by Governors and departmental heads in Suva, some of whom never visit the island at all. One Governor, on his only visit during four years of office, arrived in Labasa after dark and departed at 10 ajn. the follow ing morning. In other cases, the day of the official visit is usually taken up with local ceremonies involving obsequious speeches and platitudinous replies.

This applies also to visits of other high officials: a few pleasant hours and then off again, feeling that the best is being done in the best of all possible worlds, and that the local officer will always sup ply any information needed.

But the local officer is himself a bird of passage, liable at any time to be trans ferred to another district, and usually too burdened with routine matters to have time to devote to the future.

What is really needed is someone with good eyesight who is not afraid to get out of the car when it reaches the end of the metalled road and, complete with note book. walk on for a bit by himself.

Secondly, more opportunities to express their points of view, should be afforded the inhabitants. At present, the whole group of islands to the east of Viti Levu, including Vanua Levu, Taveuni. Ovalau, Rotuma, and Lau, are grouped in one constituency, entitled to return one European and one Indian member to the Legislative Council. This district is far too large and scattered for one member to meet all his constituents. Vanua Levu at least, should be entitled to its own representative.

AT present, the District Commissioner selects his own personnel for local advisory boards, such as hospital, price control, roads, local authority, etc., and he is at liberty to over-rule their decisions. There is a tendency, also, for the same neople to be appointed to each of the different boards. Neither is the public informed of their proceedings.

Furthermore, the District Commissioner or District Officer may summon meetings at his own discretion, or dispense com pletely with the services of such boards, as one District Officer admitted to doing.

Residents should be permitted to elect their own representatives and be kept informed of their proceedings.

Vanua Levu has at present three centres of administration; but the south’ ern centre, at Savu Savu. has a large and unwieldy district to govern. A fourth centre should be established for the Natewa Peninsula and Natewa Bay. rANSPORT and communications, both external and internal, are urgent needs for the island. At present, Labasa is served by one small and aged passenger vessel, calling once a fortnight

and taking three to five days to accom plish the 200 miles to Suva, the return fare for which is £l3/10/-. Conditions at Savu Savu are not much better. Most of us hope that, after the war, a regular plane service will be available, or at least a faster and more spacious boat service at less exorbitant rates.

A few metalled roads, generally in a disgraceful condition, exist round Labasa; there is also one stretch of road at Savu Savu. For the rest of the island, there are only bush tracks.

To cross the island, one climbs a moun tain of muddy soapstone with a gradient of about one-in-one, pushes on through weeds five feet high, which sometimes conceal the track completely, wades through almost incessant slush and across innumerable creeks—in one stretch of three miles crossing the same creek 17 times. For years, a trans-island road has been talked about, but to-day nothing has been accomplished.

The road from Labasa to Naduri, fea tured in a former issue of “PIM.” when seen by this writer last January, had been washed away and the bridges had fallen in. Something better is needed to span the island.

VANUA Levu at present has the ser vices of one qualified doctor, who resides in Labasa. For a time, in 1939-41, a doctor was stationed at Savu Savu; but, in spite of the urgent requests of the people, that district has been with out proper medical supervision since then.

A travelling dentist should also be pro

vided. Few of us can afford the expen sive fares to Suva when our teeth are in need of attention.

WHEN communications have been im proved, a good central school for European and part-European chil dren should be provided. At present such schools as there are (three operating and one closed owing to present lack of teach ers) are small. Junior schools are widely scattered, and many children live too far away to attend school at all.

At Labasa, a public telephone system should be instituted, and a considerable extension made to the existing water supply. The township of Nasea needs a proper recreation ground and a clubroom and library for the lads of different races, who have no diversions for their leisure time other than gambling and the local saloon. Much more housing is required.

Given decent road communications throughout the island, there is every rea son to suppose that Nakama, in the Savu Savu district, could be developed into a busy port. It already has a good harbour.

It is to be hoped that those charged with the task of rehabilitation will remember the possibilities of Vanua Levu.

Mr. J. J. Murray, a trader and planter in the Cook Islands for many years, recently returned to Rarotonga. He served with the Australian Forces in World War I, being severely wounded and has been with the Second N7.EF and the American Forces in the Solomons during the past four years.