The Startling Fecundity
p. 42 · Read in the full issue
of the Indian Population Figures Released in Fiji
BT far the most interesting aspect of Fiji’s estimated population figures, just released, is the phenomenal increase in the Indian population of the Colony. The last census was taken in 1936 and showed 85,000 Indians and 97,651 Fijians.
The estimated figures for 1944 are 113,179 Fijians and 113,147 Indians—an almost negligible difference of 32.
Total population of the Colony in 1936 was 198,000; to-day it is 246,000. The European population during the period from 1936 increased by 1,200 (obviously most of them by immigration) and part- Europeans by almost the same number.
The estimated Indian birthrate is 41.53 per thousand: that of the Fijians, 33.65; for part-Europeans, 37.19; and for Euro peans, 15.98. In the death rate, however, the Fijians top the poll with 17.04, Indians next with 9.09; 6.4 for part- Europeans and 4.18 for Europeans.
It does not need a mathematician to work out the implications of these vital statistics. At the natural rate of increase of Indians and Fijians shown in these figures, it is obvious that in a very few years the Indian population will have swamped the Fijians and Fiji, indeed, will have become a Little India in the Pacific.