Oxford In The

Pacific

( Contributed ) MOLLY FLUKES was enjoying a cigarette when the 12 o’clock lun cheon whistle blew.

In a few minutes her husband drove into the garage and. hearing voices, Molly guessed he had brought someone home for lunch. Mentally running over the menu, she decided that with a little judicious juggling there would be enough to go round.

Mr. Flukes introduced the visitor as Mr. Smith-Lloyd, the new District Com missioner. True to the traditions of hos pitality in the tropics, Molly invited him into the lounge for a glass of cold beer before sitting down to lunch.

After a few minutes’ conversation, Molly decided he was just another of the usual type of imported English cadet.

He had nothing good to say of Fiji; the social amenities were foul; the people were most ordinary, and the climate bearable—and that was all. He had really wanted to go to Malaya or India, where there were polo clubs, flirtatious women, hill stations, and glamour. Molly thought it a great pity he had not gone to Malaya!

During lunch, Molly drew her visitor out and learned quite a lot about how he had come to join the Colonial Ser vice. He had managed to win a scholar ship entitling him to a year at Oxford, so he called himself an Oxford graduate, and fondly imagined his accent was the correct reproduction of the King’s Eng lish as spoken at that University.

Then, of course, his hyphenated name was worth at least £5O a year on to his salary. Molly’s thoughts at this stage ran on to the time she had suggested to her husband that he use his name “Corney” and make Corney-Flukes out of it; but all the reply she got was that it reminded him of a breakfast cereal and he preferred his name without the prefix.

All things come to an end sometime; and eventually her husband and his com panion took their departure.

It was not the only visit Smith-Lloyd nade to the Flukes’s house and, while ne was quite amiable and enjoyed a good meal, Molly got very weary of hearing her beloved adopted country spoken of in contemptuous and disparaging terms.

It brought up the old question, which plagued many Fiji folk—the question of why the Colony should have these inane, uninterested, conceited young cadets foisted on it. The cadets came out on a very good salary for a term, at the end of which they enjoyed long leave and

return-passage to England. Very often they had not the slightest interest in the welfare of the Colony and merely re garded it as a term of apprenticeship to better posts.

ON the other hand, there is a real headache for European parents in finding a career for their children.

A local lad, to obtain any degrees, has to be sent either to New Zealand or Australia—a costly business when there is more than one son to consider If his parents cannot afford to send him out of the Colony, a boy can either join with one of the. .commercial firms in Fiji with not always attractive prospects, or he can join the Junior Division of the Fiji Government Service, commencing on a salai Y. of something like £72 p.a., so that he is still a liability to his family for several years. „ T he imported article gets all the plums in the way of remunerative posi tions The local lad, with his knowledge of the native language, his home in terests, and the fact of being acclima tised, gets all the hack work, and only in a very few cases has he ever been given a senior post.

There are in Fiji to-day several local men with long service, who “act” on many occasions, and prove themselves capable of doing the job, only to find an otlier J .I_importation 1 importation br °ught in over them, and they once again go through the pro cess of having their store of local know ledge and the peculiarities of the job sucked from them, while the other fellow gets the kudos.

HOWEVER (concluded Molly, solilo quising), I expect most people in this delightful Colony .would rather muddle through with the strange mix ture sent out by the Colonial Office, than have to suffer gladly the Administration as meted out to New Guinea residents, for instance, by the famous theorists of Canberra.