New Community At

Rabi

Details of Banaban-Gilbertese Settlement in Fiji Group

INTERESTING details of the newly established settlement for Banabans (Ocean Island natives) on Rabi, in the Fiji group, are given in Sir Albert Ellis’s new book “Mid Pacific Outposts.”

The officer in charge was Major D. G.

Kennedy, DSO, well remembered for his distinguished wartime record in the Solo mons; and from him the writer obtained the following figures, to show the num ber of people who had been transferred to Rabi, up to a few months ago;

It was not generally known that so many Gilbertese had gone into the new colony. The inclusion of Gilbertese is not surprising, however. The Gilbert atolls are sadly overcrowded, and the British are anxious to reduce the num bers by emigration. Considerable Gil bertese settlements have been established, in the past eight years, in the Phoenix Islands.

The new people should do well in Rabi.

This fertile island was owned by Captain Hill in the closing years of last century.

He later became resident magistrate at Loma Loma. Then, early in this century, Lever Brothers, manufacturers of Sun light Soap, and founders of “Unilever, the coconut planter’s friend,” owned Rabi, and produced there about 400 tons of copra per annum. They sold it to the Fiji Government. The following details are from Sir Albert Ellis’s book.

The total area of the island, which is the eighth largest of the Fiji Group, is 27 square miles. The highest point is 1,550 feet. The island is well wooded, apart from the coconut plantations. The series of small bays, with sandy beaches, round its shores, backed by coconut groves, with streams coming down from the hills, should form ideal sites for closer native settlement.

The island has some 3,000 acres of coconut plantations, planted between 1880 and 1934. All are in good bearing. In the centre is a bush-clad ridge, with slopes not unduly precipitous. Nearly all the numerous bays and inlets are fed by small streams, and, along the north-west coast, there are many stretches of coral sand beach backed by sandy loam flats, planted in coconuts, between foothills and the sea.

The soil of Rabi is as fertile as that of its big neighbour Taveuni, known as “the garden of Fiji.” Mangoes, paw-paw, and breadfruit are now bearing, and almost any tropical fruit or vegetable will grow here.

As is common with high islands, the rainfall on the south-east coast is greater than on the north-west. The porous, sandy loam on the north-west quickly absorbs what rain there is. Living con ditions here are, therefore, much more pleasant than on the south-east coast, and it was for this reason that Major Kennedy chose Nuku for the preliminary settlement.

Men Women Children Total Banabans .. 185 200 318 703 Gilbertese ... 152 97 51 300 ♦ 337 297 369 1.003