In Fiji

South Seas Legend

Killed

Cost of Living Soars In Fiji

From Our Own Correspondent SUVA, April 10 ONCE upon a time people came to the South Seas to live on the cheap or to live on nothing at all. There was a time, even since the days of Cap tain Cook, when the second hope could be fulfilled; and, before 1939, the first could be achieved very comfortably on limited resources, especially if they were sterling or American resources.

But this is 1947.

In Fiji, in April, 1947, the cost of living has more than doubled since August, 1939 and, allowing for the heavy in creases in taxation and for black market prices for such goods as are not “con trolled,” it would probably be more accurate to say that it has trebled. And it is still rising. The official index is the quarterly re turn of the cost of living of Indian workmen, bv the Department of Labour. Like all such documents in all countries, this statistical effort is re garded by the public more as an indi cation of general trends than as a state ment of the hard facts of life. In any case, it is hardly necessary to point out that everyone is not an Indian work man; but in Fiji’s cost of living estimates that industrious and constitutionally thrifty soul is a sort of statistical slide rule.

In the first quarter of 1947, states the labour Department, the cost of living rf workmen in the country districts of Viti Levu increased by five points to 111 ner cent, of the August, 1939, figure. In Suva, the rise was four points to 92 per rent, of the pre-war level.

EUROPEANS have a word or two to add to departmental conciseness. An Aus tralian who has been in Suva for a months estimates that the plainest of living here is (conservatively) 15 per cent more expensive than in Sydney. A New Zealand clerk complains that, des nite the higher taxation, he was able to save money in the Dominion, whereas in Fiji he can only just manage on a larger salary without saving a penny.

Both men are planning to go home.

Enough has been said to indicate that if anyone in chillier climes is thinking of living on the cheap in Fiji he or she will be much wiser to stay at home and wait for social security benefits to come to light.

Tourists, of course, are out of the pic ture altogether.

For example, a casual stranger arriving at Suva without preliminary negotiations is immediately confronted with the problem of finding a place to sleep. The cheapest hotel accommodation —if avail able at all —is now 15/- a day or—like wise if available —£14/10/- a month.

Hotel accommodation in Suva has been a doubtful quantity for many years, but to-day most of the half-dozen or so hotels are comandeered by tenacious “nermanents,” who hang on like clams, for the excellent reason that rentable bouses and flats are as common as snow flakes.

Then come the incidentals. Clothing has gone up substantially in price, more especially men’s clothing. The other day the writer paid an Indian tailor £5 for three pairs of white trousers and three shirts—round about double the price that would have been reasonable before the war. And laundry charges—a major item in the tropics—run out at a dead mini

mum of 30/- a month for one person, assuming that he can arrange a contract on a monthly basis. If not, he will be lucky to get off with anything under £2.

Att + ir, LL tropical fruits naturally and in evitably grow m abundance in Fiji; but they are an outrageous price in Suva and even in outside centres. A country press correspondent was recently wailing because local retailers demand 2/6 a dozen for local oranges for which the original vendors had been paid 1 for three dozen. (This complaint originated 100 miles from Suva.) At the end of the war there was a scream for the removal of controls. Today the screamers, handsomely admit-

ting their mistake, have gone several notes higher in a demand for the re imposition of controls over food necessi ties.

Most traders, and especialy the Indians, h ave exploited “freedom” to the full and public agitation among all races is be- CO ming more than a muttering. A few we eks ago a surprisingly sharp official warning was g i ve n to the profiteers. The warning has been serenely disregarded anc j drastic action is plainly indicated, , , , In the meantime, demands for wage increases—perfectly justified in the face of the cost of living, index or no index —are growing; and so the majestic spiral of inflation rises in the Islands.