Fiji Indians' "Hardship"

CSR Chief Sees No Evidence of It

From Our Own Correspondent

Suva, Oct. 16.

NOTHING is known officially here in Fiji of the rumoured visit of an In dian political Mission to inquire into “conditions of hardship” among Indians in the Colony.

Reports originating in New Delhi, of a projected mission have been published in both “PIM” and the ‘Fiji Times” and, have caused a certain amount of resent ment among non-Indians in Fiji.

Current comment among the latter is: “Why not a mission of Fiji Indians to do something about the mess in India?”

A hard blow to the “hardship” plaint was administered by the general manager of the Colonial Sugar Refining Company (Mr. C. W. Rothe) in an interview shortly before his return to Sydney by plane on October 9. Mr. Rothe had been visit ing the Colony on behalf of his company.

Mr. Rothe, circled Viti Levu by road, stayed at each of the company’s four mills, and he visited Labasa Mill in Vanua Levu. He said that the dress and physique of the Indians, as well as the number of Indian bus-travellers and the high rate of absenteeism, clearly showed either an improvement in the Indian standard of living or an increase in wages in this generation, or both.

Referring to the Indian peasant farmers, he said: “I have noticed that many cane-growers fail to plant accord ing to the contour of the land on hill sides, as they should, to avoid soil erosion.

Others are not caring for their stock. This applies paricularly to horses.

“1 am also advised that some do not practise satisfactory rotation of crops and the best use of animal manure, nor is the best use made of home plots for the production of food. xJ4 no , ther fa ctor not to be forgotten is that there is an economical limit to the number of mouths a given area can sup port.” H WARNING that a drop in the price of sugar “might be nearer than the .. * optimists predict,” Mr. Rothe said that the sugar industry would have to be 100 per cent, efficient if it were to with stand any such fall in prices.