Fiji

More Europeans Wanted In Fiji One Answer To The Indian Menace

1 COULD tell you in a very few sen tences exactly whaT to do with the surplus Indians in Fiji,” writes a resi dent of Vanua Levu.

“But one thing is certain —we do not want them here in Vanua Levu. They have been trying very hard to buy free hold land from various Europeans in this big island, and I am afraid that in some cases they have succeeded; but generally the owners of the freehold, even where they want to sell, are patriotic enough to keep the land out of the hands of the Indians.

“After all, apart from the Fijians, who is entitled to this land—the Europeans who pioneered it, or the Indians who have done little or nothing to make it fit for settlement?

“It is in my opinion a shocking thing that there should be so few Europeans in this magnificent island —it could carry thousands of European settlers, instead of a few score. If only we had an Adminis tration with a developmental impulse, a great deal could be done to encourage settlement. Private enterprise, under en couragement, could provide a pineapple factory, goat, pig and poultry farming— and all the industries established on Viti Levu, and a few more as well.

“Viti Levu already has been spoiled by over-population. This other big island of Vanua Levu has far more attractions from the point of view of European settle ment, and it is a shameful thing that nothing is being done about it.

“Why does the British Adm nistration sit with folded hands, resigning itself to its belief that the archipelago is going to be over-run by Indians, when, with a little enterprise and energy, it could build up a very substantial European settlement in this Colony as a bulwark against the ever-encroaching Indians?”

Probate has been granted in the will of the late Geoffrey Hampden Vernon, medical practitioner, of Port Glasgow, Papua. Personalty was £3,806 gross.