Mounting Tax Burden On

Fijian Community

From Our Own Correspondent

Suva, Jan. 8.

IN 1948, the Fijian people paid £26,569 in direct taxation for the education of approximately 26,000 Fijian child ren. In addition to this tax-burden, the Fijian people paid considerable sums pri vately in fees to mission schools or through special levies approved by tikina councils.

Besides cash payments, the programmes of work in most of the Fijian provinces require taxpayers to give their services in tikina school compounds for a specified number of days a year—never more than two weeks.

In 1948, 25,516 Fijians were registered as taxpayers, a number almost equal to that of the children attending the schools.

The cost of each pupil from taxation was therefore about £l.

The direct taxation levy on the Fijians for education has risen steadily since 1938 when it was £7,731 (for 19,314 children).

In 1947, says a report, the annual in come of 16,000 Fijian taxpayers was £1,100,000 a year, while the remaining

10,000 received only £llO,OOO, and adds: “It is the hard core which suffers severely from the tremendous rise in the cost of education ... So far, a prac tical solution appears to be far away,”

Taxes levied by the Fijian Administration were “reluc tantly increased” in 1948. The Administration’s income from all sources amounted to £79,541, compared with £36,877 in 1938.

Total expenditure £79,489, com pared with £39,675. Revenue from rates was £47,872, com pared with £27,271 in 1936.