In Fiji

From Notes Made

BY

Judy

Tudor

SUVA, Sept. 3.

V|RS. G. HENNINGS, of Naitau- Ltl bua, Lau Islands, tells me that when she came here in L 912 as a bride she was so dis appointed she could have wept.

She had expected a riot of tropi cal flowers right out of the hot houses in one of the more famous )f Germany’s botanical gardens. 3he expected pineapples to grow by ;he wayside, bananas to droop from convenient boughs and bright hlumed birds to flit hither and yon imong the trees and palms.

In cold fact, she found a Suva ;hat had recently weathered a hur •icane—a tiny town of small wooden ;hops and unpaved roads, a fore ;hore that was mud at low tide and jore no possible resemblance to the coral beach of her youthful dreams.

The journey from Suva to her [husband’s plantation In a small joat was an agony of seasickness — is it is still, for that matter —and vhen they reached it, it was to ind the Lau Group brown and dry it the end of a four-months’

Irought.

During Mr. Hennings’ absence in Surope, the cows had gone dry, the chickens had died, and the drought lad seen to the destruction of the gardens.

But it seems that people lived lown their disappointments in those lays. With infrequent visits over seas, and a yearly pilgrimage to Suva, Mrs. Hennings has lived in L.au ever since.

She <is in Suva at present—buy ng goods for the Hennings trade store and a bull calf to improve the flantation stock, and being much nterested in anything the local \gricultural Department can pro luce in the way of new pasture grasses.

She still has a little accent and s entirely charming.

Mr. Hennings must have been a nighty brave man to bring a bride from Germany to the undiluted solitude of Fiji’s outer islands—or i mighty discerning one. In either 3vent he was lucky, as well. * * * LAU is having one of its periodical droughts now. The dry spell is at the end of its third month, and already copra production is falling to some degree. Apparently in drought conditions the mature [coconuts do not fall to the same extent —the tree sets few new nuts and hence there is not the same tendency to shed those that are ripe.

•cw *v, 0 f oovv , Q • ov ffmp X

Sjf fInSS?

fI E Shu nJf£ e nJsSo°i»So

nut—there will be little copra made or shipped from Lau.

The drought coming now when the plantations were recovering from the effects of the disastrous hurricane of a few years back, is a blow to Lau planters—it is easy to see why they were not madly en thusiastic about the copra tax that

was proposed by the Fiji Govem ment last year.

They calculate that it costs them about £35 per ton to produce their copra, for which they receive some thing over £5O. As the Fiji £, along with most others > 15 now probably worth about 7/6 in 1939 money, it is going to be some time before they reach the millionaire class, A hurricane, which can put a plantation out of action for any thing up to five years, is a possi bility any year in Lau between December and April, and is a cer tainty at pretty frequent intervals, Treasury officials, when they get busy with their calculating

machines, appear eager to overlook these facts. ♦ * PLANTERS’ problems vary from territory to territory. New Guinea, for example, has no hurricanes to contend with and, as far as I can judge, appears to pro duce much more per plantation than is the case in Fiji—either be cause the trees are more productive or because the holdings are larger.

And in Fiji, the problems vary again from district to district— Eau's present drought, for example, or hurricanes which hit in one place and completely miss an ad jacent group. In Fiji, too, the Fijians produce the bulk of the copra; native-produced copra in NG is only a small proportion of the total. , .

Because of this divergence of in terests and conditions, the Fiji Planters’ Union does not seem to speak with the same united voice as does the New Guinea Planters’

Association. Headquarters of the Union is in Suva—but the members are scattered far out into the blue and, unlike their NG counterparts, seem to take some shifting from there to the capital. This is not surprising when such journeys have to be undertaken in small boats.

There are few NG plantations now that are not within reach of swift Catalina service to Rabaul.

However, they are at one about one thing; that when Britain de valued her £ against the dollar there should have been a readjust ment in the MOF contract price of copra. * * ■* FIJI held a couple of surprises for Mr. Dugdale. One was the apparent lack of enthusiasm for trade-unionism amongst the “workers” of Fiji. Another was the Fijian habit of having their bures decorated with pictures of the Royal Family and Mr. Churchill. Seems that not one of them had a picture of Mr. Attlee. * * * THEY tell me that the Grand Pacific Hotel here was mod elled after the Galleface Hbtel in Colombo. It was started in 1914, was held up during the first World War and its first manager was from the famous Colombo hotel. Since then, of course, it has developed a fame and a personality of its own.

Dark and dingy at the end of World War 11, it now has new furn ishings and new management, and gives much happiness to a constant stream of tourists, mostly from NZ.

Even after the facelift, however, some anachronisms remain, par ticularly in the bathrooms, where lurk the most extraordinarily large baths I have ever seen.

Each is about the size of a Navy

corvette, and must present a pretty problem of entry to the more de crepit of the tourists (Fiji women never grow old). I cannot imagine why anyone would want so large a bath and can only conclude that they upholstered the ladies much better in 1914 than is the case today.

The bedrooms all open through green shutters onto long balconies and are entered through doors which open along the gallery above the lounge. It all makes for coolness but it also, alas, makes for sound. * * * SOMEHOW, the homogenised sounds of happy tourism can be borne; but the sounds of an over-enthusiastic sleeper are mighty hard to put up with.

Habitual snorers should be seg regated, in my opinion; or fitted with silencers; and, reflecting thus at 3 a.m., I put on my dressing gown and walked along the balcony to locate this human buzz-saw, who was making the night hideous.

My impulse was for going in, dig ging him in the ribs and coming over all-Sydneysider, saying; “Hey, turn over mate.”

But would that be British, or cricket? I stifled my impulse, went back to bed and read a whodunit till dawn.

(Continued on Page 114)

When he informed a reporter, on the eve of his return to Western Samoa, that it was now the policy of the West Samoan Administration to employ Samoans rather than Europeans, the High Commissioner, Mr. G. R. Powles, added that there were now 1,500 Samoans, and 76 Europeans, in the service of the Administration.

Dr. Jacomb, who was Assistant British Commissioner in the New Hebrides several years ago, and who has attained considerable fame since then as a writer and lecturer, has been visiting some of the Pacific Islands, including Tonga, to observe post-war conditions. He ex pects to be in Sydney, for a short time in October.

“Bula, Bula”

STORIES of the popularity of the Fijian Rugby football team, now touring New Zealand con tinue to pour in. Whether the: Fijians win or lose, their bright,, Interesting football captures the interest of the New Zealanders.

It is said that the tourists w T erei greatly heartened when they playedl Buller at Westport—in conditions? that resembled a rice swamp rather than a playing field—when locall barrackers continually yelledf "Buller, Buller.”

It sounds the same as “Bula” — the Fijian expression that wasc worked overtime by the AmericansE during the war and which, in the case of the footballers, could mean “Good on you, lads.” * * *

Something Of The Arts

THE Fine Arts Group of the Fiji Arts Club will present an ex hibition of work by local artists at the Parish Hall, Suva, on Sep tember 3,4, 5 and 6.

There will be over 100 paintings and other artistic contributions and these range from the conventional palms and blue sea to splashes of mad colour provided by devotees oli contemporary art. Some of them will startle Suva —but Suva can do with a little of that.

Also starting a season on Sep-i tember 3, the Suva Group Theatre will present a revue called “Blactf Velvet.”

It is produced and directed by Paddy Mulelly and James Craw ford; dances are arranged by Kitty Carter, assisted by Heather Emer-; ton.

There is an all-local caste of 50 including 20 Fijians. * * *

Broadcasting Commission!

Amalgamated wireless

Australasia Ltd. Will De9

sign and supervise the builcL ing of the new studios of the Fi;i Broadcasting Commission, supply and instal all equipment and trail staff.

The studios are to be erected nea3 the present Government Building in Suva, and it is expected ths tenders for the building will tf called shortly.

The broadcasting licence of Fix' Broadcasting Company, in whica AWA has a substantial interest, ws' renewed at the end of 1949 for fiv. years, but the Government has thl option of terminating it withii three years—that is next year—the establishment of the FBC is fa] enough advanced to warrant it. TIT decision to create a Commission-!

which is to function on much the same lines as the ABC in Australia —arose out of a committee who made a report in 1948. The FBC will differ from the ABC and BBC in one important aspect, however—it will derive part of its revenue—a large part—from advertising. Rev enue from listeners' licences will also go to the Commission, less a 5 per cent, collecting fee.

At present there are about 2,000 listeners’ licences in the colony, rhey cost 25/- per annum. * V *

Lautoka Wharf: Nadi

Accommodation

rHESE two bones of contention for Lautoka district residents will soon be receiving a little nore official attention.

The consulting agents for the v’harf have been asked to submit ilternative proposals because the arge cost of the scheme proposed •y them —£335,000 Fijian—is appar ntly caused by the plan to build rtiarf sheds on the wharf itself, "he money was to go in building ,'harf foundations strong enough to upport the wharf, the sheds and diat cargo might.be in them.

The consultants have been asked a give the cost of a simpler wharf nd sheds which are built on drv ind.

The South Pacific Air Transport buncil will meet in Wellington.

NZ, at the end of October. Fiji’s Assistant Colonial Secretary, Mr.

E. R. Bevington and the Director of Lands Mr. W. H. Buckhurst, will probably represent the colony.

Items on the agenda for this meeting include the proposed third runway at Nadi Airport, review of passenger and crew accommodation and other matters concerning tech nical services and facilities at the airport.

Much has been said locally about

the withdrawal of certain facilities at Nadi. Fiji’s international airport has somewhat peculiar circum stances to provide for. But, in general, it is not left to the Gov ernment which maintains the air port to provide transit accommoda tion for the passengers of the commercial airlines. This was done at Nadi until the closing of the Makambo: but now the responsi bility is being passed back to the airlines.