Improvidence of the

Fijians Sukuna Speaks to the Chiefs

Atu Sir Lala Sukuna, Sec

retary of Fijian Affairs, who has no delusions about the frailties of his own people, spoke to the point when he addressed the meeting of the Council of Chiefs in Suva recently.

He said that the immediate desires of the Fijians were for “evanescent trifles” and in this way they wasted their money. He inferred that they therefore had to be saved from them ielves —as with the Fijian Develop ment Fund which makes a levy on Fijian-produced copra, and he hinted that similar levies might be made on sugarcane, bananas and yaqona, and for the same reason.

He said “To-day we are living in difficult times. We are no longer the most numerous race in Fiji; we have too few births and too many deaths.

With regard to food, there are many of our people living either within or near the larger towns who live on a poor diet; as to money, the criterion of power to-day, not only do we possess very little of it, but that little slips easily through our fingers. With every year that passes our strength

declines because while our numbers are increasing, the amount of market able produce we grow remains com paratively small. For these reasons you Chiefs, together with members of the Fijian Affairs Board, have a formidable task in endeavouring to find ways of raising the standard of living of Fijians.”

He said that to June 30, £130,000 had accumulated in the Fijian De velopment Fund from levies on copra —and that would have been £200,000 if green copra had been in cluded in the scheme. It was the intention, when the Fund was large enough, to build schools, hospitals and water supplies and generally to give the producers something of per manent value that would ensure that they lived comfortable and happy lives.

If the copra producers continued to waste their money during this period of high prices, then they would have nothing but poverty to look forward to when lower prices again prevailed.

Speaking of education, Sir Lala warned the Chiefs what had hap pened in India where academic edu cation had bred a dissatisfied class of white-collar workers. He said that Fiji was primarily an agricultural country and that most Fijians must expect to make their living from the

land —that comparatively few could expect highly-paid posts based on high educational qualifications.

Sale Of Green Copra

Under a regulation made by the Fijian Affairs Board in August, Fijian copra producers are now pro

hibited from selling or disposing of green copra—that is, copra cut but not cured for export.

The regulation, it is stated, has been made in the interests of the Fijians some traders have ap parently been paying them less than the green copra was worth.

Mrs. Barbara Price (nee Lang ndge) arrived in Sydney for medical treatment in August. For merly of Port Moresby, she is now a resident of isolated Vanikoro.

She made the passage from Vanikoro to Santo, NH (where she connected with a Qantas ’plane), in Mr. Fred Jones’ cutter.