Move to Save Historic

Sites In Islands

Suva, Nov. 20.

THE South Pacific Commission plans to list historical sites throughout the Islands with a view to their protection and preservation.

Phis decision, which has only just been made public in Fiji, has led to sharp criticism of past neglect.

Very few people, even among the sducated, know anything of the sites )f the major episodes of Fijian listory in pre-European days. > robably only a handful of people n Suva know that the site of the ncient Suva Village is at the back •f the present Botanical Gardens. )n April 6, 1843 (according to )errick’s “History of Fiji’'), a Rewa eet landed a force near Suva Point 3 attack Suva, which was a ependency of Bau. The village was urned, many of its people were Hied, and three days later the sur ivors were massacred at Tamavua, here they were brought to bay on le brink of a 100 ft cliff.

Mr. J. M. Hedstrom, the new resident of the Fiji Society, says lat until a few years ago the ffensive earthworks on top of the iff were still clearly visible. But ey have now been obliterated by a overnment bulldozer and a house ands on the site.

Another Government bulldozer 1947, destroyed the base of the molished obelisk erected nearly 60 ars earlier by the Fijians to com smorate the Golden Jubilee of ieen Victoria and also the Fijian eateries to the Deed of Cession 1874. This demolition was con mned by Europeans as unnecessary, * destruction being ordered ap rently in the mistaken belief that ; Fijian memorial would be in the y of the new Anglican Cathedral, e first portion of the cathedral is w completed and it is clear that ' obelisk would not have inter ed in any way with the building. may be as much as another 50 irs before the Diocese of Polynesia i build the long nave and west end the cathedral). rhe fact that the marble tablets ring the names of Cakobau and other Deed of Cession signatories *e incorporated in an insignificant morial near the present Govern nt Buildings has done little to inter the bitterness created by the dless demolition.

Mr. and Mrs. Ronald Berndt. anthropologists of Sydney University, left Sydney by air in early November for Kainantu, New Guinea Eastern Highlands, where they will spend six months among natives who eat their dead The natives are located about two days’ walk from Kainantu and are already known to the Berndts

who suspended a study of them in May this year.

As foreshadowed in PIM (October p. 107), the change in standard time’ for the Cook Islands came into force at 2 am., November 16.

Standard time for the Cooks is now lOi hours behind GMT.