Christmas in Suva

From Our Fiji Correspondent CHRISTMAS in Fiji followed the usual pattern, with the Euro pe a n community tenaciously holding to the old tradition of a “white Christmas” with dabs of cotton wool on the Christmas tree; and a growing tendency among other races to treat it as a big “spree’ rather than as a religious festival.

The entire population of Fijians in Suva seemed to spend the whole night of Christmas Eve in wander ing up and down the streets, festooned with balloons and paper hats, shaking hands, arguing more or less amiably, and throwing crackers.

Housegirls have, almost to a woman, overstayed their visits to their villages; their employers have, as usual, darkly threatened to sack them, but on their return, most European women, after a week or so at the sink, have agreed to let bygones be bygones, and things are back to normal again.

Suva stores, after the usual Christmas rush of buying, are look ing a little bare, and the effect of the shipping strike in Great Britain is beginning to be felt here. How ever, most firms will admit that they “haven’t done too badly” this Christmas, and certainly Fiji’s prosperity can be measured by the number of expensive gifts that dis appeared from the shops. French

perfumes at 10 guineas per bottle and walking dolls at £6/10/- found ready buyers, and they weren’t all copra planters, either. tl Miss Patricia Kent, who conducts the Vidal Library and Bookshop in Suva, returned to Fiji in January after spending three months’ holi day with her parents in Sydney.

For the past six years she hi worked at a lay member of tl Catholic Mission in Suva. fl Mr. G. T. Bolt, Chairman of til New Zealand Public Service Con mission, visited Fiji on his way New Zealand territories in tl Pacific to discuss matters affectii New Zealand officers at Nadi Aii port.