Are Soon Crowded

New Suva Buildings Are Soon Crowded

JJUVA’S housing situation has been p serious for more than ten years, f and to-day it has reached a joint where it seems that whether [building is old and scheduled for temolition, or whether it is a new lock of flats, it is overcrowded.

The reason obviously lies in the wift increase of population. The idian community in Fiji is increas ig by more than 5,000 a year, and le Fijian population by more than 000.

There are substantally more idians than Fijians in the Suva rea, and the result is that new locks of flats in the city are fre iiently swamped by Indian families i soon as they are built.

When a European inspected a rand-new block of flats in No anber, the footpath, stairs and issages were thronged with Indian lildren, while still more popped leir heads out of doors to stare ; the stranger.

The logical conclusion is that in le city of Suva, housebuilding is r behind the increase in the idian population alone.

This has produced another ■oblem which is helping to speed ) the “drift to Suva.”

Three miles out of town a room

can be rented for £3 a month—and a great many Indian, Fijian and other families manage to cram themselves into a single room—while a three-roomed flat in the city area costs up to £l5 a month, if three populous families squeeze themselves into a three-room flat, the cost works out at little more than “room” rent, plus modern conveniences and a considerable saving of bus fares for those who work in the city