[?]ould Help
p. 97 · Read in the full issue
[?]Ji's Population
[?]Oblems Again
[?]LA Thinks Gommission [?]ould Help
lIJI’S population problem must be tackled unless the Colony is to be faced with poverty, less [ucation and discontent.
This statement was put forward t Legislative Council recently by r Maurice Scott.
In the Budget debate he asked hat had Government done to >point a commission to enquire to how large a population the jlony could carry. He said the jmmission was promised years ;o. but nothing has been done.
Since then much of the soil had •en surveyed and Fijian reserves id been demarcated, and Govern ent no longer had the excuse of ck of the essential information I a preliminary to a population irvey.
Mr. Scott believed that by the sar 2100 the present population ' 350,000 will have increased to 750,000, if the present population trease is maintained.
Poverty And Discontent
He considers that the Colony luld support that population but iyond that there would be poverty, ss education than to-day. dis |ntent and trouble between the ices.
Other people feel that whether le Colony can support such a is debatable. It depends
upon whether the Fijian people became actively engaged in pro duction; whether the exports of the Colony are increased, and have a much greater variety; and upon the establishment of more secondary industries. t The Tongan Government has an nounced that the “Tin Can Mail” island of Niuafo’ou, which was evacuated after a disastrous eruption in 1946, will be resettled again in 1958. Since 1946, it has been visited by parties of Tongans to cut copra.
B J ernard Vunibobo, 22, Fijian student, was one of those graduating this year from Gatton Agricultural College, Q’ld. Vunibobo has since returned to Fiji, where he has joined the Dept, of Agriculture. t Attempts made a couple of years ago to induce Japanese servicemen reported hiding in the jungle on Lubang Island, 80 miles from Manila, to surrender were of no avail. Re cently, however, four were captured, still with their rifles, and it is be lieved there are still a number hiding in the Philippines