all Circle
p. 67 · Read in the full issue
Kaya Reverts
Fijians
all Circle 117 Years
r AKAYA Island, in the Lomaiviti Group of Fiji, has reverted to > Fijian ownership. ; was one of the first islands riji to pass from Fijian to Euro n ownership. The present isfer in the reverse direction can uonsidered a sign of the times, tie Fijian Affairs Board bought island from Mr. and Mrs.
V. O. Bentley for about £45,000. board plans to use Wakaya to ruct Fijians in the management arge copra estates, le Fijian Development Fund rd assisted with finance towards shase of the island, akaya, about 10 miles east h-east of Levuka, covers an . of about three square miles, has between 600 and 700 acres ted in coconuts, and a small 7 farm. Red deer roam Wakaya, have become something of a since their introduction about turn of the century, leir only redeeming feature is they are a source of a regular ly of venison for the labourers he island. ikaya is a peaceful little island, y in the news. But it hit the
headlines in 1917 when Count von Luckner, commander of the wrecked German raider, See Adler, landed there. A European police officer and six Fijian policemen, all unarmed, took the Count into custody.
The island was one of the first sold to Europeans by King Cakobau.
This was in 1840, and the buyer was a Mr. Houghton, owner of the schooner, Currency Lass. Later Wakaya passed into the hands of Dr. Brower, then United States Consul in Fiji. Brower had for him as partner in this deal, Mr. Robert S. Swanston, secretary for Native Affairs in the Cakobau Government.
Brower, the first to introduce cattle to Fiji, imported several cows and a bull in 1858.
David Whippy, a well-known figure in Fiji history, established a crude sugar mill on Wakaya in 1862, and, although his product was not sought overseas, there was a steady home demand for plantation issues.
Mr. C. de Mouncey bought Wakaya some time in the 1920’5, and in 1932 sold it to Mr. R. B. S. Watson. Mr.
Watson used Wakaya, apart from developing its copra potential, as a base for research into the habits of big game fish in Fiji waters.
On his death the island passed to his daughters, one of whom is Mrs. Bentley.
FOOTNOTE : It would be ex tremely interesting to know how much Mr. Houghton paid Cakobau for the island 117 years ago.