At 86, The Old Trader

Tramps His Plantation

A Brett Hilder Profile Arthur Freeman, one-time resident of Fiji, was born at :ading, England, in 1873. He arrived with his parents in istralia by the barque Peterborough in 1880, and his father came accountant for the Thomas Mort Estate at Bodalla, JW.

HUR worked as a stockman i the estate for six years after i left school and then he left yest Australia to join the irdie gold-rush in 1894. He eight years on the goldfields.

L 906, he went to Fiji, where of his brothers, Dick, Bert ed were working for the CSR my. Arthur went into partner vith A. W. Witherow in the a exporting business. They became about the biggest i in the trade, shipping 10,000 es to Australia by each sr, which was three times a i at that time.

aur Freeman used to draw £450 from the bank each week ravel by launch up the Rewa , buying bananas for 1/- or bunch. These were collected me 60-ft punts, which carried bunches, and by 17 smaller which carried 300 bunches

from farther up the river. The punt boys were paid £1 for a trip of four or five days, plus a penny a bunch commission. As the bananas sold in Australia for 5/- to 9/- a bunch, there was a good profit in it for the traders.

End of the Trade

In 1910, Arthur married Frederica Carter, in Fiji, and their two daughters, Marie and Jane, were born in Suva. About 1915 the ships were taken off the run, and as this meant the end of the banana trade, the family moved back to Australia, taking up land near Murwillumbah, NSW, Arthur planted 90 acres of bananas on some fertile soil 10 miles west of Currumbin, and worked it with kanaka labour left there from the blackbirding days.

The kanaka children and grand children are still working the pro perty for “Boss” Freeman, who called his plantation “Viria”, in fond memory of Fiji days.

Within visiting distance of “Viria” are other Kai Viti’s, Chris Wager and his wife, who live at Tugun, and who have been men tioned recently in PIM. Mrs. Free man died many years ago, and Arthur married again, but his second wife has also died, without leaving any children.

86th Birthday

The above sketch was made aboard MV Malaita, on the occasion of Arthur’s 80th birthday, when he was making a final cruise around the Islands. His 86th birth day was celebrated this year on July 29, and his many friends will be glad to hear that, although his eyesight has been failing, the old war-horse is still able to tramp around the plantation. Arthur Freeman is a fine man and regarded with affectionate respect by all who have known him. I wonder if he can still remember that first Queensland banana he sampled as a boy, way back in 1880? — BRETT

Milder.