Commerce

A Brett Milder Profile

Prince Of Fiji

TUI JOHNSON is a Kai Viti, that is, born in Fiji (on July 28, 1900). He is the only son of the late William Henry (“Tavua”) Johnson, a Canadian, and his Australian wife who had been a Miss Blanche Wade son.

Tui Johnson has a charming wife, Val; four handsome sons and a beau tiful daughter; and is managing director of W. R. Carpenter & Co. (Fiji) Ltd. But other than that no one has been able to prise any other personal details out of him, for pub lication, in recent years—even though his contribution to the legislature, to local government and to commerce in Fiji has probably been more than any other person now living in the Colony, He did, for example, draw up a detailed plan of land reform in Fiji that pre-dated the Burns Commission proposals but which at the time was accepted politely by the Government and then pigeon-holed. And it was his energy and drive that, just after the war, gave Fiji a copra-crushing mill.

Of practical, get-up-and-doers, like Tui Johnson, Fiji has had tragically

few in the last two generations.-

JT.

Looking far more ethereal in this Brett Hilder portrait than any prince of industry and commerce has a right to do, is William Granger Johnson, better known amongst his friends in Fiji as “Tui”.