to colony’s

Fiji’s chiefs gave new tourist islet to colony’s first Governor

By a staff writer

A small island that Fiji’s chiefs gave to the colony’s first Governor, Sir Arthur Gordon, in 1880, so that “he shall con tinue to be one of us and named among us for all time to come”, will be opened to tourists next March.

island is Toberua, four acres • of sand and coconut trees lying l miles off Kaba Point on the south st coast of Viti Levu. It is about miles in a direct line from Suva.

The highest ground on the island only nine feet above sea level, but Toberua is five miles inside Viti ivu’s main reef, there is little ance of it being washed away.

Owner of the island, Mr, J. cHugh, a Sydney company director, s put up a number of buildings the island over the past 3i years, :luding living quarters for his wife, imela, and himself, and quarters r a staff of eight or nine Fijians.

He told PIM recently that he ped to have bure style accom- Ddation for about 16 tourists com ;ted by next year.

He said accommodation would ot be cheap”, but costs would cover services usually charged for parately at hotels.

To commute with the mainland, r. McHugh uses two speedboats d a catamaran. He maintains con :t with Nausori by a radio.

To put his project on a business oting, Toberua Island Limited, th a capital of £F50,000, was :ently formed in Suva. Mr. McHugh d his wife are the main share •lders.

“I have always dreamt of getting

away from the smog and traffic of Sydney and my wife and I travelled the world looking for a suitable hide away,” Mr. McHugh said.

“We had in mind little islands off Spain and Florida but when I saw Toberua I knew it was the one.

“I think Fiji is one of the best places in the world for investment and the growth there in tourism is staggering.”

Mr. McHugh bought Toberua in 1963 for £F4,500 originally with the idea as a hideway for himself and wife. But costs became so high that he had to make it a business proposition.

Home sold

He has just sold his home in Castlecrag, Sydney, and is retiring from his Sydney job to live at Toberua permanently to run the place as a tourist resort.

Mr. McHugh bought Toberua from Mrs. Malley, widow of Mr.

Garnett Malley, who had a large plantation on an island in the Lau Group.

Mr. Malley had bought the island from the estate of Lord Stanmore, formerly Sir Arthur Gordon, who died in 1912.

Toberua (meaning “two locks of

hair”) is thought to have been named in honour of a girl from the Lau Group who accidentally drifted 300 miles from home on a raft about two or three hundred years ago.

She ended up on the island and subsequently married a warrior from the island of Bau.

From that time until the Cession of Fiji to Great Britain in 1874, Toberua was the scene of many battles and cannibal rites and also the meeting place for the elders of the tribes of the Kaba Peninsula, Bau and Ovalau Islands, the Lau Group, and even Tonga.

During this period many chiefs were buried on the island and their graves, surrounded by coral out croppings, taken from the reef, can be seen today.

Descendants of these chiefs still make pilgrimages each year to Toberua to visit the resting places of their ancestors.

Until the island was presented to Sir Arthur Gordon, it was part of the kingdom of the warlord of Bau— the first Cakobau.

In giving the island to Gordon, Fiji’s chiefs said they wanted it to be known that “it was he who established the working of good and suitable government in our land, which has brought us prosperity, rest and peace”.

Mr. and Mrs. McHugh take it easy outside one of the attractive "bures" they have built at Toberua.