John Griffin

Says. . .

Fiji is not like other Pacific places for several reasons besides the fact of its immigrant Indian majority.

Though linked with neighbor ing Polynesia, it is really the beginning of Melanesia, the big, dark islands of the south west Pacific that contain most of Oceania’s people and natural wealth. And, as the saying goes, Fiji is a political colony of Britain and an economic colony of Australia—as well as a partial cultural colony of New Zealand which has strongly influenced the educa tional system.

Perhaps the two most com mon judgments about Fiji in recent years are these: Violence is almost inevitable between the native Fijians and the Indians—a South Sea Cyprus situation, and, Fiji is in tourism going to be “the new Hawaii”, with the prosperity, pressures, and social dangers that implies. Although the two points don’t seem compatible, both could happen; certainly the ingredients for both are there as independence ap proaches and big tourism gains momentum.