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By SUE WENDT, lately arrived in Sydney from Fiji

One of the most fascinating things about Fiji is its magical ability to bind together people who have once lived there, whether as “sons of the soil" or expatriates.

Sydney is no village settlement, with everybody knowing every body else. This crowded im personal metropolis often strikes the Fiji newcomer as overwhelm ingly confusing and indifferent to the individual’s problems. Yet, amid the skyscrapers and among the home-unit-with-a-view set, the old coconut telegraph thrives.

Within one day of returning to Australia to live in December, I had heard news of numerous Fiji friends, been grilled about the local Fiji scene—and even been invited to a lovo. I was astonished at the interest shown in Fiji affairs by former expatriates long-gone from the islands. Russ Gribble, popular Fiji Visitors Bureau manager for Australia, welcomes a constant stream of Fiji people to his office, many of them there simply for a chat about familiar things and a quiet read of the Fiji Times. Islanders never lose their love for home . . . and it seems that outsiders who’ve lived and worked in Fiji never forget either.

News prior to leaving Fiji was the extension to March 31 of the government’s prices and incomes policy. This was because the select committee on counter inflation had not, in early Decem ber, reported to Parliament.

Prime Minister Ratu Sir Kami sese Mara announced that the only pay increases allowed in the dominion until the end of March would be negotiated cost-of-living adjustments. There would be no loopholes, no special cases, he declared. The government intro duced its prices and incomes policy in April, 1973, and the third phase began last February.

It was due to expire at the end of December.

The Prime Minister said the counter-inflation committee report was not ready because of the complexities of the committee’s task and pressures of parlia mentary business.

Former Fiji residents, although

accustomed to rising prices in Sydney, find it difficult to believe that costs in Fiji have risen as high and as quickly as they have in recent months. They take some convincing that top-class cuts of meat in Sydney actually cost con siderably less than inferior cuts in Suva, Nadi and other centres.

Tinned food is predictably much less than in Fiji. As Ratu Sir Kamisese reiterated in December, about 55 per cent of Fiji’s inflation problems are due to external pressures—and a very important part of the answer lies in pro ducing more food and goods locally.

Food prices in Fiji rose by 40 per cent between mid-1971 and mid-1974. During the second half of the year they seemed to be jumping even faster than that.

Salaries and wages increased by 84.6 per cent in the same period.

The question of a common name for Fiji people cropped up again in early December, with Minister Without Portfolio, Ratu David Toganivalu, suggesting the name “Feejeans” (Fiji-ahns). He agreed that to use “Fijians" would not be acceptable to all—and asked whether it mightn’t be an idea to change the name of the country, as Ceylon had done.

He said that so long as people travelling overseas had a common name, no-one cared if they were “black, blue or yellow".

Commenting on the issue, a Fiji Times editorial said Ratu David’s suggestion for finding a common identity and common name wouldn’t win easy acceptance “from those people who believe that Fiji’s problems will be solved only when one part of the com munity dominates the other".

It went on to say that Ratu David’s thinking “was the kind of thinking which recognises that in a world riven bloodily by racial tension, Fiji is unique in achieving a peaceful transition from colonial ism to independence, and the creation of a truly multiracial society without resort to terror, oppression and bloodshed”.

Despite all the good and justi fied thinking on the subject how

ever, there’s little indication that people will come to agree on a common name just now—and certainly, there’s not much likeli hood of the name of the country being changed . . .

Among the hardest-hit industries in Fiji is the once-booming build ing industry, with architects com plaining that an estimated $l5 million-worth of building projects has been cancelled. Their future was grim, they said. Some have cut their staff substantially and others are considering working a four-day week or cutting salaries.

Most blame the situation on world-wide recession trends and the tightening of credit and feel that things won't pick up in Fiji until the building industry smooths out its problems in Australasia.

The crash of big companies like Mainline Construction and Cam bridge Credit has left a big gap.

Construction of the permanent headquarters in Suva for the South Pacific Bureau for Economic Co-operation (Spec) is months be hind schedule because of in creased costs. Building construc tion was due to begin in Septem ber but to date, only roadworks have taken place on the six-acre site. Quotations for construction have exceeded considerably the original estimates of $600,000 for buildings and $86,000 for roads and siteworks to be financed from Spec’s regular budget.

Recent trade figures paint a de pressing picture. By the end of June the gap between import and export value figures was 20 per cent wider than at the same time last year. Imports during the first half of the year cost $94.23 million, while exports and re exports brought in only $23.26 million.

Fiji then, like everywhere else, is in the grip of hard times, with worse to come. Strangely enough though, while people talk about the rising costs and how much they’re having to cut down, there’s still an innate sense of optimism that things WILL improve some time soon. At least, say Fiji people, if the worst comes to the worst, we can’t starve and we won’t be cold. In today’s world, that in itself is paradise . . .