Dollar

Million

Island

By John Carter

It had to be something really important to take Fiji’s Prime Minister, Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, and several of his ministers on a flight over 150 miles of ocean from Suva to the 4‘/2 square-mile island of Laucala in April. A series of ceremonies, opening a $20,000 copra dryer, a 3,000 ft airstrip, a new school-cum community centre and eight modern homes for Fijian workers and families was one of the most significant happenings in Fiji for a decade.

Host to the ministers was island-owner, multi-millionaire Malcolm S. Forbes, who bought Laucala in 1972; adding it to his other pieces of real estate which include a 262 square-mile ranch in Colorado, a couple of castles in France, mansions in the States and London and a fishing camp in Tahiti. He also has several art collec tions worth several million dollars, Forbes Magazine on which his fortune was found ed by his Scots journalist father, and sun

dry other money-making projects.

But, for the present, Laucala is his pride and joy and it may become Fiji’s pride and joy for Mr Forbes plans to put it on the world map as the source of a new cosmetic base super-refined coconut oil squeezed from the island’s annual output of 450 tons of copra. He promised, in a talk to

reporters he “imported” from Australia, New Zealand and the United States, that his marketing organisation will sell the cosmetic at a high price, and other copra producers in Fiji will be able to climb on

the bandwaggon.

His promises can be expected to materialise because 56-year-old hard bitten Malcolm Forbes is in the habit of getting things done. His magazine, Forbes, was wallowing in a trough of depression after World War 11. It’s now one of America’s leading business magazines last calculated turnover US$l4 million.

The only hot air he deals in is the hot air which goes into his hobby, hot-air balloon ing, and he holds the record for sailing across the States in such a balloon. He also rides motorbikes for fun but sells them at a profit, collects Faberge, fine paintings and odds and ends like ancient film posters and presidential autographs.

He’s not shy or retiring and does things in the way Hollywood imagines all millionaire tycoons do with a lot of publicity, but I suspect he’s really publicis ing his magazine rather than himself.

There was a flamboyant touch about the island ceremonies. As the Fijian ceremony welcoming Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara and his ministers unfolded on a patch of green

facing the sea, Mr Forbes’ private jet plane, a DC-9, which he calls Capitalist Tool, made two token sweeps across the island, and his 117 ft yacht Laucala sailed majestically into the bay.

But, if anyone thought that a display of what the almighty American dollar can do was the only thing they came to see, they must have changed their minds when they toured the areas bearing the Forbes touch.

The airstrip, dug out of the plantation soil and surfaced with powdered rock (or so it seemed) was impressive, as was the copra dryer. So were the new houses for the plantation workers like palaces compared with the traditional bures; eight to start with but more going up until all 200 Fijians on the island will be comfor tably housed.

Having spent several years in colonial Fiji, I got the feeling that maybe this Forbes’ idea of gilding his baby smacked a little of the old paternalism and that his island would get the bird from the Fijians in the saddle but, not a bit of it.

The Prime Minister made it plain to me that he was all for it; that nothing but good could come from it. Finance Minister Mr Charles Stinson took the same view. Here was a definite upgrading of one of Fiji’s traditional industries, coconuts, which, with modern American know-how and dollars might enter one of the world’s most exotic spheres the beauty’s boudoir in stead of the margarine factory!

Mr Forbes was frank about it all. He wasn’t a philanthropist, a do-gooder. He denied that what he was doing was because he’d fallen in love with Laucala and its Fi jians. When he bought Laucala it cost a million dollars, some say he had the idea of selling it piecemeal at top prices as homesites for rich Americans. Then he realised its potential as a plantation and decided to develop that side of it. Which is where the cosmetic coconut comes in.

I’m sure Mr Forbes won’t mind a polite rasberry! The money he’ll make from his coconuts wouldn’t keep his jet plane in the air, but there’ll be a very happy communi ty of Fijians on Laucala and he might decide that Fiji’s just the place to work off some of his excess energy and dollars to the greater good of the country.

Garlanded and smilling (who wouldn't with an island of one’s own), Malcolm Forbes on the right, cracks a joke with Fiji's Prime Minister, Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara Wright Photographies.

Laucala, the million dollar isle