The Fijian Colonial Experience Timothy J. Macnaught

The Fijian Colonial Experience
A study of the neotraditional
order under British colonial rule
prior to World War II
Timothy J. Macnaught
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Colony of Fiji, 1920-1944
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Pacific Research Monograph Number Seven
The Fijian Colonial Experience
A study of the neotraditional
order under British colonial rule
prior to World War II
Timothy J. Macnaught
Series editor E.K. Fisk
The Australian National University
Canberra, Australia and in Miami, Florida, USA
1982
©Timothy J. Macnaught 1982
This work is copyright. Apart from any fair dealing
for the purpose of study, research, criticism or review,
as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part may be
reproduced by any process without written permission.
Inquiries may be made to the publisher.
National Library of Australia
Cataloguing-in-publication entry
Macnaught, Timothy J.
The Fijian colonial experience.
ISBN o 909150 49 4.
1. Fiji Islands - History. I. Australian National
University. Development Studies Centre. II. Title.
(Series: Pacific research monograph; no. 7).
996'.11
Library of Congress Catalog Card No 81-71137
Printed and manufactured in Australia by
The Australian National University
Timothy John Macnaught, born in Sydney in 1945,
was one of Macquarie University's first graduates in
1970. He received his PhD in Pacific history at the
Australian National University in 1975 and the
following year moved with his wife and three children
to Honolulu, where he taught World and Pacific
history for the University of Hawaii at Manoa. He
was also assistant professor in the University's Pacific
Islands Studies Program. He has recently been
appointed Vice-Principal of St Francis Xavier College,
Beaconsfield, Victoria.
Cover Illustration from Cook, James. Ctlptain Cook's Voyllgts
tlro11nJ tlu WorlJ, printed for Millar, Law and Cater, Vol. 4,
London,1790
Summary
This book analyse s thematically much of the colonial
experience of the Fij ians earlier thi s c entury - their land
rights , vil lage and district po litics , chiefly lead ership,
underground movements and various Bri tish effo rts to
' improve ' them .
The maj or theme is the failure of vague po licies
fo ste ring individualism and enterprise to interrupt the
continuities o f a vigorously autonomous
so cial
and
political world maintaining eight o f ten Fi j ians in a
relatively affluent neotraditional order until World War
I I,
despite the deep vein of discontent and material
aspirations mani fested most c learly in Apo lo si R . Nawai ' s
Company .
The epilogue brie fly
movement ,
the Viti
chronicles some of the recent changes in Fi j ian life which,
it is argued , throw into sharper relief the accomplishments
o f the earlier partnership b etween Fi j ian lead ers and
British offic ial s . Therein lie the historical antecedents
of both the economic problems of the Fi j ian people and
their asc endancy in national political life through the
first d ecade of independ ence .
v
Contents
Acknowledgments
ix
Guide to pronunciation
xi
Glossary of Fij ian words
xiii
Abbreviations
xvii
1
Introduction
Chapter 1
New white men without knowledge
12
Chapter 2
The assault on land rights
28
Chap ter 3
The erosion of hereditary privilege
38
Chapter 4
The new pol it ics of chiefly power
49
Chapter 5
The continuities of village life and politics
64
Chapter 6
Apolosi R. Nawai and the Vit i Company
75
Chapt er 7
The vein of discont ent
93
Chapter 8
Compromise for a mul tiracial society
112
Chapter 9
The d ilennna s of development
129
Chapter 10 Ep ilogue: rendezvous with the modern world
148
Notes to text
164
Bibliography
193
Maps
1
Colony of Fiji, 1920-1944
2
Serua
Frontispiece
60
3 Colo North
96
vii
Acknowledgements
The Government of Fi j i and the generous suppo rt of the
Re search School of Pacific Studies , Austral ian National
University , mad e po ssible a to tal of eighteen months '
fieldwork and archival re search in Fi j i betwe en 1 972 and
1 974 , and this book i s a revision of a doc toral
dissertation acc epted by A. N . U . in 1 976 . Deryck Scarr , to
whose vigilanc e , insights and friend ship I am enormously
ind ebted , wa s my original advise r , and since then I have
profited from his fur ther writings on Fi j i and tho se of
Ahmed Al i and Ken Gillion in their parallel explorations of
the Fi j i Indian experience . John Nation ' s excellent study
o f contempo rary Fi j ian po li tics st rengthened me in the
conclusion that the Fi j ian co lonial
experience had
something to say to the present , and al one made it
intelligibl e .
I n Fi j i
the National
Archivist ,
Se tariki
T.
Tuinaceva , gave m e ex traordinary assistance i n providing
thousand s of fil es as did dedicated sta ff :
Helen White ,
Etuate Bakanic eva , Masood Khan, Tomasi Sal aduadua , Paula
Moc eisad rau , Eparama Ulutegu , Samisoni I .
Kafoa and
Josateki Bakeidau .
My friends Pi o Manca and Jo sefo R.
Meke and numerous o thers taught me much in the field , and
in Suva I was frequently the gue st of Ratu Tiale
W. T . Vuiyasawa and Ratu Penaia Lalabalavu Latianara whose
memorie s and stories greatly spiced or clari fied the
colonial record .
Petero Vakaoqo tabua , Felise Daveta ,
Lepani Siga of Naro i , Sesil i Sili , Pe tero Sikeli , and most
especial ly George Cama, his wi fe Lako and their kindred
from Mo ala and Matuku gave us a family to j o in in Suv a and
nearly every part of the group and as happy t imes as we
have ever had ;
experiences which convinced us that the
Fi j ians had ' come through ' the colonial experience wi th a
di stinctive integrity and grac e an histo rian such as mysel f
should respec t - and dare to interpret fo r a wider world .
Gavan· Daws
encouragement I
and Wal ter Johnson gave me
the
needed to bring this book to press ;
Michael and Kitty Dabney typed and Ann Neale ed ited the
final manusc ript wi th extraordinary s peed and care , while
the maps we re drawn by Imants Lamberts .
My wi fe
Al ic e-Anne , our children , parents and families know how
much I have been sustained by their love and suppo rt .
ix
x
Finally I am grate ful to the University of Hawaii fo r
research l eave to compl ete this wo rk , and to the Australian
Nat ional University fo r publishing it in a format which
l owers the cost of sharing my thoughts wi th the peopl e of
Fi j i .
Guide to pronunciation
Vowe l sound s approximate tho se of Latin or Spanish .
Long or stressed vowels , marked for convenience in the
glossary fo llowing , are no t id entified by mac rons in print .
The orthography o f Fi j ian consonants employs several simpl e
conventions that can mi sl ead the fo reign speake r.
b
c
d
g
is
is
is
is
mb
th
nd
ng
as in member
voic ed as in then
like nd in candy
as in sing but may also occur at the
beginning of a word
( as does q)
q is ng voic ed as in fin�er
xi
Glo ssary of Fi j ian words
Bai Tabua
' sacred fence of whal es ' tee th ' ,
secre t society o f Tuka adherents
bo se
counc il
Buli
o ffic ial titl e of government distric t
chief
burua
mourning feast and ceremonies
dalo
taro , s tapl e Fi j ian tub er
draunikau
so rcery
galala
' free ' farmer legal ly exempt ed from
communal obl igations ; in current usage
a man living apart from the vil lage
gauna
time , era
isevu
first fruits offering
itaukei
the ( original) owners of the land ;
often , by extension , the term used by
Fi j ians to refer to themselves as
against other races
kai
inhabitant of, man of
ka i s i
commoner , low-born ( pej orativ e)
kai vale
chie f ' s household servants
kereke re
the practice of ' reque sting ' goods of
a friend or relative
koro
village
lala
chie f ' s c onscription of good s and
services
lali
wooden drum
lo tu
church
luv eniwai
spirit- ' children of the wate r '
xiii
xiv
magiti
feast
man a
supe rnatural power
masi
c lo th made from bark of the pape r
mulberry t ree
ma ta
envoy
matanitu
po litical confederation of vanua ;
the government
matanivanua
spokesman fo r the chie fs
mataqal i
social unit o f second order of
inclusivenes s ; legal ly a patril ineal
desc ent group and the proprie tary
unit of most Fi j ian land
meke
a song integrated wi th dance movements
no i
dialec tal variant of kai
oco
food given in return fo r work ,
especially housebuil ding
ovisa
offic er
papalagi
country o f the white man
tribute- paying , or dependent social
group
qalivakabau
dependants of Bau in Lomaivi ti and
el sewhere
Roko Tui
government title of head s of provinc es
- in some areas al so a hered itary
title
solevu
a large c eremonial ex change of food
and goo ds b etween two sid e s
sulu
l ength of cotton print wrapped round
the l oins ( lava lava )
tabu
taboo
xv
tabua
spe nn whal e ' s tooth
Talai
Fi j ian titl e fo r the variously styl ed
officer in charge of the Fi j ian
Administration , since 1 944 the
Sec retary fo r Fi j ian Affai rs
tama
a muted shout of respect in unison on
the first approach of a chief ,
a s e . g . duo ! _£ !
taralala
dancing European- style wi th body
contac t
tikina
government distric t
Tui
l eading chief o f a vanua
Tuka
an immortali ty cul t
tiiraga
chie f ( general word )
tu raga ni ko ro
government chief of the village
vakamisioneri,
an annual Wesl eyan collec tion fo r
suppo rt of the church
vakarorogo
' go to ' , acknowledge al legiance to
vakaturaga
in a chiefly fashion
vakavanua
pertaining to the land , customary ,
trad i tional
vakaveiwekani
in the manner of relatives
vakaviti
Fi j i- styl e - often used pej oratively
by local Europeans
vanua
land , smal l po lity , local chiefdom of
several villages of yavusa
vat a
raised sl eeping- shelf or platfo nn
V i ti Cauravou
Young Fij i Soc iety
vulagi
visito r , out sider
xvi
Vuniduvu
high priest of Tuka cul t; inspired
autho r of meke
vun iv a
b est-known title of d ominant chief of
Bau ; o ften in other pl aces
the executive
chief ' s titl e , as dist ingui shed from
a sacred titleho lder
l
u
yaqona
kava , liquid from the pounded or
masticated roo t of
Piper methysticum st rained through
water
yavusa
so c ial unit o f third ord er of
inclusiveness ; legal ly a group o f
ranked mataqali with kinship ties
fic tionalized as desc ent f rom a
common anc esto r
Abbreviat ions
CO
CP
CS
CSO
Colonial Office , London
Fij i Legislative Council Pape r
Colonial Secretary , Fij i
The Co lonial Secretary' s Office Series , Suva
MM
Me thodist Mission Collec t ion in the National Archives
of Fi j i
NC
The Native Commissioner or Talai later SNA
PMB Paci fic Manusc ripts Bureau , Canberra
SNA The Secretary fo r Native Affairs ; in documentary call
numbers refers to the secretariat ' s series .
Unless o therwise specified , all refe rences in these no tes
are to documents in the National Archives of Fi j i .
Despatches to and from the Governors o f Fi j i cited wi thout
the CO series number were read in the bound volumes of
original s and carbon copies in the National Archives o f
Fij i ; the others o n mic rofilm from the Public Re co rd
Offic e suppl ied to the National Library of Australia and
libraries associated in the Aus tralian Joint Copying
Proj ec t . Citations in the text from Fij ians '
correspondence are either my own translations o r , wherever
adequate , o fficial translations in the files . Ratu Sukuna ,
frequently cited in later chapters , wrote in English , or in
the case of land records , made his own translations fo r
offic ial consumpt ion .
xv ii
Introduc tion
The death on 7 February 1 897 of Governo r Si r John B.
Thurston, champion of the integri ty of Fi j ian community
life fo r a quarter century , c l osed a remarkable segment in
the his to ry of European expansionism in the South Pacific .I
An exuberant , tumultuous , and sophisticated
col lec tion of
warring Fi j ian so cieties inhabiting some eighty islands in
the group had been threatened but no t overwhelmed by the
relentl ess pressures of the Australasian frontier on their
land and their autonomy , even though they had ceded
sovereignty
to
Queen Vic toria on 1 0 Oc tober 1 874 .
Ac cording to a cherished Fij ian myth , a pl easant reduc tion
of the tortuous po litics of tho se events , Fi j i had not been
ceded ' in anger to her late Maj esty Queen Victoria ; it was
c ed ed in loving trust ( lo loma) ' - a chiefly presentation ,
no less , which had obl iged the gratified recipient , now
Supreme Chi ef of Fi j i , to redistribute power and privilege s
to the original donors and to assume part of the
responsibility fo r safeguarding the prosperity and rights
of the peopl e . 2 In short the De ed of Ces sion , far more
e ffe ctively than the New Zealander Maoris ' Treaty of
Waitangi , came to be seen by Fi j ians as a so lemn charter
fo r a Bri tish
Fij ian partnership premised on verbal
assurances ( the cession itself was unconditional ) that
colonial rul e would re spe ct and maintain the interests of
Fi j ian society as pa ramount . The need s of some 1 40 , 000
Fi j ians and
their expectations
of being governed
' righteously and in accordance wi th native usages and
customs ' were no t to be subordinated to the contrary
expectations of some 1 500 European settlers and resident
adventurers . 3
The latter had done everything po ssible to di srupt
preceding attempt s to elaborate an independ ent government
( on the lines of royal Hawaii or Tonga) .
Thurston, as
chief minister to King Cakobau from mid 1 872 , had earned
their enmity fo r exposing the ruthless self- interest in
their ' patrio tic ' dete rmination that Fi j i would become a
Bri tish bastion in the South Seas , a proper British colony
run in the interests of Engli shmen and Empi re . The Fi j ians
would be pacified and di sarmed , in time an influx of
European settl ers and their desc endants would gain internal
self-gov ernment ( as in New Zealand and the Aus tralian
colonies from which most of the settl ers had come ) ; it
would then b e an easy mat ter t o dismantle whatever Bri tish
protectionist l egislation s tood in the way of completing
the trans fe r of spl end id land s lying waste in the hand s of
1
2
the id le natives to those better equi pped by rac e and
destiny to bring them into full produc tion.
P o ll taxes
would ensure that Fi j ians would learn the dignity o f a
disc ipl ined day ' s work on European pl antations , and wage
rates woul d be so regulated tha t Fi j ians would continue to
sub sidiz e the capital ist economy by feed ing and housing
their dependants from their own labou r and resources as
before - either that , or choose to wi thd raw into reserves
like the Melanesian s of N ew Cal ed onia and watch the
impo rtation of more wi l ling Pacific I s landers or Asians to
work under indenture and reap the rewards of honest labour .
( The machinery wa s al ready in pl ac e : many estates befo re
Cession were worked and defended by N ew Hebrideans and
Solomon Islanders . )
' rampant Anglo-Saxons '
The d reams of
had
not
materiali zed . 4 The fi rst Gov erno r , Sir Arthur Hamil ton
Gordon , felt he had a divine mission to make the isl ands an
ex ception to the dismal his to ry o f colonialism. Fi ji did
not become a white man ' s c ountry , although enormous
concessions we re made to maintain the viabil ity o f the
better established planters and , in the 1 880s , to develop a
sub stantial sugar economy on lands already alienated before
Cession or leased from the Fi j ians . Be twe en 1 879 and 1 91 9
over 60 , 000 Indians we re brought in und er indenture to
so lve the labour problems of the European sec tor .
Mo st
were encouraged
to stay on as free se ttlers , wi th
remarkably l ittle thought fo r the demographic repercussions
that we re to see their desc endants outnumber the Fij ians
themselves by World War II , and embark on a long struggle ,
nev er fully reali zed , to win fo r themselve s the equal place
o f dignity and power that was their birthright . 5 In the
year that Thurston died , however , when this sto ry begins ,
some 1 1 ,OOO Indians we re iso lated und er indenture on
company estates and only about a thousand time- expired men
and their families we re beginning to cul tivate 1 500 acres
of land at R ewa and Navua . The success of Ind ian labour in
d eveloping an expo rt economy , c rucial fo r the expanding
revenues of an impoverished government ( £ 74 , 492 in 1 897 ,
£ 1 38 , 1 67 in 1 903 ) , was seen as giving the Fij ians the time
they needed - time to absorb the impact of colonial rul e ,
t o arrest the steady decrease in their numbers , and to
enj oy the unusual insti tut ions that had given them a
powerful voic e in colonial policy and wholly unpreced ented
peace and unity .
3
For colonial rul e had brought to frui tion the seeds of
national unity sown over three mil lennia of migrations ,
trading and kinship connections ,
shi fting political
alliances between dominant lineages in war and peace , and
common probl ems wi th Tongan
impe rialism .
Though a
substantial li terature has explored many aspects of Fij ian
history through to the end of the nineteenth century , no
sys tematic ethnohisto rical reconstruc tion has lifted the
veil over the era Fij ians we re taught to dismiss as ' the
time of darkness ' , despi te profound ly fel t continui ties
wi th the �ast underpinning modern Fij ian prid e in their way
of l ife . 6 Many o f the sources on which thi s history res ts
are wri tten by Fi j ians to o ther Fij ians in the Bauan
dial ect of the Bible , and are perhaps the best po ssible
sourc es anywh ere in the Paci fic fo r il luminating island
dimensions of the co lonial expe rience . Nevertheless the
interac tion is predicated on a tho roughgoing penetration of
' the traditional ' by a powerful neotradi tional set of
institut ions ( and often qui te
arbitrary regulations )
vertical ly integrating Fi j ian so ciety under the Crown .
Selec t principl es operating in traditional
societies ,
no tably tho se that we re , like pat riarchal autho rity , more
imme diately intel ligible to European observers , became
codified in an al together new way . Thi s was often at the
expense of o ther principles such as a pervasive dual ism
inherent , fo r instance , in the allocation of spiri tual and
tempo ral power betwe en compl ementary chiefly offic es , or in
the division of roles wi thin many vil lages betwe en two
privileged groups , the original owners ( itauke i ) and the
group which provided a chief to be ins talled by the
itaukei . A traditional chief presid ing over the cycle of
service and tribute , drawing toge ther the consti tuent
groups of a local society under the aegis of anc estral and
other gods ,
was only supe rfic ial ly the autocratic
paterfamilias he seemed to outsid ers . In truth he was at
one inte rsec tion of a fl exible web of horizontal and
hierarchical ' paths of the land ' . The regional varieties
of kinship and soc ial organization in old Fi j i , the
und erlay of colonial reconstruc tion , defy summary analysis
and desc ription :
suffic e to emphasize here that the
colonial order devised and impo sed
new ,
very much
simplified
principles
of
autho rity and territo rial
organization which may or may not have meshed
with
pre- existing
sociopolitical
realities .
The resul tant
ambigui ties , the continuing interpl ay of
local
and
co lonialist priorities , wi l l often emerge in the chapters
that fo llow . But wi th the poverty of local and regional
stud ies in Fi j ian histo ry and anthropology , there are
severe limits in a wo rk of thi s scal e to the il lumination
of local pro cesses . The only solid framework of refe rence
fo r the analysis of Fi j ian affairs is that which Go rdon and
Thurston created , and which Fi j ians rapid ly made their own
and defended tenaciously fo r a century a s the bulwark of
their neo traditional identity , of everything that was stil l
distinctively Fi j ian .
Similarly there is no need here to pursue further the
well- documented extravagance of Gordon' s c laim that the
ins ti tutions of the Fi j ian Administration were ' purely
native , and of spontaneous g rowth ' . 7 Had he argued that the
sys tem operated in a Fi j ian id iom and styl e that was very
congenial to the participants , had he defended his and
Thurston ' s innovations so lely on the grounds that they we re
better sui ted than the machinery and laws of We stminster to
meet both the needs of Fi j ian so ciety and the minimal
d emand s of colonial rul e , his rationale woul d have better
stood the test of time . a
The
Governo r was
so lemnly ins talled
as
the
representative of the Supreme Chi ef, and in turn personally
installed leading men as salaried governors o r Roko Tui of
fo urteen provinces in which , more often than not , they were
entitled to some kind of allegiance or cooperation from the
constituent
po lities .
For most
of the provinc ial
boundaries approximated the spheres of influence of the
chiefly lineages d ominant at Ce ssion .
High chiefs of
character , and some of none , we re virtually assured of
government appo intment .
In feud al style the Governor
administered an oath of al legiance and presented each new
Roko Tui with a staff of offic e . (The symbolism of the
latter was sui tably ambiguous . Whil e the quaint word s of
ins tallation enj oined the Roko to she pherd his pe opl e with
fatherly care , in the hands of more than one Roko the staff
wa s only a little less lethal than a club . )
From its inception the powerful position of Roko Tui
was highly acc eptable to the high chiefs . In 1 897 there
four European Governo r ' s
were thirteen Ro kos and
Commis sioners . The three provinces final ly e stablished for
the interior Colo No rth, Co lo East and Co lo West
pre fe rred European rul e to the elevation of any one of
their broken and disunited social groups ,
while
in
Nai tasiri the highest hereditary chief and his family were
out of fav our wi th the peopl e and had reluc tantly been
dismissed .
Ten of these Ro kos could claim to be high
chiefs of their provinc es ;
none o f the thi rteen was
-
5
without status or connection wi th the provinces they rul ed .
Ra fo r ins tance was rul ed by Ratu Joni Mad raiwiwi , one of
the highest chiefs of Bau , which, as the dominant power in
eas tern Fij i , had long been able to cal l on parts of Ra to
provide men fo r the Bauan armies . The salary of a senior
Roko was on a par wi th a j unior European stipend iary
magistrate ' s (£ 3 50 ) ; in addition they rec eived a twentieth
share of al l lease monie s in their province . In the sugar
provinces this share amounted to £200 or £ 300 a year .
' Fringe benefits ' , such as the use of ' prison ' labour on
private plantations , were consid erable .
The st rongest unit of local government was
the
distric t on tikina .
The provinces we re originally
subdivided into eighty- four tikina , no t primarily fo r
administrative efficiency , but to correspond as closely as
was convenient to less inc lusive federations of allied
so cial groups lmown as vanua . Usual ly the installed chiefs
of the vanua were appo inted to take charge of the
preparation of taxes and all government work . They we re in
this capacity s tyl ed Buli and were general ly responsible to
the Roko for the state of the villages and for implementing
the reso lutions of the various councils and the Native
Regulations d esc ribed
below .
Their salary was only
nominal , £ 3 and £1 0 a year , because they had the right both
by custom as chief ( in mos t areas ) and by regulation as
Bul i to levy services ( lala ) from their people in food
contributions , t raditional manufac tures and labour to meet
their own personal need s and tho se of the community .
( The
Rokos enj oyed a similar right , and likewise all heredi tary
chiefs , subj ect to the disc re tion and definition of the
Roko or Bul i . ) The Bul i also rec eived a twentieth share of
the rent monies of his d istric t .
The power o f the Bul i was reinfo rced by a sys tem of
courts .
Native stipend iary magistrates presided alone on
district c ourts and sat wi th the European stipend iary
magistrate on provincial courts , which we re the courts of
fi rst instanc e only fo r serious charges such as arson or
rape .
The se courts impl emented a stringent code of Native
Regulations which we re framed by a board
in close
consul tation wi th Fi j ian lead ers . They gave the fo rce of
law to what was defined as reasonable and j ust if Fi j ian
hierarchical societies were to survive the superimposition
of colonial rul e . A man had to remain in his vil lage ,
then , and keep pl anting ( ac tual quanti ties we re specified ) ,
cooperate with the chiefs in the communal enterprises
( disobedienc e became a legal offence ) , bring his grievances
6
to orde rly councils and court s , and play his part in all
the ceremonial oc casions d emand ed either by custom or the
new ord er . To European observers the Native Regulations
appeared to work only in the interests of particular
chiefs ; in the absence of d emocracy the peopl e apparently
had no red ress against the abuse of powe r . But it was easy
to intrigue against an oppr essor and bring district or
provinc ial administration to a stand still until Government
House intervened . N.o thing could be more misl eading , it
wi ll be seen , than the id ea that Fi j ian poli tical processes
we re ' frozen ' by the new c olonial order .
The weakest link in the sys tem was at village level ,
where the elec ted turaga ni ko ro or village headman had the
unenviable task o f impl ementing all the orders o f higher
officials while answe ring for the conduc t of his relatives
and friends in the vil lage . He could in prac tice do very
l ittle wi thout the suppo rt of village leaders who were
o ften reluc tant
to
assume a
po sition
that
gave
responsibility wi thout reward .
The Bul i summoned the se
turaga ni ko ro and ' chie fs o f the land ' ( however defined
local ly ) to a monthly d istric t council . They d iscussed
every a spe c t of village life , no t distinguishing between
tradi tional activities and the work o f government proper .
Then i n October o r November of each year the Bul is and
chiefs
of the whole provinc e met in a more fo rmal
provinc ial council and submitted for the Governo r ' s assent
reso lutions which the� had the fo rce of law . Final ly , from
time to time - but in principl e annually
the Governo r
convened the Council of Chi efs ( Bo sevakaturaga ) where the
assembled Rokos and representatives of l esser offic ial s
advised the colonial government on many mat ters referred to
them or raised on their own initiative .
It provided an
infinitely more congenial forum than the incomprehensib le
offsho ot of We stminster existing in the Legislative
Council , though later the chiefs we re represented the re as
we ll . 9 The reso lutions of the assembled chie fs c ould no t
be disregarded lightly so long as the government was
serious in maintaining the paramountcy o f Fi j ian interests .
A committee of the Council sent a pe rsonal ized repo rt of
the state of the peopl e to the Sov ereign , who repl ied wi th
sui table expressions o f interest in their wel fare and
pleasure in their abid ing loyal ty . 1 0
The surprising trust Fi j ians b egan to develop in
British rul e was st rained but no t undermined by the
obl igation to pay sub stantial taxes in kind .
Thurston ,
firs t Aud ito r-Gene ral of the colonial gove rnment , designed
7
fo r Gordon a taxation scheme that mad e unaccustomed demand s
on the vil lages by requi ring al l able- bod ied men to
cul tivate a marketable c rop in a communal tax field under
the direc tion of the chie fs . The scheme was defend ed as a
d evelopment of the traditional lala rights of chiefs to
command gard en pl anting to meet their own needs and ensure
the prospe rity o f the peopl e . The produce of each distric t
had to real ize a cash figure as part of the sum allocated
to the provinc e by the Legislative Council .
The produce
was collected at central po ints , shipped to Suva or Levuka
and sold by tend er to the highe st bidder . Prices realized
were often double the price Fi j ians would have rec eived in
small , direct dealings wi th the sto reke eper- agents of the
European commerc ial house s , more than double i f payment was
made - as was the prac tice - in good s marked up at a higher
price to Fi j ians . In good years cash refunds we re returned
to the producers , too late perhaps to ac t as a direct
incentive to produc tion , but pl easant windfal ls which
helped them buy impo rted drape ry and foods , build churches
and schools , and especial ly t o maintain a fl eet of sailing
cutters which gave them an independent means of transpo rt
probably better than vil lages in more remote coastal areas
have ever had .
Thurston championed the scheme und er Gordon and
expanded it during his own governorship ( 1 888-97 ) as a
rational management of the colony ' s natural resourc es and
the
only feasible way o f making Fi j ians substantial
producers in their own right .
Al though he expe rimented
with a variety of new commodities such as coffe e and
cinnamon , bananas and especially coconuts we re the only
promising export c rops un til the expansion of the sugar
industry . Be fore Go rdon' s d eparture in 1 880 , Thurston went
as Colonial Secretary to Sydney where he pe rsuaded the
Co lonial Sugar Re fining Company ( CSR ) to establish its
first mill at Nausori , and sho rtly afterwards another was
buil t at Rarawai , Ba .
In the firs t decade of cane
produc tion to 1 889 Fij ians grew 53 , 870 tons wo rth £ 29 , 599
at the Nausori mill , earning consid erable re funds above the
provincial tax assessments . The western side of Viti Levu
was bet ter sui ted to cane . In a good year such as 1 88 9 the
5 963 peopl e of Ba and Yasawas earned a refund of £2339 from
the proceed s of their cane fie lds . 1 1
Despi te its financial suc cess and political advantages
to Fi j ians , the immediate physical demand s of tax work were
a chronic source of the grumbling that seems endemic in any
society where initiative comes from above . The scheme
8
pre sented maj or logistic al problems and requi red a level of
managerial or ac counting ski ll tha t was no t easily found
among Fi j ian lead ers . European tax inspe c tors had to be
employed to supe rvise the wo rk , and a colony as po or as
Fi j i often had to make do wi th men recrui ted locally .
Lit tl e love was lost between many o f these men and Fi j ian
o fficial s . When Thurston ' s strong but sympathe tic hand was
taken away in 1 897 , the scheme began to generate a pattern
of non- cooperation that l ed to its collapse , as will be
seen , wi thin a decad e .
The native taxation scheme was particul arly resented
by the European settl ers : more than anything else it gave
teeth to the government po licy of insulating Fi j ians from
the
need
to
divert their labour re sources to the
pl antations , and to become wholly d epend ent on local
merchants .
Exclud ed from any real say in the colony ' s
affai rs , deprived ev en of elec ted members
in
the
Legislative Council until 1 904 , local Eu ropeans despaired
of Fi j ians ever being acc orded the ful l personal liberty o f
Bri ti sh subj ects , the liberty above all el se to sel l their
lands and become a free- floating pool of labour .
Al though
the Europeans and the Indians we re entirely exempt from
legisl ation designed to meet the need s o f Fi j ian so cietie s ,
they we re severely restric ted in their deal ing with
Fi j ians . Native Deal ings ordinances l imited the amount
that could be recovered from a Fi j ian in the courts .
Labour rec ruiting was c losely regulated .
Alienation of
Fi j ian land , except to the Crown , was hal ted , and lease s
limited to twenty-one years . All pre-Cession claims were
submitted
to
a Lands Claims Commission .
True , the
Commissioners took a generous view o f some qui te outrageous
pre-Cession transactions by which thousands of prime acres
had been ex changed for muske ts , whisky and trad e goods , but
l ess than a third (5 1 7 ) of the 1 683 appl ications we re
granted as c laimed ; 390 were granted ex gratia in whole or
part , and about half the 800 , 000 acres claimed we re
returned to the Fi j ian owners . 1 2
Gordon had wanted the final ity o f l egal tenure to
apply not only to lands alienated before Ce ssion but also
to Fi j ian lands , the who le o f which had been theoretic ally
t ransferred to the Crown by the Deed of Cession . He had
come wi th instruc tions to make a settl ement that did full
j ustice to the existing rights and future needs o f Fi j ian
communit ies , and Thurston would have filled him in on the
ample assurances given to the chiefs on that sc ore . The
problems of l eaving Fij ian land s under customary tenure
9
were obvious :
where rights were vague or confl icting ,
where ownership wa s disputed or uncertain , the re could be
no easy way of set tl ing the kind of disputes that in fo rmer
times had been resolved by war , no way of knowing which
land was unclaimed and at the dispo sal of the Crown , and no
efficient way o f arranging leases to Europeans and , later,
the Indians .
To make matters worse , Fij ian sys tems o f land tenure
were
litt l e understo od even by the most experienced
observers .
In no area of Fi j ian life was Go rdon' s
o stensible po licy o f building on existing institutions more
fraught wi th difficul ty; the very d esire to codify and
standardize
what
in real ity we re fl exible se ts of
principles pe rtaining to d eci sions about
land
( and '
di ffe rent from one community to ano ther) was contradictory .
It has been brilliantly shown by Peter France in The
Charter o f the Land tha t Go rdon and his advise rs were
creating an il l- founded orthodoxy when they insisted that
Fi j ian land customs had ' the infl exibility and precision of
a legal system ' which they then thought they we re merely
writing into the laws of the colony . 1 3
What Gordon did , i t seems , was to elicit the consent
of the Council of Chiefs to the notion that Fij ian land was
inalienable and that there had to be an ' authentic '
land- owning unit . The chie fs chose the mataqali , the wo rd
that was in gene ral use to desc ribe the kinship or
household groups wi th which chiefs had dealings at vil lage
level .
( I t later came fo r legal purpo ses
to
have
everywhere the meaning it had in Bau , a clan or patrilineal
desc ent group of second order inclusiveness . ) When the
first Native Land s Commission was established in 1 880 to
begin the long task o f registering land ownership to
throughout the group , the Commissioners met
mataqali
resistance and confusion , and the wo rk was aband oned .
Thurston revised Go rdon' s o riginal legislation in 1 892 and
the new Native Lands Commissione r , Basil Thomson , conduc ted
investigations in Rewa , Ba and Tai l evu . He provided the
first d etailed evidence of ac tual tenure practic e :
in
Rewa , land and sometimes many sc attered pieces of land were
held by ind ividual s , bequeathed to male hei rs , and leased
to other individual s .
Thomson recorded ten conditions
under which land rights could be transferred: so much fo r
inalienabil ity .
In Ba , a provinc e full of rec ently
d islocated peopl e , the peopl e wanted to revive dormant
rights to ancestral land s that now o ffered the pro spect of
income from rents . In Tail evu , Thomson disc overed that
10
land right s we re in most c ase s rec ently e stablished and
often conflicting , and that no one wanted the mataqali to
be the unit of ownership . ' The sel f- conscious so licitud e
evinc ed by European legislato rs fo r the preservation of an
immemorial sys tem of Fi j ian land tenure ' , conclud es France ,
' was not shared by those Fi j ians who gave evidence before
Thomson' s Commission:
they souaht to provid e fo r the
future rather than to preserve the past . • 1 4
Under Thomson ' s successo rs the Native Land s Commission
tried to reso lve the chaos by fi rs t classi fying the peopl e
into descent groups and then awarding blocks o f l and to
each mataqali .
Though the peopl e had pressed for family
ho ldings to be recorded , it was fel t that the monumental
task of surveying and registering the boundaries of every
smal l parcel of l and was b eyond the resources o f the
colony .
Like it or no t , Fi j ians had to learn to live wi th
an arbitrary s e ttl ement and a cumbersome unit of ownership .
Despite the weakness of i t s theoretical justi fication ,
it will be argued that in the long run there were
advantages in compromise and legal clarity .
Fij ian land
rights as established by col onial law , wi th all the clumsy
contradictions analysed by scholars , we re to wi thstand the
attacks
of
tho se Europeans who recognized from the
beginning that the easier al t ernative - ind ividual ized land
tenure in fee simple
was the classic solution ( as in
Hawai i and New Zealand ) fo r the rapid transfe r o f native
land to al ien land s . If Go rdon ' s b elief that every inch of
Fi j i had an undisputed communal owner from time immemorial
was a misc onception , it was , from the Fij ian po int of view ,
a singularly fo rtunate one . The rights of the Crown under
the Deed of Ce ssion were never exerc ised ex cept to acqui re
land so poor or remote that no community bothered to pursue
or invent a claim . (To these Crown lands we re later ad ded
the lands o f registered mataqali that became ex tinc t . )
Gordon' s mani fe st unwillingness to pursue the rights of the
Crown
more
aggressively
meant
that
future
government- sponsored schemes fo r European settl ement would
be limited to offe ring leases of Fi j ian land s .
Fi j i ' s
existing European estates , though very extensive ind eed in
pl aces such as Taveuni , had little hope of
fur ther
expansion so long as Go rdon ' s po licies we re maintained .
Despi te problems that wi l l become more apparent in
later chapters , i t was no mean legacy o f power , s ecurity
and dignity that Go rdon and Thurston bequeathed the Fij ian
peopl e .
The irony i s that the very suc cess o f their
11
administrative and po litical arrangements to dispe l the
chie fs ' disarray and despair at Cession , to keep Fi j i
Fi j ian , was taken fo r granted by the end o f the century .
More often than no t Fi j ians chose to exercise their local
autonomy in ways that did not conform to more conventional
British conc ept s of progress . And now the re we re newc omers
in government who yearned to red efine the white man ' s
burden in Fi j i .
Cha pt er 1
New white men wi thout knowl edge
' We are pecul iarly si tuated here as regard s natives ' ,
complained the Governo r in 1 907 , consid erably understating
the di fferences he perceived betwe en the powerful po sition
of the Fi j ians and the more depressed situation of the
aboriginal inhabitants of o ther British co lonies . I The
Governo rs who fo llowed Go rdon and Thurston viewed the
sys tem of Fi j ian admini stration bequeathed them wi th
feelings
ranging
from kindly fo rbearance to cynical
despair . Nearly all of them voiced hopes of refo rm ,
insisting that Fi j ians could no t fo rever opt out of the
twentieth c entury or the colonial version of ' the modern
wo rld ' .
Every ad dress of a Gov erno r to the Council of
Chiefs employed quaintly t ransl ated
cli ches
of the
conventional wisd om the privileged classes of England had
always directed to the lower orders at home , and much more
confid ently to the subj ect pe opl es overseas . Many o f the se
Governors lacked personal c redibil ity in their role as
I t could hardly be expec ted that in three
Supreme Chi ef.
or six years a Gov erno r woul d achieve the kind of rappo rt
wi th Fi j ians Thurston had built up over much of his life .
Some of them made no at tempt to learn Fi j ian
they we re
past the stage of their career where language te sts could
be consid ered reasonable .
Whil e most seemed to have
enj oyed the impressive chiefly ritual s that had bec ome a
gratifying tradition of the Fi j i po st , few we re sensitive
to the reciprocal commitment s to which the same ceremonial
solemnly bound them in Fi j ian eye s .
Wi th the death o f
Thurston i n 1 897 , the partnership of the Bri tish and the
Fi j ians entered a long pe riod of st rain , rather like a
lukewarm marriage that had lasted long enough fo r each
partner to value the convenience and fear the consequences
of a rupture .
Wi th the best of intentions Thurston' s
suc cesso r in Fi j i , Sir George T . M . O ' Brien , began a process
o f almost
continuous
review o f Fi j ian po licy and
ine ffec tive piecemeal re form intended to bring Fi j ians
gradually into line wi th more conventional British ideals
o f indiv idual ism and democracy .
I t is a theme that
underscores the histo ry o f the Bri tish admini stration fo r
the nex t fi fty years .
O ' Brien was a qui et bachelor who prefe rred the company
o f his spinster sister and Roman Catho lic clerics to Suva ' s
raucous so ciety o f planters , lawye rs and merchants
nor
did he have any inclination to maintain the intimate
12
13
rel ations Fi j ian leaders had previously enj oyed wi th their
supreme chie f . A painstaking and prac tic al man , he had the
views of the age on the impo rtance of c leanliness , privacy ,
the one- family househo ld , thrift and enterprise . If he
brought to his review o f the government ' s Fi j ian po licy a
sense
of d ecency and much patience , he lacked the
cross- cul tural insight that had dist inguished the career of
his predecesso r . O ' Brien took fo r granted that Thurston ' s
l ong po litical battle fo r the survival of a Fi j ian po lity
had been won :
i t was now urgent that something more be
d one to ensure the physical survival of the appalling
number of children dying in their first year and later .
Be tween the census of 1 89 1 and that of 1 901 , annual
birth and death tallies monitored a decl ine in the Fijian
popul ation of 1 1 , 397 to a new low o f 94 , 397
despi te a
birth rate as high as thirty- seven pe r thousand . One- third
of Fi j ian chil dren fail ed to reach their first birthday ;
in the Yasawas and the Colo provinc es the proportion was
four out of ten . The Co lonial Office and the colonial
government in Suva were sensitive to these statistic s fo r
po li tical as we l l as humane reasons . The decrease figures
we re ammunition fo r the vociferous sec tion of the European
community who resented their lack of elected representation
in
the
Legislative
Council
and
the
economic
self- suffic iency of the Fi j ians , and sought a so lution in
federation with New Zealand or even Austral ia where
governments had dealt wi th ' the native problem ' in ways far
more
conducive
to
economic progress .
In Fi j i the
federationists tried to drum up suppo rt amongst the Fijians
themselves , tel ling them that they we re oppressed by the
government , unj us tly taxed , that obedience to hereditary
chiefs was shameful in a Briti sh country , and that they
should disregard the restric t ions impo sed on their liberty
to leave their di stric ts and find work . 2 They took every
o ppo rtunity to vilify the Fi j ian Administration in the
sympathetic columns of the Fi j i Times and Australasian
newspapers : ' coddling administration
has resul ted in
the unfo rtunate aborigine s b eing rel egated off the face of
the earth at a most alarming rate
when overtaken by
sickness he quietly succumbs as a happy release from his
trouble s ' 3
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
The d ecrease in po pul ation had been a wo rry to the
government fo r ove r twenty years . The measl es epid emic of
1 87 5 had carried off about one- fifth of the pre-Ce ssion
popul ation of perhaps 1 40 , 000 .
Subsequent epid emics of
whooping cough , d engue fever , dysentery and influenza took
14
several thousand mo re lives . After 1 89 1 there was a decade
free of epid emic s ye t d eaths consistently exceeded births .
Norma McArthur has correlated the continuing decline in the
number of births in these years wi th the arrival at
reproductive age of the seriously depl eted cohorts born
just befo re and jus t after the 1 875 measl es . 4 No such
explanation was evident to the anxious government o fficials
of 1 893 when they s�nt circul ars to everyone o f no te or of
long resid ence in the colony invi ting them to submit
opinions to a commission of inquiry into the decrease .
Basil Thomson, who served on the Commission , later wro te
amusingly that it appeared from the collected repl ies as if
Fi j ians we re suffering from ' a combination of every known
physical , moral and social disease in its most acute fo rm .
Collec tively they were c ankered through and through with
monogamy , in-breeding , unchivalry , communism and dirt ;
individually
by
insouc iance ,
fo reign
disease ,
kava- drinking , and excessive smoking . ' 5 ' But the most
po tent cause of all ' , pronounc ed a planter from Serua , ' is
Tobacco and self- abuse amongst men , women , girl s and
boys . ' ·6 I f the respondents agreed on one thing , i t was
that Fi j ian mothers were bad mo thers - ' a race o f blunted
sensibil ities ' ,
c laimed one offic ial :
' I have lived
amongst natives during the past 23 years and have never
seen any particular affection shown to a child by i ts
mother. ' 7 A Wesl eyan missionary contributed the story o f a
mother with a frail child living in his compound at Vuna
Po int , Taveuni . He asked her to come twice a day to his
house fo r fresh cow' s milk , ye t ' al though her child was
dying of starvation , she found it irksome to apply fo r
milk .
Her maternal affec tion failed under the strain o f
walking 1 1 0 yards twice a day
she is but a type of
most Fi j ian mothers of delicate children . ' 8 In their
final repo rt the Commissioners al so blamed the Fi j ian men
fo r treating their women ' as mere beasts of burden , and
sexual convenienc es . ' 9
•
Fi j ians , too , had discussed the decrease . ' In the old
days , ' mourned a village chief , ' when we we re darkminded
and in a savage state we l iv ed .
Nowadays when we are
civil i sed and enlightened we d ie . ' lO A remarkable array o f
remedies had been proposed o f which a Kadavu Buli ' s was the
most effec tive :
the Bul i o f Sanima prosecuted several
coupl es b efo re the native magistrate of Kadavu on the
grounds of abortion . The re was no evidenc e other than that
they were married and childless . The cases were discharged
but al l the wives subsequently gave bi rth to healthy
children . 11 On the same i sl and the Bul i o f Nakasal eka
15
simply ordered thirteen childl ess women to have children
and nine of them did so wi thin a year , the remaining four
within two years . 1 2 The Roko Tui of Bua interrogated all
the married women of hi s provinc e and produced
the
fo llowing statistic s: there were 1 2 per cent childless fo r
natural reasons or because they knew how to prevent
conc eption, 1 7 per cent who conceived but artificially
aborted the offspring , 46 per c ent who had children but
neglected them until they died , and only 25 per c ent who
had healthy families . For this si tuation the Roko blamed
the impo rt of ' foreign ways ' , meaning Tongan , and the
abandonment of good old Fi j ian customs such as the spac ing
of families by a long pe riod of sexual abstinence after
childbi rth . 1 3
Despite thi s evidenc e of real interest in their own
welfare , Governor O ' Brien seems to have adhered to the
famil iar stereotype of the natives sunk in apathy . It was
we ll expressed in Ba sil Thomson ' s The Fi j ians : A Study of
the De cay o f Custom . Fi j ians , we learn , i f no t natives
everywhere , are incapable of any routine or any moderation ;
sys tem of any kind is incompatible with their nature ;
cus tom make s no provision fo r innovation. 1 4 What a Fij ian
most wanted , agreed the Colonial Sec retary in 1 902 , was ' to
be l eft al one to eat , to sl eep , and to fo llow his own
devices
all forms o f autho rity are irksome , even
tho se
to
which they have been accustomed for many
generations , though without them they would fal l at once to
the level of the animals ' . 1 5 Fi j ians we re seen as emerging
from the physical struggle of intertribal warfare to the
' moral
struggle
of modern competition ' . 1 6 I t was a
di fficul t , perhaps fatal ' time of transition' - the phrase
that neatly sidestepped fur ther analysis fo r the next fifty
years . Neither O ' Brien no r any o f his suc cessors un til Sir
Phil ip Mi tchel l ( 1 942-44 ) doub ted tha t the salvation of
thi s squalid decaying soc iety was fo r Fi j ians to become
more like ' the sturdy ye omen ' of England were romantically
understood to
be :
hardworking ,
individually self­
sufficient , thrifty farmers and artisans , loyal to their
so cial supe riors and devoted to their families in the
privacy of pic turesque , c lean little co ttages
with
separate bedrooms . But where to start?
•
Reluctantly conceding that it wa s ' stil l the day of
small things in Fi j i ' , O ' Brien fel t that Fi j ian society
would be immediately improved by better water supplies and
medical fac il itie s , by educating the peopl e in sanitary
mat ters and the care of young children , and by tightening
16
up
provincial
administration
[ sic]
regulations - 'sheeves
of
•
resolutions
•
to
enforce
of regulations
•
all a dead letter'.
•
existing
•
hundreds
•
What was new in
this mundane package was simply O'Brien's determination
reform
Fijians
whether
they wanted it or not.
reassumption of the white man's
pr ogram
of
good
and
public
burden
works
implicit
was
to
The eager
in
this
underscored
by
O'Brien's lack of faith in the capacity of the Fijian elite
to further the aims ·or progressive government:
would
cheerfully
agree
to
and
verbally
'The chiefs
support
any
regulation or resolution whatever that the Government might
desire - but always subject to the tacit
reservation
that
they should continue to remain exactly as they were.'17 The
massive inertia
of
Fijian
life
needed
shock
treatment
beyond the powers of government to administer, but at least
a start could be made.
The system of administering through the society's
leaders
Office, by some agency more
short
own
should be supplanted, O'Brien advised the Colonial
trustworthy
and
capable,
in
by bringing 'the perseverance, conscientiousness and
method of competent English officials into
continuous
and
personal bearing on the details of administration of native
affairs'.
policy
O'Brien regretted that
had
assets and thus dependent for
the
his
predecessors'
land
left the Crown without revenue from realizable
district
administration
on
goodwill of chiefs 'utterly indifferent to the welfare
of the people'.
officers
To replace them
would
have
cost
than the whole native tax
resentment
of
the
people
over
overnight
£20 , 000 ,
revenue.
Not
with
European
or slightly more
to
mention
the
if they saw the abolition of a
system to which 'in their queer conservative fashion'
they
had become attached. 1 8
The
government
decided
to
allocate
part
of
its
increasing revenues to the elimination of some of the worst
hazards to public health, especially poor
A
scheme
cost
to
£1 1 ,OOO
undertaken
water
supplies.
supply the Rewa River delta with piped water
to complete.
such
as
Nu merous smaller
projects
were
the construction of concrete tanks on
the dry islands of Lau, and three provincial hospitals were
built,
with quarters for European medical officers.
unprecedented public
absorbed over
1 899
A
further
£2 1 ,OOO
£ 2000
works
for
between
1 897
the
and
benefit
was set aside from
1 900 .
the
of
These
Fijians
beginning
for a new experiment in district administration:
appointment of four Provincial Inspectors to supervise
of
the
the
17
work o f the exist ing Fi j ian officials i n eight provinces .
O ' Brien saw thi s as the first step in bringing ' the Fi j ian
problem ' und er control . From a d ev elopmental po int of view
the chief weakness of the nine teenth century administration
had been its want of executive fo llow-up at local level .
Thi s had been c learly pe rceiv ed by men such as Wal ter
Carew , the experienced Commissioner of Colo East , who had
written in 1 896 :
No thing but the very strongest measures such as a
Regulation compelling the cleaning of every
village daily , Sundays and all , when the peopl e
rise in the morning , wi th severe penalties on al l
whether villagers , Turaga ni ko ro s , or Bul is
rigorously enfo rced ,
regardless of rank or
posit ion , wil l ever bring them out o f their
condition of sloth into which their fail ing sense
of self- respect and patriotism is fast sinking
them .
Thurston himself had commented that ' no native would
supe rvise as indicated in the Comrs minute , and yet his
sugge stions are nec essary ' } 9 O ' Brien now had the money and
the men to reso lve Thurston' s dilemma - in a way Thurston
would never have approved .
' The suc ce ss of your appo intments ' , the Provincial
Inspectors we re told , ' will be j udged entirely by its
prac tical resul ts in the way o f checking depopul ation ,
ameliorating the condition of the natives and inc reasing
the out- turn o f native produc e . ' 2 0 They were to enforce
long- standing regulations relating to the pl anting of fruit
trees and crops , the freeing of women in advanced pregnancy
and
after childbirth from carrying heavy burdens or
fishing , the care of the sick and of young children , and
the general heal th and wel l- being of the peopl e . This
charter was vague in relation to their status vis-a-vis
Fi j ian offic ials wi th whom they we re expec ted to work .
They had no direc t magisterial powers . Each of them went
his own way to ge t resul ts and left detail ed accounts in
daily diaries eagerly read by O ' Brien.
The margins were
peppered with his ' Bravo ! ' or ' very nic e ' or ' stupid of
him ' . He que rie s the need for a new s tone fence fo r a
village in Bua:
' Would no t a wi re fence be really
cheaper? ' ; despatches a dozen bottl es of Hepste r ' s Extrac t
o f Cod liv er Oil and some preserved milk fo r an Inspec tor' s
wi fe to di spense ; enqui res anxiously whether the peopl e
are buil ding latrines and whe ther ' their habits thereat '
18
are improving - they were . 2 1
By the end of his fi rst ye ar as a Provincial Inspector
( 1 899 ) , Frank Spenc e had travelled 2896 mil es up and down
the provinc es of Cakaudrove and Bua . He found it effective
to take his wi fe wi th him: ' What escapes my notice is seen
by her . ' Laura Spenc e ke pt her own diary . ' It is dreadful
to see how the �or littl e c reatures are neg lected ' , she
wrot e ' Some of the women are so densely stupid .
It is a
most trying and difficul t wo rk and requi res a good tempe r
' I n one month , Augus t 1 900 , thi s energetic lady
visi ted 43 towns , inspected 299 houses , burnt 6 65 dirty
Her husband
mats , and treated 60 cases of ringworm .
meanwhil e was having trees felled , ditches fil led in ,
drains dug , wells c leaned and , in some cases , villages
moved bodily to heal thier sites . 22
•
•
.
Spence ' s c ounterpart in charge o f Ba and Nadroga ,
Sydney Smith , left the best account from which to surmise
the react ions of Fi j ians to thi s unprec e�ented interference
in their domestic affairs . Smith saw himself at war wi th
the old sys tem: ' I feel I am pul ling in one direction
trying to wipe out thing s Fi j ian and substi tute common
sense while the re is a Roko perpetuating " the Fi j ian" . '
When he arrived at a village he dispensed wi th what he
cal led ' the Fi j ian capers
and went straight on to
inspect the drinking wate r , bathing places and house s: ' I
won ' t b e bothered with their wretched presentations , and
never do acc ept them
The Roko ( ro tten institution)
should be made to leave the se things alone , and work ; work
hard .
He is handsomely paid . Ei ther that o r ge t out of
the road . No t hinder me . •2 3 Similarly in Tail evu , Islay
McOwan had very fo reseeable problems wi th the Roko ,
Ratu Epe li Nailatikau , senior son of Cakobau , the great
Vunivalu of Bau . Ratu Epeli asked O ' Brien, unbelievingly:
1Did you real ly appo int him [ McOwan] to rul e the provinc e
entirely by himsel f
he does so , and in any way he
pl eases , nor is the re any consul tation between us .
I
should know when he comes and when he goes ; we should
di scuss thing s befo rehand so that I c an have my say - jus t
as it was published in Na Mata [ the Fij ian language
government gaze tte] ' . O ' Brien-c ounsel led McOwan to ' humour
him a bit , and keep him au c ourant and not to let him feel
that he is b eing counted out ' . 2 4 I t was a first hint o f the
prac tic e that later developed of al lowing the Rokos the
trappings and not the substance of powe r.
•
•
•
•
•
•
19
The Rokos had an oppo rtunity to voice their anger at
the Council of Chiefs of 1 902 where their il l- feeling was
explained by Ratu Jo pe Naucabal avu in a sentence :
' The
cause of our trouble is that new white men wi thout
knowledge have taken charge of our affairs . ' 2 5 They argued
that if vil lages could be moved and Bul is dismissed wi thout
reference to themselves , then their whole way of life was
threatened
and by men who se specific goals , however
progressive , made no al lowanc es fo r the feelings of the
communities involved. As a resul t of the se protests and of
repo rts of unrest in the provinc es , the Inspec tors we re
withdrawn in 1 903 and replaced by three Assistant Native
Commissioners based in Suva and Labasa . Inspe ctions became
much l ess frequent , but the powers of the Commissione rs
c learly overrode tho se of the chiefs .
The po licy of
' clo ser domestic interferenc e ' introduced by O ' Brien was to
be pursued wi th varying intensity fo r the next fo rty years .
The inspe ctorate was not O ' Brien' s only instrument fo r
improving the villages .
He asked the Roman Catho lic and
Wesl eyan missions in Fi j i to mount a hygiene mission and
provide
the
de tailed instruc tion that no Provincial
Inspec tor or his wi fe could be expected
to manage
single- handed . Bi shop Julian Vidal rel eased eight European
and fourteen Fi j ian nuns to work in the vicinity of the
Catho lic mission stations .
The Wesl eyans we re no t much
taken with the scheme , although the wives of
their
missionaries had done similar wo rk befo re . Wi th reason
they feared that the Catho lics would use the hygiene
mission to infiltrate Wesl eyan villages . They successful ly
demanded that the Governo r restric t the Si sters to Catholic
villages , drawing an angry reac tion from some o f their own
adherents : ' Do you really bel ieve that we should al l die
rather than a Catho lic attend to us when we are sick? ' 2 6 For
the work o f the Si sters was we ll rec eived by the peopl e .
An enthusiastic suppo rter wro te in Na Mata : ' the Si sters
are the enemies of dirt , they are the enemies of al l foetid
atmospheres , they are kindly , they are loving , they are
anxious to assist us and thei r exampl e is one we might very
well follow . ' 2 7
The Sisters sal li ed u p into the hil ls of Namosi and
other remote areas not covered by the Provincial Inspectors
to roo t out the accumulated fil th o f years .
Befo re
bonfires of old mats , grass , c lothing , and trees that had
been growing too close to house s , they upbraided the
startl ed popul ace fo r their unclean ways and showed the
mothers how t o care fo r thei r infants . After a few months
20
of
the campaign i n Serua, the European magistrate reported
that hardly a house had not been turned out and
Raised sleeping- shelves ( vata )
cleansed.
thoroughly
were provided for
every occupant - although there was doubt
that
they
were
(
much
used.
The vata survive to this day as the rock- hard
wooden platforms of honour on which the European guest in a
Fijian
home
is
firmly condemned to sleep however much he
inclines towards the comfort of a soft matted
Sisters
floor. )
soon as they were out of sight the people reverted
habits
of
cooperative.
his
point
c enturies.
Fijian
officials
to
With malicious humour the Roko of Serua
on
an
inspection
of the Sisters '
made
own mission
He had all
burnt on the spot.
seems
inside
petered out about
began in
It
1 927
the
the church pulled out, pronounced filthy, and
The
1 903
hygiene
mission
was
to
have
when the Sisters resolved to confine
their activities to the more congenial
children.2 8
the
were not always
station while they were away in the hills.
mats
The
began to grow discouraged as they realized that as
not
( see below )
until
task
of
educating
the child welfare movement
that a way was
found
to
change
the alleged attitudes and practices of Fijian mothers.
After nine
months '
annotating
and
the
the
diaries
Sisters '
of
Provincial
Inspectors
needed
the standard of Fijian life was to improve.
the
reports, O ' Brien
sadly concluded that reforms of a deeper social nature were
if
was depressed
incentive
to
by
' the
almost
total
extinction
He
of
all
individual exertion ' , and chose as his first
target the practice of kerekere:
of
a man could, it seemed,
to
refuse.
the relatives and friends
request '
his personal property
( madua)
in the sure knowledge that he would be too ashamed
Sydney ,Smith had told O ' Brien, who relayed the
story to the Legislative Council, that
Nadroga
in
man
a
a new lamp with the proceeds from his bananas that
hope
the
it
· and break the glass on the way home in
attractive as an object of kerekere.
less
be
then
would
would
buy
' Are
there
people
any
on
of
fac e
the
the
earth
so
incurably industrious that they will exert
allowed
not
are
they
themselves more than they need, if
personally to enjoy the fruits of their labour? ' 2 9
inherently
and
O ' Brien naively
untiring
moral
hoped
to
abolish
kerekere
by
the
persuasion of the missionaries and his own
officials � O The Rokos and Commissioners were asked to bring
kerekere
up
councils, so
' spontaneous
for discussion in the district and provincial
long
and
as
not
resolutions
on
" deferential" ' .
the
31
subject
were
R esolutions duly
c ame forward - in Cakaudrove every tikina claimed
to
have
21
abo li shed i t in 1 898 , and when other provinc es fo llowed
sui t , the Governo r really bel ieved tha t he had achieved a
lasting refo rm . He told the Legisl ative Council that where
effo rts had been made to educ ate the peopl e on the evils of
ke rekere , they we re tending no t to hide their utensil s ,
lamps , plates and fine mats . 3 2 And indeed the se articles
are no t usual ly obj ect s o f kereke re today , if they ever
were , though the general prac tic e certainly did no t suc cumb
to rheto ric .
It had a function no t perceived by O ' Brien
and his men . Kereke re was not merely begging , although it
was ( and is) de sc ribed as such by Europeans . Granting a
favour conferred status on the giver and the right to make
a re turn reque st in his own moment of need or whimsy . ' I t
is as clear as dayl ight ' , explained a Fi j ian in a letter to
Na Mata , ' that one cannot ke reke re indisc riminately . If
you come and ask fo r my l antern because you are short , by
and by I wi ll be sho rt of c lo the s and I wi ll ask you fo r
some . It wi l l be in return fo r my lamp . ' Ke rekere was a
common man ' s lala , he ad ded , referring to chie fly rights to
consc ript goo�and it could only be done wi thout if the
chiefs
eased
their demand s on the pe opl e and al l
transac tions in Fi j ian society we re put on a cash
basis . 3 3 The problem with ke rekere , repl ied a di ssenting
correspond ent , was that ' The lazy man goes to kerekere the
hardworking man , but the latter has no need to ask anything
of the fo rme r
Fi j i- styl e they are both reduced to the
an
same state . ' 3 4 The prac tic e remained in fo rce
effe ctive l evelling or dist ributive mechanism that has
always inhibited the accumulation of private capital and
still binds individual s c losely to their kind red .
•
•
•
The organi zation of communal labour was O ' Brien' s
There was no que stion o f its
second targe t fo r refo rm .
abolition .
As the chie fs had said immediately after
Ce ssion , no man could buil d a house by himself to the
generous Fi j ian proportions requi ring rai sed foundations ,
heavy t imber posts and crossbeams , and a thatched roo f.
Nor could an individual drag timber fo r a canoe .
Men had
always wo rked in groups under the direc tion of their chief
fo r the needs of each o ther and of the community . 3 5 The
Native Regulations to ok communal labour a stage fur ther by
requiring it fo r road s , provinc ial
office building ,
hospi tals , tax gardens or any o the r proj ect approved by the
provincial councils .
The self- rel iance of this sys tem
appeal ed greatly to a penny- pinching government , but it led
to many allegations and some ins tances
o f chiefly
oppression
just how much O ' Brien wanted to know . I t
appalled him , fo r ins tance , to find that the European Tax
22
' even
Inspe ctor
could not
provide
the
faintest
approximation to an estimate ' of the work involved in tax
operations . 3 6 I t had always b een left to the chiefs to call
out as much labour as was need ed fo r a particular
operation , and at any t ime they saw fit .
Part o f the so lution , d ecid ed the Gov ernor , was fo r
the provinc ial councils to d raw up a more specific annual
program of work and allocate definite times no t only fo r
tax work but also housebuil ding , pl anting , road clearing
and espe cial ly the labour requi rements o f o fficials and
chiefs .
At l east a month was to be set asid e fo r
' individual betterment ' - general ly Dec ember . ( I roni cal ly ,
thi s
seems
to b e the origin o f the contempo rary
Christmas-New Year ' happy t ime ' . ) The first programs drawn
up fo r 1 900 did not reassure the Governor tha t Fi j ians saw
things as he did : ' Lala to be left to the chie fs to exact
when the peopl e are free ' or ' whenever a chief may really
requi re it ' , co conuts ' to be pl anted at al l times ' . 3 7
In time the program o f wo rk became fo rmally more
specific , but when enfo rc ed , tied the peopl e so much to
particular ac tivities that it came to be regard ed itself as
one of the maj or obstacles to the individual bette rment
O ' Brien had hoped to encourage .
The native taxation scheme was the one area of past
Fi j ian po licy which O ' Brien stil l endorsed fo r its
' nec essi tating a certain though very l imited amount of
exertion ' .
Its aboli tion , he feared , would make Fi j ians
' even id ler and more indol ent than they are at present ' � 8
At the turn of the century the scheme was still wo rking
fairly we ll .
The average annual cash refund to the
producers b etwe en 1 892 and 1 902 was over £ 1 2 , 000 , or 60 per
c ent of the to tal asse ssment ; the cost o f collection was
only 6 per c ent . Sugar cane was grown fo r tax in the Rewa
delta area , on the Navua River ( Serua) , and in Ba , Ra and
Macuata .
Al though the ave rage vi llage tax field was only
about 2 ac res , requi ring around thirty days ' work a year ,
Fi j ians produced 1 5 , 447 tons of c ane in 1 900 worth £ 7432 at
the five mills . 3 9 In the copra provinces ( Cakaud rove , Bua ,
Kadavu , Lau , Lomaiviti , Yasawas) the wo rk varied greatly
wi th the fluc tuations in pric e . Wi th copra around £9 a ton
in 1 902 a man needed to contribute about 3 hundredweight or
900 nuts towards the assessm ent , three days ' wo rk at the
mos t if the nuts we re easily accessible in a cl ean
pl antation. Where tobacco was the allocated crop , each man
might tend 200-300 plants .4 0 Though c otton and rice had been
23
tried , as we ll as coffe e , the only o ther significant crops
now we re yaqona ( kava) and mai ze . Fi fteen tons of yaqona
were sold in 1 901 at 9 1 /2 d per pound , and 28, 000 bushel s
of mai ze a t 2s 1 d pe r bushel . The only villagers exempt
from payment in kind were 270 men who lived close to Suva
and Levuka and who were ac customed to selling the ir produc e
at the markets fo r cash , providing a use ful service to the
townspeopl e .
I t was l eft to the chiefs to make the ac tual division
of labour - the po int that most wo rried O ' Brien. European
magistrates some times ac t ed as tax inspec tors to coordinate
the wo rk between villages and espe cial ly to supe rvise the
heavier aspects of c ane harve sting in the sugar areas .
Cane always gave the most problems . Fi j ians found its
cul tivation al ien to their subsis tence technique s and
resented the di stanc es they o ften had to travel to reach
the cane fields - over 20 miles in some areas .
They
shi rked the wo rk whenever po ssible : ' G rowing cane is a
nightmare to the natives and to the Inspec tors ' , wrote
McOwan from Navua , ' unti l absenteeism can be quashed ' .4 1
Ano ther magistrate had to ho ld spe cial monthly provinc ial
courts to deal wi th offenders . I t needed a tough brand of
pe rsonal leadershi p to make the scheme wo rk . The Colonial
Secretary , w. L. Al lardyce , recal led how he onc e had the
who le of Serua provinc e out cutting cane , s everal hundred
peopl e , and kept the Deuba mill suppl ied unaided . Ten
days ' work wa s enough to meet the provinc ial asse ssment ,
but only because he sl ept wi th them in the rough shel ters
on the field, roused them at dayl ight , and worked wi th them
til l dusk . 4 2Afte r the death of Thurs ton , who expec ted thi s
kind of l eadership of his sub ordinates and gave it himself,
there were few men of Allardyc e ' s c al ibre really prepared
to make the scheme wo rk .
Their fellow countrymen had
always b een loud in its condemnation and now the Fi j ians
themselves , unaware of the consequenc es , we re tempt ed by
what seemed the easier al ternative of paying taxes in cash .
From Macuata came the most detailed account of how the
system was breaking down under less able men - or if the
opinion of magistrate Nathaniel Chalmers is preferred , it
was ' entirely owing from fi rst to last to the utter
carel essness and indi fference of the Bul is and the
peopl e ' . 4 3 CSR Company o ffic ers prepared the Labasa tax
field and provided £60 worth of first- class cane tops fo r
pl anting .
Chalmers himsel f , an old sugar hand and a
no toriously bad manager of men , laid them out on the field
and showed the Bul i and his men how to cut the tops , lay
24
t h em in sets ,
and space
exceptionally
6
about
under
office .
dry ,
he
instructed
he
The we ather
was
them to tread down
inches of soil over each set .
way
With
the
pl anting
left the Buli in charge and returned to his
The next day he heard that all
completed .
48
acres
had
Gratified, h e rode out to inspect .
already gone home .
tops
them in the rows .
so
To his disgust he found that
been
The men had
the
cane
had been thrown anywh ere into the furrows, uncut, and
with a foot or
galloped
entire
to
two
the
field
supervised
be
exposed
house
to
the
sun .
He
replanted
immediately .
This
time
he
the work for a few hours, but the moment he was
on his way back to Labasa to hold
' shoved
scorching
of the Buli and demanded that the
in
anyhow '
vegetated .
a
court
the
with the result that not
And CSR had no more tops to spare .
cane
1
was
s et in
The
500
field
was planted a third time with tops from other districts and
finally
yielded
respe ctfully
a
miserable
8
tons
per
'I
acre:
submit that it is utterly hopeless and a most
heart- breaking business to cultivate cane under the present
system . '
Would
suggested,
to
it
have
not
one
be
large
more
efficient,
plantation
Chalmers
fo r
several
dis tricts combined and work it systematically with teams of
g ood work ers drawn in rotation from each
gladly
approved,
also teach
w ell .
hoping
' habits of continuous industry ' . 4 4
The experiment, like most experiments in
1 900
began
Although
expected
permission
to
of
Macuata
unanimously
expressed
the
The
newly
reaction
ambivalent
g overnment towards the taxation scheme .
wishes
of
Govt .
made
work up
requested
abandon cane growing for the more leisurely
routine of copra cutting .
good ' ?
drought
1 901 was a b etter year and the crop
£ 1 200 (2400 tons from 1 91 acres ) ,
to realize
the Provincial Council
General
Then a
destroy ed the crop and discourag ement tailed into
indifference .
was
Fiji,
The conscripts lived in the field in temporary huts
and grew their own food crops on the side .
in
O ' Brien
tikina?
that the more regular work would
the
peopl e
of
the
R eceiver
attitude of the
How far should the
be allowed to undermine
' their own
' Macuata is a very backward province and unless the
it
their
enterprise.
a duty for them to do something more than
nuts
I
th ey
therefore
are
think
not
likely
for
to
show
should fish beche de mer or grow a crop of maize so
as
people felt they w ere comfortable enough?
not
get
money
to
increase
any
their own good they
their comfort . ' 4 5
to
But what if the
It
was
question the progressive administrator could ask .
a
25
Macuata was allowed to re linqui sh cane , and other
provinc es we re anxious to fo llow. The Roko of Serua , who
had never interested himse l f in tax work except
to
exaggerate the grievanc es o f his peopl e , complained that
wo rkers had littl e to eat , the cane fields we re to o far
from the villages , and women and children were left al one
fo r days on end . 4 6 That cane had done we ll in Serua was no
consid eration .
The neighbouring chiefs of Namosi , on a
similar theme , showed awareness of the new pieties when
they sugge sted that if they aband oned cane they would have
' so much more time fo r indiv idual betterment ' � 7 No one in
Suva believed them - though they had the ir way in the end .
The only ' terrible waste of labour ' , Al lardyc e had often
argued , wa s the time they would spend in their vi llages ,
' sitting , sl eeping , malingering , loitering ,
gossiping ,
smoking and laughing ' . 4 8
The copra areas had the ir own sets o f problems .
For
months befo re the assessment date a tabu on gathering nuts
deprived the peopl e , especially newly weaned infants , of a
valuable fo od and oil . Co pra produc tivity was low. The
villagers coul d not be persuad ed that it was wo rthwhile to
thin out their pl antations ( cut down good trees? ) , tend the
young sapl ing s or pl ant fo r the future . Fi j ian pl antations
could be id entified by their dense tang le of undergrowth ,
as if the palms we re growing wi ld and their fruit a
gratui tous wind fal l .
To meet a small quo ta was often
difficul t , ana yams we re sub stituted at 50s and 60s a ton
or logs at about 1 s each. Ano ther so lution was fo r one
distric t to proc eed en masse to another and ke reke re fo r
all their wants . The Matuku islanders sailed one year to
Nakasal eka in Kadavu and reque sted food .
After several
days of lavish ho spitali ty they sailed away wi th 1 0 , 400
taro ( £ 5 0 ) , fourteen large kava roo ts (£ 2 1 6s ) and one
bullock ( £5 ) .
Some time later the Kadavu peopl e made a
return vi sit to Matuku where they presented twenty- seven
tabua ( whales ' tee th) . On the way their cutter nearly came
to grief on a reef and later cost £27 to repair . They we re
reimbursed wi th 1 000 coconuts , enough fo r only £ 1 1 worth of
copra:4 9 a typical ly Fi j ian transac tion in which the so cial
context was far more impo rtant than the economic di sparity
reveal ed in the se irrel evant calculations of a ho stile
o ffic ial .
Wherever po ssib le Fi j ians we re trying to
to speak , the economic goal s of the co lony
them into more congenial and traditional ways
their needs .
Whereas in the nineteenth
subvert , so
by subsuming
of meeting
century the
26
government valued the stabil i ty this state of affairs gave
to the colony and recogni zed the satisfac tions of Fi j ian
social life as good in themselve s , in the twentieth c entury
the proponents o f more material progress we re to become
impatient with a so ciety tha t showed such d i srespect fo r
individual profit . The se peopl e had to be educ ated out o f
their ' malaise ' and learn the values of honest wo rk fo r
private advantage :
the common good would look a fter
i tsel f.
In his final effo rt to fo ster ind ividualism in Fi j ian
so cie ty , O ' Brien instruc ted the magi strates and Bul is in
the
1 900 to appo rtion the cash refund according to
contribution of each individual . Where it was enforced ,
the order had unexpec t ed consequences , at l east in the case
of c opra . Whereas previously a district had met its quo ta
by po oling the resourc es o f its landowners - tho se who had
no land in produc tion cut their neighbours ' copra - now the
owners began to demand payment in pigs o r mats or cash to
compensate fo r the diminution of their share in the refund .
Some d istric ts went a step fur ther and began to sub- asse ss
individual s from the start fo r a fixed quantity o f copra .
Fo r the first time taxes b ecame a probl em fo r the landless .
The Roko Tui of Lau , the provinc e most affected , pl ead ed
for ind ividuals to be allowed to pay in cash . s o The absurd
situation had arisen in hi s and other provinc es where
individual s we re sel l ing produc e to sto rekeepers to raise
cash to buy the particular produce requi red fo r taxation in
kind . The Council of Chiefs in 1 902 asked therefo re that
it be left to the provinc es to decid e in what fo rm they
should pay their tax e s .
O ' Brien rightly feared that t o grant exceptions would
bring down the scheme altogethe r . In 1 900 when the tobacco
crop fail ed in Colo We st he had allowed the peopl e to go to
the coast and work fo r a few weeks , but ' stric tly as an
ex ceptional case and no t to fo rm a preced ent ' . 5 1 But under
his succe sso rs frequent ex ceptions we re mad e . By 1 906
Namosi , Se rua and the interio r Co lo provinc es had abandoned
their tax fields .
Almost alone of the provinc es Ba - or
rather its energetic Roko , Ratu Joni Mad raiwiwi - resisted
the trend to cash payments . Ratu Joni al lowed the peopl e
to have individual gardens and kept a strict tally o f each
man ' s c ontribution. In 1 908 the peopl e despatched produce
that real ized £ 2 500 in excess o f the assessment o f £647
1 9 s . Some individuals received a refund o f u p to £ 1 0 . s2
27
Ratu Joni had been trained by Thurs ton , and like hi s
old friend and chie f he mus t have feared the so cial
consequences of the taxation scheme ' s imminent destruc tion .
By 1 91 2 the re we re so few d istricts paying in kind tha t it
was d ecid ed to make cash payments obligatory from the
fo llowing year .
' I l ook upon the change as final ' , wrote
the Native Commissioner , adding no regrets . 5 3 The mood of
government had changed . They knew we ll that Fi j ians would
mortgage the ir coconut groves to the nearest trader who
would himself have the nuts collected and the copra cut ,
wi th the net resul t that the owners would rec eive less than
half the value of their produce . They also knew that the
loss of the central marke ting organiza tion provided by the
old scheme would rel egate Fi j ians to the edges of an ever
more alien- dominated colonial
economy .
They hardly
bargained
perhaps
fo r the enormous amount of pe tty
prosecution in the courts that would be necessary to hound
villagers into ex ercising the ir new- found individuality and
so extrac t cash taxes that we re sc arcely more than would
have been given back to them under the Go rdon sys tem by way
o f refund . The changes we re seen as the inevitable price
of an ill- defined concept of general progress through the
' time of transition ' to a more we stern way of life .
Sir George O ' Brien had loosened the skewe rs ,
his
suc ce ssors b egan to pul l them out .
Would the who le
Go rdon-Thurston legacy d isintegrate
wi th
the native
taxation scheme , would Fi j ian so ciety collapse wi thin and
the colony b ecome a proper British dominion run in the
European interest? The next assaul t was l ed by an able and
well-meaning Governor who enj oyed a reputation in the
Colonial Office as one ' who se who le interest wherever he
has b een has rested in and through the natives
' 54
•
•
•
Chapter 2
The assaul t on land rights
On 1 1 Oc tober 1 904 , the day after he arrived in Fi j i ,
Everard im Thurn was installed as Supreme Chief o f the
Fi j ians wi th c eremonies he acknowledged in his diary as
' ex traordinarily interesting ' . On the evening of the same
day he was recovering in his office when he no tic ed
something that seemed a g reat dog creeping up and
li cking my boots . It was a magnific ent Fi j ian ,
an offic er of the Armed Na tive Constabul ary , who
had crept on all fours vaka Viti to take the
earliest oppo rtunity to prefer some reque st .
I
was startled - and
gave him to understand
that he was never to do such a thing again . l
•
•
•
Vakaviti , Fi j i- styl e , i s a wo rd im Thurn was to use often
in the fo llowing six years .
Appl ied to individual s it
never lo st the connotations it has here of unmanly
behaviour that ill bec ame the dignity o f ful l Bri tish
sub j ects . Appl ied to land rights , vakaviti was synonymous
wi th chao tic .
From his diaries it seems that im Thurn came to his
views on the state of Fi j ian society a fter talking to Chief
Justice Si r Charles Ma j or ,
Attorney General
Albert
Erdhardt ,
and a
few o ther government o fficial s o f
compa ratively sho rt- term experience in the co lony .
They
had one thing in common: they agreed with the long-held
view o f the European set tl ers that the Go rdon-Thurston
system , or ' the communal sys tem ' as it was now called , had
outl ived whatever use fulne ss it might have po ssessed in the
early years .
I t was hampering the natural development of
the colony and destroying the moral fib re of the Fi j ians
themselve s .
The new Governo r was easily pe rsuaded to the
po pul ar view that the Fi j ians had lost the wil l to live and
were doomed to ex tinction .
By April 1 905 im Thurn was confident enough to speak
to the Council of Chi efs in perhaps the most unpleasant
language they had ever heard . The chiefs , he charged , were
' kil ling ' the peopl e who ' do not even care fo r the trouble
of living and of raising chil dren fo r a race which is dying
out so fast that unless a change comes so on , the re wi ll not
28
29
be one of you l eft i n fo rty years
The Fi j ian peopl e
are perishing chie fly because they are no t allowed any
l iberty to think and act fo r themselve s . ' He appeal ed to
the chiefs to hel p their peopl e become ' more like real
men
fit and wil ling to do men ' s wo rk ' so that wi th
the gradual sub stitution of Bri tish laws fo r the backward
Native Regulations the peopl e wo uld eventually be on the
same l evel ' as white Bri ti sh sub j ects are ' . As a grand ,
but in the context boorish gesture , he announced that he
was abandoning fo rthwi th his pe rsonal rights as Supreme
Chi ef to isevu , first fruits . The se we re voluntary tokens
of goodwill from the provinc es , a pl easant reminder al so of
Fi j ian expec tations that the Governo r would ac t towards
them as a true chie f. To Sir Everard it was al l vakaviti ,
unprogressive sentimental ity: ' In future I do no t want
anyone of you Fi j ians to offer me anything fo r which you
wi ll not let me pay . ' 2
•
•
•
•
•
•
Having prepared the chie fs fo r radical
change ,
im Thurn set about laying the foundations fo r a future
who se prosperity would be assured by a large European
popul ation with the capital and ski l ls to bring into
produc tion the vast trac ts of fertile land a dying and
indolent rac e could never hope to use . He reawakened the
vision of building a strong outpo st of the British Empi re
in the South Seas , moving the Fi j i Times to hail him , qui te
ac curately , as ' the first Governo r of Fij i to make any
public recognition of the fac t that the colony may have a
British future ; tha t the lands o f the colony are necessary
to that future ;
and that the present conditions of land
tenure are untenable ' . 3
Whereas Gordon had argued that the al ienation of land
had already gone to the ' very verge ' of what should be
permi tted if the Fi j ians were not to be lorded over by
white settl ers , im Thurn saw the European development of
the 4 , 250 , 000 uncul tivated acres of the colony as his first
pr iority . 4 It was then he confronted the implications of
the Fi j ian myth interpreting the Deed of Cession as a
personal covenant between the chie fs and their Queen ,
refl ec ting their retrospe ctive satisfaction wi th the way
their first Governor had articulated British respect for
their rights and privil ege s . s Had no t Gordon, and his
suc cessors
too ,
o utraged
the European community by
enthusiastical ly treating with them as Supreme Chief to
brother chiefs , even to the details o f Fi j ian ceremonial
etique tte? The proof of the wisdom of Ces sion was that the
peopl e had been given a secure legal tit l e to the lands
30
From the
remaining to them . Al ienation had b een hal t ed .
Fi j ian language compendium of Native Regulations they could
invoke Commodore Goodenough ' s response to the offer of
Ce s si on made on 1 2 March 1 874 : ' I t is clear to me that you
are no t c eding the land itse l f or your peopl e .
That is
good. ' 6 In the Fi j ian popul ar mind the lands had been
given by the chie fs to the Queen vakaturaga , that is , by
way o f a chiefly presentation which entitl ed them to expect
that the Queen in her reciprocal generosity would return
the lands to be shared and used by the peopl e . Go rdon did
nothing to di sabuse them of this notion ; he encouraged the
myth to secure their loyal ty - despite the pl ain provisions
of artic le IV of the Deed of Cession vesting in the Crown
al l lands no t actually used by a trib e or chief nor needed
for their ' probable future suppo rt ' . Ordinance XXI o f 1 880
had establi shed a Native Lands Commission to give l egal
recognition to Fi j ian ownership of all lands not al ready
ali enated , and to implement Go rdon ' s pe rsonal pl edge that
what Fi j ians then hel d would be confi rmed to them . In 1 908
the fo rmer Governo r wro te to Lo rd Elgin at the Co lonial
Office: ' I do no t only think , I know , that I must have
repeated the assuranc e at l east 30 times . ' 7
Im Thurn made a determined attack on the Gordon-Fij ian
viewpo int , suspe c ting a cosy conspiracy to defraud the
Crown of its l egitimate assets . He reviewed the history o f
Fi j ian land transac tions as ' one great blunder from the
beginning
from 1 87 5 we have again and again fail ed
to claim the lands but even os tentatiously pretended to
imaginary
rights
as
recognise
the
natives '
real ' . a On solid historic al grounds im Thurn argued that
pre-Cession Fi j ians had lived in a constant state of pe tty
war and that their boundarie s shift ed frequently: it was
pure invention to speak o f anc estral rights to pieces o f
l and o r t o say , as Gordon and others did , that every inch
of Fi j i had i ts owner . There were large trac ts of l and
unoc cupi ed at Ces sion which should have been marked off
immediately as Crown land and kept fo r future European
set tlement . 9
•
To
im
Thurn the wo rk o f the Native Lands
had been conceived on false premises.
Commission
I t was at tempt ing to
codi fy and standardize customary si tuations that varied
from one distric t to another , s ituations that we re of their
essence uncodi fiable . In his first year of o ffic e he al so
observed that the NLC hearings in Tail evu province seemed
themselve s to bring to a head or even c ause serious
disputes . He suspec ted the ageing David Wilkinson , who had
31
served the government o ff and on sinc e Cession , · was
mental ly inc apable of e ffecting reasonable se ttl ements , but
in any case he was impatient fo r the
' impene trable
obscurity ' of Fi j ian custom eventual ly to give way to ' the
clear light of the Real Prope rty Ordinance ' . 1 0 Im Thurn ' s
analysis of
the
problems
of c odi fying custom was
b rilliantly done and has won him the re spect o f modern
scholars , al though few have thought through the political
consequenc es of his determina tion to get Fi j ian land into
the open marke t .
The only move towards rational management o f the
Fi j ian estate had been the unanimous consent of the Council
of Chi efs in 1 903 to the sugge stion that the government
should have the entire control of the leasing of ' waste '
lands or tho se lying idle . 1 1 By March 1 905 some four
hundred vague ly desc ribed blocks had been nominated fo r
leasing by the provinc ial council s , most so truly wa ste or
inaccessible as to be use l ess fo r settl ement . Im Thurn
sugge sted to his subordinates that al ienation would have to
be made easier. The Chi ef Jus ti ce was enthusias tic , urging
tha t the time had come fo r the government to take unused
lands
say the
owners yea or nay ' .
The Native
Commissioner , Franc is Baxendale ,
as
representing
the
natives ' assured the Governor that drastic reforms would be
' welcomed with pl easur e ' by Fi j ians . 1 2 Wi thout consul ting a
single chie f , im Thurn had his first refo rms passed by the
Leg islative Council in May 1 905 .
Fij ian lands became
al ienab le wi th the consent of the Governor- in-Counc il , the
twenty-one year limit to leases no longer appl ied , and the
Native Lands Commission wa s restric ted to the hearing of
ac tual dispute s .
The European settlers could hardly
believe that a simple ordinance could strike at the heart
of Fi j ian po lity so long sustained by the
offic ial
maj orities in the undemocratic legislatur e . Over the next
three years 1 04 , 1 42 acres of Fi j ian land were qui etly sold
and became freehold .
The Council of Chi efs wa s never
convoked to give the Fi j ians their oppo rtunity to assess
what wa s happening and wri te their thoughts to the King .
But they were no t wi thout vigilant friend s abroad who so on
became aware that things in Fi j i were no t what they used to
be .
The land sal es attrac ted little at tention in London
until a fo rmer Governo r , Sir Wil liam de s Vo eux , sent the
Colonial Office a cutting from the Fi j i Times o f 27 June
1 906 desc ribing the pur chase of a Rewa riverfront prope rty ,
' Navuso ' , fo r £1 500 . Under a l ease that still had seven
32
years to run the Fi j ian owners had received an annual
rental of £41 5 .
The purchaser , prominent Suva lawye r
H . M . Scott ,
had made qui te a bargain .
The Governo r
defend ed the transac tion ( which had only been approved in
Executive Council by his own casting vote ) on the grounds
that the land was exhausted , the real rental value was only
£200 , and that even if the deal was a bit dubious then ' a
few experiences of such a charac ter are l ikely to teach
more
sel f- relianc e
than years of l eading st rings ' . 1 3
Im Thurn had on ano ther occasion put his dil emma in terms
that
should have al erted the Col onial Office to a
fundamental shi ft in the po sition of the Fi j ians :
' The
so cial and political status of the Fi j ian native in this
British colony i s so ex t raordinary and anomalous that it is
a mat ter of very great difficul ty to ho ld the sc al es evenly
when the interests of the natives and Europeans are weighed
agains t each o the r
' 1 4 Two years after taking office
im Thurn fo rwarded for approval an ord inance (XVI o f 1 906 )
to
empower
the government to resume land fo r any
undertaking proposal or policy which may appear to the
Gov ernor in Council desirable as direc tly benefiting the
Co lony ' . One of the situations im Thurn had in mind was
the po ssibility that Fi j ians at some future date would
refuse to acc ept in the remote distric ts prices lower than
they were demanding and rec eiving in the sugar centres . l 5
•
•
•
Al though Sir Ev erard never admitted to the connection ,
thi s o rdinance
came after months
of
frustrating
neg otiations by CSR and government officers to obtain about
1 0 , 500 acres of unused swamp lands lying between Nausori
and Wainibokasi on the Rewa River . The propo sal s involved
moving five villages of 352 peopl e . Ratu Joni Mad raiwiwi ,
now Roko Tui o f Ra , was c al led in to gain their suppo rt .
The chief wa s fo il ed by the agents of two Suva lawye rs who
encouraged the owners , the Nakelo peopl e , to hold out fo r
the high rental s they we re used to rec eiving from Ind ians
fo r smal l blocks . ' The real trouble ' , said Ratu Joni in a
moment of chiefly exaspe ration , ' is that they have never
had anything to decid e befo re and it ' s only in the time of
the
Gov ernment
that
they are
allowed
to
have
any . ' 1 6 Im Thurn could not have agreed more .
David Wilkinson had ano ther view o f the mat ter and
wro te a strong le tter of protest , wi th a copy to Gordon,
now Lord Stanmore , alleging that the Nakelo peopl e had been
bullied
and
insul ted
and
had
a
' deep- seated
dread
that in some way or ano ther they [ were] to be
deprived of their anc estral land s
A native said to me
•
•
•
•
•
•
33
the o ther day "has our
Chief? " ' 1 7
Gov ernor ceased
to
be
our High
Im Thurn dismissed Wilkinson ' s views as ' hys terical '
but on the who le the old man had better reason fo r his
fears than did the Gov erno r fo r holding optimistically to a
contrary opinion . Sure of the rightness of his cause , and
encouraged by the enthusiasm o f the European community and
the
apparent acqui esc ence
of the Fi j ians , im Thurn
introduced in June 1 907 a third ordinance ( I X of 1 907 )
providing fo r the sal e or lease of native land to Fij ians
and its conversion thereby to freeho ld title .
It al so
allowed for the devolution of the powers of the Native
Land s Commission to magistrate s or o thers so that they
could settl e d i sputes on the spo t , wi th appeal s against
their decisions lying to the Supreme Court rather than the
Governor- in-Counci 1 . 1 s Thus wa s another safeguard of Fi j ian
interests , direc t appeal to the ir supreme chief, quietly
removed .
The Colonial Office , by now tho roughly alerted to
im Thurn ' s real intentions , sharply enqui red whether the
ordinance was ' merely a device under which land held
individually by a native Fij ian may be di spo sed of to a
non- native ' and whether Fi j ian opinion ahd been sought on
the matter through the Council of Chiefs . 1 9 In his reply
the Governo r ignored the last sugge stion and confirmed that
there would be no restric tions on ind ividual s selling their
land , but that it was not like ly to happen very o ften .
In
a long review of the whole land situation he sugge sted that
the time had al so come fo r a spe cial commission to asse ss
the po sition of Fi j ian natives ' as affec ted by special
legislation and by that l egally recognised , but ye t
fo rmless , law o f "Fi j ian custom" ( " vaka viti" ) and their
consequent partial
exclusion
from the rights and
obligations o f o rdinary Bri tish subjects ' . 2 0 Al though
nothing came immediately o f the last sugge stion , it reveal s
the true context o f his land refo rms as the maj or item on a
much larger agenda : the refo rmation of the who le Fi j ian
system .
Meanwhil e government o ffic ers and one or two Fi j ian
Rokos were attempt ing to circumvent the problem of
alienation by obtaining large trac ts of land for leasing .
Resistance was strong in provinces where the best lands had
already been al ienated , as in Ba and Cakaud rove .
The
fifteen inhabitants of Nanuca in the latter provinc e , fo r
ins tance , had 3000-4000 acres of l and but regarded none of
34
it as surplus , even though 30 ac res would have sufficed for
their subsi stence pl anting . Land in the Rewa del ta was
al so hard to obtain as the owners could get qui te high
rents from Indians and saw no reason why they should
sub sid ize either CSR o r the government . In the province of
Bua , however , Ratu Joni Mad raiwiwi spent ten weeks in 1 906
inspe cting surplus l ands and obtained for the government
51 , OOO acres fo r ninety-nine years at the rate of £'1 0 per
1 000 acres . In 1 907 he obtained ano ther 1 2 , 000 ac res . The
Macuata peopl e surrendered 50 , 000 ac res at £1 per 1 00 ac res
from 1 January 1 908 . About the same time 60 , 000 acres of
good grazing land were obtained in Col o West . 2 1
I t need s recal ling at this po int that the eye s of the
original Fi j ian land s , especially the river fl ats , had been
picked befo re Cession , and that Fi j ian ownership of 83 per
cent o f the lands , whil e tremend ously impo rtant in the
larger sweep of history , is not as impressive in economic
terms as it may sound . After the second wave of selling
j ust d esc ribed there remained in Fi j ian control ( July 1 90 9 )
only one large area of firs t- class flat land , the Waidalici
and Sawakasa flats in northe rn Tail evu , some 50 miles north
o f Suva.
In the course o f a routine inspection by Ratu
Kadavulevu and Assi stant Nativ e Commissioner W. A . Scott ,
the propo sal was put befo re the Di stric t ( Tikina) Counc il s
of Namalata and Sawakasa that the government should assume
the entire control of these lands . The signatures of the
owners we re
obtained
wi thout
difficul ty on
the
unders tanding that pl anting reserves would be se t asid e and
none of the lands would be l eased to Indians , who , the
peopl e claimed , ' taught them bad customs and pol luted their
water courses ' . The land surrendered includ ed 5000 acres
immediately suitable fo r cane , bananas or tobacco and a
further 2000 ac res that needed draining . There we re 30, 000
acres suitable fo r grazing . 2 2
Befo re the end of the year the peopl e reconsid ered .
The old Sawakasa chie f , Ratu Kameniel i Bi tuvatu , wi th al l
the original signato rie s al leged duress and tried to
repud iate the ag reement : ' We did not hand over our lands ,
you spoke of it
firs t .
We
d id
not
ask
fo r
thi s . ' 2 3 Im Thurn , o f c ourse , had little sympathy and made
an ill-conc eived appeal to Fij ian prec ed ent :
'Vakaviti ,
Cakobau would , i f he had known that there were peopl e
[ Euro peans] ready to use and pay fo r this land , have given
this
land to those peopl e .
I quite as much
over
am prepared to lease to tho se peopl e . ' 2 4
vakaviti '
The peopl e were held to a miserable deal , and regretted it
•
•
•
35
ever after.
With varying degrees of g rac e , then , Fij ians did hand
over consid erable areas of land to the government , far more
than could be taken up by prospective se ttlers .
Re fusal s
to lease , even if appl ications we re to tally unreasonable
and requi red the removal of a who le village , we re blown up
by
the
Europeans
as
fur ther
evidence
of Fi j ian
intransigenc e , whil e the generous c oncessions just noted
rec eived scant publicity . I t did not sui t the Fi j i Times
to attack the European spe cul ators who were tying up 8000
ac res on the Dreke ti and Sigatoka Rivers , o r to admit that
there we re greater problems than the availabil ity o f land
fo r the colony ' s ag ricul tural development . In January 1 908
the Planters Association commissioned the Suva lawye r
R . Crompton to prepare a long pe tition to the Secretary of
State fo r the Colonie s d emand ing that the ' C rown should
take
such [ unused ] land s and open up the same fo r
cul tivation by pl anters ' .2 s The pe tition was based on the
rights o f the Crown under artic le IV o f the Deed of Cession
and its interpretation of the events since Ce ssion closely
fo llowed that o f im Thurn , whom the pl anters now saw as
their champion .
In his suppo rting arguments to
the
Col onial
Office ,
im Thurn was c areful to avoid the
appearance of sectional bias and to profess great interest
in the wel fare of ' these interesting natives ' . But he
agreed with the pl anters that Fi j ian landlords we re
obj ectionable ;
they could perfo rm none of the duties of
the po sition. They had nei ther knowl edge no r capital ;
they j us t received rents and appropriated improvement s .
Europeans wi th freehold titles would a t onc e ensure that
the property did not d eterio rate , and usual ly they we re
able to raise capi tal for development . Be lieving that the
Crown had a clear right to surplus lands in any case , he
wa s resigned ' as a mat ter of g rac e ' to allowing Fi j ians a
pric e fo r their lands but insisted that the first aim of
the government wa s that the lands be developed and ' the
exorbitant d emands of the Natives fo r their more or less
imaginary rights ' should be firm ly resisted . 2 6
The Pl anters ' Petition , and the knowl edge that it had
the suppo rt o f the Supreme Chief, sent waves of distrust
d eep into a Fi j ian c ommunity now tho roughly aroused .
The
chiefs wi thin reach o f Suva met one evening at the home of
their would- be champion and lawye r Humphrey Berkeley .
The
chairman of the Me tho dist church was present , and he
repo rted that the chie fs we re convinc ed a supreme effo rt
was b eing mad e sec retly by the Europeans to deprive them of
36
the ir land s .27 Ra tu Peni Tanoa , leading chief of Nai tasiri ,
and
several others said in a l etter to the Native
Commissioner that they feared a terrib le reversal
as
happened in New Zealand - and like the Mao ris we to o could
be reduced to sl avery ' . They asked that the full pe tition
be transl ated so that they coul d study it themselves .
Im Thurn was wi l ling : ' I t seems at least fair to put it
into the power of Fi j ians to und ers tand what is going on . ' 28
The final decision lay wi th the Colonial Offic e , o f c ourse ,
and
an outraged Lo rd Stanmore used bo th his private
connections there and his seat in the House of Lo rds to
defend hi s original land policies wi th passion . Stanmore
achieved j us t the right elder statesman ' s blend
of
al lusions to arcane knowl edge of Fi j ian compl exities and
his record of integrity and experience wi th wi the ring scorn
fo r the intellec tual confusion of a tac tless suc cesso r - an
ups tart who thought pl anters a better j udge of Fi j ian
problems than the Scotti sh l ord who , in winning the love of
the peopl e fo r British rul e , had himself acqui red ' the
heart of a Fi j ian ' . 2 9
Starunore carried the day .
The
Co lonial
Office
rej ected the Planters ' Pe tition and im Thurn ' s arguments
and upheld the nobl e l ord ' s view that no distinction could
be d rawn between waste land s and occupied land s - what
im Thurn had called ' true Crown ' and
' true nativ e '
respectively.
All lands we re t o be regarded a s Fi j ian
property and no t to be leased or so ld without the consent
of the owners . 3 0
The defeat of im Thurn ' s reforms has b een persuasively
explained by Pe ter France in The Charter of the Land as the
victory o f o rthodoxy , a return to the misl ead ing dogmas
about Fi j ian so ciety proc laimed by Go rdon to j ustify his
po licy . 3 1 In another sense , though , it wa s a victory fo r
Fi j ians , the defeat of a vision of the colony ' s future
which id entified ' the real interests of the natives ' wi th
the d enigration of everything in Fi j ian so ciety that
o ffended current British id eas of progress , democracy ,
manliness or sel f- respec t .
What would have happened if
im Thurn ' s land re fo rms had gone through?
Was not
individualization of land tenure the c lassic c o l onial
device fo r achieving a rapid transfe r of native land to
European settl ers?
There could be littl e doub t that i f
Fi j i had been able t o at trac t several thousand more
settl ers from New Zeal and and Aus tralia they would in time
have
gained
sel f- government ,
abolished
the
Fi j ian
Administration , and buil t on im Thurn ' s arguments and his
37
legal preced ents to justify easier ways of al ienating the
best land s .
Im Thurn ' s Fi j i of the future was a more
prosperous Fi j i , perhaps , but i t offe red no hope fo r Fi j ian
autonomy and success only fo r tho se Fij ians wi th whom the
Europeans chose to share their skills.
Equal British
c iti zens in theory , they would have become fringe- dwellers
in fac t ; at best a pic turesque backg round , at wo rst a
broken so ciety o f migrato ry labourers and leaderless
peasant farmers d evoid of influence at the national level .
The land controve rsy ove rshad owed other elements in
im Thurn ' s program of refo rm . He particularly chafed at
the need to sub sid ize chie fly o ffi cial s .
Was there no t
some way o f eroding their privileges and foste ring the
emergenc e o f bet ter- educated men wi th more progressive
goals?
Chapter 3
The e rosion o f hered itary privilege
When a newcomer such as Sir Everard im Thurn observed
Fi j ian so ciety from the out sid e , it was easy to conclud e ,
a s he did , that Fi j ian chiefs we re bleeding their peopl e
pal e .
Fo r the person of the chief was still hedged wi th
elaborate ceremonial , d e ferential modes of indirect and
plural address , courtly euphemi sms , c rouching low when he
passed , the tabu a ttached to his c lo thing and food , and
above al l the d read fear of incurring his anc esto rs ' curse
by even unwitting breaches of hi s sac red ness . ( Even hal f a
century later when customary modes of respe c t we re said to
be breaking down , there was no more common sto ry in
fo lklore and personal reminisc enc e than the evils that
befel l a man who went against his chief . )
I t was a mistake , though ,
to
perceive Fi j ian
chieftainship in the twentie th c entury simply as a sys tem
of d espo tism . So much o f the chief' s styl e , dignity ,
income and power depended on the prac tical goodwill of a
peopl e no longer depend ent on him fo r their land or
physical security . They gave food , property and labour to
the chief wi th the clear unde rstanding that he represented
the honour of their group in its d ealings wi th o ther groups
and that he would bear the main burden of ho spitality to
visitors .
He was helped , then , to maintain a certain
' state ' but expec ted to exe rcise liberality to all . Fi j ian
expec tations o f the chiefly o rder were well expressed by
Epe li Rokowaqa in the We sl eyan newspaper Ai Tukutuku
Vakal otu in 1 932 :
The Ratu o r Tui or Roko tui :
it is his heavy
burden to rul e the land
the installing
groups entrust the land to him because they rely
on him to be their source of life , prospe rity and
inc rease . 1
•
The peopl e expected chie fs in government po sitions to
use the pe rqui sites of o ffi c e to maintain a greater state
and incur greater liabili ties . There is little evidence to
suggest that Fi j ian chie fs amassed fo rtunes in offic e , but
much to show that they l ived beyond their means to mee t the
reciprocal obligations attached to their privil ege s .
38
39
Im Thurn saw i t o therwise . He was concerned about the
extent to which the Na tive Regulations pro tec ted the lala
rights of chiefs to make levies on the peopl e fo r their
personal need s : housebuil ding , gard en pl anting , supplying
visitors wi th fo od , c utting and building canoes , supplying
turtl e , and making mats , masi cloth and other artic les .
Without lal a , the Council of Chiefs had declared in
1 892 , their soc ial organization would be destroyed . 2 In one
fo rm or ano ther lala entered into al l relationships betwe en
the peopl e and----:t'he ir chie fs .
In 1 875 David Wilkinson
echoed chie fly experience when he wro te : ' in fac t it is
the keystone of the Chi ef ' s g overnment and autho rity over
his peopl e , the channel through which comes his " sinews o f
war" in times of trouble ;
and his " ways and means" in
times of peace ' . 3 In 1 898 he reaffirmed that there was
no thing so ' natural famil iar or so effec tive to ke ep up the
peopl es indus try' , but he reg retted that lala had been
brought into disrepute by ' young bumtious , covetious ,
impecunious , indolent chie fs who impo se upon the peopl e
simply because
they are
of
the family who have
the
fudul e right over many trib es or peopl es ' . 4
•
Im Thurn based his asse s sment o f lala primarily on
detail ed repo rts from Kadavu , where the chiefs either
re tained more power over their peopl e than in any o ther
provinc e , or had to exercise it more openly because their
peopl e were so turbul ent . ' Of course the custom of lala is
obj ectionable in our eye s ' , confid ed Francis Baxendale of
the Native Department to im Thurn , marking well his
read er ' s prejudices , ' especially as the chie fs have fo r
some time , in many plac e s , g iven up doing their part of
custom , but vested rights cannot be dispo sed of off hand . ' 5
He was commenting on a c omplaint of a Kad avu man:
' The
chie fs '
lala i s our
mere
trouble
our taxes a
bagatelle
Never a day passes wi thout some exaction
1 0 yams here 1 0 the re , a root of g rog , a fowl , a pig . We
work and produce copra - the Chief sel ls it fo r money - get
no thing : he levies yams which he sel l s fo r money . ' 6
•
•
•
-
On one inspec tion o f Kadavu , it wa s learned that the
Roko Tui had levied 5000 yams on Nabuke levu and sent the
Sanima peopl e to cut buabua and vesi trees fo r his new
house .
I t was no t of c ourse regi stered on the program of
work . The Me thodist mission in Kadavu
as in every
provinc e
asked fo r contributions in kind , say , twe lve
yams fo r each man , woman and child every three months , and
arranged
a highly suc cessful
annual vakamisioneri
40
col lection al ong the compe ti tive lines o f customary
exchange , wi th distric t vying against di stric t to keep a
continuous procession of c ontributo rs taking coins to swell
the collection pl ate by wh ich their distric t ' s honour would
be measured . In 1 905 vakamisioneri collec tions to talled
over £ 5000.
The se fac ts buil t u p i n im Thurn ' s mind the impression
of a pe opl e continually being discouraged and impoverished
by greedy chiefs and missionarie s :
' prac tical ly all the
rights are to the chiefs and not to the " commoners" ' •7
After the Governor had assail ed the Council of Chiefs in
1 905 ( see previous chapter) , his spe ech was pub lished in
the government newspaper Na Mata and some villagera wrote
to thank him fo r launching a new era : ' We wil l be free to
give our attention to other thing s fo r the benefit of our
wives and children ' • 8 Im Thurn undoub ted ly believed he had
a vast sil ent maj ority behind him . He was encouraged in
June 1 905 to make the death o f Cakaud rove ' s high chief , the
Tui Cakau , an oppo rtunity to ban ' these burdensome funeral
ceremonies ' and begin lightening the load on the peopl e though thi s particul ar decision , to ban the burua or
mourning ceremonies , was more like ly to have sho cked the
peopl e : it robbed them of o ne of the great occasions in
Fi j ian life . 9 And i t was only spec tacular inter- provinc ial
gatherings such as this that the government had a chanc e of
regulating .
A l etter to Na Mata in September 1 906
desc ribed a small ex change ( soieVu;---:t'h at had j ust taken
place between some of the ladies of Bau and Vuci village ,
Tokatoka .
The ladies b rought only three snake s and
traditional clothes , the writer claimed , and exchanged them
fo r six ty mats . They rec eived three days o f ho spital ity
during which we re consumed a cow , thirty pigs , 800 yams ,
The
91 0 puddings , countless taro and £ 2 worth of tea .
ladies then re turned to Bau wi th 1 33 mats , eighty tins of
b iscuit s , and pil es o f yams and dalo fo r their chiefs . l O
If it offend ed government that the se
kind s of
ex changes c ontinued to absorb so much of the produc tive
energies of the peopl e , i t concerned Fi j ians more when they
did not take pl ac e wi th the customary sense of proportion
and reciprocity , o r when the Bauan chiefs ( the main
culprits) and others fail ed in their return obligations .
Ano ther writer in Na Ma ta add ed a fur ther dimension to the
lala que stion :
' At this time it seems to me that our
chiefs are ruining or perverting the custom of lala fo r
they exe rcise lala on the who le provinc e ac cording to their
government appo intments . ' 1 1 Al though thi s compl aint was
41
answered by others who po inted out how much greater lala
exac tions we re in the old days , the real que stion in the
Fi j ian mind seems no t to have been the ac tual ex tent o f
l ala but the ease with which chiefly Roko s and Bul is
dispensed wi th the customary ways of making reque sts and
treated lala as a fo rm of renumeration .
The problem of ac commodating trad itional lala rights
wi thin the colonial order can be best il lust rated in
Tail evu .
From many d ecades befo re Ce ssion and until
Thurston cal led a halt in 1 894 , the Bauan chiefs had
exerc ised wholesale lala rights on tho se island communities
of Lomaiviti known a�livakabau , subject- to-Bau , and also
on certain groups in Tailevu known as the kai vali ,
househo ld servant s o f the Bauans . In the rest of Tailevu
and Lomaiviti the lala rights of the Bauan chiefs we re more
circumsc ribed .
Levies we re contributed either voluntarily
or were reque sted through properly appo inted mata , envoys
or intermediaries . According to Ratu Joni Mad raiwiwi , who
grew up in Cakobau ' s househo ld , mata from the nearby
distric ts of Namata , Namara , Dravo , Buretu , and Kiuva lived
permanently on Bau . The mata would on occasion b e sent to
their towns wi th some reque st to be made vakaveiwekani , ' as
if from relatives ' , fo r all these people were counted as
true Bauans ( kai Bau d ina ) .
Then in the north of the
provinc e there wer9 the towns of the kai Waimaro Dri ( the
dist ric ts of Namalata , Sawakasa , Wail otua and Naloto ) who
were al lies or borderers ( bati ) requi red to send aid to the
Bauans in time of war . Other distric ts stil l further north
- Namena , Dawasama , and Nakorotubu in Ra - contributed to
Bauan trad ing exchanges ( sol evu ) , as did certain par ts of
Naitasiri provinc e and the original inhabitants of Suva .
Firs t fruit s , i sevu , we re no t presented t o the Vunivalu o f
Bau but t o the templ e Navatanitawake .
I n a good year
offerings ( roverove ) of yams might be made from the bati
towns and others , but they we re , £ laimed Ratu Joni ,
voluntary tokens of friend ship . 1 2
Given the military might o f Bau befo re Ce ssion , the
voluntary nature of tribute from Tail evu should not be
overemphasi zed . Ratu Joni ' s more important observa tion was
that
the bureauc ratic
o perations
of
the
Fi j ian
Administration had effe c tively levelled away the se nice
di stinc tions betwe en the status of each vanua or distric t
and the roles of particul ar villages .
Though traditional
ranking continued to be preserved in seating arrangements
and the details o f e tique t te and oratory wi thin the
procedures o f the council s , no village or distric t could
42
claim a special exemption from meeting the need s o f the
province on the ground s that Bau had first to approach them
in the proper way . 1 3 I t wa s al l too simpl e a mat ter fo r the
Roko Tui- of Tail evu to decid e that eve ry man in the
province was to bring , s ay , t en yams to Bau a s the Roko ' s
o ffic ial lala - it was no longer rel evant to inqui re what
was the Vunivalu' s customary entitl ement .
As a Native
Lands Commission inqui ry showed in 1 91 7 to an embarrassing
degree , the Bauan chie fs we re losing touch wi th the old
order and were confused about their exact relationships
wi th particular communities and their rights and privilege s
at custom . 1 4
To deal with the Fi j ian Administration , then , is to
deal wi th an ambiguous amalgam of o ld and new . The
impo sition of c olonial rul e and appo intments d eriving from
the Crown intrud ed radically new princ ipl es of organization
with accountabil ity to the top , ye t in many ways the chiefs
we re trying to l ead their peopl e as they had always done
and fel t much the same obligation to
ensure
their
prospe rity .
Provincial and distric t councils ope rated in
the customary s tyl e and really bore little resemblance to
western institutions of local government . On the other
hand , the more offic ial duties such as tax collecting and
road making deviated from the customary ways of using men
and resources ( to satisfy the minimum demand s of colonial
rul e) , the more need the re was fo r the apparatus of a
developed state , e specially the system of courts and
punishments .
Confl ic ts o f l oyal ty and confusion of rul es
we re thus buil t into the Fi j ian Administration .
Ye t
pe rhaps these same conflic ts and ambigui ties we re its
fundamental strength in that
they arose
from
the
interlocking
of bureauc ratic and customary proc esse s ,
giving to one the advantage s o f the other .
All egiance to
chiefly o ffic ial s was to tal : ' there was no situation where
a chief was no t a chief ' • 1 5
Some of the younger Roko s we re sensitive to the
government ' s preoccupation with lala and moved of their own
ac co rd to restric t it . Thus Ratu A. Finau , Roko Tui Lau ,
who had unsuc cessful ly tried to levy property i�901 to
take
to
Bau in honour of the
deceased
Ra tu
Epeli Nail atikau , announc ed at the end of 1 905 that he had
abolished lala ex cept fo r housebuil ding and plantations .
He was much praised . l 6 In 1 909 the new Roko o f noto rious
Kad avu , Ratu Ifereimi Qasevakatini , suggested that al l
' o ffic ial ' lala at tached to the office of Bul i and his own
be abolished and that each chie f limit the exercise of lala
43
to his own peopl e and adhere stric tly to local custom . The
response was unexpec ted . The Bul is protes ted that their
peopl e were not prepared to let the Roko of their provinc e
be entirely dependent on his own peopl e fo r his lala :
They desired to do their share , in fac t they
obj ected to be left out , e special ly as oco [ a
feast ] was to be prov ided .
They desired to
assist the Roko of the Province as had always
b een the custom in Kad avu . Bul i Sanima sd .
' We
are Fi j ians - no t Indians , let us ac t always as
Fi j ians in accordanc e wi th the custom of our
land s . ' 1 7
Whereupon it was resolved that each man of five distric ts
would give the Roko ten yams and four distric ts would plant
his gardens as d esi red . The Buli s ' lala was se t as two
days ' work in July , Augus t and September. It is a nic e
glimpse of the tend ency o f Fi j ians to come to rapid terms
wi th c ongenial aspects of the Fi j ian Administration and
hal low them as chiefly customs
indispensable to the
Fi j ian way o f life . 1 8
Neverthel ess in 1 91 1 the Co uncil of Chiefs finally
reso lved
to
forgo
the Roko ' s offic ial lala . 1 9 Lala
ex erc ised on behal f o f o ther Fij ian offic ial s , usually the
magistrates ,
provincial
scribes and Native Medical
Practitioners ( NMPs ) , was also abolished .
The official s
we re given a smal l inc rease in their sal aries and told to
rely on them . Only the Bul is retained lala rights at tached
to their government po sition .
( Usually the men of a
distric t wo rked a day or two each month in the Buli ' s
garden . )
A revised code of Nat iv e Regulations issued in 1 91 2
abo lished the original regulation ( II I o f 1 877 ) regarding
chiefs so that it was no longer an offenc e fo r Fi j ians to
disobey their chie fs ' in all things lawful according to
their customs ' . A new and dubious distinc tion was made
between ' pe rsonal ' and ' communal ' lala rights wi th the
obvious intention of iso lating and de fining a se t of
chiefly privileges that could be gradually whittled away .
In the meantime personal lala was stil l authorized fo r
housebuilding , garden pl anting , supplying visitors wi th
fo od , cut ting and building canoes , supplying turtle and
making mats , masi c loth or o ther traditional manufac tures .
Chie fs we re obliged - as they we re by custom - to feed or
pay tho se perfo rming services . A village could arrange fo r
44
the commutation of pe rsonal services by making an annual
payment in cash or kind . Thi s provision was never ac ted
upon, which sugge sts pe rhaps that pe rsonal lala was still
accepted by the peopl e as part of the customary order of
things and not found ov er- burdensome .
The cornerstone o f the ' communal sys tem ' remained
redefined in the Communal Se rvices Regulation (7 of 1 91 2 ) .
Ind ividual ism was fine as a sl ogan but when it came to the
provision of essential day- to- day services such as the
clearing of bush tracks between villag es or of land fo r
planting , the constant . r epairing of thatched house s , the
housing of newly married coupl es , or the supplying of
visitors ( not l east colonial offic ial s ) with fo od , the
villages need ed the cooperation of its able- bod ied men fo r
at l east two or three days a week .
The government
accepted , fo r want of a prac tical al ternative , that if
village leaders were deprived of physical sanctions against
the lazy , they need ed the suppo rt of this regulation . Wi th
l ess j ustification , communal services we re later ex tended
to includ e the transpo rt of g overnment o ffic ers on duty ,
the carriage of o ffic ial letters , and the assistance of
Native Land s Commission surveyo rs .
The concentration of c oerc ive power behind ' government
wo rk ' and the reduc ed emphasis on hered itary privilege were
keenly fel t by chiefs of the old school , espe cial ly tho se
who
lacked
administrative j obs .
In 1 91 2 Ratu Joni
Mai tatini of Rewa c omplained that the po sition of chiefs
had become ' a pitiable one ind eed . The privileges of the
chiefs have been gradual ly wi thd rawn and to put it plainly
in the English language he has b ecome the " laughing sto ck"
of the community . Surely tho se high chiefs need pro tection
and suppo rt at the hands of the Government . ' 2 0 Later
instances of o ld- time pe rsonal lala on the grand scale are
rare . On 7 April 1 91 9 , Ro Tui sawau of Rewa arrived in true
chiefly styl e at Vabea in Kadavu and blew the conch shell
for the Ono peo pl e to come together. He demand ed tha t they
g ive him over 4 tons of c opra fo r which he had obligingly
brought seventy empty bags . Lal a vakavanua , t raditional
' stealing ' , translated the
lala , Tui sawau cal led it
European magistrate of Rewa , although he added that the
chief would undoubtedly have been wi thin hi s rights in
years now gone . 2 1
Ro Tui sawau wa s representative of many individual
chie fs whose stars we re in the desc endant , whose lives did
no t fuse conveniently wi th the colonial etho s , who for lack
45
of education , or inclination , or a certain kind of
pe rsonality , d id not seize on the new po ssibilities fo r
advanc ement
and
powe r in the Fi j ian Administration .
Foremost amongst the se chie fs we re the ' dissid ents of Bau ' ,
as they we re known in government c ircles , a large group
comprising the unemployed members o f the four chiefly
d ivisions (mataqal i) on the island . They were led by Ratu
Etua te Wainiu , eldest but lowborn son of Ratu Epeli
Nailatikau , thus a grand son of Cakobau . Wainiu had made a
sho rt career in the Armed Native Constabul ary;
likewise
some of the others , inc lud ing Ratu Joni Colata , Ratu Tevita
Raivali ta and Ratu Tevita Wilikinisoni Tuivanuavou , had
hel d and lost government appo intments .
The se men were the sons of chiefs who had lived a life
of violence and abundance , and who even after Cession had
sailed their great c anoes to collect tribute from most of
the Lomaiviti g roup and many parts of Vi ti Levu - exactly
which parts was al ready a mat ter of d ispute .
Wholesal e
abuse of their lala rights l ed Thurston to bar access to
Lomaiviti by Ratu Epe li Nailatikau and the Bauan chiefs in
1 894 , and al though fo r several years tribute continued to
come on a voluntary basis , the Bauan chiefs
found
themselves chronical ly sho rt of fo od . 2 2 They had littl e
land of their own , having at best indirect or secondary
rights to land s o ccupied by their traditional vassals and
all ies . None of these rights was upheld by the Native
Lands Commission .
The Bauan chie fs we re particularly
embi ttered by their failure to gain part o f the Namata
lands d irec tly o ppo site the island , a dec ision made in
1 894 . 2 3 The Namata peopl e , originally from Namalata further
north , occupied the ir lands at the pl easure of the Bauans ,
the chiefs argued , as d id most of their neighbours in
southern Tai l evu .
When some of these lands we re so ld
between 1 905 and 1 907 the Bauans rec eived no thing .
Ratu Joni Co lata led a large delegation to the Native
Commissioner in 1 907 to put their grievances :
At the present day we see very many commoners
coming to Suva to receive the rents of land s . We
rec eive no portion of
thi s money
Our
po sition at Bau i s an impossible one . At present
no thing is brought to us with which to clothe
ourselve s
or ·
to
provide
oil
for our
lamps
Wherever we go we are the laughing
stock o f the peopl e who receive money . They say ,
' They are Chi efs - they have no land s . ' 2 4
•
•
•
•
•
•
46
The chie fs we re to ld tha t if they had particul ar claims to
land s not ye t registered by the NLC , they would be heard at
the appropriate time but that
past
dec isions we re
ab solutely final .
In 1 908 the chie fs sent three strong
letters in Ratu Etuate Wainiu ' s handwri ting direct to
im Thurn and advanced their general claims further : the
dispo sal of the land s and of the commoners themselve s was
in the hand s of the chiefs and the Bauans had inviolable
rights particularly to lands in Tail evu and Lomaiviti . The
present occupi ers , they said , we re no t the true owners but
tenants- at-wil l ,
' squatting
on
the
lands
of
us
Bauans • • • visito rs on our so il ' • 2 5
On 1 4 May 1 909 the chie fs se t out these claims at
g reat length in the first of several memorial s to the
Sec retary o f Sta te fo r the Co lonies ,
d e tailing
the
migration histories o f the various ' squatters ' of Tailevu
to prove that their true land s l ay e lsewhere , and alleging
a g ross misc arriage o f j us ti c e in the early hearings o f the
NLC .
They made great pl ay of the fac t that
their
arch- enemy Ratu Marika To roca , the hereditary Roko Tui
Namata , had been a Nativ e Lands Commissioner and
a
fav ourit e o f white offi c ials .
Had they realized at the
time that Cession would bring an end to their rights and
impoverish
them , they would never have consented so
read ily .
They had been misl ed , robbed of l egitimate
privileges . 2 6
I f the details o f their case were weak , the general
thrust of the argument was strong enough fo r the government
and the Co lonial Office to
consid er
privately the
po ssibility o f some compensation .
A Downing Street
offic ial conc eded : ' There c an be no doub t that at the time
of Ces sion , neither the chiefs of Bau ( includ ing Thakombau)
no r the Bri ti sh Government had
any intention of
impoverishing the chie fs or of al lowing the peopl e to omit
their customary payments . ' 2 7 The chie fs sensed this chink
in the armour and pursued the que stion wi th a persistence
and bluntnes s that exasperated the government :
' These
peopl e wi l l clutch at any s traw to gain their end s and a
littl e sympathy . Ratu Wainiu told me ye sterday he would
never stop agitating the que stion and that he had many more
bul lets to fire . ' 2 8
The chie fs we re doubtless aware that i t was unlike ly
their literal claims would be accepted , but they hoped to
secure a 5 pe r c ent share of l ease monies in all the Bauan
dominions , which Wainiu maintained were the whole of Fi j i .
47
In 1 91 2 the government appo inted a committee t o discuss the
dist ribution of rents .
I t was decid ed that the Bauans
undoub tedly had rights of a general charac ter over who le
communities and distric ts such as the qal ivakabau , ' vassal s
to Bau ' , on Ovalau, Ko ro and Mo turiki , but that these were
sovereign rights and did not proceed from proprieto rship of
the so il , rights that had become meaningless when the
colonial government assumed the protec tive role the more
powerful chiefs had once
played . 2 9
No
change was
recommend ed in the fo nnula governing the distribution of
tauke i ,
who rec eived
rents by which the turaga i
one- twentie th , wa s defined as the distric t chief of a
vanua , not the high chie fs to whom most of the fo nner owed
allegiance . 3 0 However several wi tnesse s from Lomaiviti
we re prepared to give the Vunivalu of Bau some share in the
rent s .
' We are related by blood to the Bau peo �l e ' , said
the Bul i Nairai , ' I would giv e 2s [ a tenth share j to the
Vunivalu '
likewise the Bul i Nasinu ( Ovalau) , who
acknowl edged that the Vunivalu had the right to order them
' to do anything he wi shed ' . 3 1
The ownership of Lomaivi ti lands wa s final ly decided
by the NLC in 1 91 5 . 3 2 The chie fs made strenuous but
unsuc cessful attempts to salvage their rights by seeking
co- ownership o f the di sputed land s . Finally in February
1 91 7 a commission was appo inted to asc ertain which Bauan
chiefs could properly requi re lala and from which peopl e ,
and whether i t was ' possib le t o arrange fo r the commutation
of such pe rsonal services by a lump sum payment or by an
annuity ' . 3 3 A notice in Na Mata , January 1 91 7 , requi red
Bauan chiefs to fil l in a-wi='itten claim form . This was
done by Ratu Pope Seniloli , E . Wainiu , and five of the
latter ' s suppo rters .
The
commission gathe red some
interesting evidenc e on past Bauan relationships but never
completed its wo rk .
Wainiu pred ictably made claim to
' vakatadumata to the who le of Fi j i ' , that is , to send
envoys wi th reque sts to those parts of the group Bau was
unab le to rul e direc tly . 34
The que stion of compensation remained unre so lved until
a further memorial from the Bauan chiefs to the Sec retary
o f State in 1 92 1 provoked Governor Sir Cec il Rodwe ll to
sugge st that the issue s be shelved for all time by a ' final
and more
or
less arbitrary se ttl ement by
the
Gov erno r ' • 3 5 Sev eral hundred acres of Crown land on Koro valued at about £4000 - was the pay- off , ' our final gift to
the Bauans ' , formally given over by Rodwell at Bau on 1 3
Nov ember 1 922 . 3 6 At a meeting wi th the chie fs on Ko ro in
48
January 1 923 , A. L . Armst rong on behalf o f the government
fe lt the need to remind them that the Governor had the
who le of Fi j i to control and
could not d evote his t ime ex clusively to Bau .
The Se cre tary o f State had und er his control many
mil lions of pe opl e and territories so vast that
they could no t even imagine them . To think that
he would reconsid er a que stion al ready settl ed
concerning a tiny i sl and which could not even be
found on a map
showed
a very false
conc eption of the relative impo rtance of the
Bauans . 37
•
•
•
The chiefs agreed that in accepting the land s
they
rel inqui shed all c laims to compensation fo r the loss of
rights or privileges fo rmerly enj oyed . Ratu Wainiu and two
o thers (Ratu Tui savura and Ratu Rusiate Busa ) dec lined to
ac cept the ag reement . Wainiu , d e fiant to the end , l iv ed to
a g reat age and on the d eath of Ratu Pope Seniloli in 1 936
he was cho sen t o ac t as Vunivalu , a position he held for
nearly twenty years . In 1 93 7 he made a fur ther appeal to a
new Gov ernor ( Si r Arthur Richards) sugge sting he receive 5 s
i n the £ from all the lands l eased in Fi j i .
I am Edward Wainiu a direct
d esc endant o f
Ratu Cakobau
I pray that yo u wi l l have pity on me and do your
utmost to see that a j us t and fair po rtion of the
Fi j i Government money wi ll be given to me
annual ly that I may right fully enj oy the rest of
my days a s b efit ting a g rand son of Ratu Cakobau . 3 8
•
•
•
The Bauans , he said , had been ' left in poverty l ike a lot
o f d rifting pe opl e ' but it wa s only true of tho se Bauans
and other chiefs who could not turn the colonial situation
to their own advantage .
Chapter 4
The new po litic s o f chie fly power
The more abl e Fi j ian chie fs did not need to fe tch up
the glory o f their ancesto rs to maintain lead ership of
their peopl e : they exploited a variety of oppo rtunities
open to them wi thin the Fi j ian Administration . Ul timately
col onial rul e itsel f rested on the l oyalty chosen chie fs
could still command from their peopl e , and day- to- day
v illage governance , i t has been seen , to tally depended on
them .
Far from degenerating into a decadent elite , the se
chie fs devised a mode of l eadership that wa s neither
traditional , for it need ed appo intment from the Crown , nor
purely administrative .
I ts material reward s came from
salary and fringe benefits ; its larger satisfac tions from
the extent to which the peopl e rallied to their leadership
and voluntarily participated in the great cel ebrations of
Fi j ian li fe , the traditional- type festivals o f dance , food
and ceremony that proclaimed to all : the peopl e and the
chief and the land are one .
' Gov ernment-work ' had its
place , but fo r chiefs and peopl e there were always ' higher'
preoc cupa tions growing out o f the re fined cul tural legacy
o f the past ( albei t the attenuated past) which gave them
all that was stil l distinctively Fi j ian in their threatened
way of life .
Thi s chapter wil l il luminate the ambiguous
mix of constraint and oppo rtunity fo r chiefly lead ership in
the colonial context as ex erc i sed prior to Wo rld War II by
some powerful personalities from different status l evels in
the neotrad itional order .
Thurston ' s enthusiastic tax gatherer ,
Ratu Joni
Mad raiwiwi , was pe rhaps the most able of them , and in hi s
happier days was generally esteemed as one o f the finest of
' the old school ' o f chiefs .
Hi s father was the feared
sea-maraud er Ratu Mara Kapaiwai , Cakobau ' s
cousin and
greatest d omestic rival .
Wi th the blessing of We sl eyan
missionarie s , the rec ently converted Vunivalu sent Ratu
Mara to the gallows on Bau , 6 Augus t 1 859 . l Legend has it
that befo re his execut i on Rat u Mara pl ead ed for the safety
o f his 1 0- day-old son Joni , promising Cakobau that one day
the chil d ' s d esc endants would ' bear Fi j i up ' .
And that
night Cakobau d reamed that he himse lf wa s fal ling wi th the
noose around his neck when from the sea fl ew a hug e
flying- fish
the fi sh named in Mara ' s battle cry - and
swe pt up between his l egs to take his we ight and prevent
the noose from tightening .
Then the fi sh flew on and
looked back and there was the head of Mara Kapaiwai ;
49
50
whereupon Cakobau reso lved to take good care of the infant .
It is c ertain that Ratu Joni spent much of his youth
in Cakobau ' s househo ld ; in later years he liked to claim
to speak on Bauan affairs wi th spe cial autho rity .
After
the death of Cakobau ' s son , Ratu Epeli Nailatikau , in 1 901 ,
he was the senior of his generation and vigorously oppo sed
the claim of Ratu Epeli ' s son , Ratu Kadavulevu , to inherit
Cakobau ' s d efunct titl e of Vunivalu of Bau . ' I am wholly
of the clan Vunivalu ' , Ratu Joni claimed in 1 91 3 , ' the
highest chief by birth in thi s town . ' 2 Ac cording to the
accompanying geneal ogy ( his own version ) , his c laims we re
strongest on the maternal sid e .
Hi s mother was Ad i
Lo lokubou , the daughter and first born child of Tanoa
Visawaqa , the fo rmer Vunivalu o f Bau and fathe r of Cakobau ,
by his highest- ranking wife Ad i Talatoka - herself the
si ster of the Tui Cakau of Cakaud rove but installed on Bau ,
s o Ratu Joni c laimed , a s Ranad i Levuka , one o f the titles
o f the Vunivalu' s senior wife or consort . He also claimed
that b efo re Cakobau had died the old chief had appo inted
him to follow Rat u Epeli Nail atikau - but not in the title
o f Vunivalu :
None of you wi ll drink the cup o f instal lation as
Vunivalu when I die as I gave Fi j i to the Great
Queen Vi ctoria and her heirs fo rever , together
wi th the right to be consecrated and installed as
Vunivalu - that is why I o ffered yaqona to the
Governor , that he might d rink the ins tallation
cup , fo r he is the representative of the Queen in
Fi j i fo r al l time . 3
The o ld chief would only promise that ' if the Vunivalu' s
children or relations we re well behaved and loyal they
emoluments
and
would ge t g overnment appo intment s
otherwise no thing ' . ·4
Ratu Joni , for one , threw in hi s lot wi th colonial
government .
After some years
schooling at the central
Me thodist training college at Navuloa , he took a j ob in the
Aud it Office where he first earned his reputation for
compe tence , reliabil ity and hard work . Thurston chose Ratu
Joni to be his d eputy in Ra in 1 889 . His regul ar Monday
repo rts to the Gov ernor reveal ed his thorough grasp o f the
aims
and
proc edures
of government .
Autho rity came
natural ly to him . At the same time he had a shrewd eye to
his own advancement , an awarene ss of the considerable
oppo rtun ities g overnment o ffic e gave him to conso lidate his
Rewa lady
Bauan lady
Samanunu
=
=
=
������-
TANOA
=
BANUVE
Talatoka
Lakeba lady
SERU CAKOBAU Lolokubou
EPEL! NAILAT IKAU
=
Nanise
KADAVULEVU
�������-
=
Lakeba lady
BUI SAVULU VUIBURETA
MARA KAPAIWAI
JONI MADRAIWIWI
=
Lit iana Maopa
J . L . V . SUKUNA
GENEALOGY OF Ratu Joni Madraiwiwi ( Source CSO 14 / 17 4 5 )
IJ1
......
52
hereditary stand ing and the po sition of his desc endants as we ll as a clear perception of what the Gov erno r did no t
need to know .
De te rmined to give his child ren the best
po ssible education , he used ' prisoners '
to maintain
extensive fo od gardens and raise cattl e to sel l to the
sug ar mil l at Penang . For his elde8t son Ratu Sukuna he
retained as a member o f hi s household at Nanukuloa an
Anglican priest and sc ienc e g raduate from Me lbourne , the
Rev . Charles And rew . Ratu Sukuna was pro fic ient in English
and mathematics even befo re he went on to secondary
schooling in New Zealand to become the first Fi j ian to
matricul ate to university . A daughte r , Ad i Vasemaca , was
sent to the Seventh Day Adventist school at Co oranbong , New
South Wal es , and ano ther son , Ratu Tiale W. T . Vuiyasawa ,
went to Wesl ey Col lege in Me lbourne in 1 91 1 . 5
Ratu Joni ' s reputation as Roko Tui o f Ra was such that
in 1 904 he was given Bua to rul e conj ointly , hold ing it fo r
four years .
He was
then
in a better
po sition
geographically to exploit hi s maternal connec tions in
Cakaud rove and somehow s ecured from the Somosomo chiefs in
1 907 a g rant of over 2000 acres at Nalovo in Cakaudrove on
the Vanua Levu sid e . 6 By 1 91 2 he had spent £ 2000 improving
the land and converted it to a Crown Grant that ye ar . The
ad roit o ffic ial ' s security wa s threatened however on
another fl ank .
Ratu Kad avul evu , who suc ceed ed his father
Ratu Epe li Nail atikau as Roko Tui o f Tailevu in 1 901 , wa s
pressing his c laims to be regarded as Vunivalu o f Bau .
Kadavul evu had been educated in Sydney and was greatly
po pul ar with Suva ' s European community as a fine cricketer
and merry ho st . As Roko he aroused rather less enthusiasm ,
a t l east wi th the Native Commissioner Wil liam Sutherland
who once remarked that ' i t woul d pay the Province to allow
him hi s ful l sal ary to stay away and play cricket all the
time ' . 7 On 1 March 1 907 , befo re any o f the prel iminary
consul tations had taken pl ace , and wi thout summoning from
Kaba , Lakeba and Koro the peopl e who were trad itionally
involved in the instal lation ceremony of the Vunivalu o f
Bau , Ratu Kadavul evu was o ffered yaqona by his hered itary
( matanivanua) , Ratu Ai sea Komaitai , wi th the
spokesman
intention of ' drinking him in ' to Cakobau ' s chie fly titl e .
Im Thurn saw the ceremony a s ' pure farce , probably due to
the d rinking
of liquo r o ther
than yaqona ' ,
and
Wil liam Sutherland
wro te to tel l Kadavulevu that the
so- called ins tallation was ' a childish thing ' and could
never be
recognized by the government .
Kadavul evu
protested that it wa s an old Bauan cus tom , and no thing to
53
do wi th the government . 8 Ratu Joni disag reed . No rmally he
had preferred to keep his family a ffai rs apart from
government , but clearly in this case his defence re sted as
much on Cakobau ' s b eque st of his titl e to the Sov ereign as
it did on the breach of custom . Furthermore he argued that
if the titl e of Vunivalu wa s to be resto red , then hi s own
cl aims were bet ter than those of Kadavulevu whose aping of
we stern ways and ignorance of custom Ratu Joni despised .
The ill- feel ing be twe en these two chiefs wa s no t
widely known until Ratu Kadavul evu wa s fo rc ed to retire on
half salary in 1 91 2 bec ause of some £300 he had taken from
the Tailevu provinc ial funds . Ratu Joni , who had been Roko
Tui o f Ba since 1 91 0 , wa s transferred to take his cousin ' s
place .
Bau wa s no t big enough fo r bo th of them and the
island was so on spl it into two fac tions . Fo r reasons that
are no t clear from the record s , but probably out of
j eal ousy of his higher born bro the r , Ratu Etuate Wainiu and
his fo llowers weighed in behind the new Roko . 9 The Rokos
of the other provinc es feared the effects of a public
humil iation o f Ratu Kadavul evu and suc cessful ly appealed
against his prosecution . The Bul is o f Tailevu b egged for
his reinstatement , as d id a delegation of his European
friend s . Ratu Joni ' s c laims , then , we re far from being
universal ly admitted . Many Bauans would have held against
him the taint of his fathe r ' s rebellion and have regarded
him as a usurper.
Ratu Joni ' s fi rs t moves on Bau we re charac teristically
practical .
The island was chronical ly sho rt of fo od . The
new Roko impo rted yams from hi s gardens in Ba and led the
planting himsel f.
He expec ted the Bauans to become
sel f- supporting for the first time , whil e Wainiu tried to
make sure that the first fruits c ame to the Roko , not to
his predecesso r :
It is right that all customary presentations
should be mad e to Ratu Joni Mad raiwiwi , the Roko
Tui Tail evu , sinc e he has taken up his chiefly
place in Bau , that is to say , i sevu of yams or
dalo or the fruits of the land : he is the eldest
in our chiefly rank
when peopl e bring
things today they a re no t o rdered to do so , but
come voluntarily and give generously
he
loves al l the peopl e and feed s them
his
kindness would break a man ' s heart . 1 0
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Wainiu , the suppo rter of l os t cause s , was pe rhaps
•
•
not
the
54
be st advocate Ratu Joni might have employed to answer the
accusations of his enemies that he was oppressing the
peopl e and overbearing to his fel low chiefs .
Governor Si r Ernest Bickham Swe e t Esco t t visited Bau
in Oc tober 1 91 3 expressly to suppo rt Ratu Joni ' s authority .
The d ist ricts o f Dravo and
Tokatoka brought
their
contributions fo r the welcoming ceremonies direc tly to
Kadavulevu - probably , as Sutherland suggested , rel ishing
the oppo rtunity ' to fly one off against the other ' . 1 1 When
the Roko ' s we lcoming ceremonie s fo r Escott were under way ,
Kadavulevu strolled nonchalantly across the rara , the open
space where
the various
c ontingents were sitting
respe c t fully in their hundreds not daring to lift their
heads above tho se o f the Roko and the Supreme Chief.
In
his remarks Escot t referred onc e again to Kad avul evu ' s
c laims to be Vunivalu: ' You o ld chie fs know ful l well that
there can b e no successo r to Cakobau
no pretensions
in that direction will be recognized .
The Roko is my
deputy in thi s Province
• 1 2 The Co uncil of Chiefs
d i scussed the feud at their meeting in May 1 91 4 and
prevail ed on the two men to bury their differences . Bo th
signed a so l emn convenant , prepared by Ratu Rabic i , the Tui
Cakau ( highes t chief of Cakaud rove ) , that hencefo rward they
would be of one mind and live in friendship and love . 1 3 And
both ke pt their promise s until Ratu Kadavulevu d ied on 1 2
December 1 91 4 .
•
•
•
•
•
•
Ratu Joni ' s preoccupation wi th trad i tional po litics
was by no means over . He was pe rsuad ed to l end his name to
the campaign for the resto ration of Bauan privileges and
was implicated in an elaborate pl ot to maintain Bauan land
rights on Ovalau. 1 4 Thereafter G . V . Maxwell , who found in
favour of Cakobau ' s g rand son , Ratu Pope Seniloli , as
Vunivalu of Bau , d id much to try and disc redit Ratu Joni
and que stioned his loyal ty d uring World War I , even though
two of his sons privately j oined all ied armies and were the
European military
experience
to
Fi j ians
first
combat . 1 5 Gov erno r Si r Cecil Rodwell was unwil ling to fo rce
a bi tter end to a distinguished career and apart from
in private ,
i ssuing Ratu Joni wi th severe warnings
proc rastinated until at the end of 1 920 he was rel ieved of
the probl em by the old chief' s d eath . The career o f Ratu
Joni Mad raiwiwi was soured towards its c lose by the absence
o f a man like Thurston who would have understood the
d i fficul ties a Roko fac ed in reconc iling government
obj ectives wi th the realities of Fi j ian po litic s .
55
Im Thurn hoped that the high chiefly s tyl e of Ratu
Joni and his peers would die with them . A new class of
purely c ivil servant Rokos wa s in the making , men who would
have less stake in high chie fly po liti c s . Deve Toganivalu ,
o f a sec ond- ranking Bauan mataqali , wa s one such self-made
man .
He had begun his c areer at Levuka in 1 880 as a boy
clerk . Aft er several minor provinc ial postings he served
diligently in the Native De partment un til in 1 908 he asked
for and rec eived the po s t of Roko Tui of Bua .
At his
instal lation ceremony , however , he made it perfec tly clear
that he saw himsel f e l evated both as Roko and chief, and he
was always accorded the reafter ful l chie fly honours . 1 6 The
personal honorific Ratu b egan to appear be fo re hi s name and
passed on to his---"d:is tinguished son and grand sons in the
c ivil service . Und er Toganivalu ' s rul e and that o f his son
George who suc ceed ed him in 1 928 , Bua had the reputation
fo r being the best- run province in Fi j i , but al so one of
the most traditional .
A more striking exampl e of an experimental ' career
appo intment ' to head a provinc e was that of a tough po lice
offic er , Ratu Ifereimi Qasevaka tini , desc ribed by his
c ommander as ' the mos t trustworthy native offic ial ' wi th
whom he had ever had to deal . 1 7 He had served twenty years
in the Armed Native Constabulary , wo rked in New Guinea wi th
Si r Wil liam MacGregor and been overseas on two other
occasions .
By 1 908 Ratu Ife reimi was restl ess in the
service and disc ontented wi th his annual sal ary o f £60 . He
let it be known to the Gov erno r that he wanted a Roko shi p.
On the very day i n November 1 908 he heard of the death of
the Ro ko Tui of his home provinc e of Kadavu , he penned an
appl ication to be considered for the po sition ahead of the
ex-Roko , Ratu Ase sala Robarobalavu , who had long been
seeking reinstatement . I S The l atter was chief of Tavuki ,
one of seven distric ts ( vanua ) of Kadavu but wi th some
claim fo r a primacy of honour - Tavuki had always provided
Kadavu wi th i ts Roko Tui and Ratu Ifereimi , as chief of
lower- ranking Yale , was small beer indeed .
The Tavuki chiefs l ost no time in rallying to Ratu
As esala ' s c ause .
They regarded the Roko shi p as their
private po s se ssion , the means by which they had been able
to dominate the provinc e sinc e Cession :
Tavuki , Your Excellency , is the foundation of
l aw ;
here was e stablished the entire wo rk of
British Government in the province of Kadavu and
it was the great chie fs o f Tavuki who began ,
56
established , promo ted and guaranteed this wo rk . 1 9
At the funeral of the deceased Roko , Bul i Naceva urged the
appo intment o f Ratu Ase sala on behal f o f his fe llow chiefs .
The eight Bul is o f Kad avu pe ti tioned the Governo r in
writing on the same day . 2 0 As four o f them were Tavuki
chie fs , Ratu Ifereimi had antic ipated their appeal in his
l etter of appl ication :
I truly bel ieve that you know and the government
knows my long , fai thful and diligent service . It
is true perhaps that some o f the Kadavu peopl e
will want Ratu Ase sala Robarobalavu to be Roko
again but that , I believe , i s only true of the
chiefly yavusa itself and does not represent the
real desi res of the bulk o f the peopl e [ na lewe
ni vanua] . For the [ Tavuki ] chiefs fear that an
outsider will be appo inted who will abolish or
suppress their long- establi shed exactions on the
peopl e , and it is as c lear as the noonday sun to
me that they have no regard at all fo r the real
wel fare of the peopl e , their country and the
needs of the modern day . 2 1
The letter reveal s a cal culated appeal to European
sensibilitie s ;
it won him the appo intment . A pro test
d elegation that came to Suva in December 1 908 was firmly
turned away . The jubilant peopl e of Yale se t to and buil t
their long lost chie f- turned-Roko a spl endid house at
Gasel e where he and hi s highborn wi fe , Adi Se inimili
Rokol ewasau , entertained on a lavish sc al e .
In a thinly
d isgui sed sl ight to Tavuki , the usurper arranged for the
meeting of the Provinc ial Council to be held at Yal e in
1 91 0 . 22 In a more direct attack he then arranged wi th Suva
to have the large chie fly d istric t of Tavuki cut in hal f.
The newly- created tikina o f Ravitaki had been the main
source of labour and food for the Tavuki chie fs ' lala , and
Ratu Ifereimi fo rbade them to make any d emand s on the
distric t . The chie fs began to feel as bitter as the
' dissid ents o f Bau ' did when their fl ow o f goods and
' Ra tu Ifereimi
servic es had been similarly interrupt ed :
ignores us and brings us into di srepute
It seems as
though he is trying to wi pe out the true chie fly seat of
Kadavu , to destroy the foundation of law in Kadavu and the
true chiefly l ine still liv ing in Tavuki today ' . 2 3
•
•
•
57
The Roko was an impe tuous man who
brooked
no
oppo sition .
On one occasion he wro te to Buli Tavuki wi th
measured insolenc e : ' I am the Roko Tui .
I am the only
chief in Kadavu
I d o no t know any man in Kadavu who
counts fo r more than the Roko Tui . I am the only man who
decid es things fo r you . ' 24 The outraged Tavuki chie fs drew
up a list of charges to present to Native Commiss ioner
William Sutherland at the Kadavu Prov inc ial Counc il of 1 91 1
most of them so trivial and
personal
that
the
complainants began to be embarrassed by having to read them
aloud , espe cial ly when it came to charges that he had
maltreated the peopl e .
One chief said bluntly that the
charges we re not really meant to be taken in detail , but as
general complaint against the Roko : ' The Roko treat s hi s
own peopl e very g enerously and is greatly l iked by them ' ,
he admitted . 2 5
Shortly after this confrontation Ratu Ifereimi fell
il l wi th pulmonary tub erculosis and was fo rc ed to re sign
offic e in Nov ember 1 91 2 . Be fore he died in the ho spi tal at
Vunisea on 25 March 1 91 3 , he reque sted that his two young
sons at the Queen Vic to ria School , Ratu Wi lliam MacGregor
and Ratu Henry Berkeley , should be found
a chiefly
work ' . 26 One became a po lice officer , the o ther a doctor .
There was c ertainly no chance of their continuing the ir
fathe r ' s chal lenge to heredi tary autho rity on Kad avu :
the
Tavuki chie fs regained the Roko shi p and retained it to
1 960 .
Thi s interlude was regarded in Tavuki as an
aberration .
Ratu Ifereimi ' s fate is a remind er that
presumption ( viavial evu) in the Fi j ian cosmos has al l the
conno tation of hub ri s in the Greek ; overweening pride
brings a fel l stroke from heaven . As one chie fly info nnant
insisted , the minds of the protagonists in these obscure
d ramas we re still steeped in a wo rld that goes ' deep down
to Bulu ' , the world of the vengeful ancestral spirits who
do battle fo r their sto ck and are gratified to come fo rth
from their rightful seats in the assemblies of the land .
The honour of their anc estors was a driv ing fo rce in
the lives o f many chiefs who bucked against the pe tty
l egal ities of colonial administration and strove to win
g reatness fo r their peopl e . Ratu As eri Latianara ' s c areer
in Se rua is a vivid example of the complexity and chal lenge
of the purely local politics that preoccupied these men .
From hi s father and uncle Ratu Aseri inherited
the
leadership of the Ko rolevu , a powerful and numerous peopl e
who lived in three main d ivisions al ong the southern
coastline o f Vi ti Levu . Bfore Cession it was one of the
58
least stable areas in the group
in David Wilkinson ' s
Native Lands
Commission
find ing s
the
peopl e we re
' perpl exingly mixed up both in their tribal and Mataqali
distinc tions ' ; their lands had been a battl eground for the
armies of the Korolevu and their
arch- enemies
from
Namosi . 2 7 At the first NLC hearing at the end of the
century the Koro l evu we re recognized as paramount only in
their own immediat.e dist ric t , the tikina of Se rua . The
administrative overlordshi p which their chiefs had enj oyed
sinc e 1 877 as Roko rul ing the many fragmented groups in the
who le province of Se rua could only have been endorsed in
customary t erms by d esc rib ing Serua in the offic ial record s
as a matanitu , one of the larg e- scal e fed erations existing
befo re Ce ssi on .
I t is qui te certain that Serua had never
been organized in that way .
Yet three decad es l ater when the NLC reopened its
hearings in Serua , the province emerged in remarkably tidy
shape as a single matanitu. Ratu Ase ri Latianara is l isted
as Vunivalu o f an eno rmous eleven-village ' vanua of Se rua '
( 90 per cent of the po pul ation of the provinc e) federated
with one much smaller one and ano ther in Colo West . Chief
after chief went befo re the NLC head ed by Rat u Joni
Mad raiwiwi ' s son Ratu Sukuna ( with Ratu Aseri himself as
Assesso r) to acknowledge that they now ' went to ' Serua
acknowledging Ratu Ase ri and his suc cesso rs as overlord
wi th the title Vunivalu . Whil e Se rua mus t provide the most
extraordinary exampl e of the lengths taken by the NLC to
completely reorganize ' tradi tional ' F i j ian po litie s , no
European in higher circles of the government seems to have
apprec iated at the time ( no r did Ratu Sukuna choose to
enlighten anyone ) that the outcome was the personal victory
Rat u Aseri had been trying
to
achieve
since his
installation as Vunivalu of the Koro l evu in 1 91 2 . 2 8
Five years befo re this c eremony Ratu Aseri had been
allowed to take ove r his ail ing father ' s g overnment duties
as Roko Tui ; he was c onfirmed in the po st in 1 909 .
A
powerful ly buil t , intimidating man of l ittl e educ ation ,
g iven to ungovernable rage s fo llowed by contrite and
generous compensation , the young Roko soon fel l foul of a
l ocal European storekeepe r , Geo rge Barrow .
This neurotic
ex- j ournali st compensated for the poverty o f his operations
by c omposing verbose memorial s to the Governo r , and , i f
that fail ed , t o the Sec retary o f State in London, regard ing
the evils o f ' the communal system ' as d emonstrated more
particul arly in the cruel excesse s o f chie fly power in
Se rua . The Ko rol evu chiefs d espised him , and he knew i t .
59
A few months after Ratu Ase ri took o ffic e , Barrow sent
Suva a lurid account of a terrible beating the Roko was
said to have given his pretty young wi fe aboard his yacht
as it was c oming into Suv a harbour . She jumped overboard
to esc ape , was recaptured and trussed up wi th rope to
prevent her j umping again . In Barrow ' s version Ratu Aseri
had trolled her behind his yacht as shark bait until she
was hal f d rowned .
Though the woman herself d eclined to
cooperate at the inevitable inqui ry ( she said she had
deserved the beating and sti l l loved her lord ) , Ratu Aseri
was found guil ty o f assaul t and the Governo r angrily
dismissed him from offic e . 2 9 The chai rman of the We sl eyan
mission wro te to a colleague that the chief wa s ' writhing
in agony over the humil iation ' and he was ' justly
suffe ring ' . 3 0
More l ikely the humil iation was fo r his provinc e , fo r
Ratu Ase ri was replaced by a Bauan chief - Serua ' s first
' fo reign ' Roko . A second Bauan suc ceeded in 1 91 0 and rul ed
until he was virtually d riven out in 1 91 3 and repl aced by a
local man . Ratu Aseri was finally reappo inted in 1 91 6 ,
only to face the secession of some of his own peopl e from
Serua to Colo West .
The detail s o f the sto ry , insignific ant pe rhaps in
themselve s ,
rev eal some o f the charac ter of chiefly
po litics at vil lag e l evel . Fo r when Komave distric t had
pe titioned from the turn o f the century to be attached to
Co lo We st , the inconvenience o f travelling to the Roko ' s
quarters on Serua Island or the European magistrate ' s at
Navua was the al leged but no t the real issue . Al though the
Komave peopl e , the Noi Vuso , had occupied the ir lands fo r
over fifty years at the time of the 1 899 Native Lands
Commission , the previous o ccupiers ( the Lutuya ) who were
l oyal Serua dependants ( qali) now l iv ing j us t inside Komave
at Navutul evu , we re recognized by the Commission as the
' true owners ' ( itauke i dina) with j oint tenancy o f the Noi
Vuso land s and the right o f reversion . Thereafter the Noi
Vuso chafed at the lala demand s of the Serua chiefs .
Wi th
the help o f Barrow , they pe titioned for either a European
Commissioner
in Se rua o r
fo r
transfer
to
Co lo
We st . 3 1 Finally in Dec ember 1 91 6 Governor Si r Erne st
Bickham Sweet Es cott ,
impressed
perhaps wi th the
perseverance of the petitioners , ignored the advice of his
subordinates and ordered the transfer of the who le Komave
tikina to Co lo Wes t .
60
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WEST
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Korol�vu
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KOMAVE
i
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j
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Navutule1,1u
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...._,, .
18' 15
SE RUA
Serua lsiand
1 77' 45
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....... . .
�· �·
(;:> Culanuku
RC
1 78'00
Map
2
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<t;�� \.
OEUSA
-
SATIWAI
'·
Mission
1 78° 1 5
Serua
This d ecision was hail ed by the No i Vuso as a triumph
over Ratu Aseri and a body blow t o the prestige of the
Serua chie fs :
' for al though it re fers to government
administration only,
natives � not apprec iate that
distinction and take it as a complete severance of all
relationshi ps
tribal or otherwise ' . 3 2 Ratu Aseri tried
hard to have the decision reve rsed :
' The attachment of
Komave to this province is no t jus t a rec ent thing but very
ancient
and to me it seems a d rastic thing that
suddenly they should be cut o ff from our provinc e
when
i t wa s approved that we should be one provinc e
in ac cordanc e with our anc ient boundarie s . ' 3 3
•
•
•
•
•
•
The Komave chie fs rubbed sal t in the wounds by
frustrating Ratu As eri ' s attempts to make traditional calls
on the members of Ko rolevu resid ing in Komav e . I n 1 92 1 , to
give an example of the pe tty i rritations which enraged Ratu
Aseri , the Buli Komave fo rbad e the Navutul evu peopl e to
supply their chief wi th an � ni vale , a customary
pre sentation of fo od needed to pay o ff some housebuilders .
' Ratu Aseri is very indignant ' , commented the Provincial
Commissioner of Co l o West , ' and accuses Bul i Komave o f
secretly wo rking against him and attempting to und ermine
hi s powers as chief among hi s own peopl e . ' 34
At the sec ond inqui ry o f the NLC in 1 932 the No i Vuso
peopl e appeal ed against the right of the Vunivalu o f Se rua
to call himsel f their supreme chie f : ' Rog iano Duwailea our
61
chief ' , said their spoke sman , ' is known i s Tanivuso . He is
to no
owe s allegiance
politically independent and
The
one .
Tanivuso himself wrote that they had had
' no thing to do with Serua ' ever since they had been
separated from the province administ ratively in 1 91 6 . In a
highly didactic
j udgment
Ratu
Sukuna denied
the
po ssibility , except in the interio r of Viti Levu , o f having
a vanua that wa s no t direc tly under or at least protected
by a Supreme Overlord ; he rul ed that the Vunivalu o f Serua
was wi thout d oub t ' that Superior Ov erlord or Paramount
Chi ef' for all Komav e . 3 5 ( Later with the reorganization of
1 944 - the issue sti l l much al ive - Nabuke levu , Naboutini
and Navutul evu villages we re returned to their rightful
province but the rest of Komav e remained outsid e in the new
provinc e of Nadroga and Navosa . Komave was reluc tant ever
afterward s to acknowledge that it owed any allegianc e to
Serua . ) I t seems then that the d rawing of administrative
boundarie s was re- stated by the peopl e , so to speak , as the
seal of independence and dignity in traditional politics as
we ll .
In other word s , by the manipul ation of its
d ecision-making processe s the Fi j ian Admini stration had
become a new battl eg round for the reso lution of traditional
rival ries and the pursui t of l oc al political asc endancy .
Oral trad itions give a g limpse of how hard Ratu As eri
wo rked
to win the l oyalty o f the province .
He is
remembered above al l as ' a strong chief , strong in the
government , in the vanua and in his word s ' . 3 6 On his
raiko ro , vil lage inspections , he would enter a house at
rand om , cal l the family t ogether and regale them wi th
stories until they rocked with laughter. Starting at the
topmost vil lage on the Navua River he would progress slowly
downstream staying overnight several times en route and at
each stop swelling his entourage with chiefs and elders
until he arrived back at Serua Is land with a great crowd in
festival mood . He fed the throng with fi sh and ' true food '
for up to a week and then sent them home wi th more fish fo r
their families .
Sometimes , it is said , he took peopl e to
Suv a on his handsome yacht ( which some years consumed a
quarter of the provinc ial revenue s ) and bought them beer at
the Club Hotel . He gave each o f them a hibiscus to produce
as their liquo r permi t , a ssuring them that the mention of
his name would suffic e for the law .
And if any became
d runk he sent them home in taxi s : ' Ratu Aseri was our
greatest chief o f al l . ' 3 7
62
Such s tories , which are legion , make i t c lear that
Ratu Aseri used his government po sition to create a new
feeling of unity in Serua . The chiefs who declared for him
at the NLC hearings in 1 932 had been impressed by his years
of service and hospitali ty and , as one info rmant explained ,
Ratu As eri had convinced them that there was no use every
l ittl e vanua distric t
standing
on its
historic
independ enc e .
They overlooked the l egal fac t that they
were al so signing away the share of the rents reserved fo r
the head of the vanua .
Some l ived to regret their
decisions . ( Four d ecades of rising land value s later , one
o f the surviving chie fs swo re that he mus t have been light
in the head after Ratu Aseri ' s alcoholic ho spi tality the
night befo re the hearing . )
Much o f Ratu Ase ri ' s unifying work began to fall apart
after his d eath in 1 940 . Nevertheless if successors can be
installed to lead Serua again , they c an take heart from
Ratu As eri ' s d emonstration that no thing in Fi j i ' s history
c an qui te match the combination of chiefly power and
natural lead ership to build community . Hi s achievements
were no t such as would impress development-minded colonial
official s .
Ratu Aseri belonged to a world where what
mat tered most was the prestige of his pe opl e , ceremonial
cel ebrations of their corporate prid e , and the functioning
of hi s chiefly t itles to secure their peace and prospe rity .
From the same world came his friend on the Native
Land s
Commission ,
Ratu Jo se fa Lal abalavu Vanaalialia
Sukuna , who in the 1 920s and 1 930s wa s emerging as the one
chief who had
a foot
in bo th the colonial and
neo trad itional orders . 3 8 His father Ratu Joni Madraiwiwi ' s
e ffo rt to equi p him to meet the Europeans on their own
terms had paid handsome dividend s , not in happiness
perhaps , but at least in experience and ski l l . From school
in New Zealand Ratu Sukuna had returned to clerical work in
the Col onial Secretariat and school teaching at the Lau
Provinc ial School , then resumed his education at Wadham
Col l ege , Oxford , in 1 91 3 . Wi th the outbreak o f war he was
unable to enlist wi th a Bri ti sh regiment , fo r no co loured
colonials , and certainly not the grand sons of c annibal s ,
we re eligible to fight along sid e Englishmen .
The French
were glad to receive him into the French Fo reign Legion ,
where he served nine months in the trenches .
He was
d ecorated with the Croix d e Guerre and Medaille Militaire
fo r ' superb zeal and courage ' and wounded in September
1 91 5 .
63
Embarrassed by his suc ce ss , the colonial government
had him recal led to Fi j i where he received a hero ' s
welcome . As a sop to his convic tion , shared universally by
the chie fs and peopl e , that Fi j ians wo uld bear arms wi th
prid e and shoul d be al lowed to fight , Ratu Sukuna wa s
allowed to dril l a Fi j ian pl atoon and then accompany a
labour contingent of 1 00 men final ly allowed to serve
( uneventful ly ) in France in 1 91 7 .
After the war , Ratu Sukuna returned to Wadham and read
for the Bar at the Middle Temple , then returned in 1 92 1 to
his first maj or po st as Nativ e Lands Commissioner in
January 1 922 .
Thi s po sition enabled him to build up an
encyclopedic knowl edge of Fi j ian trad itions and customs .
His conservative views o f Fi j ian society we re al ready
e stablished and did not change significantly fo r the rest
of his life .
Ratu Sukuna saw the individual as feeling
instinc tively that ' not only his services but al so his life
belonged to the family and ul timately to the tribe of which
he was a part , and so he devoted himself to the will of
custom and to the command s of the elders wi thout so much as
a thought fo r ab stract rights ' . In re turn a Fij ian had a
definite share in the l i fe and well- being of the tribe .
The re was nothing
in his
experience
to
develop
' se l f- regarding quali ties '
or a sense of personal
responsibility .
Loyalty , obedience and
respect
for
autho rity we re the keystone of the Fi j ian ethic al sense ideas which the Communal Services Regulation had wi sely
ke pt funct ional .
No Fij ian would work fo r work ' s sake or
to develop himself. ' The native mind ' had not ye t lost its
d ependenc e and inertia , and littl e had been done to broaden
it . Fi j ians then would do best to remain wi thin their
fundamental groups , prov ided they we re given strong and
enl ightened leadership by their chiefs . 3 9 Of Ratu Sukuna ' s
pe rsonal lead ership at national level much more will be
seen . His fai th in Fi j ian community l ife rested on a keen
sense of the al ternatives that had been weighed and
rej ected . Fo r a long time to come , so he believed in the
1 920s , and sti l l bel i ev e d in the 1 950s , the quality o f most
Fi j ians ' lives would depend on good village and district
organization .
Chapter 5
The continuities of vil lage life and politics
Unti l Wo rld War II more than eight out o f ten Fi j ians
we re in villages - no t haphazard hamlets strewn through the
countryside but hierarchic ally struc tured
groups
of
villages o rganized wi thin and wi thout by inte rlocking
administrative , po litical and customary arrangements .
The
lines of o ffic ial autho rity we re clear and hinged on the
o ffic e of Bul i , the government- appo inted distric t chief
usually in charge of 200-600 peopl e in about three or four
vi llages. After twenty ye ars ' experience in charge of the
Colo prov inc es , Wal t er Carew had argued in 1 896 that the
Rokos ' could be di spensed wi th any day wi thout any evil
resul ts '
and in the decad es fo llowing they o ften were but ' if there is one thing more certain than ano ther in
Native Po litic s it is that we must no t wil ful ly run counter
to the Bulis but mus t suppo rt them and their dignity all we
can . ' 1
I t i s tempting to sugge st that in fac t the only reason
the Bul is d id survive so long in the twentieth c entury ( to
the 1 960s ) was b ec ause no one could devise a cheaper sys tem
of local government . Bul is we re given little suppo rt and
recognition . Conversely they we re comparatively free to
rul e their distric ts much as they l iked , and rural life had
long developed its own momentum . Just as the trad i tional
of vanua ( federation ) with its preoccupations ,
model
loyalties and emotions infused the government d istric t or
tikina , so the chiefly model of the head of a vanua usually styl ed Tui in modern times ( Tui Nadi , Tui Bua ,
governed the rol e expectations of the Bul i . In
etc . )
prac tic e it was no t feasib le fo r a commoner to ho ld the
If he did so , on the appo intment of a European
po st .
, then he had to give his orders l egitimacy by
ial
o ffic
seeking the approval of the acknowl edged lead ers of the
vanua . The appo intment o f a man who was both an outsid er
and a commoner was an outrage that seems to have occurred
only onc e - Colo West in 1 909 - and the man died within a
month of taking offic e . The ancestors had a way o f looking
after these thing s . 2
By regulation , i f not al so by custom , the Bul i enj oyed
the chie fly privileges of l ala , although this seldom
amoun ted to more than a day ' s d esul to ry work in his garden
each month .
He al so received 5 per c ent share in lease
monies , an amount that was significant ( more than £ 50 ) in
64
65
about six sugar- cane tikina (Nailaga , Bulu , and Sekituru in
Ba ; Labasa , Nai tasiri , and Nausori ) . El sewhere it was a
few shillings to a few pounds , no real compensation fo r an
annual sal ary that wa s £6 to £ 1 2 at the beginning of the
century and £1 8 to £24 after 1 927 . The lowest cl erk in the
civil service was twic e as we l l paid as the man generally
acknowledged
to
be
the
lynchpin
of
the
Fi j ian
Administration .
Apparently then the Bul i was no t in the first instance
a c ivil servant so much as a sub sidized chief. He was
al ready at the apex of a sel f- sufficient little wo rld that
provided its own reward s : styl e , the power of ke eping the
peac e , the dignity of presiding over the eternal flow of
goods and servic e s .
If he chose no t to conform to the
chie fly expec tations of his role , then he was depriving
himself of the only rewards o ffe red him . And ye t , the same
man was responsible fo r the implementation of all the
orders
of the Roko , the magistrates , the provinc ial
council , and the entire body o f Nativ e Regulations .
Of all the Bul i ' s government duties the most one rous
and mo st impo rtant was the col lec tion of his distric t ' s tax
assessment and provinc ial rate ( a to tal of some £ 3 5 , 000
from
all the prov inces) .
Ratu Sukuna once wro te a
sensitive account of the Bul i ' s d il emma :
Unlike hi s Biblical pro to type who waxed fat on
taxes and no t on the love of Jews , the Buli
fattens rather o n the goodwill of hi s peopl e ,
taxes fo r him being nothing but a temptation
leading to ruin.
Hence al l that any of his
brethren has to say to him to delay payment is au
sa leqa , which is being interpre ted , I can ' t pay-;
Knowing that the anger of autho rity i s far away ,
but the displ easure of the peopl e at his door ,
the Bul i being one of them construes the saying
liberal ly and repl ies , sa vinaka which means , all
right .
And so it goe s on, a perfec tly natural
and intelligible proceed ing . 3
In the di stric t or tikina , the Bul i presid ed over a
tho roughly ambiguous institution .
Legally the Bul is and
their district councils we re responsib le to the Roko s and
the provinc ial counc il s , the European magistrates and
final ly the Governor ( through his deputy , the Secretary fo r
Native Affairs or Talai ) . The Nat ive Regulations gave the
first
sight minimal
direct
district counc il s at
66
res po nsibility .
The areas l isted read as though they we re
the wishful thinking of a sanitary inspecto r :
There shall be i n each d istric t a Council called
the Di strict Council
consisting of the Bul i
o f the distric t , the chie fs of towns , and the
chie fs of qalis and mataqalis in the distric t and
any o ther person or persons d irec ted to attend by
the Bul i
The Council may make rul es affec ting any or all
of the fol lowing matters :
•
•
•
•
•
•
·
1.
public bathing places ;
2.
keeping the villages c lean and
of couch grass therein ;
3.
the removal o f rubbish ;
4.
the pl anting of gardens ;
5.
village paths and brid ges ;
6.
house building ;
7.
any o ther mat ter conc erning the heal th and
good government of the dist ric t ; and these
rul es shal l be submi tted to the Roko of the
province fo r his approval . 4
the
pl anting
I t was of course the ' any o ther mat ter' of the last
c lause that gave the counc il significance in the lives of
the peopl e . Tikina council s d id not eagerly assemble to
discuss village trash problems but primarily to arrange
' the affairs of the land ' , na ka vakavanua . And even the
routine items of the offic ial agend a would be coloured by
local personali ties and kinship po litic s :
The resignation and appo intment o f Turaga ni
Koro s , conceal ing disc uss ion on sui tabil ity and
status ;
the pl anting of fo od crops ,
which
doub tl ess produc ed arguments about season and
quantity ; the need fo r better water suppl ies ,
involving the d eci sion to break such and such
family ties ; the renovation of vil lage drains ,
which brought up the complicated sub j ect of
providing food fo r all communal workers ;
the
67
tabu on nuts fo r the payment of the [P rovincial ]
Rate , where compromise s we re
proposed
and
appl ications fo r exemption from
consid ered ;
communal services , in which the characters of the
appl icants we re laud ed and attacked . Cl early
then the se Councils play a large part in the life
of villagers . 5
A t no stage was there an attempt t o regulate the
procedures fo llowed in the se counc il s . The id iom was that
o f local custom .
The
chiefs and
their
spoke smen
( matanivanua) sat on fine mat s at the innermost end of an
ordinary village dwell ing fac ing down to the customary
yaqona bowl and its attendants . The village eld ers sat
fac ing the chiefs from the othe r sid es of the room , ranged
according to the local tab le of prec edence . The meeting
was begun with a yaqona ceremony wi th its
impl icit
invocation of the ancestral spi rits , though hallowed by a
praye r to the God of the Sabbath . Conventions of e tique tte
and orato ry appl ied as much to the tikina councils as they
did to any o ther assembly o f the land .
Provinc ial councils by contrast we re more fo rmal
affairs , held only onc e a year and usually attended by a
European officer from the Native De partment .
They were
heavily dominated by the routine requi rements of government
work , mainly the raising of taxes and the al location of
provinc ial resources to public works . But the gathering of
so many peopl e in one pl ace , up to two hundred delegate s
and their attendants , made the provincial councils the
maj or social event of the year , a festival of the peopl e
with much exchange of property , meke s and feasts on the
side .
A typical repo rt o f the Provincial Council o f Colo
East gives some glimpse of the priorities of the peopl e on
these occ asions .
The proc eed ings we re opened with the
usual
ceremonies fo llowed by a huge magi ti [ feast ] fo r
the two thousand odd peopl e present . After four
hours of ke en d iscussion , Council adj ourned for
fur ther feasting and meke s and after the second
session of Council , the proceedings c losed with a
well- prac tised meke from the women of Muaira ,
fo llowed by the dividing of the spo il s and all
distric t s ' veisau [ exchange] . 6
68
Only in this social contex t did the
provinc ial
counc il s match the impo rtance of the monthly tikina
councils as a li turgy , so to speak , a celebration of
corpo rate id entity and common id eal s on the one hand , a
reaffi rmation of the dignity and sta tus of each constituent
g roup on the other . The distric t and provinc ial councils
provided a congenial fo rum fo r making decisions requi red by
the
colonial
government
wi thout
doing viol ence to
trad i tional decision-making processes and pre fe rred fo rms
of so cial intercourse and co llaboration . It would be a
po intless exercise to attempt , as scholars have done wi th
colonial insti tutions affe c ting land , to fil ter out tho se
act ivities of the counc il s which we re ' authentically'
Fi j ian from those which we re pseudo- customary colonial
innovations . It is more to the po int to argue that the
very success of the original Go rd on-Thurston design in
maintaining a strong rural Fi j ian corpo rate l i fe preserved
also the capacity and inc lination of the peopl e to assert
their own priorities and modi fy the instrusions of the
western economic order espoused by the European and Indian
communities .
Much o f Fi j ian village l i fe was governed by day- to- day
subsistence
tasks
and
communal
labour obligations .
Fortunately there were many ' great occasions ' such as the
marriages and deaths of high chie fs to enliven the year
wi th expec tat ion and a heightened sense of l iving .
Some
festivities involved weeks of preparation . The Wesl eyan
missionary at Lakeba repo rted in June 1 91 8 that Lau had
been ' holding high fe stival fo r a month ' to lift the
mourning for Ratu Epeli Nailatikau ( died 1 90 1 ) :
' magitis '
I t has b een continual
round
of
[ council s] ,
meke s ,
boses
[ feasts ] ,
spo rts
Surely not less than 500 visito rs
and pos sib ly nearly 1 000 , were here from every
i sl and in Lau .
No t one bul i , n . m .
[ native
minister] , catechist or chie f wo rth the name was
absent . As many as 1 7 cut ters we re in the
harbour at any one time
Dalo by the 1 0
thousands , yam s and nearly a sc ore of bul locks ,
e tc . , pigs and tur tl es in ev en larger numbers.
The goods [ for the so levu , exchan� e] consisted of
three
large
canoes ,
gatu
L snakes] , mat s ,
magimagi , [ sinnet , braided cordage of coconut
7
fib re]
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
69
The quarterly and annual circuit meetings of the
Wesl eyan church , to which four out of five Fi j ians
b elonged , were often ac companied by spectacul ar ex changes
and gifts of property wi th distric t vyi ng wi th distric t no t
to be disg rac ed by a po or showing .
A wo oden sl it drum
( lali) would announc e the beginning of a procession into
t�village green .
As the women danced
and
sang ,
glistening warriors might carry on their shoulders a fully
rigged canoe bearing in the prow a muscul ar youth blowing
into a conch shell to herald ' the approach to land ' . The
canoe would be lowered to reveal a weal th of fruits and
marine delicacies , while othe rs b rought in young bul lo cks ,
pigs , tur tl es and crab s . Long lines of women would fo llow
wi th seamless fathoms o f painted masi cloth and beautiful
mats , lay them befo re the chie fs---aldl j o in the seated
cho rus .
Men would enter wi th bunches of bananas and
coconuts to pil e in mound s befo re taking up c lub or spear
fo r their war meke .
The apprec iative semi- circle of
spec tators and rivals vastly enj oyed the mus ic , pa� eantry
and general air of munificence on these occasions .
Only
the presence of a g ratified missionary or occasionally a
European offic ial amongst the chie fs remind ed the peopl e of
the
chil l
colonial
order that
disc ounted
such
manife stations o f c orpo rate pr id e .
At best they were
tolerated as pl easant but unproduc tive echoes of the
glories of o lder Fi j ian economic and soc ial life .
Apart from the fe stival s o f chur ch and state , there
endured well into the 1 920s and 1 930s trad itional trading
netwo rks that suppl ied from the surplus of one region the
defic iencies of ano ther . At Lomaiwai in Nadroga the peopl e
made sal t in the mang rove fl ats and smoked it in cyl inders
o f fib re so that it could be transpo rted to Rewa and traded
for po ts , to Vatulele fo r cho ic e masi , Kadavu fo r mats , Lau
fo r rope- fibre or wooden bowl s , Co l o fo r yaqona , t imber and
bamboo s , uppe r Se rua fo r kauri gum ( makadre ) used for
glazing
po ts
and making
torches .
Apparently the
spe cial tie s of each region were well known and in the
predominantly social contex� o f cust omary ex changes there
was no incentiv e , even if the resources we re present , fo r
one region to chal lenge the monopo ly o f another . It was
never the obj ect o f trade to make a profit in the
commercial sense :
The impo rtant thing is not that the exchange is
trad e , but that the framework wi thin which it
take s pl ace is primarily social , not economic .
The
economic
relationship is b rought about
70
because of the so cial re lationship ; the economic
need is so lved through a so cial mechanism ; the
economic transac tion gives expression to
an
al ready exist ing social relationship part o f
whose function is to satisfy this type
of
9
need
Even if the quality o f d istric t life prior to World
War II eludes d ocumentation o ther than the repeated verbal
eul ogies of o ld peopl e pining for the good old days o f
o rdered life and simple pl enty , i t seems that the tikina
was an institution id eally sui ted to give Fi j ians e ffec tive
d irec tion of their own local affairs and satisfac tion of
their material and social need s .
It wa s stil l strong
enough in 1 93 9 fo r the Secretary fo r Nat ive Affairs to
claim that no t a single Fi j ian was d estitute or homeless , a
situation simply taken fo r granted at the time but one
which take s on retrospe ctive interest wi th the recent
recognition o f rural desti tution as a serious problem in
some parts o f contempo rary Fi j i . 1 0 In Ratu Sukuna ' s words
spoken in 1 944 after 1 1 , 000 F i j ians had passed through the
armed services :
There can be nothing spi ritually very wrong with
a sys tem that maintains the old and the sick
wi thout resort to homes fo r the ag ed and schemes
o f so cial security , that despite disc ouragement
and disc rimination comes fo rward in times o f
stress and dange r to hel p the larger community o f
which it fo rms a part . 1 1
Second ly , there was throughout the inter-war period a
remarkable absence o f serious c rime in the province s .
Be tween 1 930 and 1 93 9 in Lau , t imes of acute depression fo r
the copra industry , the annual repo rts of the Di stric t
Commissione r mention up to a dozen maj or cases a year but
nothing more se rious than adul tery , l arceny or assaul t . In
1 93 6 and 1 93 7 no t a sing le serious o ffence such as
aggravated assaul t c ame befo re the courts . 1 2 Again , such a
situation was taken fo r granted , though there was a great
d eal of minor court work , mainly fo r failure to pay rates
and taxes . Even i f the court statistics c oncealed the real
level of c rime in the community , they testify to the
e fficacy o f a social system able to dispense with the
assistanc e of the courts in maintaining peace and achieving
reconciliation .
71
Tha t is no t to say soc ial harmony prec lud ed a vigorous
po li tical l i fe , but d i stric t po litics interac ted rather
littl e with wi der co lonial affairs and could often be
withheld from effective offic ial surveil lanc e . Or when the
Fi j ian Administration did become fo rmally involved , the
real issue s we re frequently misunderstood in Suva. The
suc cess of some of the Nad rau pe opl e in the centre of Vi ti
Levu , fo r instance , in breaking away in 1 920 to fo rm a new
t ikina of their own
a process of subdivision that
oc curred elsewhere one hundred times betwe en 1 875 and 1 944
- grew out of eight fo rmal pe titions , fourteen years of
passive resistance to the chie fs of Nadrau , and memorie s of
l ocal wars that went back wel l befo re Go rdon' s ' Li ttle War '
of 1 876 in the interio r . (Nad rau had been rewarded for its
' loyalty to the Crown ' with enlarged distric t boundaries . Y 3
Local hos tilities and rival ries , ever a feature of
Fi j ian life , generated intense feelings , though as Nation
observed of Fi j i in the 1 970s , parochial ism had
a
paradoxical
community-build ing function as we ll . 1 4 The
relative rigidity of the Fi j ian Administration , the lack o f
arms , and eventual invocation of colonial law ensured a
compromise or at least a stal emate in the end - though no t
wi thout pe riods of paralysis which underlined bo th the
dependence of chiefly l eadership on administrative suppo rt
and the frustrations of alternative l eaders .
Ratu Penioni Ravoka , the hered i tary chie f styl ed Ratu
mai Ve rata , wa s one such l ead er who could no t bear the
constraints of colonial order. In ancient times ( not so
long ago to the Ratu) , Verata or Ucunivanua had headed a
powerful confederation ( matanitu) o f tribes and enj oyed
extensive land s and a large po pulation .
The chief ' s
village lay some 26 mil es north of Bau , wi th whom common
ancestors we re recognized . Early in the nineteenth century
Bau challenged Verata ' s hegemony . Naulivou , the Vunivalu
of Bau , defeated Ve rata in bat tl e . Ve rata retal iated some
years later wi th a massac re of a party o f Bauans visiting
Waimaro , whereupon Cakobau fo rced the unwilling allies of
Bau to j o in fo rces and lay siege to Ve rata .
In colonial times the power of Verata was a memory
kept alive by their resentment of the prominence of Bauans
in the Fi j ian Administration , and especially in Tail evu
province .
Shackl ed by the � britannica , the Verata
chie fs and peo pl e reso rted to the arts of pe tty annoyance
and impud enc e . I n 1 890 Ratu Epeli Nailatikau ( Roko Tui o f
Tai l evu) complained that the Verata pe ople had cut up the
72
ne t s of his fi shermen , the La sakau ; and when h e had gaoled
a Verata man on Bau island , ' instead of making use of the
gaol water closet he used to go to the one bel onging to the
Lasakau peopl e and pull parts of the thatch out fo r his own
convenience ' .
When provinc ial taxes we re due from Verata
the young men set sail for the Yasawas or Ke ro ; when they
we re at home they d rank yaqon� day and night and brawl ed at
will . 1 5
Thi s reputation fo r lawl essness c ontinued down to the
1 930s .
Ratu Penioni Ravoka wa s a wild eccentric man . In
1 91 5 , i t was later all eged by the chie fs o f Tail evu , he
d eclared himself c ompletely independent ' even as regard s
the King ' . When accused by Bul i Nakelo and twenty- four
o ther chiefs in 1 92 1 of trying to divide the provinc e of
Tailevu into two , the Ratu countered that it woul d be a
good thing :
' I want--a-8'eparate provinc e to prove my zeal
fo r the government , fo r it is a long time that we have been
relying on Bau and our hearts are no t in it . ' In July o f
the same year , Ratu Peni fired several sho ts i n dubious
salute as the Roko lay o ff the ree f at Verata waiting for
the turn of the tid e . 1 6
Apenisa Lawenito toka , the Bauan appo inted to repl ace
the rebel lious chie f as Bul i , wa s powerless in Verata ; on
one occ asion he was threatened and ordered to leave the
town when he reque sted food for workers on Bau . Verata
made no contribution to the feasts and the meke danc es o f
the Tai levu Provinc ial Council i n June 1 922 . Apenisa
confessed to the government in April 1 923 that his
instruc tions we re ignored in Ve rata :
i f Suva did not
intervene then the Ratu might as we ll be reinstated as
Bul i . Apeni sa was removed and a higher- ranking· Bauan , Ratu
Waqalevu , appo inted Bul i Verata from 1 July 1 923 .
The
peopl e re fused to build him a house and he re treated to
Bau . Then Ratu Peni b egan to intimidate the Vunivalu of
Bau ' s servants ( kai vale) at nearby Kumi . All Fi j i was
talking about the dispute . 1 7
Bau fel t that its prestige was at stake . The Roko s o f
Cakaud rove , Bau, Ra , Macuata and Lau we re prevail ed on to
appeal to the Governo r fo r his ' chiefly rul ing ' ( lewa
vakaturaga) :
' The
peopl e of Ve rata are steeped---ril
inso lence and scorn our tradi tional customs o f courteous
d ealing
[Unless punished ] the spirit of fo olishness
and the spi rit of discord wil l grow amongst the peopl e o f
the land and they wi l l come t o despi se their chiefs . '1 8 At
the Co uncil of Chi efs in 1 923 it wa s sugge sted that the old
•
•
•
73
Ratu wa s insane and ought t o be locked up . However when
the European magist rate of Rewa visited Verata in March
1 92 4 , he was ho spi tably rec eived and was able to arrange
fo r the Bauan Buli to retire in favour of a se cond ranking
chie f of Verata ( Laitia Drevuata ) . 1 9
The Veratan exampl e was , as the high chie fs had
feared , infectious . In 1 92 5 the Tai levu Provinc ial Council
representatives revolted against the ' customary ' demand s of
the chiefs of Bau to have the repair of their houses put on
the provinc ial program of wo rk . When Ratu Po pe Seniloli ,
the Vunivalu o f Bau , appealed to them to remember their old
cus toms , there was no re sponse and it was qui te obvious
from the attitud e of the peopl e that they we re unwilling
even to consider the propo sal ' .
Al though there were
fifty- six house s on Bau in a bad way , only seven of the 200
del egate s would agree to inc lude the building in the
program of wo rk . The who le burden fell to the home tikina
of Bau wi th the resul t that the chie fly island became more
and more decrepit . ( The Provincial Counc il partly relented
in 1 92 9 and o ffered to repair one house fo r each tikina . )2 0
I n 1 930 Verata took t o the attack again .
The Bul i
d efended
his
tikina against
ano ther
charge o f
non- compliance with the Provincial Council re so lutions on
housebuilding : 'Verata did no t owe al legiance ( vakarorogo)
to Bau in anc ient times nor does it now' . The prac tice of
using government institutions to achieve housebuil ding on
Bau was corrupt , he argued ; the re was a customary way o f
sending envoys ( mata) with such reque sts , and a customary
way o f complying which had bet ter regard for the dignity of
the parties than did the threat of prosecution . Who were
the Bauans to talk o f upholding anc ient customs? 2 1
The Veratan chal lenge was taken seriously by Bau and
the whole chiefly order.
Ratu Sukuna regarded it as a
conflict that ' had repercussions through the whole length
and breadth o f the Fi j ian Soc ial System ' . 22 The government
o f the day had little interest in Fi j ian po litics and was
glad to delegate to Ratu Sukuna the re so lution of this
dispute ( and several similar dispute s ) . A spe cial hearing
of the Native Lands Commission was held on 7 September 1 933
at Naimasimasi , hal f-way between the contending seats .
Bo th sides at tended in fo rc e , and wi th much ceremonial
ski rmishing . Proc eedings b egan with a ' fine conc iliatory
speech ' by Ratu Aseri Lat ianara o f Se rua ( sitting as
Assesso r) and bo th sides gave evidence ' without rancour ' ,
perhaps because Ratu Peni d eclined to appear personal ly .
74
Ratu Sukuna rul ed in fav our o f Bau . 2 3 Ratu Peni had one
last moment of glory in Oc tober 1 93 5 when he ord ered the
Roman Catho lic and Wesl eyan mission staff to leave their
houses and gardens . He was arrested and committed to the
Lunatic Asylum in Suva. 2 4 For it is writ ten in the hearts
of Fi j ians that tho se who defy chie fly autho rity wi ll
bec ome sick or insane .
If the issue s and preoccupations of the chie fs and
peopl e in these affairs seem excessively parochial , the
scal e minute , and the gene ral orientation toward s past
glory or old grievanc es rather than colonial ist desid erata
such as economic prosperity or the national interest , then
it is a true refl ec tion of the nature of Fi j ian so cieties
prior to Wo rld War II
and
the
background
for
understanding the failure o f alien concepts of progress to
take root amongst the peopl e . And ye t Fi j i was to produce
at l east one man who tried to inspire the peopl e to
transcend loc al parochiali sm and grasp a vision of progress
larger than Ratu Sukuna and his pe ers we re will ing to
countenance .
Chapter 6
Apolo si R . Nawai and the Viti Company
If Ratu Sukuna was to become the statesman of Fi j i ,
Nawai was its underworld hero - the only man
Apolosi R .
from the ranks o f ordinary v il lagers who rivalled the
statesman fo r el oquenc e , pe rsonal mana , and a compelling
vision of the future of Fi j ians in the ir own country . Ratu
Sukuna ' s c laims to lead ershi p rested no t only on hi s noble
blood lines , but on his Oxford- given ability to hold his
own amongst the most educated men in the colonial service
and ye t articulate a coherent philosophy of Fi j ian value s
d ear to himself and inherent
so he said - in the
psychology o f individual Fi j ians and in the dynamics of
Fij ian community l ife . Apolosi ' s fo reb ears in the Yasawas
and in Narewa , Nad i ( where he was born about 1 87 6 ) were so
insignificant that he went to fantastic lengths later in
his l ife to invent fo r himsel f a lost line of chiefs .
Hi s
fo llowers , includ ing many c hiefs , did no t dispute his claim
to be desc ended from the ulumatua , first-born , o f a
legendary canoe of ancestral heroes suppo sed to have landed
at Vuda Point in we stern Vi ti Levu .
Perhaps Apo losi ' s true spiritual ancestors we re rooted
less in the wo rld of chiefly power than in the dark
substratum of Fi j ian life , the fo rces of the occult .
No
account of the Fi j ian colonial experienc e can avoid some
confrontation with the enduring bel iefs of Fi j ians in
supe rnatural intervention by the anc estral spirits and some
of the old gods such as the great shark Dakuwaqa .
Draunikau , sorcery , survived as an ad j unct to personal
malice and political ambition : it remained a phenomenon of
pe rennial interest and fear in the lives of the peopl e . In
the po pul ar mind any man who ro se to great power and
influence had unseen ho sts , as it we re , at his personal
command . Belief in the oc cul t fo rces of the spi rit wo rld
was impl icit in the mana of the chiefs ( for Chris tian
preaching had done little to undermine the aura of
' legitimate
autho rity ' ) .
Certain groups such as the
wo rld- famous firewalkers o f Beqa and the little-known
turtl e- cal l ers of Nacamaki on Ko ro openly cel ebrated their
obligations to the spi rits .
And occasional ly the same
fo rc es we re fo cused in the lead ership claims of prophets
wi thout honour in their colonial homes .
75
76
Apo losi grew u p around Nad i o n the we stern side of
Vi ti Levu
Yasayasa Ra - and in hi s early career called
himsel f , when he wanted his admi rers to pond er the anomaly
o f his ostensibly humble origins , na kai Ra , the man from
Ra . The phrase would al so remind his aud ience of the
long- standing but repressed ho stility the speake rs o f
Fi j i ' s we stern dial ec t s
often incomprehensible
to
eas terners
fel t towards the domination of the Fi j ian
Administration by Bauan chiefs and their allies .
The
appo intment of men such as Ratu Joni Mad raiwiwi to be Roko
Tui of Ba and the Yasawas had lowered the national prestige
or- the provinc e ; the diffic ul ty o f governing Ba and rapid
increase of its Ind ian cane- growing popul ation led to its
subdivision in 1 920 into the small provinces of Ba , Nad i
and Lautoka , all und er direct European rul e .
In the popul ar mind , these provinc es ,
and
the
ad j o ining ones of Co lo No rth and Ra , we re ind isputably the
home not only o f anc estral heroes but of wi ld and defiant
men .
Drauniivi on the northwe st boundary o f Ra province
was the home of Navosavakadua ' s Tuka cul t in the colony ' s
fi rst d ecad es .
When Apolosi --wa8 a village lad in Nadi ,
' Navosa ' had proclaimed the imminent re turn o f the twin
g ods ,
Nac irikaumoli
and
Nakausabaria , the authentic
original s of the dec eitful Wesl eyans ' substi tutes , Jehovah
and Jesus .
They we re to usher in a new age when Fi j ians
would rul e their own land again and the whiteskins would be
d riven into the sea . Believers we re promised nothing less
than Tuka , immortal life or eternal youth ;
unbel ievers
would�annihilated . 1
Al though Navosa died in exile in 1 897 , his fo llowers
ke pt the movement aliv e in the interior , where there were
few s igns of government power , l ittl e educ ation , and men
not at al l unwil ling to be id entified as bete- , priests though perhaps not on Sunday , when as in every:- village o f
Fi j i the popul ation went to church and sang prai se s t o the
Lord God of Ho sts Who knows all things but Who truly
ble sse s the Fi j ian peopl e , a villag er might explain , wi th
g reat �·
Doubtless the young Apolosi was steeped in this
accommodating theology o f village l i fe , and surely he heard
the miracle sto ries o f the prophe t - how the British had
put Navosa through the rollers o f a mill wi thout ex tracting
a d rop o f hi s blood , then bound him in weighted ropes and
buried him alive at sea en route to Ro tuma only to find him
on arrival dangling hi s l egs over the end of the wharf
77
waiting to greet hi s captors . 2 When Apolosi j oined the
lucky few to progress b eyond a few years o f vil lage
education and enter the We sl eyan central school at Navuloa
( at the mouth of the Rewa) , he was al ready tho roughly
versed in the pre- scienti fic psychology o f his peopl e , and
later reveal ed a remarkable capac ity to validate hi s
l eadership ambi tions by arc ane referenc es to bo th sc riptual
and traditional symbols.
Where Ratu Sukuna relied on
he redi tary status , we stern education , prestige in the
colonial establishment and closely reasoned appeal s to
history , anthropology and natural justice to advance his
c onceptions of the needs of the Fi j ian peopl e , Apolosi
spoke direc tly to the heart ;
he ad dressed the ac tual
perceptions of the peopl e in the language they understood .
In the first decade of the century those pe rc eptions
o ften were that Fi j ians we re coming to occupy an inferior
place in the colony ' s ec onomy , that the future lay wi th the
Europeans and , to a growing extent , the Ind ians , and that
the chie fs of the land , more espec ially tho se who sheltered
their privileges wi thin the
ranks
of the Fi j ian
Administration , we re unequal to the task o f satisfying the
material aspirations of their peopl e .
The collapse o f Thurston ' s taxation scheme and
marketing organi zation had bound Fi j ians hand and foot to
European and Chinese traders buying produce in small lots
and sel ling merchandise at atroc ious pric es . The Planters '
Peti tion of 1 908 seeking the confisc ation of ' unused '
Fi j ian lands and the knowledge that i t had the suppo rt of
their Supreme Chi ef Si r Everard im Thurn had created
in
Ratu Sukuna' s own words
' an atmosphere of troub led
suspic ion
for
the
first
time
perhaps
since
Cession ' . 3 The European magistrates we re successfully
striving to increase their direct executive authori ty at
the expense of Fi j ian offi c ial s . Sydney Smi th , one time
Prov inc ial Inspector in western Vi ti Levu , was at large in
Macuata
openly contemptuous
of those ' very useless
o ffic ial s ' the Bul is : when they came to ' squat ' in his
offic e he told them they we re an avaric ious lot , greedy fo r
Ind ian rents whil e deservedly rot ting as a resul t o f ' their
own laziness ' 4 In 1 91 3 the magistrates we re restyl ed
Di stric t Commissioners (Provincial Commiss ioners if there
was no Roko ) and assigned the duties of any government
department , including for the first time direct ove rsight
of Fi j ian affairs . 5 New Rokos we re styled Native
Assistants , on about hal f the salary of a senior Roko Tui ,
and with no share of rent monie s . Young Engl ishmen-or
•
•
•
•
78
local Europeans , ' o ften completely ignorant o f native
customs
and modes of
thought ' ,
we re given broad
disc re tionary power. � All co rrespond ence had to
pass
through them , a n insul t t o chiefs like Ratu Aseri Latianara
or Ra tu Pope Senil oli , the Vunivalu of Bau .
In the same year , 1 91 3 , Apolosi emerged into the
public eye .
He and a minor chie f from Bau , Ratu J .
Tabaiwalu , had fo r some time been lead ers o f a team of
c arpenters based at the new mission training insti tute at
Davuil evu , outside Suva.
They took contrac ts to build
tho se capacious wo oden churches which had become , along
wi th sailing cut ters fo r coastal villages , a status symbol
of communal prid e and an incessant d rain on the meagre
capi tal resources of the villagers . Oral traditions on the
Wainibuka River have it that the team was building a church
at Korovatu near Vunidawa in 1 91 1 or 1 91 2 when Apolosi
firs t began to canvass village meetings with his scheme to
start a Fi j i c ompany . He was then in his early thirties ,
young fo r a Fi j ian to assert l eadership , and he had to be
careful to avoid showing his d isrespe c t fo r the e stablished
o rder .
Was it a perception of the senseless c apital waste in
oversized churches , or the proc ession of European- owned
pun ts taking Fi j i ' s b ananas d own the Rewa tributaries to
Suva, or was it compassion fo r the villagers hammering up
banana case s fo r a pittance that finally inspi red Apolosi ,
wi th
eloque nc e
sti l l remembered in those parts , to
transc end all bound s o f e ti que t te and make a bold pl ea fo r
innovation? He said later he had liv ed in bl indness fo r
years un til he suddenly real i zed tha t the only way the
i tauke i could get a fai r deal was to compe te direc tly in
the economy and keep the export and import of food and
produce in their own hands . First they could cut out the
white buye rs who controlled the river trade , then the
Why
agents in Suva, then perhaps the shipping lines
,
company
vast
coul d not Fi j ians po ol their capi tal in one
oy
enj
all
above
l earn the ski l ls , invest the profits , and
the dividend s that fl owed from their land and their labour
straight into a few whitemen' s pockets as surely as the
Rewa River emptied into the sea? His countrymen lived like
the Hebrews we eping besid e the river of Babyl on longing for
their land to be resto red to them .
They should steel
themselves , be strong and determined ( yal o qaqa) . Or would
they fo rever be content to let fo reigners d evelop their
land s and employ them casually fo r 2s a day - less , he
no ted , then a whi teman in Suva spent on feeding his horse . 7
79
These were powerful themes that spoke to a peopl e ' s
prid e ,
their submissiveness to the who le
chal lenged
framewo rk of their l ives , and compounded their anxiety
about the future of the race .
When Apolosi said ' We Fi j ians ' to peopl e with whom he
had no connection or status , he was speaking a new
language , cutting across the intense parochial bond s that
ke pt the constituent groups at every level of Fi j ian
so ciety and administration depend ent
on
chiefs fo r
lead ership and initiativ e .
His stroke of genius wa s to
av oid an overt challenge to the chiefs and find a new basis
fo r legitimacy in the we stern model of a company of
shareholders united solely on the basis o f their capi tal
contribution and the specific aims of modern enterprise ,
and delegating control of all operations to a managing
directo r .
Undoub ted ly he had heard of a similar Tongan
company and the rumoured pro sperity o f its members .
Apolosi neither understo od nor cared for the legal details
of company organi zation - he gambled that the symbol s of
status , the busine ss titl es , an impressive offic e , the
company letterhead and above all the shareho lders ' meetings
would validate hi s scheme in the eye s of the peopl e . It
wa s still essential , tho ugh, to create the impression that
the powers of the land were at least tac itly in suppo rt ,
giving the Company , as Ratu Sukuna later explained , ' the
chiefly authority i t would have otherwi se lacked ' . 8 Many
chiefs who were without government appo intments , or had
lost them , no tably the ' dissidents of Bau ' , Ro Tui sawau ( a
high chief of Rewa ) , and the hered itary chief styled Ratu
mai Verata at various times l ent their pre stige to Company
committees ' and ' board s ' or attended meetings in the early
years .
Government only became aware of the Viti Company at
the end of 1 91 3 when Apolosi ' s agents began to so licit
' share ' subsc riptions from chiefs and peopl e in nearly
every part of the group . The promoters c laimed government
approval , prompting an offi c ial warning to the peopl e in Na
Mata no t to be duped by a company that was not known to the
government . 9 Shareho lders we re asked to sel l produc e only
to their Company and be content with a lower price until
its offices we re properly e stabli shed in Suva. The peopl e
of Lutu and most of their neighbours on the tributaries of
the Rewa River gave their bananas wi thout payment to
Apo lo si ' s agent s ;
the island ers of Nayau in Lau provinc e
gave him their copra , and one dist ric t in Ra provinc e
handed over its entire tax money . The Company aroused
80
great ex citement in al l parts of the group and was widely
attribut ed
to
the
inspiration of the
twin gods
Nacirikaumoli and Nakausabaria , a sugge st ion Apolosi did
nothing to dispel . In January 1 91 4 Joni Kuruduadua , an old
Fi j ian servant o f the government in the interior , roused
himself from retirement to warn that the Company ' s obj ects
we re said to be the return o f the land s al ienated to
Europeans befo re Cessi on , the takeover of al l European and
Ind ian stores by Fi j ians wi th some to be sent to establish
markets oversea s , the aboli tion of government taxes and the
eventual expul sion of all Europeans from Fi j i
no t to
mention ' other repo rts which i t is no t seemly to relate ' . l O
Kuruduadua ' s retic ence almost certainly allud es to the
revival in the highlands o f obscene meke perfo rmed for the
old gods , wi th some rather disturbing new lyrics :
Fi j ian prepare fo r battl e !
Close in with bayonets d rawn .
Apo losi and his boys wil l win;
Wai t fo r his wo rd of command .
Hurl the whiteskins out to sea
Or make them cook and wash
And carry away our trash
Their fee t wi ll be po s�s fo r our
house s ;
Sew u p their tongue s fo r our sails ;
Gouge out their eye s fo r inkwe ll s .
Hail Apolosi , firstborn king !
Lead our land to freed om
Lead us to happiness . 1 1
Apo losi issued orders to the Bul is o f eastern Vi ti
Levu to assemble wi th their people at Draubuta village in
the Rewa del ta fo r the ho ist ing of the Company flag on 2 9
April 1 91 4 .
When the Secre tary fo r Native Affai rs , K . J .
All ardyce , told the Bul is by c ircul ar letter that i n no
c ircumstances we re they to take their orders from the Vi ti
Company , Apolosi and Ratu J. Tab aiwalu countered wi th a
circular of their own , impressiv ely typed , saying that
Al l ardyce ' s l etter was ' foolish ind eed ' as there was no law
to prevent the collection of money o r the fo rmati on o f a
company . Al lardyc e urged that Apo losi be exiled fo rthwi th
under the Confining Ord inance ( I I I o f 1 887 ) originally
designed to remove Navosavakadua to Ro tuma wi thout trial .
Gov ernor Si r Erne st Bi ckham Sweet Escott , fatally ignorant
o f the interpretation Fi j ians would place on his caution ,
allowed the meeting to go ahead . He feared ' a fal se ste p ' .
81
Was not the government now anxious that ' the communal
sys tem with its paralysing influence on individual effort
and ambi tion should be broken down ' ? Apo losi ' s Viti
Company could herald a heal thy new phase in the Fi j ians '
transition from simpl e subsistence to a liberal economy .
The protests of the threatened European banana interest had
to be balanc ed against the gov ernment tradi tion of strong
protec tion fo r the legitimate aspi rations of the Fi j ians . 1 2
That certainly wa s no t the view o f the trad itional
leaders of the Fi j ians , the high chie fs . The Tui Nayau
( Roko Tui of Lau in his government capac ity ) was one of the
first to try and disc redit the Company .
Apolo si , he
repo rted , had arrived in state at the island of Nayau wi th
£70 worth of gift s to ex change fo r women . At a distric t
church meeting ( polotu ) Apo losi boasted that he did no t
honour anyone in Fi j i , neither white , red nor black , nor
any Gov ernor , Roko or magistrate . To dramati ze the po int
he to re up summonses issued by the European magist rate at
Lomaloma. Final ly , warned the Roko , Apo losi was advising
the peopl e no t to pay their debts to the Europeans . 1 3 The
other chiefs had their first oppo rtunity to discuss the
Company at the Council of Chiefs in May 1 91 4 . They were
assured by the Bul i o f Nad i that Apo losi and his brother
Kiniviliame were ' peopl e of no po sition ' and that they had
both been driven out of Nad i . The Vi ti Company was the
work o f young upstarts , an affront to chie fly prerogatives .
The Council urged the government to prohibit the collec tion
of money fo r an unregi stered company and to prosecute the
promoters . A shrewd chief of Kadavu added that as long as
Apo losi and his fo llowers we re allowed to make their boasts
wi th impunity , the peopl e would assume tacit government
approval for the venture . The chiefs were acutely aware of
Apolosi ' s need to give the Company the aura of their
autho rity befo re the peopl e would ral ly to its fl ag . 1 4
In a pred icament c reated by its
own mood
of
l iberal ism , the gove rnment repl ied that only the misuse of
money was unlawful . Apolosi mus t be legally convicted of
an offenc e be fo re the Viti Company ' s ac tivities could be
constrained . As no one could be found who would tes tify in
court to his squand ering of money held in trust , the man
from Ra had free rein to dev elop his organization .
To
heighten the impression of a great chiefly enterprise he
appo inted a large number of Company o ffic ials wi th
autho ritative- sounding titl es .
Almost every Bul i in the
Distric t Administration was flanked by a ' Manager' while
the government vil lage chiefs , the turaga ni ko ro , we re in
82
many pl aces virtually repl aced with Company nominees
b earing the same titl e . Similarly he appo inted ovisa to
co rrespond with provincial constables , and threatened to
fine or imprison the enemies of the Company . It was as
though there were two gove rnments in Fi j i , complained the
Roko Tui o f Macuata . 1 �
Promoters of the Company carried its messages and
instruc tions
from village
to
village , s tirring up
enthusiasm and col lecting funds .
Apolosi was later to
c laim , and it was doub tless the case , that he had littl e
control ov er what they said and did in the name of the Viti
Company .
Nor was the re much that a handful of overworked
magistrates could do to moni tor their movements . In Augus t
a levy o f £1 0 was d emand ed from every d istric t and the
membership fee fixed at £ 1 . In the banana- rich vil lages of
the Rewa delta Apo losi proclaimed tha t anyone sell ing to
Europeans would be prosecuted
by the
Company and
imprisoned .
The Provincial Commis sioner of Colo Ea st
repo rted that rather than sel l to European buye rs o ffering
cash on the spo t , the peopl e were burying their bananas .
The government began to real ize that intervention would
soon be nec essary : it was simply a que stion of the length
o f the rope . 1 6
·
When it came to the di spo sal of bananas , copra , and
other produce , Apolosi was compelled to work wi th Europeans
already in the business .
Al though the details of his
d ealing are no t documented , it seems the Viti Company had
essential
its own inter- island cut ters and river pun ts
handle
to
firms
but used established
status symbol s
on
capitalize
to
Seeing a chance
overseas shipments .
thout
wi
ahead
went
Fi j ian patrio tism , five Suva businessmen
Apo lo si and legally incorpo rated a company called the Vi ti
Company wi th a capital of 1 0 , 000 share s at £ 1 each, 5 per
cent on al lotment . A c erti ficate to commenc e business wa s
issued on 1 6 January 1 91 5 . The memorandum of asso ciation
provided for al l the business ac tivities Apolosi had urged
Fi j ians to take on themselve s : the marke ting of Fi j ian
produc e and tradi tional manufac tures , the management o f
wholesal e and retail sto res , impo rting and exporting ,
auc tioneering .
and
banking
insurance ,
shipbuil ding ,
However the board was always to have five of its seven
members Europeans and in the first instance no Fi j ians we re
appo inted . 1 7
83
In letters to the Governo r and the press the Eu ropean
d irec tors d enounc ed the use of the Company ' s name by
Apolosi or anyone else to co llec t funds .
For his part ,
Apo losi seized on this parasitical Viti Company' s l egal
stand ing to impress or confuse the peopl e wi th the legality
o f the original Viti Company in its diffuse semi- politic al
form . In January 1 91 5 he brought some 3000-4000 peopl e
back to Draubuta fo r meetings and cel ebrations lasting
nearly a month . ( In oral tradi tions this meeting is often
telescoped
into the first and regarded as the real
inauguration of the Company . ) Apolosi addressed the crowd
from a high stage hung wi th a hundred tabua ( whales '
teeth ) . Ro Tuisawau , d issid ent high chief of Rewa , i s said
to have presented Apolosi wi th a large tabua , to confer on
him a chie fly mandate to ensure the prospe rity of the who le
country .
Many minor chie fs and ex- government officials
we re present , as we ll as five Bulis o f Colo East expre ssly
fo rbidden to attend . The meeting is po orly documented but
apparently Apolosi used it to bol ster his c laim to be the
true leader of the Viti Company , for sho rtly afterwards he
warned the Bul is of Nad roga they should cease their
hostility to the company ' lest yo u incur serious trouble ' .
Did they not understand that the Vi ti Company had been duly
registered and had l egal authority? l 8
In March 1 91 5 Apo losi fac ed a crisis .
The first
annual general meeting of the legal Viti Company in the
hundred s of
Suva Town Hall was to be held on the 27 th ;
Viti Company shareho ld ers ( of both companies) were expec ted
to attend and they would learn fo r the first time that
Apolosi was no t the Managing Direc tor - one A . J. Mackay
wa s . Apolosi met the problem head on . He cal led his own
meeting for the evening of the same day to fo llow Mackay ' s ,
which went bad ly enough .
Mackay warned of
' certain
Fi j ians
who can only be cal led Germans ' collecting
money illegally in the name o f the Vi ti Company . Then the
Tui Nausori took two tabua to the direc tors , begging them
to take no no tic e of Apolosi and his agitato rs : ' Europeans
we re the only peopl e who could run their Company properly ' .
At night hundreds of Fi j ians and a few curious European
observers or offic ial s packed the hall to hear what Apo losi
would have to say in reply . 1 9
•
•
•
The man from Ra d rove up outsid e in a gleaming black
car and attired in a well- fitting tusso re silk sui t made
fo r him by Peape s of Sydney . The Fi j ians in the aud ience
rec eived him as i f he had been the Governor himsel f , but
Apo lo si was c areful to begin on the self- deprecating no te
84
demand ed by both his sense of d ramatic contrast and Fi j ian
chie fly e tique tte :
Chiefs of al l Fi j i and chiefs of Papalagi present
here today .
I am one who has no t been long in
this world , I am but a child [ he was about
39 ]
it is no t my prerogative to summon you
chiefs toge ther that you should leave your
chie fly land s and put asid e your chiefly rank to
attend a meeting called in my name . Why then did
you c ome? To see me? Is it no t rather that you
endorse this wo rk o f c leanl iness to achieve our
prosperity and inc rease in the present time
.
•
•
•
Then after outl ining the histo ry o f the Viti Company from
the time his blindness wa s l i fted to realize that only a
company coul d give the itauke i a fair deal , he criticized
the oppo sition he had rec eived from Europeans , inc lud ing
the directors of the legal company . He asked the meeting
why he had been ex clud ed from the board : ' Someone tel l me .
Am I a thief? Do I oppo se the Government? ' He paused for a
minute or two to search the faces of his aud ience . No one
said a word . Then he went on to say how sad he wa s to hear
that the afternoon meeting had gone bad ly fo r them . Could
someone tell him why? One Fe l ipe volunteered that they
we re angry to see Fi j ians had been ex clud ed from the board .
If it was really a Fi j ian company then surely Fi j ians
should be in control . Apolosi asked the meeting to raise
their hands if they ag reed . The re we re no di ssenters . 2 0
Much enc ouraged no doub t , Apolosi stepped up his fund
raising fo r a varie ty o f schemes cal led ' Life Insurance on
Native Towns , ' ' A Fij ian Club , ' ' Entranc e to the Viti
Company ' and others more or less under his direction .
European settl ers we re more alarmed by the po litical
und ertone s o f the movement .
Viti Levu was alive with
rumour . In one cable the Distric t Commissioner o f Ra
repo rted that a young girl had been kil led , cooked and
partly eaten in Colo We st . Se t tl ers at Tavua , near the old
seat of the Tuka cul t at Drauniivi , demanded ammunition .
George Barrow took t ime off from hi s little vendettas in
Serua to warn that the Eu ropean po pul ati on was in real
danger. He had heard hea then songs and danc es gleefully
representing the whites as swimming fo r their lives:
' Ev erything seems to po int to an approaching confl ic t
betwe en black and white . ' 2 1
85
In May 1 91 5 Apo losi was touring the Yasawa group
collecting copra when a Fi j ian constable sent from Suva
arrived at Yaqe ta wi th a warrant fo r hi s arrest on a charge
of embezzl ement in Rewa . When Apolosi fl atly refused to
go , the
constable
re turned
to
the mainland
fo r
reinfo rcement .
On 1 7 May , the po lice arrived at dusk to
find Apo losi stand ing on the beach between two fires wi th
about thirty men seated in a circle around him. Apolosi
said in English , ' Stand up , boys . ' Tense and sweating , his
protec tors rose and stood sho ulder to shoulder in sil ence .
Light from the fire il lumined their 3 foo t pile of stout
batons , and flickered up to faces blackened as if fo r war .
Police Inspec tor Scott-Young read firmly from his warrant .
Apo losi raised one arm and repl ied : ' I swear by Jesus
Christ that I won ' t be taken al ive . You may take my dead
body . I don ' t c are if you hav e 2 , 000 warrants . I will no t
go. ' Fo r an hour and a hal f Sco tt-Young stood there
reasoning and threatening into the darkness . Then fearing
blood shed - his own - he retreated to his boat . 22
Two days later the Inspector-General of Constabulary ,
Colonel Islay McOwan , sai l ed from Lautoka with an armed
party . At the mouth of the Ba River they intercepted a
littl e
fl eet o f cutters manned by Apolosi and his
fo llowers . The lead er and twenty- four of his men we re
apprehend ed easily and charged wi th resisting a po lice
officer in the execution of his duty . There were rumours ,
but as always no convicting evidence , that Apo losi and his
men were on their way to Natutu in Ba to rai se open
rebel l ion and that if tho se peopl e refused , then he was to
go up into the mountains of Co l o Ea st . Apolosi was tried
in Suva and sentenc ed to eighteen months wi th hard labour .
His bro ther Kinivil iame and six others received sho rter
sentences , but there were many o thers to carry on his work
under the name ' Fi j i Produc e Ag ency ' . Their lead er was one
Jo el i Cava of Vuce , Tokatoka , who reasserted the legitimate
business aims of the Company and curried favour wi th the
government .
At the same time a meeting of the FPA at
Sabeto in Dec ember 1 91 5 drew up a protest against the
government ' s attempt s to control leasing arrangements and
urged that Fi j ians themselve s should cul tivate their idle
lands and market the produce .
The Governor received a
large delegation led by Joeli at Government House on
Christmas Ev e ,
1 91 5 , d iscussed their obj ections and
cautiously approved their proj ects .
For the co lonial
autho rities we re
still prepared to encourage Fi j ian
commerc ial ambitions provided they did not ' interfere wi th
the so cial organi zation neces sary fo r the good life of the
86
maj ority of the peo pl e
stage ' for Fi j ians . 2 3
.
•
•
the only l ife po ssible at this
Four weeks after his rel ease on 30 September 1 91 6 ,
Apo losi was back at Draubuta fo r a hero ' s we lcome and to
He
tell how much he had suffered for the Company cause .
inspe c ted a guard of honour of 1 20 schoolchildren neatly
d res sed in the European clothes presc rib ed by the Company
a s the outward sign o f progress toward s a modern way o f
l ife . A surprise visi tor was A . J .
Mackay who announced
that he had sold his 200 shares in the legal company to
Apolosi . The board was now sho rt o f its requi red number
and propo rtion of European blood ;
or rather the title
director ceased to have any more meaning than the other
titl es in the original Company ' s pantheon . Books we re kept
spasmodical ly, and recorded only a frac tion of the
Company ' s transac tions , most of which we re handled by
Apo losi pe rsonal ly . Thousand s of po und s we re unac counted
fo r.
While some trad ing activities continued to be
attributed to the registered company , an astute o ffic ial
warned ' the future histo rian of Fi j i ' no t to be puzzl ed by
the ' C ompany ' s ' no toriety rel ative to
' the very evid ent unimpo rtance of the registered
company t rading under that name
It is
pe rhaps most intelligible if it is und ersto od to
denote
the general body of native opinion
d issati sfied wi th the present condition of nativ e
life and government , o f which body o f opinion the
trading company i s only a minor manife station . ' 2 4
•
•
•
In Nov ember the distric t o f Lutu c onstruc ted a meeting
house fo r the Company , 96 fee t long , 36 feet wid e . ( The
foundations are sti l l visible . ) Meanwhile Apo lo si and Joeli
we re making a new b id for respe ctability . They called on
Gov erno r Si r Erne st Bickham Sweet Escott to leave a
d onation o f £ 30 for Lady Escot t ' s fund fo r wound ed
soldiers , and implored Hi s Ex c ellency not to bel ieve evil
sto ries that might be spread about them . They also called
in at Davuil evu , Apolosi ' s alma mate r , and tal ked wi th the
Principal , the Reverend C . O . Lel ean , about their pl ans fo r
Fi j ians . Apo losi enqui red after his young relative Lucy
and begged Lel ean no t to al low her to be sent to the
ho spi tal fo r training as an obste tric nurse
the ' moral
danger' of the pl ace di stressed him . Lucy should go to his
school at Draubuta where the Company ' s own teache r , Tikiko
Tuwai , would give her a modern education that includ ed ( it
later eventuated ) nightly c lasses fo r the
girls
in
87
' massage ' .
Apolosi impressed Le l ean , as he had
Governo r , wi th his sincerity and enthus iasm . 2 5
the
O n 7 December 1 91 6 the real Apo losi wi th his harem and
a large entourage travelled in a flotilla of boats up the
Wainibuka River to Lutu fo r the opening of the Bo se Ko
V iti , the Council of Fi j i , as the meeting was no t inaptly
called . As he came asho re wi th Ro Tuisawau besid e him the
assembly of 544 9 peopl e from every part of Fi j i gave him
the mut ed roar of the high chiefly tama : duo ! o ! The high
chiefly presentations of tabua , and the full kava ceremony
( yaqona vakaturaga) were perfo rmed j us t as they wo uld have
be en fo r the Supreme Chief or a member of the Royal Family .
Wherever the man from Ra moved , a body o f ovisa wi th
red armband s c leared the way ; when he wa s inside a house
or sl eeping , they mounted guard on the doorways . Hi s eight
' dove s ' took i t in turns to roll cigarettes and put them in
his mouth , or cool him with fans . At sho rt meetings held
daily fo r a week Apolosi and the Company o fficial s we re
d ressed in white shirts , white trousers , golf stockings and
tennis sho e s . Physical ly Apolosi ( like Navosavakadua) was
no t impressiv e .
He was neither tal l nor , by Fi j ian
standards , powerfully buil t .
His dark full face was
dominated by wide- set eye s und er heavy eyebrows and a no se
that
fl ared
out around cavernous no s trils .
Fij ians
remember him fo r his resonant voic e and the way hi s eye s
fo cused hypnotically to seal his message . ' When he spoke ' ,
recal led one , ' it was l ike a bullet hitting your brain
whack ! ' Or in the words of a man of Matacawalevu vil lage ,
Yasawas : ' Once Apo lo si opened his mouth your mind was no
longer your own . ' 2 6
A t Lutu he compensated fo r his lack of physical
stature by sitting in an elaborate pulpit- like wood en
throne ornamented wi th the flags of many nations , his
bodyguard to either sid e , and at the lower level in front
o f him two men with typewriters to take the minute s of the
meetings like the Hansard repo rters in the Legislative
Council . Could anyone doub t that a great chiefly council
was now in progress?
Lutu , 7 th December 1 91 6 , 1 2 noon . I now open our
meeting house .
The Government has o rdered that
as I am the promo ter of the Company , I should be
the Manager
if there be anyone here who is
an enemy of the Company
I shal l send to
Suva fo r Constables to arrest him
God has
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
88
appo inted me to be your comforter in bodily and
spi ritual thing s .
Many chiefs of Fi j i now dead
and many s till
al ive
are
no t
equal
to
me
Be fo re I was born Go d pred estined me to
be your chief and to bring into being a new
scheme by which Fi j i would be ind epend ent in
future and free from Government control
•
•
•
•
•
•
In the wo rds of a Fi j ian constable , ' I t was exactly l ike a
gove rnment meeting .
There
we re
Chi ef Constables ,
Magi strate s , Doc tors , jus t as i f Apo lo si wa s found ing a
government that might become something terrib le
one
que stion I wi sh to ask about Apo lo si , i f everybody salute s
him as they do what is the use of the Govermnent? ' 2 7
•
•
•
A vast program was ag reed upon.
The Company would
have ships and shi pyard s , s to res and sto rehouses , a soap
factory , i ts own school sys tem . A Committee of Chiefs was
fa nned under Ro Tuisawau , once Roko Tui Rewa , most of them
harbouring some grievanc e against the colonial gove rnment .
Company o ffic ers , managers , town chie fs and clerks we re
appo inted fo r every province ex cept Macuata and po ssibly
Bua .
Apolosi ' s own sal ary wa s fixed at £ 1 00 a month . The
meeting closed on 20 December , in an atmosphere
of
c el ebration and hope .
The first signs that the eupho ria was no t to last came
from some Colo East banana growers who received no payment
fo r five shi pments of bananas . Hithe rto they had willingly
acc epted hal f the marke t pr ic e or less , fo r the cause , but
their patience and loyal ty d id no t ex tend indefinitely .
They refused to send fur ther shipments . Nevertheless they
also refused to sel l to Europeans and in the latter half o f
1 91 7 thousand s of bananas ro tted o n the trees . No t a
single man could be found to testify against the Company in
court .
Be tween January and April 1 91 7 Apolosi rec eived in
his own name over £3000 in bananas and copra .
After
examining the chao tic books of the Company an accountant
found the re was no way of knowing the real extent of its
operations or what happended to the proc eed s .
Since
government was powerl ess to ac t under the existing
Companies Ord inance un til the shareholders pe ti tioned fo r
red ress , it proposed to the Co lonial Office a Na tive
Company Ord inance giving the Reg ist rar of Companies
d raconian powers of supe rvision over any company wi th a
sing le Fi j ian member .
The Secre tary o f State thought it
difficul t to bel ieve such a measure could be contemplated
se riously , and the re the mat ter rested . 2 8
89
Intoxicated wi th his weal th and often with al cohol ,
Apolosi had begun to make ex traordinary claims fo r his
personal status . At Lutu the Colo We st peopl e had hail ed
him in song as king , and on one occasion he stopped a fight
by raising himself on the shoulders of some men , saying :
' Please understand I will not have the least trouble in my
presence fo r I alone rul e [ lewai] Fi j i and if I say " let
Fi j i go to ruin" , it will go to ruin . ' 2 9 Similarly in the
New Year of 1 91 7 , at the wedding of a Suva friend ' s
daughter , he brandished two bottl es of liquo r he had wav ed
und er the noses o f po licemen en route , and then launched
into a tirade against the chiefs present and absent :
I alone am the chief o f Fi j i : it is the will of
God .
The se
other chie fs
only wo rk fo r
themselve s ; they don ' t spare a thought fo r you
or your wel fare . Just l ook at tho se two chie fs
who went to the Great Council of Chi efs :
they
d id no thing for our prospe rity and I say they are
scum ( kaisi ) , all- of them . You know who I am ,
In times past I was
Apol o s i R . Nawai na kai Ra .
no t known whil e the states of Bau and Rewa were
renowned , but wait and you wil l see
Summoned to a meeting with Ratu Sukuna - back from the war
in Franc e - and other offi c ial s o f the Co lonial Sec retariat
in March 1 91 7 , Apolosi so lemnly promised that henceforth he
would no t encourage chie fly c eremonies in his honour and
that he would aband on the use o f o ffic ial- sounding titles
fo r Company agents . 3 0
Ratu Sukuna wro te an impa ssioned appeal the same month
fo r much more d rastic government intervention to bring
Apo losi ' s ' sordid and unpatrio tic ' do ings to a hal t .
Deportation was the only so lution , h e said :
Thinking Fi j ians l ook to the Government fo r help ,
vague ly wondering , wi th their autocratic views of
government , why Apo losi and his fo llowers have
not been suppressed . Hi s utterances and letters
have been shown to be c learly against constituted
autho rity and ye t no thing is done
Apolosi
i s trafficking wi th rac ial feelings fo r po sition
and gain
I t is c rime o f the worst kind . It
is an example of l ife unthinkably vil e . 3 1
•
•
•
•
•
•
But again government d ecid ed to wait fo r hard
sed i tion .
ev idence of
90
Abo ut June 1 91 7 Apolosi final ly found a European
businessman he could trust , an American named Walter Jago .
Jago , it seems , tried hard to re strain Apo losi
and
establish the Viti Company on sound business l ines . But it
was too late . The se ttl ers we re after Apo losi ' s head fo r
tell ing the Fi j ians that it wa s fo lly to lease land s to
Europeans fo r 5s or 1 0s an acre and watch them reap £ 1 0 and
£1 5 an acre in cane . If Indians we re prepared to find £ 1
an acre o r more , Apolosi was saying , why should Europeans
or sugar companies get land for less?
Two Europeans
attended one of Apo losi ' s ral lies at Nakorovou , Tavua , on
3 1 Augus t 1 91 7 .
Afterwards one of them made a statuto ry
d eclaration that Apo losi had said , Ko i au na meca ni
matanitu, � na tamata kaukauwa : ' I am the enemy o f the
government , I am the strong man
This , and a similar
declaration by the othe r , provided the Governor and
Executive Council wi th the sure evidenc e they needed . They
i ssued ano ther Confining Ord er ( wi thout trial ) exil ing
Apolosi to Ro tuma fo r seven years . 32
•
In an impassioned letter to the Ex ecutive Co uncil
after his arrest at Vo tua on 1 9 November 1 91 7 , Apolosi
b egged to be allowed to kiss the Bible in their presence
and swear befo re God and King that he had not said anything
of the so rt : ' I humbly beg that you wi l l hear me and
pe rmit those nativ es who were present on the 3 1 st Augus t
1 91 7 at the mee ting at Tavua to testi fy to what they heard
at that meeting ' . I t is inde ed unlike ly that Apolosi would
hav e b'e en foolish enough to say the wo rds attributed to him
in
the
presence
of ho stil e Europeans .
The crud e
phraseology i s inconsistent wi th his desire to give the
company the trappings of l egali ty , and the phrase ' strong
man ' is not typic al of the d ignities he claimed in his more
extravagant moments . In sho rt he was probably framed . The
shodd iness of the confinement proceed ings d id no t escape
the
Colonial
Office :
' in the absence of j udicial
proc eed ings we real ly have to rely on the Governor' s
opinion ' .
The Governo r was asked to review the case after
a year . 3 3
Apolosi ' s own reaction i s evid ent in his apo logia : ' I
canno t turn l eft , right , fo rward or backwa rd , up o r down ,
wi th the crowd of enemie s that are about me . ' He al so
offe red a psycho logical analysis of himself and his pas t :
The re are two great things that influenc e my body
and my mind ;
firstly physical and mental
fool i shness ;
second ly ,
ignorance
The ir
•
•
.
91
influenc e over me
i s due to my childish
ins tabil ity and bad upb ringing
My mother
and father were fo olish and ignorant peopl e .
They had no wi sd om o r enlightenment ,
and
the refo re I inherited none from them whereby to
be guid ed i n my walk through life . Any knowl edge
or enlightenment that I have been able to gain
has been through my own personal efforts
I
have had no one to take an interest in me or ho ld
out
of the black
me up or lead me
darkness
it was as though I were covered
with wo rms and everything repul siv e .
Many saw
me , laughed at me , and mocked me . It was as
though they sucked my blood and wrung the water
34
out of my soul
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
The sc riptural al lusions to the Suffe ring Servant , a
theme Apo losi instinc tively invoked at each reverse , we re
both an abj ect admission of d efeat and a clue to his fo rced
re treat into messianism . Fo r the re st of hi s days he tried
to keep a ho ld over his fo llowers - and their money - wi th
feverish d reams of a New Era ( Gauna Vou) in whi ch he would
be king of the world , and his leprous brother1 Jo sevata ,
king of heaven or vicar of Je sus Christ . j 5 After his
rel ease from Ro tuma in 1 924 he wandered restl essly through
Viti Levu and the Yasawas , ever mo re ex travagant in his
claims , and perfec ting hi s hypnotic rhe toric al power .
A
brie f resurgenc e of ex citement in the Nad i area at the
beginning of 1 930 , when Apolosi was pred icting England ' s
d emise and a great depression , gave the autho rities cause
to exile him again fo r ten years .
And finally when he
resumed hi s ' work ' while on probation in Suv a in 1 940 , he
was exiled again , transferred to New Zealand in case he
fanc ied himsel f as a Qui sling fo r the Japanese , and brought
back to Yacata to die in 1 946 .
Apo losi was more corrupt entrepreneur than millenarian
prophe t . Ye t in his own way he was a great patrio t tapping
the roots of Fi j ian pride by urging the peopl e and chiefs
to cut ac ross the parochial limi tations of their existing
insti tutions .
Even i f he
lacked
a real
set of
alternative s , he could feel what was wrong in the Fi j ian
Administration : there was no room fo r innovation and
initiative from bel ow .
Ec onomically Fi j ians we re in a
straightj acke t . 'Very few peopl e ' , h e said , ' are in a bad
pl ight
b ecause
of
their
own decisions about
themselves . ' Apolosi d ied knowing that he had opened a
d eep vein of d isc ontent ; he had permanently inj ec ted the
92
rhe to ric of Fi j ian po litics wi th a demand for to ro cake ,
that is , progress , improvement , and a better re turn on
their labour and resources .
Chapter 7
The vein of d iscontent
The failure of Apo losi ' s Vi ti Company to galvanize the
rural economy and his own retreat into messianic delusions
left something of a vacuum in ordinary village life , a loss
in some places o f a feeling of purpo se and direc tion .
Discontent and restlessness found several outl ets : vil lage
absenteeism to esc ape the present , secret supe rnatural
so cieties to overturn it , and modern asso ciations to turn
the existing order to greater advantage .
Co lonial authorities were poorly equipped to respond
to all these phenomena , but espec ially the underground
movements they rather too easily d ismissed as transient
relapses into superstition .
Wi tchc raft was of course
prosc ribed by the Native Regulations if there was ' intent
to cause fear or death ' , but the government trusted vaguely
to the advance of education and the wo rk of the missions to
erad icate the evil gradually . 1 There was no great alarm ,
for ins tance , when a report came from Nabukelevu , Kadavu ,
that an occul t society met regularly to prepare a special
feast called the mad rali , hal f o f which was carried out to
sea and offered to Dakuwaqa . And at night by the light of
the mys tic moon they danced naked and free - orgies of lust
and abandon in the shadows of We sl ey ' s churches though
never , so far as the records al low , on Sundays . 2 The re had
always been isolated instances of ind ividuals who openly
exhibited signs of d emonic pos se ssion and who at trac ted a
devoted clientele . Ratu A. Finau , the Roko Tui of Lau , was
disturbed in 1 906 by the ac tivities of a Cakaud rove man ,
Tevita Toga , at Vakano on Lakeba . Timing his pe rfo rmance
by the throb of the lali drum for the peopl e to assemble in
church , Tevita woul d roll uc i l eaves between his palms and
on his legs , then begin to shiver and tremble starting from
his toes and convulsing upwards till his who le body shook
violently while he l eapt about shrieking horribly or
fo rc ing incoherent words through his teeth . His attendants
meanwhile c almly chewed yaqona fo r mixing in the o ld way .
When it was ready Tevita would drink three times then eat a
firebrand three times : ' The women all bel ieve in him , a
good many men bel ieve in him , and very few went to church
in the evening
The peopl e have been flocking to
him . ' 3 The missionary on Lakeba , the Reverend Colin
Bleazard , was shocked that there had been ' some most
heathenish devil-worship
on the island that has done
so much for Christianity in other parts of Fi j i &
•
•
•
•
•
•
93
94
el sewhere ' .
involved . 4
Some
of
Bl eazard ' s
own
teachers were
In 1 91 4 there was a similar case of ' shaking ' in Ra
( Tokaimalo distric t ) - a father and son toge the r . Four men
testified to the Di stric t Commissioner that the son bit o ff
live embers and ate them . The men were po sse ssed by the
luveniwai ,
' chil dren of
the
water ' ,
said
the
informants . 5 Luveniwai were the smal l gods who lived upon
the coasts and rocky parts .
Some we re boisterous , some
mild and gentl e when they took possession . I t was usually
the young men in some kind of fraternity who would build a
bower d ecked out with flowe rs and vines . They would dress
themselves in more l eaves and flowe rs and rub their bodies
with perfumed oil .
They then prepared a parcel of sweet
flowers and frui ts cooked on coals , and a smal l feast fo r
themselves and the presid ing priest or Vuniduvu . One
portion was taken to the bush fo r the incoming luveniwai .
Finally a sacred meke fo r the meeting with the gods was
performed , a l ibation of yaqona poured and the Vuniduvu
became po ssessed , followed by the ,ouths until all quivered
and shook : ' I sa ! Isa ! Ratagane LLord Man] , Isa ! ' After
a period of hysteri�or i f the spirits were slow to leave ,
the Vuniduvu would feed the youths l ive coal s or beat them
with c lubs or throw spears at them . Possession gave them
immunity from injury - but not always it seems . There was
a case at Mal i , Labasa , in 1 905 where a youth was seriously
injured by a Vuniduvu ' s spear . 6 Early observers such as
Thomas Williams had taken a l enient view of luveniwai as a
no t qui te innocent pastime , a d iversion of youth .
David
Wilkinson had insisted it was not sed itious : ' I feel sure
no punishment wil l restrain , but probably promote , in some
more c landestine way , manner , and place . A moral , general
disapproval will be much more effec tive in putting down the
prac tice . ' 7
Al though specific detail s we re hard
to
come
by ,
it
seems that up in the interior of Viti Levu luveniwai
prac tices became mingled with aspec t s of the earl ier Tuka
cul t , caus ing the government some alarm . The long-serving
started
A. B . Jo ske ,
Governor' s Commissioner in Colo ,
cricke t clubs in the vil lages to d ivert the energies o f the
young , only to find that they we re used as a cloak fo r
clandestine ritual s involving an elaborate hierarchy of
o ffic ials wi th fantastic titl es . Usually the re had to be
some personal or po litical intrigue before the occul t came
before the courts . The wronged wife of a Vuniduvu near
Nad rau informed on him to the Buli in 1 907 who laid charges
95
against thirteen men and nine women fo r prac tising Tuka .
They had made offerings to a Vuniduvu , giving part to the
Vuki , the offic ial who woul d supe rvise the turning upside
down ( vuki ) of the world decreed by Navosavakadua , after
which his votaries would rul e the nations and live fo rever .
There we re also offic ers s tyled Se rgeants and Kalasia ,
meaning scribes . ( The government had just created three
classe s of sc ribes . ) Ten men we re sentenc ed by Jo ske to two
He saw i t as his duty to suppress
months in goal .
Tuka- related ceremonies as l ead ing always to larceny ,
immoral ity and resistanc e to the autho rity of the old men
and
the government .
He recognized that Tuka was a
superstition that l ent itse l f strongly to Fi j ians wi th its
praye rs to the anc estral spirits and its promise of the
re- establishment of the prestige of the tribes
that
profe ssed i t . 8 There was always the fear , though , in the
light o f the earlier disturbances , that the non- advent of
Tuka would be explained by i ts priests as the lack of
propi tiation wi th human sacrifice and that serious revolt
would ensue . 9
I t was no t until 1 91 4 that the government learned that
qui te apart from the isolated cases repo rted by Joske , Tuka
had survived within a highly organized secret society
embracing all the l eading chiefs and nearly all the men of
Qaliyalatina d istrict with members in Toge on the Ba River
and in three towns of Colo West ( Namoli , Nakuilau and
Vatubalavu ) . Ironical ly the high priest o f the cul t , Osea
Tamanikoro , the turaga ni ko ro of Batimaoli , had obtained
his commission by s ending
ten whales '
tee th to
Navosavakadua ' s town of Drauniivi in 1 892 , shortly before
the who le vil lage had been deported by Thurston to Kadavu ,
and the same year that the hill station at Nadarivatu had
been established wi th a garrison of Armed Cons tabul ary to
keep Tuka from breaking out in the interior . It went
und erground .
Little d id Joske real ize that Osea had
quietly been recrui ting the very men who cooperated so
willingly in his heavy program of road building and other
prov inc ial wo rks .
The Bul i of Qal iyalatina , Joseva Tube ,
and the turaga ni ko ro of the other Qal iyalatina towns
( Cuvu , Navala and Nakoroboya ) were Osea ' s accomplices . 1 0
96
1 77° 45
1 78° 00
Map 3
1 78° 1 5
Colo North
Each rec rui t was taken by a priest in the dead of
night to present a root o f yaqona to Os ea and seek
admission to the Bai Tabua , the sacred so ciety o f the twin
gods Nac irikaumoli and Nakausabaria . On one occasion when
Joseva Tube accepted the yaqona he o ffered the fo llowing
prayer :
I acc ept this yaqona the yaqona of the Two God s ,
the yaqona of l ife . Extend ye your favour to us
the Bai Tabua so that our land may prosper. Thi s
land is made over t o Burotukula . Le t the fac t b e
known t o the Vale Dina ; let it be known to Vale
Kurukuruya ;
let it be known as far as Ului Bua ;
let it be known to Vale Lawa ; let it be known to
Cautoka , let it be known to Naiyalayala . This i s
the praye r of the Bai Tabua . 1 1
97
Buro tukul a is one of the spirit- lands where the twin gods
are in hid ing . The Bai Tabua dedicated all their lands to
Buro tukula as to the new heav en and the new earth . Some of
the other names referred to sac red places in the Nakauvadra
range , home of the gods . Normal ly in the yaqona ritual the
ceremonial names of the chie fly lines of the participants
are invoked wi th great respect and care .
Here
the
impl ication is c lear : the Bai Tabua are of the gods ; they
wil l live fo rever ; they do no t belong to the ordinary run
of chiefly houses .
Whil e the yaqona was being chewed a
chant such as the fo llowing was sung :
Me ra Yavala na Bai Tabua
Era taubale ki Ulu ni Vanua
Kele na Vale ko Nacoukula
Vakarewa na Dro ti ni Bul a .
[ Let the Bai Tabua bestir themselves
They walk to the Mountain
Sol id stands the house ' Nacoukul a '
Ho ist the banner o f Immor tality . ] 1 2
' Nacoukula' was the name of Osea ' s house . It was his
audacious pl ans in 1 91 4 fo r a huge new house that led to
the exposure of the who le movement .
The Provincial
Commissioner
of Colo North ,
W . E . Rus sell , became
suspic ious in May and June when Jo seva Tube asked the
distric t magistrate not to hold a court circuit in those
months because there were no complaints . Rumours came to
Russell on a visit to Nad rau that a heathen temple was
under construc tion . Unusual quantities of sinnet had been
ordered from Namol i in Colo Wes t . Then the Buli himsel f
visited Russell in Nad rau to ask pe rmission to employ the
whole distric t on Osea ' s house .
Russell subsequently
visited Cuvu and found the turaga ni koro ' s house hung
around wi th a great number of clubs and traditional bark
garments wi th strings o f flowers
in preparation for
rehearsals fo r a missionary meeting , said the peopl e , but
Russell was no t so sure .
The Bul i of Navatusila meanwhil e made inquiries in the
town of Nanoko near the borders of his d istric t wi th
Qal iyalatina and there obtained a man prepared to testify
in court that his neighbours we re engaged in a Tuka cul t .
Another willing wi tness was found in the We sl eyan-t'eacher
at Batimao li .
With these and three other info rmants
available , Rus sell charged the Bul i , Osea and fifteen
others wi th prac tic es simil ar to luveniwai ( the word Tuka
98
no t ac tually occurring i n the regulation) .
They we re
remanded in custody to allow them to re tain a lawyer from
Ba . The convic tions obtained at the subsequent legal
proceed ings were quashed by the Supreme Court on technical
grounds , but the trial s brought fur ther details of Osea ' s
scheme . Hi s house was to be entirely o f vesi logs d ragged ,
no t carried , from the fo rest and hoisted into po sition by
block and tackl e so that no part would be touched by hands .
The re we re to be no openings apart from two glass doors or
windows through which he promised they would be able to see
the twin gods when they returned to inaugurate a new era
and install Osea himself as rul er of al l Fi j i . The whites
would be their sl aves ; some would be killed .
The church
and the government would be d riven out . Then all the world
would contribute to a vast new house to be built above
Batimaoli at Vatukoro , the place where their fathers had
massacred a fo rce of Bauans sent in 1 868 to avenge the
d eath o f the Reverend Thomas Bake r in the previous year . 1 3
Pend ing the outc ome o f the court hearings , Jo seva Tube
was d ismissed as Bul i and the tikina o f Qaliyalatina was
abo lished . Joseva , Osea and his fo llowers then converted
en masse to Roman Catho l ic i sm . I f they sensed that the
French pries t at Ba would be a good advocate , their
confidenc e was
shrewdly placed .
P ere Piche rit S . M .
immed iately began protesting their innocence and loyalty .
When Russell repo rted in Dec ember 1 91 4 that h e had met with
s tubborn resistance in Qal iyalatina and urged
the
depo rtation of Osea , Joseva and three other ringleaders ,
Piche rit obtained a copy o f the letter and vigorously
denied the various charges , mentioning in passing that 1 72
out of the 1 79 inhabitants of Cuvu , Navala and Batimaoli
we re d evout Catholics .
When the Provincial Commissioner
had come to inspect their distric t it was no disc ourtesy
that the villages we re nearly empty - they had all been to
the opening of a new church at Ba by Bi shop Jul ian Vidal of
Suva :
'I mus t say that in my opinion the danger of
oppo sition to the Government o f Hi s Most Grac ious Maj esty
by the natives of this distric t is imaginary and has no
foundation in fac t . ' 1 4
His unction and ignorance of the fac ts asid e , the
priest was surely right in questioning the need for the
harsh ac tion the government took at Russell ' s reque st .
Osea was confined to Oneata fo r ten years , Jo seva Tube and
three others were confined fo r five years to parts o f Lau
and Kadavu . The people pe titioned at least three times fo r
their release and Piche rit wrote on their behal f again in
99
1 91 8 .
Final ly their sentences expired in 1 920 and a year
late r Osea al so was al lowed to re turn home .
If he ever
reac tivated the Bai Tabua , the government did not get to
hear of it . 1 5
One other movement at this time dese rves brief no tice ,
that o f the hal f-mad Sailosi Nagusolevu al ias Ratu , and
Ai sake Sivo . Sailosi told a meeting of 700-800 Fij ians at
Tavua on 25 March 1 91 8 that Navosavakadua had gone from
Nadarivatu to England to kil l Queen Vic toria .
And now
Britain had surrendered to Germany , the Governor was
The
d epo sed and all the white magistrates we re powe rless .
Viti Company would take their plac e . There would be no
taxes and no more vakamisione ri collections ; as a sign of
the new order they should celebrate the sabbath on
Saturday . The movement spread rapidly · inland down the
Sigatoka and the Rewa tributaries . The new sabbath was
c elebrated in Nad rau and from there two men took it to
Naso qo , Nabobouco , in April . For a sho rt period the people
we re openly defiant of the orders of the Provincial
Commissioner of Colo North .
The religion was dubbed
' Number Eight ' , the last rel igion to have come to Fi j i
being Seventh Day Adventism known t o Fi j ians i n short form
as the ' seventh church ' , Lo tu ikavitu .
Sailosi was
confined to the asylum before he could get very far and
Ai sake Sivo exiled to Yanuca fo r seven years . 1 6
The Number Eight movement had
some lasting
repercussions on the Wesl eyan church in a few inland areas .
Teachers and church offic ial s who had desecrated the
sabbath were publicly humil iated and expelled by meetings
of their circuits . The Seventh Day Adventists stepped into
The ir Fi j ian agent , one Pauliasi , toured the
the breach .
interior wi th the Adventist fo rmula fo r making Saturday
Sunday .
He saved the face of the ' Sailosiites ' and
established the first significant SDA congregations on the
Wainibuka , in Nad rau and some towns o f Co lo East , where
they have remained strong ever sinc e .
All was quiet in Colo North until in June 1 934
Navosavakadua ( died 1 897 ) visited At ekini Ciobale of
Nasoqo , and informed him that a council of the spirits
chiefs at Bua had dec id ed the time had come to inaugurate
the New Era . Navosa ' s own task was to visit the country o f
the white man and bring back the Government Offices fo r
their headquarters .
Meanwhil e would he , Atekini , take
charge of the peopl e along wi th Ameniasi Naqiomila , who was
to be the prophe t through whom messages would come , and
1 00
Kitione Ko ro who was to be the doctor charged
dispensing the water of life to the faithful .
with
Tha t at l east is the beginning as the Di stric t
Commissioner of Co lo North , Stuart Reay , reconstruc ted it
five months afterward s . On .4 November 1 934 , one of Reay' s
trainee clerks at Nadarivatu asked permission to go to
Nasi riti , over 20 mil es away in Nabobouc o .
On being
pressed for his reason the youth expl ained that his fathe r
had sent fo r him to drink the water of life .
Surely Mr
Reay knew that on the 5 th , 1 5 th , and 2 5 th of the month
peopl e came from fa r and wide to drink the heal ing liquid?
and no t only to drink it but ( according to several
informants ) to see it change co lours . Mr Reay was ind eed
inte rested to find that most of his staff had al ready
inbibed but that none cared to share the good news wi th
him .
A trusty provinc ial constable was despa tched
fo rthwi th to Nasiriti where in a village of five families
he counted 321 people - 99 of them from Colo East and 2 5
from Ra . Buli Nabobouc o was there and Buli Muarira from
A little dispensary had been buil t , reserved
Colo East .
fo r the good doc tor Ki tione and his d resse r .
There we re
three no tices , one saying that tho se who came from various
distric ts or provinc es in Fi j i we re to bring letters ,
ano ther fo rbidding anyone to approach the spring wi thout
pe rmission - signed ' Kitione P . Kero the Do c tor of Fi j i ' .
The third fo rbad e spitting , smoking and speaking when the
medicine was being drunk . The track to the spring had been
A so rt of
wi th shrubs .
bordered
and
neatly cut
outpatients ' register had been ke pt showing that over 9000
peopl e had been treated - al though as the clerk was later
found to be unable to count pa st 1 099 Reay thought the true
The prov incial
number was probably l ess than 2000 .
cons table ( a chief o f Nabutautau ) ransacked the Bul i ' s
private papers and came back wi th one curious item , a
l etter from the Bul i to Atekini Ciobal e dated 1 9 April 1 934
tell ing him that he had presid ed at a ceremony the previous
day in memory of the blood that fl owed at Vunawi - po ssibly
the spo t at Nasoqo where Thurs ton had flogged Rokoleba , one
of Navosavakadua ' s lieutenants .
Was this ano ther revival of tha t cul t? Reay believed
that it wa s , but he could get none of the above evid ence
swo rn to in court . He obtained convictions on the charge
of illegal assembly . It is not impo ssible that the whole
connec tion wi th Navosavakadua wa s fab ricated by Reay ' s
pr ivate info rmant - possibly a man from Nasoqo who wanted
to disc red it Nasiriti , hitherto a very unimpo rtant village
101
compared to its neighbours . The Buli o f Nabobuo co himself ,
when Reay interrogated him on 1 1 November , was ' obviously
in a funk '
there was no doub t that he had had
oppo rtunities to report the mat ter to Reay who was no t
impressed with his excuse that many women in Nabobouc o we re
childless and that he had wanted to give Ki tione a chanc e
to prove himsel f .
For Reay had been wi th the Buli in
Nasoqo on 1 8 Augus t and the latter had al lud ed to the talk
of a new cure , but no t in such a way that Reay would take
it se riously . Reay was convinced the Buli was smarting
from a public censure the chiefs and Bulis of Colo North
had ( at Reay ' s reque st) delivered in Nasoqo in December
1 933 .
A list of the crimes of Nabobouco had been read out
defianc e of ord ers , who l esal e
evasion of
taxes ,
provocative behaviour to the people of Nasau tikina , and
other offences . It at l east seems plausible that they
should revive a cul t which envisioned the ov erthrow of the
government . 1 7 What is c ertain is that the Na soqo and
Nasiriti peopl e have no apologies to make about the water
of life . People we re still going there to drink it in the
1 970s and it was carried to the sick in di stant plac es - a
catalogue of cures was available fo r the asking .
All the
inqui sitive outsid er needs to know any further is that the
peopl e say prayers before and after drinking it :
' it is
God ' s gift to us . '
These extraord inary events , while confined in the main
to the interior of Viti Levu , we re symptomatic perhaps of a
general weakening of so cial disc ipl ine in the villages and
of the inabil ity of the established lead ers to do much
about it . The greatest threat to the integrity o f village
life was the number of men and women absent at any one
time . Absenteeism was a running so re in Fi j ian so ciety
because it represented the ind iffe rence of ind ividual s to
the common good and the hallowed demands of trad itional
coope ration .
A man had not been free in fo rmer times to
come and go at wi l l ; nor was h e free under the original
Native Regulations to leave wi thout pe rmission fo r longer
than sixty days . As the chiefs began to lose their grip on
the Fi j ian Administration at the prov incial level to
English magistrates , there were frequent complaints from
the Bul is of Tailevu , Rewa and Kadavu about their young
men :
They come to Suva and put on no end of ' sid e '
amongst the women and wear collars and ties and
smart coats , sport crook walking sticks and turn
up in great fo rce at church - the Suva Me thodist
102
Jubilee Church on Sundays . They all do a minunum
of work and when any trouble arrives away back
they go to the Mataqali or the village and so
make sure of shel ter and food . 1 8
To av oid prosec tui on in the distric t courts , many returned
home on the fifty-ninth d ay then left again a few days
later.
After 1 91 2 absenteeism was no longer an offence fo r
only women need ed pe rmission of their parents or
men ;
guardians to be absent more than six ty days - a provision
In the same year a new Fi j ian
very hard to enfo rc e .
Employment Ord inance abolished the main safeguards o f
Thurston ' s l egislation ( the Fi j i Labour Ordinance of 1 895
and the Mas ters and Servants Ordinance
of
1 890 ) .
Henc efo rward any employer could sign on a married man
befo re any magistrate in the colony who could be satisfi ed
that the man had ' made provision' fo r his d ependants . If
the rec ruit had been voluntarily absent from his village
fo r two years , the employe r could sign him on and any
Fi j ian could renew his contrac t on expiry so long as the
employer paid his rates and taxes . ( Previously an employe r
had been obliged to return a man to his village . )
The way was open for rec ruiters to go into Fij ian
vil lages wi th hea�y bags o f ' yagona money ' . After the
cancel lation of Indian indentures in January 1 920 , there
was a sudden d emand in the sugar industry fo r Fi j ian
labour . Fij ian indentured men lived under much the same
wretched cond itions as had the Ind ians , but for sho rter
period s . They were more to lerant of c rowd ed cond itions ,
e spec ially i f they were wi thout women . CSR paid Fi j ian
recruiters fo r each man they produced in Lautoka fo r
engagement under the Masters and Servants Ordinance ( under
which no licences we re requi red fo r recruiters ) . 1 9 The men
were taken wi thout re ference to the Bul i of the distric t or
the situation of the villag e .
Communal
and
family
obligations we re easily evaded and at the end of the term
of indenture , usually s ix months or a year , the men often
returned to their villages penniless . Having planted no
garden , they had no food and depend ed on the strained
charity of relatives . Some did no t re turn fo r months if in
lieu of a passage home they we re paid a cash sum enabling
them to ho liday a while in the vil lage of their cho ic e ,
meeting no obligations o f any kind . For the first time in
the histo ry of Fi j i there we re reports of food sho rtages in
good years , while the villages entered upon a steady
103
physical dec line from the se ttlements of substantial ,
high- buil t heavily thatched houses o f old Fi j i towards the
uninsulated , ill- drained ovens o f wood and iron that later
decad es acc epted as normal .
By 1 927 I s lay McOwan , the
Secretary fo r Native Affairs , noting that the government
consid ered ' a supply o f l abour fo r ag ricul tural purpo ses
was of greater importance than the welfare of the natives
themselves ' ,
expressed
his
fear that the Fi j ian
Administration could collapse . 2 0
The re were , as explained in Chapter 5 ,
enough
continuities in vil lage and distric t life to prevent to tal
collapse ; erosion might be a bet ter wo rd fo r the effects
of the po licy the Colonial Office had rather meaninglessly
presc ribed as ' a careful regulation of the communal sys tem
accompanied by a gradual loosening of its bond s ' . 2 1 The
term ' communal sys tem ' was often used as if there we re some
entity supe rimpo sed and separable from Fi j ian so ciety which
c ould be modi fied at any t ime wi thout drastic modific ation
the households , villages and vanua of the groups
comprising that so ciety .
The semantic comfort o f such
phrase s as ' loosening the bond s ' conceal ed a wo olly
imprecision , a c liched liberalism of ' certain certainties '
about the nature of man and society .
One of these
certainties in twentieth c entury co lonial Fi j i wa s that any
restric tion on the personal liberty of Fij ians was an
' obstac le ' to their becoming ' full British subj ects ' in the
sense that Maoris were understood to be in New Zealand .
Fij ian so ciety , like all others , had to evolve through a
universal sequenc e of stages toward s the superior we stern
model of
' monogamous ,
individual istic ,
capital istic ,
" democratic " man
the culminating produc t of a natural
law o f inevitable progress ' realized mos t perfec tly to date
by the Anglo-Saxons wi th their civil liberties enshrined in
the common law and protec ted by the franchise . 2 2
•
•
•
Theoretical ly , then , the Fij ian Administration and the
Native Regulations we re regard ed as tempo rary expedients
sub j ec t to re fo rm and mod erni zation to bring Fi j ian so ciety
' more into line wi th the modern world ' , as it was often
put . Ye t specific re forms , as it has been seen above in
the
context o f hered i tary privilege , had left the
regulatory framework fo r Fi j ian life largely untouched by
retaining the Communal Services Regulation and the program
of work . At the same time , however , government condoned
mal e absenteeism as a safe ty valve , an escape route fo r
individual s .
1 04
The chiefs , fully aware of this into lerable dilennna ,
fought a spasmod ic rearguard defence . Wi thout direc tly
chal lenging the ethos of the day , lest they appear
disl oyal , the provincial council s and the Council of Chiefs
repeatedly urged spe cific measures to stem absenteeism ,
increase the control of the Bul i s , regul ate rec ruiting
activities , and ensure the re turn of labourers on expiry o f
their contrac ts .
I n 1 91 7 the chiefs urged the government
to give Bulis the power to compel men to return home if
they we re living in European towns and no t in regular
employment . To this and similar reque sts the Governor
repl ied that it was not po licy to restric t any further the
freed om of the individual . Nothing the chiefs could say
would
be
interpreted
other
than as
reac tionary
conservatism . In 1 923 they a sked pe rmission to increase
provincial rates for men absent from home l onger than
twelve months ( an estimated 1 5 per cent o f taxpayers or
3000 men , o f whom 840 were in pe rmanent employment) , and
repeated their reque st that no man be indentured wi thout
the approval of his Bul i . Bo th reso lutions we re rej ec ted .
An offic ial in the Secretariat added privately :
' I real ize
that the foundations of the " communal sys tem" are being
undermined , gradually but surely . Evolution is the natural
and philosophic order of thing s . ' 2 3
Perhaps what most exaspe rated the se al l-male councils
was their powerlessness to control the movement o f ·. _ �en .
Many women simply ignored the regulations .
They d rifted
into towns , went fo r rid es wi th Indian taxi d rivers , and
were sheltered by European and Chinese lovers . Fij ian male
prid e was outraged . In 1 92 6 Ra tu Sukuna proposed that the
regulations be tightened to compel a woman to obtain the
Bul i ' s consent b efo re l eaving her tikina fo r longer than
twenty- eight days . He insisted that colonial authorities
should defer to Fi j ian prac t ic e rather than more l iberated
western id eal s o f womanhood . Fij ian women , he argued , had
always to be in the power of a husband , parent , or
guardian : ' I t is undoub ted ly a grave que stion whether the
rights
of
civilised
women accustomed to moving in
over- po pulated cities should be allowed to native women
brought up in small villa� es .
In Suva and Levuka the
expe riment is proving fatal . ' 4
The chiefs had their way on some po ints .
After much
d ebate the Native Regulations Board re so lved that the sugar
mil ls and larger centres shoul d become ' prohibited areas '
to unchaperoned women unless they had a permit f rom a Bul i
for s tays longer than a month . As thi s proved ineffec t ive ,
105
the pe riod was reduc ed to a week in 1 932 , and two days in
1 93 5 . But the government rej ec ted a suggestion from Ba
Provincial Council in 1 92 5 tha t women be compe lled to weed
the villages and similar suggestions from other councils
that women be made to do some outsid e work .
Their
obligation to feed visitors was consid ered suffic ient .
In
1 93 3 the Council of Chiefs wanted a further regulation to
prohibit married women leaving their village wi thout
pe rmis sion of their husband s , but here the government
final ly drew the line : ' the coercion of women is not in
accordance with modern princ ipl es . A standard of conduc t
should be enfo rced by public opinion rather than by
Government Regulations . ' The chiefs had plainly despaired
of public opinion .
In 1 940 they even
reque sted
a
regulation to fine a woman 40s for leaving a child under 3
una ttended fo r more than hal f a day . A year later the Co lo
East Provincial Counc il suggested that women remaining in
prohibited areas should be whipped . 2 5
The missionaries had trad i tional ly rel ied no t only on
the chiefs but on the impact of the gospel itself to
preserve so cial disc ipl ine . In private correspondence they
we re often d isc ouraged by the resul ts : ' Thieving abounds
and such fo rnication as would disgrac e the beasts of the
field ' , wro te one . ' Never in my l i fe have I seen such an
Brown from
immoral place as this ' , wrote the Reverend w .
Lakeba in 1 91 3 , ' and the peopl e d o not seem to care . '
Fourteen years o f preaching later , the Reverend A . G .
Adamson wrote from the same island : ' There seems to be
very little love or anything lovely in them . It make s my
heart very sad when I think that the lotu had been here fo r
nearly 1 00 years and ye t it ' s mostly j us t
on
the
surface . ' 2 6 The chairman of the Me thodist mission , the
Reverend A. J . Smal l , used to urge his bre thren not to
fl ag :
' The cure is - rel igion at white heat , c lo thes , and
the safeguards that surround the well- ordered European
Chris tian house . ' Calling fo r ' a d eepe r spiri tual life in
the hearts o f our members ' , he lamented that first there
had to be ' produc ed in them a keener sense of the exceed ing
sinfulness o f sin' . 2 7
By the end of the 1 920s Me thodist missionaries sensed
that while their circuit organization had long been
interlocked with the struc tures o f distric t life to become
an integral part of Fi j ian community life - and as such was
not under threat - yet the church was losing control over
personal behaviour and fo rms of so c ial life .
Cho ir
prac tices ( vuli sere ) fo r ins tance , we re fun , a good excuse
1 06
fo r a Yaqona party and one of the best places to arrange a
rendezvous wi th the oppo site sex . In early 1 92 5 a simple
danc e that began as a game taught to boys and girl s in
Nad roga , the taralala , spread like an epid emic to the
farthest parts of the group .
The taralala brought the
sexes together for the first time in a vibrating throng , an
unprec edented
liberation from the stric tures of both
ancient etique tte and evangelical wowseri sm . The Reverend
Harold Chambers came back to his station at Niusawa on
Taveuni one day in 1 933 and was horrified to hear a great
stamping and shouting and whooping from his schoolchildren .
The re he found
two big girls from We lagi Koro
wriggling ,
and twisting their bodi es in sinuous movements ,
and shaking themselves in such a way , as to cause
their breasts to shake from sid e to sid e and up
and down , before the crowd of goggl ing boys and
in
the midst was the teacher
I was
staggered and hur t beyond words
sailed into
the lot , boys and girl s wi th my qanuya cane , and
whacked them right and left
expelled all
We lagi girls over 1 0 . 2 8
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
The taralala was a po ison infe c ting Fij ian moral life , the
Catho lic and Me thodist missionaries agreed , and they urged
government o ffic ers to hel p them stamp i t out .
The Di strict Commissione rs , asked their opinions in
1 93 1 , general ly agreed that the taralala was harmless in
itse lf but often led to ' immorali ties ' .
These they were
urged to try and prevent . The missionaries ialew o f more
than one case , though , where a DC thought it the best thing
that had happened to the villages in years and ac tively
encouraged the dancing to enl iven the dreary round of his
village inspections . The chil dren ' s teacher in Nad roga had
innocently created a minor revolution _in so cial mores . The
European missionaries could denounce it from the pulpits ,
but they put their canes away when they saw that the chiefs
and pe opl e would adopt whatever mus ic and cus toms they
enj oyed .
A century o f contac t wi th Europeans , reported Ratu
Sukuna from Lau , had long establi shed new tastes - ' for
clo thes and corned beef, for cereal s and finery , fo r tin
and iron roofing ' . Even so , wi th the exception of ' clothes
as the symbol of Christiani ty and light as the effulgence
of Divine Grace ' , these artic les o f the whiteman' s trad e
107
were ' still regarded a s luxuries ' . No t that their absence
would go unmourned . The year 1 93 2 was a good one for Lau .
Crops we re prolific , bananas went to was te , fish and
turtl es we re pl entiful , the re we re no hurricanes or storms
- ' all the conditions , in fac t , that only twenty or thirty
years ago would have mad e the pe riod a memorable one . The
attitud e now is the reverse ! ' And the reason was that copra
pric es we re fas t fal ling on the depressed world marke t :
the Lauans had l ess money to spend on non- essential s and
had come to think o f their agricul tural existence as
impoverished . 2 9
Children were staying long enough in school - financed
largely by their own parents - for Fij ian lead ers to speak
o f a rising generation who we re having difficul ty settl ing
back into village life :
As a body they look down on produc tive labour
connected wi th the so il . The curse that was upon
Adam they mean to av oid .
Their reasoning is
based on expe rience . Looking round they see , on
the one side , men of education clean and
wel l- dressed - appearances they have been taught
to respect - fil ling all the luc rative po sts ; on
the othe r , the simple fo lk dirty and untidy shortcomings fo r which they have been whipped
til ling the ground . They conclud e that education
( in the only fo rm known to them) is a panacea fo r
all human need s , providing for tho se who partake
of it clean and well paid j obs . 3 0
Young Fi j ians had come to asso ciate the immaculate
white fl annels of magistrates and Distric t Commissioners
wi th the prestige and power of we stern civilization .
They
looked wi th envy on tho se few o f their number who se
everyday d ress was the villag er ' s Sunday bes t , men who se
hands we re rarely to be seen grubbing out a yam or tying
thatch. The se were the ordained native ministers , the
assistant masters of the better schools , the native
magistrates , scribes , medical prac titione rs , c lerks in the
government offices in Suva and employees o f the merchant
house s - not exactly a middle c lass ye t , nor by any means
cut off from their villag e families , but c ertainly more
oriented to the status-world of the Europeans , and more
receptive to the appeal of ind iv idualism .
1 08
Fo r the colonial sys tem in Fi j i as everywhere offered
limited but still attrac tive new avenues fo r ind ividual
ambition . While the neo trad itional status sys tem continued
to flourish , it has been see n, some ind ividuals needed it
less than others :
they shifted ground away from the
vil lage and the assembli es of the land to cut a name fo r
themselves in the church , the regular civil service , and
the business houses .
Whil e they d id no t move compl etely
from one life to another , they we re certainly learning to
be part- time ope rators in a world where the idiom was not
that of custom . And it was a wo rld where they could begin
to measure themselves by European standard s of comfo rt ,
expe rtise or power
and fe el disadvantaged .
For the
fifth- class c lerk on £50 a year , for the Mo rris Hedstrom ' s
messenger boy , or the assistant master at the Queen
Vic to ria School , it was not generally pl easant to be on the
bot tom rung , however great the pride of the wife or mo ther
who pressed the crisp white col lar .
No t surprisingly the Wesl eyan church was the first
institution to feel the push o f upward mobility : indeed
European minis ters we re sho cked by the fo rce wi th which the
Native Ministers , almost from the beginning , reso lved to
improve their po sition. Me da dua vata , ' let us be one ' ,
was their platform by the late nine teenth c entury . Wi th
apt appeal to the Johannine tex t of Chris t ' s praye r fo r
unity amongst his d isc ipl es , the Fij ian divines urged that
unity was better expressed in so cial equality immediately
than pious acknowledgments that all would be j udged equally
on the Last Day . ' They obj ec t to be to ld to wait on the
verandah while we go to our meal s ' , c omplained the Reverend
c.o.
Lelean to the mission chairman in 1 904 ; the Fij ians
fel t they should eat wi th their European colleague s at the
same table and not have to endure what Lel ean himself
d esc rib ed a s ' the many little ways we treat them as
inferiors ' - such as providing tin mugs fo r Fij ians and
glassware fo r whites . The missionary thought it outrageous
that Fi j ians should notice and comment so accurately on the
pe tty hal lmarks of white prestige . If a delegation came to
him , he said , he would single out fo r rid icul e one he had
' seen that very week spitting on the floor ' , and then tell
the group ' they mus t trus t to us to decid e as to when and
how improvement in their po sition was to take pl ac e ' . 3 1 The
chairman of the mission was equally scathing :
Me da dua vata . And now from Ba comes a l engthy
document in which the Native Ministers put fo rth
the modest reque st to be dua vata , i . e . , on an
1 09
equality wi th the missionaries - si t on their
chairs , eat at their tables , live in fine houses ,
d raw more salary , have their travell ing expenses
paid .
They also read
a lecture
to
the
missionaries on the way they should conduc t
themselves to the chiefs . Wi th al l -se riousness
they s tate that the ad option of these suggestions
wo ul d tend to the promotion of the wo rk o f God ! 3 2
The European missionaries particularly feared Fi j ian
control of mission finances .
' The maj ority of Native
Ministers ' , pl eaded the chairman in 1 923 ,
do NOT d esire that they should be l eft to the
tender mercies of their chiefs in regard to their
stipend s . Central [ European] control is to them
sure control
And you mus t take the NATIVE
MIND into consideration when attempt ing to put
responsibility on him .
You c annot give him
re sponsib il i ty i f he d oes not want it and re fuses
to accept it
The Fij ian has all that he
d esires in the way of responsibility at the
present time . 3 3
•
•
•
•
A d ecad e later , sho rtly after re trenchments o f Europeans
had finally fo rced the appo intment o f the first Fi j ian to
be given charge of a whole c ircuit ( in Bua) , the Reverend
Harold Chambers spoke for many when he warned , ' I am not
convinced that the Fij ian consc ience has been suffic iently
educated , as ye t , to the abso lute sac redness of a financial
trust . ' There was something in that , perhaps , though a
greater problem was that mos t o f the Aus tral ian ministers
uncritically identified with e stablishment views . Just as
the Ind ian indenture sys tem was l ong condoned , so the
Fij ians were seen as pe rpe tual ly in a state of transition :
' They wi ll not be ready fo r [ re sponsibil ity] 5 0 years ye t .
They must walk first , then increase their pac e . • 3 4
The Roman Catho lic mission was profoundly committed to
' progressive ' education in its school sys tem but no t wi thin
its own institutions . Whereas the Wesl eyans had ordained
fo rty teachers by 1 870 and had sent many to evangelize the
Solomons and New Guinea , Fi j ian participation in the
Ca tho lic endeavour was long limited to local catechetical
work or to membership o f a body found ed by Bishop Vidal in
1 89 1 , ' Les Petits Freres Ind igenes ' and a similar rel igious
asso ciation fo r women . Li ttle Brothers and Li ttle Sisters
1 10
were given no liturgical or preaching responsibilities or
any a rea of real initiative . They took vows of poverty ,
chastity and obedience to their ( white) superiors under
whom they l ived in community
never in the villages .
Until the 1 960s the duties o f Fij ian rel igious seem to have
been to assist in the schools and to cook , wash , and garden
fo r the priests and nuns . In 1 922 Bi sho p Nicho las noted
that over forty Li ttle Brothers had taken vows and that
some fifteen of them had died ' de la facon la plus
ed ifiante ' • 3 5 Edi fying in d eath , perhaps , but no foundation
fo r a truly Fij ian church . The general problem of Fi j ian
educational l evels , a colonialist sc eptic ism amongst the
European clergy that they c ould ever be replac ed , and the
awesome obligation of priestly c el ibacy , to which a dozen
or more we re cal led but few chosen , kept the church
massively dependent on expatriate staff. ( In 1 974 over 300
Europeans we re listed in the Catho lic Directory . )
Outsid e the churches and the Fij ian Administrat ion
the re was only one body of educated Fij ians seeking a
distinc t voice in colonial affairs - the Vit i Cauravou , or
Young Fi j i Soc iety . R. A. Derrick , influential headmaster
of the Davuil evu Technical Schoo l , sponsored an old boys '
society in 1 922 .
I t expanded rapidly to includ e any
educated Fi j ian engaged in ' some use ful j produc tive work as
oppo sed to tiko wal e ga [ bumm ing around ' and was committed
to broad ly progressive goal s . 3 6 Government
cautiously
recogni zed in the so ciety ' the articulate expression of
this vague groping of the younger generation towards a new
system ' 3 7 mos t
evident in their trenchant
so cial
c ri t ic ism of the institutional constraints on ind ividual
initiative :
' I t is very d i fficul t ' , one of their leaders
wrote , ' for the men to be free and to decide their own work
to gain prospe rity and weal th . ' 3 8 Apolosi had been eloquent
on the same theme fo r over twenty years but these elegant
men were to o respec table to acknowledge any debt to the man
from Ra .
Viti Cauravou confe renc es provided an orderly but
freer vehicle of Fi j ian opinions than the decorous
When the
provincial councils and Council of Chiefs .
Se c retary fo r Native Affa i rs , Islay Mc Owan, agreed to open
the 1 927 confe rence , the movement gained a fo rmal measure
of respe c tabil i ty and a l imited right of d ialogue wi th
government . Until World War I I , reso lut ions we re fo rwarded
to McOwan ' s o ffic e fo r comments and replies . At its peak
in the mid 1 930s it c laimed 4000 members . · 3 9
111
In 1 930 the Viti Cauravou sounded a more disc ordant
no te when it presented the Governor with a pe tition wi th
' Many
5858 signatures fo r laws to preserve racial purity .
o f our women have chil dren by non- natives ' , the document
read , ' and the Chinese are the worst o ffend ers . ' As a body
they we re
fiercely nationalistic
and not at all
conciliatory to the rights and need s of the
Indian
community :
' I t is our desire to remai � 0united with the
Europeans but not wi th the
Indians . '
Similarly on
que stions of land rights they were generally oppo sed to the
considerable concessions Fi j ian lead ers
and
colonial
authorities had already mad e in a partial effort to come to
grips wi th the overwhelming d emographic fac t of the 1 930s :
the youthful Indian po pul ation , 85 , 000 in 1 936 , was only
1 2 , 000 fewer than the Fi j ian and soon to become a maj ority .
On the Indian que stion the Viti Cauravou was so lidly in
accord with the trad itional Fi j ian view that the colonial
government had created the problem to meet European
economic need s and now had to manage i t in such a way that
Fi j ian interests would always be paramount .
Chapter 8
Compromise fo r a mul tirac ial so ciety
Prior to the 1 930s Fi j ians had not fel t unduly
threatened by the presence of Ind ians and had been content ,
by and large , to leave the detail s o f their separate
management
to the colonial government and the sugar
indus try .
From 1 887 , when the first indentures we re expi ring ,
until
about
1 91 0 ,
Fi j ian owne rs we re tolerant and
accommodating to individual Ind ians who prefe rred to fend
for themselves rather than live in the o ffic ial Indian
segregated se ttl ements ( on blocks o f Fi j ian land leased for
the purpose by the government or on Crown land ) . Igno ring
government regulations al toge the r , it seems that Indians
we re able to come to free- and- easy deal s direc tly wi th the
owners .
' Consid erable
irregularity prevail s ' ,
no ted
W. L . Allardyc e in 1 889 , ' as natives are seldom loath to
give any one a piece of land to live on fo r a small
pecuniary consideration on a verbal und erstand ing between
l esso r and lessee . ' 1 The
regulat ions
requi red
that
appl ications had to be approved by the tikina council and
forwarded through the Roko to the Governor- in-Council .
In
1 909 it was reported from Labasa that Indians blithely
d isregard ed the proper channel s , bribed the owners direc tly
and se ttled for al l kind s o f loose arrangements . 2 A mutual
contempt fo r time- consuming l egal processes was a constant
feature of Fij ian-Ind ian land transac tions .
One can only speculate what might have emerged had
Fi j ians and Indians been allowed to devise their own
so lut ions to the land problem and more Ind ians been al lowed
to sc at ter throughout the group and attach themselves to
the edges of village so ciety . Children would have mixed
freely and easily ;
schools , churches and even families
might have taken them in , as happened to an unknown number
of part-Fij ian desc endants of the ' Po lynesian' labourers
( mainly New Hebrid eans and So lomon Islanders recruited from
the 1 860s until 1 91 2 ) .
I t is inconceivable that rac ial
lines would have been so sharply d rawn in later d ecad e s had
not
the government b een dedicated to keeping the
communities institutional ly and phys ically separate .
From 1 91 0
government
decid ed
to
enfo rce
the
concentration of Ind ians in the sugar provinces o f Viti
Levu and Vanua Levu and c lose off the outer island s and
112
1 13
other areas o f Fi j ian po pul ation by the simple device of
refusing lease s to new appl icants l est they ' scatter
the
through
themselves
indisc riminately
colony' 3 Absolut ely no thought was given to developing
mul tirac ial institut ions of local government in the rural
areas , nor to extending the j urisdic tion
of Fij ian
authorities over Indian se ttl ements , nor to giving Ind ians
a pl ace in Fi j ian councils at any level . Where Fij ians and
Indians were neighbours in closely settled parts such as
Navua and Ba , the ho spitable inclinations of each community
rec eived no encouragement , despi te the fluency some Indians
acquired in Fi j ian and the wil lingness o f many Fi j ians to
learn some Hindus tani pl easantries and even j oin in Ind ian
festivals o r spo rting events . Individuals might share a
bowl of ' grog ' ( yaqona ) on occasion , bo rrow tools , barter
foodstuffs or chat at the marke ts , but there was almost no
intermarriage , and Indian children we re no t admitted to
Fi j ian schools .
Each c ommunity , then , ad jus ted to a
pattern of qui te cordial but re served relationships neither
seeking nor being educated into truly common bonds of
c itizenship. 4
•
Bo th c ommunities we re preoccupied less wi th each other
than wi th the hard- line d ominance of Europeans in every
po sition of economic and po litical power at national level .
Fi j ian chiefs we re apprehensive during World War I that
government seemed se t on abolishing the Native Department
as a separate id entity . Three senior Rokos appealed to the
Gov ernor in 1 91 5 to try and understand how much the old
sys tem meant to them .
If destroyed , they said , ' it is
pl ain to us that we Fi j ians will never be known
again ' . 5 For the re would be no sec tion of government
ex clusively d ealing with Fi j ian affairs and safeguarding
Fi j ian rights , no Talai whom the chiefs and humblest
villagers could approach pe rsonally on mat ters great or
trivial and through him gain the ear of the Supreme Chief.
The se fears were realized in 1 92 1 when the Native
Secretariat was fully merged into the Co lonial Secretary ' s
o ffic e
and
the Tal ai ' s
po sition given
to
an
Under-Secretary .
In pl ace of the offic ial to who se Suva
quarters Fi j ians had always b een able to go in the
assurance of a courteous hearing and a lively understand ing
of their affairs , they we re re ferred back to the provincial
headquarters of the overwo rked and usually inexperienced
District Commissione rs .
Having the agency o f every
government d epartment in addition to their magisterial
rounds of the whole popul ation , the DC s had little time to
1 14
att end to Fi j ian affairs even if they had the inclination .
Nor were they bound by any c l earer Fi j ian po licy than the
ad ho e decisions of the Co lonial Secretary .
The se detrimental changes coincid ed with the first
serious chal lenge to the European establishment from the
Ind ians . After World War I the Indians we re suffe ring
acut ely from sharp increases in the cost o f impo rted
stapl es wi th no red res s from increased wages .
They we re
often po orly nourished
and
riddled with parasi tic
infec tions such as hookwo rm . Labourers in the Suva-Nauso ri
area , fo rced to the barest l evel of subsis tence , were
encouraged by the cancellation of all indentures on
January 1 920 and the removal of the penal sanctions which
had kept the maj ority of Indians d isorganized and depressed
since their first arrival in 1 879 . On 1 5 January 1 920
Ind ian labourers of the Public Works Department began a
strike that the panicky autho rities regard ed as having all
the po tential of a rac e war .
And in truth it was the
beginning of a long overdue struggle by Fi j i ' s 60 , 000
Indians to gain an equal position of d ignity and power in
the colony .
Aus tralia cheerfully s ent a warship , New
Zealand sent six ty t roops and Lewis guns , all Suva' s
Europeans we re unde r arms and a few hundred Fij ian
aux il iaries patrolled the streets whil e the Indians had
angry meetings , wrote l etters and sent a d eputation to
Government House head ed by a housewife .
Some ugly
confrontations took place but the strike rs we re armed only
wi th sticks and stones when the po lice finally fired into a
c rowd
on 1 2 February and kil led a man and wounded
several . 6 The s trike collapsed , but the Indian blood on
the road at Samabula l eft a stain of insecurity and fear
for decades .
The fo llowing year saw a six months ' strike in the
main sugar areas of Vit i Levu . When the troub le began on
the Ba estates in February 1 92 1 , CSR was l eft without any
househo ld or plantation labour . Hund reds o f Indians moved
into Fij ian towns and we re sympathetic al ly received ,
especially in Sigatoka where some Fij ians employed by the
Company al so l eft work .
The French missionary at Ba
reported to his Bishop that the Ind ians c anvassed Fi j ian
villages fo r suppo rt and that many Fi j ians attended Indian
po li tical meetings :
' they unders tand the Indians pretty
fairly' . 7 ' We white peopl e recogni zed the pe ril ' , recalled
the Reverend Stanley Jarvis a year lat er, and he and two o f
his Me thodist colleague s , Wesley Amos and
J . F . Long ,
stomped the countrys id e to pe rsuade Fi j ians ' not to get
1 15
entangled with the Ind ians and their lawlessness ' .
The
minis ters , wi th the suppo rt o f the Provincial Commissioner
of Ba , H . C . Monckton , arranged fo r Fi j ians to evic t their
Indian gue sts and feed the Company l ivesto ck instead , or
weed the railway l ines . Hundred s of Fi j ians l eft their
villages to live in the old ' coo lie ' lines for 2 s 6d a day
and food . Jarvis wa s known as ' the CSR Chaplain ' fo r his
work ;
when the strike was broken the Company cel ebrated
wi th a dinner in his honour and a gift of £ 1 00 .
The
Manager at Ba presented eng raved walking sticks to Tui Ba ,
Tui Nadi and a chief from Nad roga fo r their ' loyal suppo rt
in the time of stress ' • 8
An equally
grateful
government
reassessed
the
impo rtance of Fi j ian po litical suppo rt and reaffirmed its
c ommitment to the paramountcy of Fi j ian interests .
The
Colonial Secretariat repented of the so rry s tate of the
Fi j ian Administration .
The
chiefs now saw their
oppo rtunity to mend some fences and regain some of the
influence they had recently lost .
In a letter almost
c ertainly drafted by Ratu Sukuna , three of the chiefs
protested against the control of Fi j ian affairs by
Europeans and the abolition of the Native Secretariat as a
separate department . 9 Late r they expanded their case at a
info rmal meeting with Ratu Sukuna and two o ffic ial s o f the
Colonial Sec retariat . They d eplored the complete lack o f
coordination of Fi j ian po licy and prac tice and defended the
concept of a native department as
a
representative
institut ion , a powe rful and hithe rto suc cessful advocate of
the ' spec ial conditions ' for Fij ian partic ipation in the
life of the co lony - conditions which had protec ted their
autonomy and dignity in the past and would alone guarantee
their future . As an exampl e of the low priority they fel t
Fi j ian affairs we re allocated i n the new order , Ratu Pope
Seniloli of Bau complained of young DC s who demanded full
cus tomary honours (veiqaravi vakaturaga ) that
Fi j ians
wanted to reserve fo r high chiefs and direct emissaries
from Valel evu , the house of the Supreme Chief . And few DCs
who received the honours understood their signific ance or
responded with the courtesy and warmth expec ted of a
chiefly recipient .
For the peopl e the ceremonies we re
becoming a d egrading routine of cold and cynical gestures .
It was the same wi th the feasts and meke s that the DCs ,
harbingers o f the promoters o f tourism , d emanded that the
pe opl e put on for their private visitors . Yet if a chief
wa s visiting the provinc e and paid his respects to the
Provincial Commissioner in lieu of a Roko , he was not
accorded like ho spi tality or fac il i ties . l o
1 16
So seriously did the chiefs fear a dec lining vo ic e in
colonial affairs that Ratu Rabic i made a rare Fi j ian
intervention in the Leg islative Council to ask in December
1 923 that a Talai be appo inted and his salary paid from
Fij ian funds . In reply the Co lonial Se cretary admitted
that Fi j ian affairs were beyond him . Fo r a start he knew
no Fi j ian. His principal assis tant , D . R . Stewart , then
spoke :
As the so- cal l ed superviso r of native affairs I
more or less resemble the head of a tur tl e which ,
d ecapitated from the body , continue s to look as
if it is alive .
I t is dead , but its eyes
c ontinue to wink , and winking at things is not
much use .
The body of the tur tl e
is
g radually d ecomposing ' . 1 1
•
The cel ebration fo r the Go lden Jubilee of Ce ssion at
Levuka in 1 924 gave the chiefs an oppo rtunity to appeal ye t
again ' to see firmly established
the
principl e of
government in accordance with
the cus toms o f the
land ' 1 2 They fel t that the partnership established by
Gordon and Thurston had been betrayed to some extent ; the
promises mad e at Cession we re no t being honoured .
Their
reque st fo r a Tal ai was renewed in 1 92 5 and met the
approval of the new Governor , Si r Eyre Hutson . 1 3 I slay
McOwan was appo inted Secretary for Nat ive Affairs in 1 926 ,
but it was to be twenty years befo re the Roko s we re
relieved of c lose supe rvision by Di stric t Commissione rs
through whom all co rre spond ence had to pass . In 1 930 only
four provinces
Cakaud rove , Ra , Macuata and Kadavu enj oyed full control of Fi j ian affairs in Fi j ian hands , but
the fo rce of trad itional chiefly l ead ership survived in the
large number of Roko s or Native Assistants who were
heredi tary chiefs in the provinces to which they were
appo inted . It was demonstrated above in the career of Ratu
Ase ri Latianara
( Chapter
4 ) how very useful these
appo intments remained in the pursui t of purely local
po litical ambitions .
•
Similarly i t was general po licy to show a certain
leniency towards chiefs who misappropriated provincial
funds , as seen in the case of Ratu Pope Seniloli , Roko Tui
of Tail evu from 1 920. A great sportsman and fond of the
good life , Ratu Pope entertained Fi j ian and European
visitors to Bau on a sc al e commensurate wi th his dignity as
Vunivalu of Bau but not wi th his o ffic ial sal ary . In 1 922
117
he began
to draw occasional ly on prov incial funds ,
confident that his peopl e would be understand ing i f he got
into difficul ties . As he told it :
Well months went by and one day a chap from the
Gov ernment came in a launch - rather a blighter ,
I thought . We had a spo t o f whisky and a cigar ,
and he said :
' Ratu , the tid e ' s turning and I
must be pushing on . I ' ve called , you know , to
take back that tax money . ' I said , ' I ' m rather
afraid , old boy , that I can ' t lay my hands on it
14
now . ' He seemed a bit miffed
aud it reveal ed a defic it o f £764 1 6s 8 d . Ratu Pope made
no ex cuses o ther than his heavy commitments . On 7 February
1 924 the Governor cabled the Secretary o f State : ' In view
o f high chiefly po sition and for po litical reasons do no t
recommend criminal proceeding s .
Case can sc arcely be
vi ewed in light of European ethic s
' Wi th London ' s
approval the popul ar chief was dismissed as Roko Tui , asked
to resign his seat in the Leg islative Council , but not
charged .
Even so the Bul is and chiefs of Tailevu ,
assembled in provincial council , received the Governor ' s
d ecis ion coldly and declined to acc laim it in the customary
way . Later they had to apo logise ( soro) to the Governor at
Government House . The high chiefs ,"IiiOSt of them connected
wi th Bau by marriage , we re unanimous that Ratu Pope should
be reinstated , and they pe titioned fo r his pa rdon on
several occasions .
Meanwhil e Ratu Pope himself began
repaying his d ebt and was finally reins tated on probation
as Native As sis tant in 1 928. 1 5
An
•
•
•
In the late 1 920s , then , Fi j ians still
had
a
hal f-hearted endorsement from the colonial government of
their prefe rence fo r separate institutions , nor were
furthe r attacks made on their land rights . Ratu Sukuna ' s
Native Lands Commission made steady progress
towards
c larifying and registering customary t itles under co lonial
law - the failure of im Thurn ' s reformation and Colonial
Office instruc tions had left the government wi th no other
the
cho ice .-1 6 Some finali ty in communal
titl es was
prerequisite for rural peac e , the security o f the Fij ian
estate , and smooth l easing arrangements fo r non-Fij ians .
The Native Land s Commission had a fo rmidable task , fo r
cus tomary t enure had always been fl exible , which is no t to
say confused : chaos l ay more in the outsid er ' s mind unab le
to fathom the sub tl e princ ipl es and his to ric precedents
1 18
which Fi j ian community l ead ers would bring to bear on any
d ecision about a piece o f land , e specially non- planting
land where rights we re vague or subsid iary . The re was much
room fo r po litical manoeuv res and ad hoe compromise ;
occasionally disput es simmered for years .
The changing
needs of househo lds ( as some groups increased and others
d ecreased ) , the location of a new road , or a d ecision to
invest in a commercial crop such as bananas , s till more the
enforced move of a v·i l lage to a heal thier site , we re the
kind of changes which l ed to the real location of land
resources . In any case as David Wilkinson once put it , ' A
Fi j ian has an innate obj ec tion to finality in land
que stions ' l 7
•
Ratu Sukuna ' s land hearings we re fo rmal but not
awe- inspi ring :
at times he had to invoke legal sanc tions
to achieve due d ecorum .
His obj ective was to achieve
settl ements that had the approval of most l andowners and
gave equitable shares to minority groups such as the
refugees o f fo rmer wars . Se ssions we re generally attended
by a large , keenly aware aud ience from surrounding
distric ts who could intervene i f their own rights we re
threatened . When the final c lassificat ions and boundaries
we re promulgated , i t was then up to the community i tsel f as
to how far or in what respec ts the offic ial version of
their
society
displaced
the
pre- exist ing
social
organization . To the confusion of some anthropo logists and
later generations o f the peopl e themselves , the one
interac ted wi th the other. Dec isions on the use of l and
may have continued at one l evel to be mad e in the old way ,
but then if a dispute came to litigation , the offic ial
records we re there to achieve a final ity o f d ec ision no t
previously available .
From the few appeals mad e agains t his d ec isions , i t is
interesting to see how care fully the Oxford- trained chief
appl ied the criteria of both equi ty and cus tom to oral
evidence .
He was prepared on occasion to ignore the
In
arrangements put up by the peopl e and impo se his own .
one case he set asid e the c lassificatory s tatements of both
parties : ' for we conceive it a higher duty to make a
reasonab le settl ement of your land s than to accept any
d ivis ion agreed
to
by you which
is
obviously
inequi table ' . 1 8 In ano ther from the chiefly family o f
Cakaud rove , Ratu Sukuna rej ected i n summary fashion an
attempt by the highe st chief to enlarge his pe rsonal
holding at the expense of the other members of the chiefly
For both cus tom and equi ty required that the
mataqal i .
119
chief who al ready owned 1 500 acres should not receive any
part o f the 1 000 acres shared by the other 1 80 members of
his mataqal i . 1 9 In the same province Ra tu Sukuna took the
unusual step of reopening the inqui ry into the land s at
Vuna when it came to his notic e that the chiefly mataqali
had wronged the subordinate mataqali - whose lands the
chiefs had sold befo re Ce ssion - by not mentioning to the
Commissioners that the subord inate mataqali had been given
compe nsatory pl anting rights on the chief ' s land .
Ratu
Sukuna regis tered these rights as encumbrances on the
titl e . In a most reveal ing statement , he remarked that the
Vuna peopl e being
courteous and courtly i n the presence of their
chief would not consid er it proper to press their
claims
Though there is an estoppal I am of
the opinion that the equi ty mus t from the
adminis trative sid e be more se riously consid ered .
Surely the Commission is not a court : so that in
deal ing wi th nat ives reason weighs more than
legal technical i ti es .2 0
•
•
•
Ratu Sukuna ' s work was wel l done , in the Fij ian view .
There seems no reason to doub t his own repo rted statement
that there would have been few or no appeal s at all had he
not
always
suggested
appeal
if the re was any
d issatisfaction . 2 1 Most appeals we re more a record of
d isappo intment than a serious attempt to reverse decisions .
Ratu Sukuna b elieved that the critic s o f the NLC would be
hard pressed to find any l as ting sense of grievance agains t
its d ecisions - whi ch was j us t as well , because as one
Governor noted , there was no one else quali fied to review
the evidence . 2 2
Satisfaction may have been real at the t ime - if there
were grievances they we re kept ' in the family ' and did not
embroil the Administration . But there was no guarantee
that the heirs to the parties who made certain deals at the
time of the NLC
e.g.
that the chiefly title would
alternate between two lineages
wo uld endorse the
d ecisions of thei r fathers .
Thus the original legal
settlement could itself b ecome a source of d ispute in later
years .
The inab il i ty of colonial law to sustain the whole
range of subsid iary rights s till recognized at custom ( e . g .
tho se acqui red by new periods o f l ong co- residence ) meant
120
some loss i n the ability o f the community to meet future
needs , especial ly those created by new arrival s .
The
migratory habits o f Fi j ians hardly c eased at Cession . When
the legal penal ty fo r absenteeism was abolished in 1 91 2 , it
was again easy fo r a Fi j ian to exploit a po li tical and
social relationship and move to ano ther distric t or
prov ince .
Wherever the NLC had held its hearings , the re
was no longer any way the
outsid er coul d
acqui re
proprietary rights except to lease from the true owners or
live on suffe rance as a second- class vulagi , newcomer. ( By
independ ence one- third to one-hal f o f Fi j ians lived away
from their own land s . ) Ano ther loss o f fl exibil ity was that
the
offic ial lists of desc ent groups overlooked the
househo ld as a real uni t of so ciety and did not allow fo r
the
ongoing
process of d e fac to segmentation and
amalgamation as kinship groups increased or decreased .
Inequal ities o f distribut ion we re bound to increase wi th
time , for offic ial lists of mataqal i could not accommodate
the inherent fluid ity of Fi j ian kinship struc ture . Not
that these kind s o f academic observations are of much po int
unless a prac tical way can be suggested fo r achieving a
pe riodic red istribut ion of land resources whil e maintaining
the
finality and
c lear procedures that would seem
indispensable fo r preserving peac e .
In later years the security o f inal ienab le and
meticulously record ed Fi j ian land rights , the envy o f o ther
Pac ific peopl es , was to become a tremend ous problem fo r
land- seeki ng Indians .
It has o ften been said in Ind ian
circles that Fi j ians seemed determined to deny an economic
future on the land for Ind ians and others even when the
owners themselves we re unwilling or unab le to bring their
land s
into full produc tion .
The same complaint was
standard earlier in the century in local European po litical
comment , but it was poorly based . After the land sales o f
1 905 -08 , Europeans al ready had freeho ld titl e t o 3 93 , 000
acre s and in 1 91 1 some of the best o f these lands inc lud ing prime river fl ats on the Dreketi and Sigatoka
Rivers
were lying idle . Add to this 320 , 000 acres of
Fi j ian land held by the government fo r leasing and it is
hard to cred it the propaganda o f the Planters Association
that the Fi j ian land monopo ly was the main reason the
co lony was slow to progress . 2 3 Yet the elec ted members o f
the Leg isl ative Council we re cons tantly urging , i n the
wo rd s of one , that ' the nativ e owne rs should not be allowed
to defeat the best interests o f the
community and
themselves owing
to men tal inab il ity
t radition ,
supe rstition or sentiment ' . 2 4
•
•
•
121
Many government officers we re i n quiet ag reement .
After five years in Lau a magistrate wrote in 1 91 4 that it
was ' a most retarding influence on its development that
most of the coconut land is tied up in the hands o f id le
natives , who wil l not l ease it and will not use it
themselves ' .
He estimat ed that where the Fi j ians we re
earning about £40 , 000 a year from their nuts , Europeans on
the same land s would make £400 , 000 , ' and one of the biggest
assets of the Colony would not be los t ' • 2 5 The notion that
Fi j ian land was an asset of the colony , o f the who le
mul tirac ial community , an asset wasted in the hands of the
idle natives , underlay mos t of the non-Fi j ian po litical
rhetoric or adminis trative comment on Fi j ian lands in the
co lonial pe riod . The impl ic it invocat ion of the highe r law
that the earth bel ongs to al l was not wi thout effec t , it
wi ll be seen , on the Fi j ians themselves .
Im Thurn ' s successo r , Sir F . Henry May , was allowed
to resume efforts to persuad e the peopl e that they should
surrender voluntarily the control of surplus lands on
equi table terms .
' No wise landlord ' , May l ectured the
Council of Chiefs in 1 91 1 , ' lets good agricul tural land lie
id le and unproduc tiv e ' , espe cial ly i f there we re tenants
o ffe ring ' good hard gold ' as rent . Six provinces ( Tai levu ,
Cakaud rove , Ra , Rewa , Colo North and Co lo Eas t ) admitted to
having more land s they could l ease . The chiefs reso lved to
hand over to the government the control of unused land s and
land s under lease when such l eases expi red - the government
to fix the terms of the leases as it saw fit . ' I t is our
wish that al l future appl ications
be made direct to
the
Gov ernment .
We fully t rust the Government will
safeguard our interests in d eal ing wi th our land s . ' I t was
also ag reed that the government deduc t 5 per cent o f rents
by way of agency fees - increased to 1 0 per cent in 1 91 2 . 2 6
•
•
•
I t was soon reveal ed that the Fi j ian interpretation of
' was te and unused ' and that o f the government we re widely
d ivergent . Land was used in Fi j ian eyes if it yi elded the
oc cas ional wi ld yam fo r the po t or timber fo r a house .
Prac tical ly no good land was handed ov er in the desirable
areas .
The government d ecreed that from 1 January 1 91 6 no
fur ther leasing of Fi j ian land would be al lowed unless it
had fi rst been handed over to government control . Fi j ians
we re thus asked to
forgo valuable
rights wi thout
compensation ,
and not surprisingly there was some
oppo sition from tho se who saw what was happening .
Apo losi ' s friend Ro Tuisawau o f Rewa and others protested
that the dispo sal o f their land s was their ' pre rogative and
122
that of our desc endants until the end of the world ' . 2 1 Then
in 1 91 6 the government l egisl ated a new deal for the Ind ian
and other tenants of Fi j ian land s . If the owners refused
to hand over their leases to the government , the lessee
desiring an extension could demand compensat ion to the
value of his pe rmanent and unexhausted improvements to the
land .
The government hoped to prevent Fij ians e j ecting a
lessee unfairly - often at the instance of another Indian
coveting the l ease and offe ring a bigge r bribe . Al l
transac tions in Fij ian land were declared invalid unless
approved in writing by the Governor- in-Counc i 1 . 2 a
Opposition t o government control was strongest i n Ba
where many villages we re short of l and fo r their own need s .
A l etter signed by 242 men o f the Bulu and Nailaga
d is tric ts put their obj ection none too po litely : ' I f we
were to approve , what would happen to us in the future?
Where would we l ive? Or are our wives and chil dren to live
applications had
in caves wi th the goats? ' 2 9 Lease
previously been regarded
by Fij ians as heaven- sent
oppo rtunities for easy spo il .
Unfortunately , in the
absence of complete surveys i t was o ften still necessary
under the new sys tem for an appl icant to desc ribe the
boundaries wi th the hel p of the owners ; the re was no way
government c ould
prevent
Ind ians
from
offe ring
' inducements ' to Fij ian owners to surrend er their land in
the first place . The owners c ould ad jus t the amount to
compe nsate
for the anticipated rent ( decid ed by the
government ) . Thi s ' undoub ted burlesque ' of the regul ations
was not c al culated to appeal to the Indian appl icants the
government was trying to help . 3 0
On the o ther hand it would be d i fficul t to prove that
the
surrender of c ontrol to the government or the
avail ability of land on easy t erms l ed to the energetic
development o f the colony . There was some consternation at
the Council of Chiefs in 1 920 as to what the government
real ly desired in regard to unused land s .
Ratu Pope
Seniloli even had a motion passed that the government
should ' bring from England men to o ccupy our lands and to
develop them and so to assist in the prospe rity of the
natives ' . 3 1 I f Fi j i o ffe red such po t ential , why had the
settl ers not come? And the government had disappo inted
Fi j ians in its agency role . In the early 1 920s rents we re
tremendously in arrears . In 1 923 outs tanding rents in Nadi
we re £ 3691 of the total rent roll of £ 5442 . In Suva
arrears we re about 65 per cent . Rents in Tail evu we re in
some cases unpaid for seven or eight years . Land owners
1 23
were kept wai ting fo r days at the offices o f the Provincial
Commissione rs only to come away wi th nothing . 3 2
I f Fi j ians had reason to be disillusioned ,
the
European colonists we re still far from satisfied . In a
memorandum to the Secretary o f St ate in 1 924 , Si r Maynard
Hed strom acknowledged the difficul ty o f securing marke ts
fo r crops
Aus tral ia had c losed its door to Fi j ian
bananas ,
for instance
but the re we re encouraging
prospe cts fo r dairying , cotton and pineappl e , he argued ,
which made it desirable that the Co lonial Office reconsid er
its po licy and allow nat ive lands to be made more easily
The Fi j ians we re ' a primitive
available for settl ement .
and underd eveloped peopl e ' who should no t be allowed
' through caprice or through l ack o f knowledge , to hinder
and obstruc t the natural development of the Colony' • 3 3
In the absence o f Si r Cec il Rodwell , who agreed wi th
Hed strom , the Ac ting Governor , T . E .
Fel l , refuted the
charge of Fi j ian obs truc tionism , citing the example of the
Ra pe opl e who had surrend ered 76 , 000 acres during the
previous six years - the Tova Es tate - while the Provincial
Counc il s of Macuata , Cakaud rove and Bua in 1 923 had
reiterated their wil lingness to hand over surplus l ands .
Finally Fel l predic ted that a time would come when Fi j ians
themselves would be
able
to
develop their land s
commercially :
' future gene rations may have surprises in
store ' . 3 4
About 1 930 , when a large number of Indian sugar leases
were up for renewal , some Fij ians in tho se provinces
expres sed interes t in working the
land
themselves .
Landowners began to query the wisdom of surrendering , say ,
1 0 acres o f mataqali land fo r £ 5 a year and watching a
single tenant make £ 1 50 from his lease . Al though few
Fi j ians we re in a po sition to redeem their land s and
compensate the tenants , the Ind ians we re made uneasy by
extremis t propaganda and the atmosphere of resentment .
Representatives o f Indian planters we re ab le to cite
instances where some of their fellows had been made
homel ess by evic tion . They pressed fo r longer leases of up
to ninety-nine years arguing that they had severed their
connection from Ind ia in eve ry way and had made Fij i thei r
permanent home . 3 5
In 1 930 the Council o f Chiefs approved the princ ipl e
of
longer l eases
to Indians if Fi j ian needs were
safeguard ed , and in 1 933 new l easing regulations increased
1 24
the usual lease pe riod from twenty-one to thirty years wi th
a
provis ion for ninety-nine years in spe cial cases
loopho le fo r Europeans wi th the right connec tions . The
Provincial Commissioners had al ready been instruc ted to
ensure that ad equate pl anting lands we re available to a
vil lage by demarcat ing non- leasable reserves . In memoranda
to the gove rnment , CSR ( so le sugar miller after 1 92 6 ) said
it was d eeply concerned by the reluc tance of Fi j ians to
renew l eases and the insecurity of its 4000 Ind ian
sub- tenants on some 50 , 000 acres o f Fi j ian land .
The
suc cess o f the Company ' s small- farm scheme , which had
transfo rmed the sugar indus try since the end of indenture
in 1 920 and provided thousands o f Ind ian families wi th a
modest income , could be j eopard ized by any suspension of
Fi j ian goodwill . Hal f the industry was at stake . Al though
the Council of Chi efs was prevail ed upon to approve
legislation compelling Fi j ians reoccupying land to keep it
unde r efficient cul tivation or have it l eased again , CSR
argued that the measure was no t suffic ient : continui ty o f
cul tivation was s til l broken .
I n thei r opinion no
successful Indian cane farmer should be refused renewal .
The company despaired of ever being able to rely on Fi j ians
fo r a regular cane supply as it had in Thurston' s day . 3 6
Fi j ian re fusal s to renew leases we re most frequent in
the Nauso ri area where 90 pe r cent of the mill ' s
requi rements we re suppl ied by some 2000 small growe rs .
Of
thirty- four renewal appl icat ions in 1 932 , six teen we re
re fused , the Fi j ians usually s tating that they wanted to
pl ant the l and themselves .
In most cases the Fi j ians
re- employed Indians to do all their wo rk , and signed
promissory notes to be honoured by the sal e of the crops . 3 7
O n the we stern sid e there was much l ess troub le wi th
the renewal of l eases
' no trouble at al l ' in Lautoka
during 1 93 5 , reported the Dis tric t Commissioner : ' Only one
renewal was refused
and the Ind ian lessee had two
o ther lease s . ' 3 8 In 1 93 6 only four renewals we re refused
and
again in 1 938 the Fi j ians we re ad judged most
reasonable . The si tuation varied from year to year , from
province to province , and prior to 1 937 accurate statis tic s
o f Fi j ian refusal s t o lease we re not kept . The problem was
c ertainly not acute . 3 9
•
•
•
Neverthel ess CSR continued to press for absolute
security fo r the tenants o f Fi j ian land s against the threat
of the owne rs resuming control and reduc ing or abandoning
cane produc tion .
Reading the signs of the times , Ratu
125
Sukuna took i t o n himself t o persuad e the 1 936 Council o f
Chiefs t o make further concessions . I n a speech lasting
over an hour the emergent s tatesman reviewed the history of
Fi j ian land s since Ce ssion and paid tribute to the
disinterestedness o f the British government . Fi j ians we re
now faced with a new s ituation , he said , where they had to
accept that they owed a moral obligation to the state to
use their land . They all knew the parab le of the tal ents .
Did they also know that in other countries governments used
death duties and tax es to redistribut e the land more
equi tab ly? Be tter fo r the chiefs to propose their own
scheme for the produc tive use of l and than have fo rced on
them something less congenial .
The current sys tem of
l easing was wasteful - only the eyes of the land we re taken
- and corrupt :
We can , surely, come to no other decision but to
abolish a sys tem that is capable of produc ing so
much evil
g radually destroying our sense of
purity and hones ty of d ealing and respe ct fo r
others , quali ties that are cherished ornaments of
our civilization .
I maintain that native lands
c an only be leased fai rly if the Government has
'+ O
c ontrol
•
•
•
Only two men spoke agains t the motion , the Tui
his fellow member from Cakaud rove .
Cakau and
The real test o f the reso lut ion came wi th its referral
to the nineteen provincial council s . Ratu Sukuna ' s speech
was printed and d is tributed wid ely, and broad cast over the
new weekly Fi j ian session on the rad io .
The chief
addressed one or two council s pe rsonally .
The final
resul ts were an extraordina ry achievement for a vi ewpo int
that had never befo re been put by a Fi j ian to his own
pe opl e :
twelve councils ag reed unanimously and four by a
large maj ority that after the d etermination of the amount
of reserve land needed for their ' prope r development ' , the
surplus , inc lud ing existing l eases , should be handed over
to the government fo r leasing to others . Only Cakaudrove
was still oppo sed , in defe rence to their chie f, and two
council s we re undecided . 4 1
On the eve of his d eparture from Fij i in July 1 938,
Governor Si r Arthur Richards propo sed a Nat ive Lands Trus t
Ordinance to give effect to Ratu Sukuna ' s motion and
empower the government to deal wi th al l the Fi j ian lands in
the co lony wi thout refe rence to the owne rs
the reserve
1 26
lands having been first set asid e for ex clusive Fi j ian use .
The Council o f Chi efs approved Richard s ' propo sal s in 1 938
and the final bil l for the establishment of the Native
Lands Trus t Board was approved by the Legislative Council
on 22 February 1 940 . The Indian members acknowl edged that
Fi j i an owners had ' undoub ted ly adopted a broad and generous
attitude to thei r lessees ' , but pressed for leases to be as
l ong as po ssible and even pe rpetual .
Ratu Sukuna hail ed
the l egisl ation as a ' monument o f trust in Bri tish rul e , o f
confidence i n i ts hones ty ,
and
o f hopes
that
Europeans , Indians and Fi j ians wi ll settl e down to labour ,
sacrificing i f need be community interests fo r the benefit
of the who le ' · 4 2
•
•
•
•
Fi j ian compromises fo r a mul tiracial so ciety d id not
extend so magnanimously to the po litical arena . The census
of 1 93 6 found the 98 , 000 Fij ians to be j us t under half the
total popul ation , wi th the 85 , 000 I ndians c omprising 43 per
cent . Their crud e d eath rat e ( 1 0 . 27 per thousand for the
years 1 928-3 7 ) was under half that of the Fij ians ( 22 . 97 ) ,
so that the latter faced the demographic certainty that
within a decad e they would no longer be the largest g roup .
The success o f the Indians i n gaining three elected members
in the Legislative Council after 1 92 9 , the comparative
prospe rity o f CSR tenant farmers , the growth o f education
fo r Ind ian children , and the entry of over a thousand
Indians into commerce l eft no doub t that they would in time
become prospe rous and influential .
The Fi j ian chiefs c losed ranks finally wi th local
Europeans in the constitutional debates of the 1 930s to
head off Indian demands for common electoral roll s .
The
Ind ian case was powerfully argued on ' the recognition of
the principl e of common and equal rights ' and with an
id eal istic vision of a future democracy in which Fi j ians
and Ind ians would come into their own .
The prominent
l awye r S . B . Patel and o ther Ind ian lead ers were at pains
to acknowledge that his toric Fi j ian interests we re stil l
paramount , but c laimed that c ommon franchise would diminish
racial fric tion and encourage all to pull together ' for the
good and wel fare of Fi j i as a who le ' 4 3 In defence of this
principl e , the Indian members had boyc o t t ed the Leg islative
Council from 1 92 9 to 1 932 .
•
The Council
Fij ian react ion was d is t inctly ho stil e .
of Chi efs in 1 933 recorded i ts ' strong and unanimous
opinion ' that the ' Indian immigrant population should
nei the r direc tly nor indirec tly have any part in the
127
control o r direction o f matters affecting the interests o f
the Fi j ian race ' . ·4 4 I n 1 935 the three Fi j ian members o f the
Leg islative Council led by Rat u Sukuna pub lished a long
explanation that was hail ed by church and business l eaders
as a persuasive case why Fi j i should not only rej ec t a
common franchise but the franchise itsel f . ' A sys tem that
rests on the counting of heads ' , wrote the chiefs , or the
' no tion that the pe opl e are the best j udges of matters of
vital impo rtance to the we l fare of a state ' would be
' utterly incomprehensible ' to
pe opl e who understood
government as ' commands issued in the general interest by a
hierarchy composed of chiefs , priests and elders ' . In 1 935
that was a remarkably a rchaic assessment
of Fij ian
capabil ities , but it was music to government ears when
coupl ed with an evocative appeal to the Deed of Cession and
the
a
thoughts running in the minds o f the chiefs , the
feeling that they we re handing over their country
as a who le and their domains , each and severally ,
as a fie f o f the Crown ;
that they would in
future be rul ed
auto cratical ly but wi thal
sympa thetical ly ;
that from henceforth they we re
the vassal s o f the Great White Queen
After years of Crown colony government ,
there is nothing natives d esire bet ter than to be
governed by the King ' s Representative with the
help and advice of his senior officers and such
European members of the Legislative Council as
are , as far as po ssible , above the influences of
local interests and prej ud ice .
The Chiefs noted that the European electorate would soon be
' whit e only in name , enlightened only in memory' due to the
increase and low educational l evel of part-Europeans , and
that Europeans would have no case at all on democratic
grounds fo r denying Indians a similar oppo rtunity to ensure
' the predominance of ignorance and prej udic e ' . Democracy
i tsel f , they concluded , shoul d therefore give way to a
racially balanced
sys tem
of nominating enl ightened
representatives fo r each community . 4 5
These arguments ag reeably played to the fears o f the
European eli te that they would lose their own po sition to
part-Europeans , and that the Ind ians would triumph over all
by sheer weight of numbers . Government response was rapid .
In 1 936 the municipal franchise was abolished in Suva and
128
Levuka to eliminate any po ssiblity o f Indian control .
Governor Si r Murchison Fletcher favoured a return to a
Leg islative Council compris ing a maj ority o f o ffic ial
members wi th nominated representatives of each community .
The Co lonial Offic e decreed final ly that the Legislative
Council would comprise sixteen offic ial members , five
Fi j ian members nominated from a panel of ten cho sen by the
Council of Ch iefs , and an equal number of European and
Three of the five European and three of
Ind ian members .
the five Ind ian members we re stil l to be elec ted on
communal rolls - an arrangement that las ted to 1 963 .
The fal se symmetry o f these measures signal led that
racial division was hardening into an accepted part of
nat ional life . Careful balancing of c ommunal interests
encouraged each community to c ling to its own id entity , to
think ins tinc tively in racial terms , to worry incessantly
about po litical so lidarity , and pe rhaps to miss the main
po int that Fi j i ' s divided peopl e would never to be able to
loosen
the grip of the Austral ian or New Zealand
corpo rations and a few local Europeans over exports ,
impo rts and the internal marke t sys tem .
Po litically these change s made no compromise , then,
over the paramountcy o f Fi j ian interests to match the
concessions mad e over land . The Fij ians , it seemed , s till
had the separate space they need ed to concentrate on their
own d evelopment whil e the local Europeans and British
offic ial s hel d the fort .
Neverthel ess the new- found
so lidarity of the Europeans and Fij ians in national
po litics and the frank admission of Fi j ian dependence on
the trusteeship of the Crown obscured the deepe r problem
that neithe r the government nor the Fi j ians had really come
to terms wi th the dilemmas o f moderni zation and economic
development .
Chapter 9
The dilemmas o f development
Six decades after Cession the rational e fo r Britain' s
trusteeship was still that Fi j ians need ed a lot of time to
' catch up ' ;
the co lonial timetable was leisurely and
vague .
As one Governor had put it : 'No one who has the
interest of these island s at heart would unduly hasten the
change in a peopl e of whom it is literal ly t rue that less
than 50 years ago they we re only emerging from the Stone
Age . ' 1 Stil l , there was no dispute that ul timately Fi j ians
would evolve , and would want to evolve , towa rds the liberal
western id eal of ind ividual istic , democratic man in an
essentially capitalist society . Village Fi j ians probably
had a poor grasp of that goal , but as Apo losi ' s Viti
Company showed , they were general ly rec eptive to innovation
and programs of improvement .
Enthusiasm for education was another part of that
search fo r the key to a vague ly conceived new level of
welfare . As Ro Tuisawau once remarked , ' Education is the
most useful thing of all fo r the present age and for the
future ' . 2 The Roman Catho lic miss ion had
responded
generously to the d emand for European teachers wi th the
introduc tion of several teaching orders of nuns and
brothers
by 1 91 0 there were over fifty o f these
single-mind ed men and women committed to giving Fij ians an
education far supe rior to that the old We sl eyan vil lage
sys tem had provided . Catho lic po licy was to educate boys
and girls separately at centrali zed schools attached to the
twenty-one mission stations .
' Our great effo rt ' , wrote
Bi shop Nicho las in 1 929 , ' is to have ALL our Catholic
chil dren in our BOARDING schools , and therefo re can do what
we like outsid e of school hours . ' 3
Members of the rel igious o rders l ived in community on
mission
stations .
Phys ically and socially they we re
insulated from village life .
They seem to have given
littl e professional
thought ,
in tho se unque stioning
decades , to the wider so cietal impact of the academic
curricula and teaching mat e rial s they impo rted from New
Zealand , Aus tralia and the Uni ted Kingdom .
Their first
concern was the pe rsonal and rel igious fo rmation of
individuals whose goodness of l ife woul d leaven the
communities
to which they returned .
Their life- long
dedicat ion to the task and t ransparent integrity had a
profound impact on many Fi j ians . What they may have lacked
1 29
130
in cul tural sensitivity they o ften supplied in pe rsonal
warmth and
enthusiasm .
Catholic
schools
received
tremend ous Fi j ian and Ind ian suppo rt , wi th the Maris t
Bro thers schools in Suva generally acknowl edged as Fi j i ' s
best . ( In the latter , Ind ians we re admi tted alongsid e
Fi j ians in the first decad e of the century ; in 1 91 0 the re
was a single Ind ian convert , Xavieris , who confessed his
sins regularly - in Fij ian . ) Catholic schools we re also the
first to introduce Engl ish ( at Cawaci in 1 892 ) .
The
Wesl eyan Annual Synod of 1 899 reluc tantly recogni zed that
they would have to introduce some Engl ish in their own
central school ( at Navuloa until 1 908 ) or lose thei r best
pupil s to the ' pe rverts o f Rome' . 4 At the Queen Vic toria
Scho ol ( fo unded by the government in 1 906 ) the chiefs
insis ted that their sons we re to be taught as the sons of
Europeans were taught , and that they ought not to waste
their time in manual labour - an argument that had found
favour wi th Sir Everard im Thurn :
' After all it is
education in the Engl ish language that the Fi j ian mostly
need s if he is ever to pl ay the part of an ord inary English
subj ect . ' 5
The thrust fo r acad emic education came also from the
chiefs in the provincial council s . On their own initiative
in 1 907 the Lauan chiefs voted £300 from provincial funds
to obtain the appo intment of an English maste r , the
anthropo logis t A . M . Hocart , fo r their school at Lakeba .
This school became the model for six government- assisted
provincial schools which by the 1 930s provided uppe r
primary education for some 5 00 pupil s chosen by the tikina
for thei r rank and abil ity .
The best pupil s o f the
provincial schools went on to the Queen Vic toria School .
Having lost the ini tiative in education , the We sl eyan
mission g radually wi thd rew from the 600 or so village
schools nominally under i ts control and , l ike the Catho lic
mission , concentrated its effo rts on centralized distric t
schools ( 34 in 1 933 ) . The Wesl eyan educational centre at
Davuil evu expanded to offe r more technical training and
teacher training as we ll as its large theological programs ,
and nearby the mission purchased the fine property ' Navuso '
fo r £6000 in 1 92 6 for an ambitious ag ricul tural school .
On the who le the Wesl eyan mis sionaries fel t that the
acad emic pace- setting of the Catho lic schools , s ignalled by
the introduc tion of Cambridge ex ternal exams in 1 920 , was
doing
an ul timate disservice to Fi j i ' s youth .
They
resented how little effo rt went into suppo rting trad itional
131
leadership and preparing Fij ians fo r the village life eight
out of ten of them would have to lead . Not that We sl eyan
schools , any more than their compe titors , tried to real ize
the educational po tential o f c enturies of accumul ated
wisdom in the ski l ls o r arts o f graceful and prospe rous
l iving in isl and environments . Impl ic it in all the schools
was a ' hidden curricul um ' that taught Fi j ian children to
expe ct nothing of value from ' the age of darkness ' that
might be brought to bear on the problems o f ' the mode rn
wo rld ' . At bes t , dances and songs might be encouraged for
their aesthetic and recreational value , exotic relief from
the ' real ' business o f the schoolroom as presc ribed in
Cambridge or New South Wal es .
The education of Fi j ian girls , fitfully attempt ed by
the occasional missionary wi fe , had not received serious
We sl eyan attention until the arrival in 1 900 of Mary
Bal lantine , an ex- prison wardress from Auckland who led a
famous little school at Matavelo in Ba . A smaller school
at Richmond , Kadavu , and ad ho e effo rts elsewhere by the
handful of Me thodist mission sisters hardly matched the
much g reater e ffo rt of ove r forty Roman Catho lic nuns in
thirteen girls schools by 1 91 3 . Yet as Catho lic schools
reached
l ess
than one in six of the who le school
population , most Fij ians girls we re left wi th
less
education than the little the boys received . In 1 920 the
Reverend Wesley Amos blamed the ' 60 years c riminal neglec t '
by the government and his own mission fo r produc ing ' a
d egenerated race of women lacking the capacity almost fo r
virtue ' .
There we re ,
he claimed ,
' thousands of
il legitimate marriages and thousands o f pal try divorces and
thousand s of separated homes ' . 6
I f this was so , o thers wonde red whether sch0ol
education was real ly the answe r - to take girls , as the
nuns d id , and supervise them carefully in their dormitories
during term then send them home wi th a smat tering of
knowledge and a brace of medals to protec t their virtue .
In the late 1 920s the re was a return to Sir George
O ' Brien ' s thinking , that a new e ffo rt had to be made to
reach young mo thers in their homes and to help them to rear
their chil dren .
Child mortal ity rates we re
still
distressingly high wi th chil dren under 5 accounting fo r
more than a third of all Fi j ian deaths .
In 1 92 7 a New Zealand nurse , Mrs Suckl ing , was
appo inted as the first full- time child wel fare nurse wi th
two Fi j ian assis tants . They began in Tail evu by training a
132
small women' s committee in each village . The committee ' s
task was to assemble the chil dren daily to see that all of
them were prope rly bathed and dressed and fed , and to treat
minor ailments wi th a smal l sto ck of medicines . Dr Regina
Flood-Keyes Roberts , the wife of the American consul ,
volunteered in De cember 1 92 7 to supe rvise the
dozen
villages in the Suva-Nauso ri distric t , and developed the
women ' s c ommittee sys tem a stage further . She had learned
from a similar expe riment in Samoa in 1 926 and 1 927 that
unless the entire village became interested in the work and
the scheme had the active suppo rt of the chiefs , it was
doomed to failure .
When Dr Roberts desc ended on a village she did so in
style , having made sure that the Bul i came wi th her and
that all would be present fo r a public weighing of the
infants after a general lesson on sanitation and health .
She made commit tee l eaders stand to attention to give thei r
reports
the meetings we re deliberately fo rmal so that
when individual mothers we re praised or blamed for the
state of their infants they could feel the full weight of
community feel ing for or against them : 'A practice is mad e
to clap the hands fo r every c hil d that has gained weight . ' 7
The effe c ts were d ramatic .
Mo thers vied wi th each
o the r to push tho se sc ales ever higher ; the condition of
the children improved beyond belief.
Dr Robe rts was
probably instrumental
in obtaining £ 2000 from the
government fo r child welfare wo rk in 1 928 and another £ 2000
from CSR. She al so made i t a fashionable cause amongst the
ladies of Suva.
Mrs Seymour , wi fe of the
Co lonial
Secretary, s tarted a baby show . I t was to become a regular
feature in many provinces .
In June 1 928 the Me tho dist
mis sion provided a chil d wel fare wo rke r fo r Ba , and another
Me thodist siste r , Mrs Ruby Brewe r , resigned the same year
to be able to work full time in the villages : ' That is my
only hope of getting out to these peopl e .
In this " I
surrender all"
a s each child dies I know that I am
partly responsible fo r not going
out
earlier with
medicines , etc . I know this is my wo rk . ' 8 The dedicat ion
of these ove rwo rked women is legendary .
One of the
sis ters , Miss Hettie Hames , is said to have delivered over
a thousand babies in Nad roga c i rcuit .
•
•
•
Bishop Nicho las ag reed to let nuns do child welfare
wo rk in Namosi , the most backward province , but held out
little hope of success , re cal l ing the failure of O ' Brien' s
hygiene miss ion . Pere Guinard , who had lived in Namosi fo r
1 33
ov er thirty years , c laimed that nurses we re not needed :
the problem was nutrit ion . ' The chil dren are starved ' , he
said ; when he came to a villag e , o ften bringing food , they
swarmed around like a pack o f hungry dogs . Parents left
their chil dren at home wi th a few pieces of cold dalo , and
returned from thei r gardens in the evening when the
children we re too tired to eat . 9
These problems we re overcome in most of the provinces
by the kind of so cial engineering that the child welfare
movement consc iously or unconsc iously employed .
By 1 937
there we re six European nurses and six teen Fi j ian nurses on
chil d welfare wo rk , and scores of volunteers o ften led by
the wives o f Rokos o r DC s . Al though chil d mortal ity rates
d id not fall significantly until after World War II , the
general cleanliness of children , the incidence of yaws and
ringworm and other loathsome conditions was much improved .
When Mrs Brewer began her work in Ba in 1 92 9 , 440 of 450
children needed treatment . In 1 933 she classified only 1 3
o f the 473 children as ' poor' or ' frail ' and enclo sed
pho tographs to prove it • 1 0
The chil d wel fare movement was suc cessful because it
was the kind of d evelopment that the peopl e could ' make
their own ' • 1 1 Wom en' s committees and guilds expanded their
function to become an enj oyable and pe rmanent part of the
life of village women ,
undoub ted ly boos ting
their
self- esteem and disseminating much useful knowl edge of
public health , nutrition , child care and crafts .
The
movement was al so an extension of a long colonial tradition
of initiating a small corps of villagers - Native Medical
Prac titioners ,
obstetric
nurses ,
provincial sc ribes ,
constables and o thers - into use ful ski l ls of immediate
relevance , and either employing them lo cal ly or po sting
them to various parts o f the group as servants of the
Fi j ian Adminis tration .
The re was no incentive to force through more d rastic
institutional refo rms of village life against certain
oppo sition from Ratu Sukuna and
others ;
the most
g overnment fel t i t should do for rural development was to
encourage specific ini tiatives that seemed to promote a
more heal thy so ciety , one where Fij ians would take ' a
serious part in the battle o f life ' . 1 2
To salve the progressive consc ience , some Fij ians we re
encouraged to take advantage of a provision written into
the Communal Se rvices Regulation ( 1 91 2 ed ition ) by which
1 34
the Governor could grant exemption from communal services
to an ind ividual wanting to take up c ommercial agricul ture
or some business ac tivity .
The applicant had to apply
through his d is tric t council fo r the galala exempt ion , as
it was c al l ed , and pay in advance a fee of £2 1 0s . He had
to be able to show evidence of his enterprise .
The re was
no provision fo r credit o f any kind , loans or technical
advic e , nor any guarantee that after a year ' s exemption the
privil ege would nof be revoked . When it was easy to leave
a village for wage employment there was not much to
encourage a man to unde rtake the effo rt and risks of
commercial agricul ture .
Unt il 1 92 9 perhaps a hundred
appl ications we re granted each year, j us t sufficient fo r
the government to be able to reassure itself and the
Co lonial Office that it was making effo rts ' through a
process o f education and training , to creat e in the native
an incentive to energy , and to grant him more ind ividual
liberty' . 1 3
Unimpressed with galal a exempt ions , the 1 920 Council
of Chiefs had reque sted that provinces should be allowed ,
i f they wi shed , to revert to the payment o f taxes in kind ,
the only scheme that had eve r succeed ed in ensuring that
Fi j ians would be substantial produce rs whil e retaining the
full value of their produce and the benefits o f a cash
income , ye t without having to be dependent on European
employers .
The Co lonial Secretary oppo sed the reso lution
' on general grounds ' as a ' retrospec tive step involving
difficul ty '
presumably to current employe rs o f Fi j ian
labour , though the argument he advanced was pitched to the
vague r certainties o f the liberal etho s : ' The basis o f the
inertness of the Fij ian is , to my mind , due to
an
ove rburden of communal ism , and the difficul ty o f individual
Fi j ians to assert and maintain ind ividualism . ' The Ac ting
Receiver General picked up the tune , protesting that the
reso lution was ' a negation of the recognition of the Fi j ian
as an individual
it insists in an unmistakable manner
upon the pe rpetuation of the communal sys tem .
This is
re trogression
he shoul d develop sufficiently to be
able to live and suppo rt himself and his d ependents as
units
of
the
community European civilisation has
' 14
evolved .
•
•
•
•
•
•
Such thinking was hopel essly out o f tune wi th village
real ities . Fi j ian authorities we re not ho s tile , though, to
individual farmers who wanted some t empo rary relief from
their obligations to raise money fo r some reason . Taniela
J. Bat iudolu o f Lomaivit i , fo r example ,
successfully
1 35
appl ied in 1 91 8 to manage ful l time a plantation where he
employed nineteen ind entured Fij ian labourers and seven
Indians to care for 8000 yams , 6000 yaqona , 4000 bananas ,
1 000 coconut trees and other food crops . He had run his
own sto re since 1 91 5 and owned a 5 ton boat . Later his
exempt ion was cancelled by his own reque st because he had
accepted the po s t of turaga ni koro in his village and
wished ' to devote one year to improving his peopl e ' .
The
reque st was not necessarily as al truis tic as it sounds .
Undoubtedly he had bui l t his success wi th the coope ration
and help of kinsmen as wel l as employees , and had a debt of
gratitude to repay . 1 5 In rural Fi j i no man could literally
' go it alone ' , unless he wished to be a so cial outcas t .
Fi j i ' s commercial economy was not kind to small
producers .
Opportunity had actually diminished since
Thurston ' s
time .
Wi thout
a government
marketing
organization , farmers d epend ed on local trad ers . In copra
prov inces Chinese and other s to rekeepers encouraged Fi j ians
to morketi ( mortgage ) articles fo r up to a third of their
value with only one to three weeks to redeem their
property .
Payments might b e mad e with nuts ( three to a
penny was the rat e in 1 92 7 ) and the balance made up by
wo rking for the s torekeepe r at low wages . Traders al so
took liens on growing nuts - a pe rnic ious c redit system
that took advantage of easy-going villagers . 1 6
When Ratu Sukuna became Dis tric t Commissione r of Lau
he tried strenuously to break the hand- to-mouth habits of
peopl e cut ting small lots o f c opra and selling locally at
d efl ated prices for grossly i nflated trade goods . In 1 934
yaqona bought in Suva for 2 d sold in Lakeba fo r 6 d ; canvas
sho es , 3s 6 d in Suv a , were 6 s 6 d ; black sulus rose from 2s
each to 6 s :
The native told all this wil l po litely agree that
the remedy is to sell and buy in Suva. If the
initiative is l eft to him , nothing further will
happen,
for the average native prefers the
certainty o f the bird in the hand , bony and tough
though it may obviously be , to better nourished
ones so far away.
A d irect consequence of the l ow produce prices obtained
locally was that to meet the payment o f provincial rates ,
the native tax , and the educational expenses o f their
chil dren , the men had to leave their wives and children in
the care of o thers to go and labour on plantations o r , in
1 36
the 1 930s , the gold mines o f Vatukoul a and Yanawai - ' and
for this Fi j ians wi ll be counted virtuous ; their industry
will be on men' s lips as a s ign of Fi j ian progress ' . 1 7
Ratu Sukuna ' s response was to reorgani ze the communal
cutting of copra as had been done in his father ' s day . In
1 934 he mad e the village the unit of tax assessment in Lau
and Lomaiviti , investing the true chief of the village wi th
the obligation to meet the quo ta , and relieving the Bul i of
the duty o f hounding individuals :
The payment of the tax is
now a
family
affair
i t is the Tribal chief that shoul d
consc ript
resources ,
make
the
biggest
contribut ion , and o rganise the necessary labour .
And the wise Bul i wo rks through his Tribal
Communal copra cut ting
raises no
chiefs .
confl ict of interes ts in the native mind and so
calls fo r no coercion unless o ffic ial supe rvision
by the Bul i be so regard ed . I S
•
•
•
•
•
•
Tho se who were land less cut copra on the lands o f
The copra was collec ted and transpo rted to Suva
o thers .
fo r sal e by auc tion where , as in the old days , the larger
lo ts real ized higher prices .
The tabu on selling nuts
prior to tax-making halved the business o f local trad ers ,
who in mos t cases we re customers o f Burns Philp at Levuka .
The manager there , A . J . Ac ton , protes ted to the government
that the tabu had ' paralys ed ' trad e : s torekeepe rs would go
out of business . Ratu Sukuna repl ied that storekeepe rs who
bought from Burns Philp at a profit to the firm and then
so ld to the people at an infl ated profit to themselves we re
providing a service of dubious value . Thurston ' s arguments
had been the same . 1 9
Communal copra cut ting was tried also in Macuata ,
Cakaud rove and Kad avu wi th l ittle success , suggesting that
the vital ingredient in Lau and Lomaiviti was the pe rsonal
inspiration of Ratu Sukuna himself and , in Lomaiviti , his
younger brother ,
Ratu Ti ale W. T . Vuiyasawa
( Native
Assis tant to the Provincial Commissioner ) . Despite record
low copra prices , the scheme reduced Lau ' s arrears in rat es
from £ 2 91 3 in 1 935 to _£ 800 in 1 936 ;
the otherwise
universal problem of tax defaul ters was no longer found in
Lau . For all this H . W . J a ck , the Di rec tor of Agricul ture ,
regarded the scheme as ' iniquitous ' and ' unfair to the
ind ividual who is anxious to better himself' . 2 0
137
No thing Ratu Sukuna could
say ,
or demonstrate
empi rically , would convince men like Jack that in every
Fi j ian there was not an ego enslaved . In vain Ratu Sukuna
showed the particular land problems of individuals his
scheme had overcome and appeal ed to the capacity o f
t o surmount thei r own
existing village communit ies
problems .
The colonial offic ials j udged on � priori
grounds .
I f Burns Philp profits we re down , there had been
an unnatural manipulation of the marketplace ;
if the
chiefs we re encouraging the pooling of sl ender resources
that all might j ointly prospe r , then individuality had been
choked .
Nevertheless Jack d id take the po int that a government
marke ting organi zation would eliminate profits made by
middlemen
£ 1 0 , 000 in 1 93 6 from Fi j ian bananas , he
estimated , where £ 2000 would have provided the department
with a fleet of punts and boats to do the same j ob .
His
smal l , enthusias tic s taff was suc cessfully experimenting
wi th expo rt consignments o f Fi j ian crops and saw no reason
for not expand ing its marketing ac tivities . Jack used the
example of a Tail evu man who had rej ected a trad er' s offe r
of 3s pe r bag of sweet po tatoes in 1 936 . He then persuaded
the department to ship them to New Zealand on his behalf,
and realized 1 0s 2d net pe r bag : ' The average Fij ian has
no id ea of business , no organi zation to dispo se of his
produce co- operatively, and his expe rience of middlemen is
such that he regard s most offers made to him wi th
suspic ion .
Hence he has no incentive to produc e the crops
fo r which marke ts are undoub ted ly available within
limits . ' The bulk o f the 1 5 , 000 tons of Fij ian copra
produced each year went through smal l traders , mainly
Chinese , at a low price . It was d epressing on Vi ti Levu to
see many individuals spend ing days bringing down a few bags
of maize or yaqona to hawk a round a market centre when fo r
a commission of 2 or 3 per cent the department could
transpo rt the marke t produce in larger lots at a much
higher price .
The Co lonial Secretary , Juxon Barton ,
rej ected
even these propo sal s as ' a fo rm of state
so cialism ' that would do ' nothing but harm to the future of
an al ready lethargic race ' • 2 1
Mo st o f the Fi j ian farmers the Agricul ture Department
wanted to help we re exempted men , galal a , whose numbers
began to increase after 1 93 3 when the commutation fee was
lowered to 1 0s and provision made fo r ind ividuals to take
In the
out a licence to farm a piece of c ommunal land .
Waid ina River in 1 938 there were 3 9 of them who each
1 38
suppl ied some 600 cases o f bananas to the buye rs , and
elsewhere
there we re
about
ano ther 6 50 who were
expe riment ing wi th the new way o f life . 22
Many o f the latter we re proteges o f the Reverend
Arthur D. Lel ean , the Wesl eyan apo stl e of individualism .
Lel ean , nephew o f the earlier missionary c . o . Le lean , was
a powe rful , energetic man wi th a reputation amongst Fij ians
( and later amongst Aus tralians at Ballarat , Vic toria) for
pecul iar psychic powers o f d ivination .
Constantly in
troub le wi th mission supe rio rs on ac count of his secretive
ways and habit of recyc ling vakamis ione ri collections back
into his own development schemes , Lelean was the maverick
of the Methodist miss ion , universal ly l iked by the Fij ians
he helped , but regarded as eccentric and unbalanced by
Europeans
not l east because he had c lose ties wi th
Apo lo si ' s fo llowers through a fo rmer miss ion teacher ,
Pat erno Vai , one of Apolo s i ' s l ieutenants . Nevertheless
Gov ernor Fletcher asked Le lean to pe rsuade Fi j ians to grow
c ane , and he took up the cause wi th true missionary zeal .
For Lel ean was passionat ely committed to making the Fi j ians
an economic force in the colony . 2 3
Fletcher had appealed to the CSR managers in Fi j i to
help Fi j ians make the ' changeover from the communal to the
ind ividualistic mode of life ' : ' I see no reason why , with
sympathetic guidance , the Fi j ian should not make as good a
peasant proprietor as the Ind ian . ' The
Ba manager ,
G . H. All en , was sympa thet ic , fo r the Company was uneasy
about its near to tal dependence on its 4000 Ind ian
sub- tenants and 4500 smal l growers . In Bulu tikina , Ba ,
seven towns opened up 50 acres fo r cane and others fo llowed
suit , espe cial ly in Nadroga . By 1 933 the Company had 4 1 1
Fij ian growers supplying cane from their own mataqali
land s . 2 4
The Company also began expe rimenting in 1 930 wi th
Fi j ian tenants on its own estates . At Toko estate , Tavua ,
and Varoka , Ba , 500 acres we re made available on exac tly
the same basis as to Indians - that is , 1 0 acre ind ividual
plo ts , wi th CSR field offic ers giving close supervision and
training in the use of impl ements and horses : ' The scheme
aims at making the Fi j ian sel f- supporting and developing
the ind ividual . ' 2 5 A third proj ect was begun at Navakai ,
Nad i , wi th 235 acres set asid e fo r twenty- two Fi j ian
tenants , twe lve of whom had come from Nad roga . By 1 933 one
had been repl aced but al l were doing wel l ;
then in 1 934
the
whole
of Nad i went football mad
there were
139
twenty- four teams using the one ground - and some of the
farmers became unsettled wi th thei r so li tary workdays while
the carnival spirit prevailed . They wond ered whether in
the search fo r freedom they had not found another bondage .
In 1 93 5 the scheme collapsed - only two men worked well ,
the maj ority not at all . Ten o f the Nad roga men walked out
on a standing crop . El sewhere the Company ' s effo rts had
also fail ed except at Varoka where eight Fi j ian tenants
wo rked well under the more sympathetic lead ership of one
Fij ians seemed to do better as free
Vic tor Clarke .
labourers on the Company estates where they we re provided
with housing , land for planting root crops , and 1 s 9d a day
on an easy- come easy-go basis .
In the Rewa delta there we re on the average about a
hundred Fij ian cane growe rs in the 1 930s , a great number of
whom paid Ind ians to do the wo rk and assigned them up to
hal f the crops :
' An amazing amount o f j ugglery goes
on
Even though the Me tho dist ag ricul ture school at
Navuso produced a few genuine cane farmers , the Nausori
mill manager was inclined to dismiss the Fi j ian effort on
the Rewa as negligible . They we re too easily d isc ouraged
by the bad weather that finally l ed to the abandonment of
cane growing in that area . 2 6
•
In Ra province Fi j ians had little unleased land close
to the tramlines and there we re only twenty-one cane
farmers on 67 acres in 1 939 .
In Macuata ( Labasa ) the
Fi j ian contribution was minimal , but in Nadroga poor
resources made cane an attrac tive propo sition .
Every
village that had suitab le land was g rowing cane by 1 93 1 some 1 000 acres in all , but general ly in small patches and
of poor quality .
Nad roga cane farmers we re general ly
villagers using their own land and still living wi thin the
constraints of the provincial program of wo rk .
However a large propo rtion of Fi j ian cane farmers in
the 1 930s
there we re 686 of them by 1 938, 1 34 on CSR
es tates - undoub tedly were seeking something of a new
l i fe- styl e and we re probably influenced by the constant
exhortat ions of government offic ial s , company o fficers and
Lelean to become ' individualists ' and embrace the dignity
o f labour . General ly CSR was d iscouraged by the resul ts of
its efforts .
Depressing s tories c ould be to ld of the
history of pieces of land as they changed hands .
The
Lautoka Manager sent the ex treme example to Sydney o f 30
acre s of land called ' Naikorokoro ' which under direct
Company management produced 1 1 35 tons in 1 92 9 . In the
140
hands of three Ind ians the yi eld fel l to 324 tons by 1 93 2 .
The fo llowing year the property reverted t o its 1 1 2 Fij ian
owne rs including 40 able- bod ied men.
They produced 1 78
tons in their firs t year and about 70 in the second , wi th
most of the land reverting to bush . CSR o ffic ial s argued
that virtue s such as punctuality , essential to the milling
operations , we re notoriously l acking in Fi j ians though in
o ther respe cts , such as the handling of machinery , they had
shown great natural aptitud e .
In other words , certain
cul tural
problems seemed insupe rable .
The Provincial
Commissione r of Nadi expressed the Company ' s frustrat ion
when he wrote of the ailing Navakai scheme :
' I t is
d egrading and ignominious that we should all have to wait
on the Fi j ian' s pl easure whil e he wo rks spasmodically and
irregularly . Every t ime we a re promised that the estate
" wi l l be cl ean nex t time" . ' The Company estimated that it
lost £800 a year by allowing Fi j ians rather than Indians to
run the estat e . 2 7
In July 1 93 6 , G . H . Allen urged the Company to s trike
the
roots of the Fi j ian problem by taking in boys and
at
training them in a d isc ipl ined environment fo r the skills
and habits o f regularity and disc ipl ine they would need as
c ane farmers . The Gene ral Manager, Sir Philip Go ldfinch ,
d isapproved of the details of Allen' s militaris tic approach
( unifo rms , bands , pl atoons , NCOs and a chiefly ' Ad j utant ' )
but sanctioned a t raining farm on Drasa estate near
Lautoka .
' The keynote ' ,
he demanded ,
' should be
simpl icity , work , c l eanliness , religious advantages , clean
living - and a certain amount of spo rt ' . He rej ected the
suggestion of the Education Department that cul tural and
theore tical t raining should be includ ed . Drasa was to be
stric tly relevant and practic al . 2 8
And so it was fo r the community o f eighty lads under a
Fi j ian Supe rviso r and European Fi eld Officer who took over
Drasa in 1 938 and worked from 6 a . m . to 3 p . m .
learning
every aspec t of c ane farming by running the estate . The
Company kept them in food , c lo thing and pocke t money and
gave them on graduation a lump sum of 5s for every working
week in the hope they would be able
to
establish
themselves .
Unfortunately the boys went home at an age
when they we re too young to have a say in anything .
Their
families
invariably command eered the capital fo r the
welcome-home ceremonies , so the Company had to try and
place the g raduates on its own estates . Only a minority o f
Drasa graduates remained on the land , though many o f them
appl ied their wo rk habits to wh ite- collar j obs . CSR , the
141
cynic s said , t rained the bes t wait ers in Fi j i . 2 9
By World War I I then, Fi j ians had been given many
chances
to
become cane farmers and several hund red
individuals had successfully l aid the basis fo r a renewed
Fi j ian presenc e in the sugar industry . Many more hundreds
o f Fi j ians prefe rred easier ways of earning money .
A man
could earn 3 s 6d a day on the wharves at Lautoka and Suva.
Discovery of gold near Vatukoula led to the opening of the
Emperor and Lo loma gold mines in the mid 1 930s , and they
employed nearly 2000 Fi j ians by the end of the decad e .
At
the third annual general meeting of Emperor Mines Limited
in Me lbourne , in 1 938 , E . G . Theodore noted that whil e
Fi j ians had no strong necessity to earn wages and could
return to thei r village at any t ime , they we re happy in the
larger community of the mining se ttlement provided they had
adequate housing and food . As wo rke rs they we re easy to
teach and supervise , and showed common sense . They we re
completely unorgani zed indus trially : ' We are very happily
situated ' , he told the shareholders , though occasionally
provincial rivalries caused fights between the men .
On
9-1 0 February 1 93 6 a few hundred men from Ra and Tailevu
we re involved in several fights and the Tail evu men and
their famil i es fl ed the fiel d . Theodore was advised to
watch that Rewa and Ve rata were balanced against Bau .
Parochialism , it seems , was expo rtable anywhere Fi j ians
l ived in groups . 3 0
A smal ler gold mine on Vanua Levu at Mt Kasi , Yanawai ,
provided employment fo r a constantly changing wo rkfo rce of
about two hundred men . To a much greater extent than on
Vit i Levu , the men of the outer provinces prefe rred to work
fo r short pe riods , to pay their taxes and often to raise
money for a community proj ect such as a church or school .
The turnover at Mt Kasi was ful l 30 pe r cent each month .
Other new d evelopnents came from within the Fi j ian
Administration itself. Mo s t of them we re instigated by the
local born Provincial Commissione r of Co lo North and Colo
East ,
Stuart Reay.
Remembered by Fij ians as an
intimidating , re sourceful man , Reay toured his provinces
wi th immense amounts of luggage , includ ing his pe rsonal
food supply , fodder fo r his ho rses , and a sanitary
' thunderbox ' .
He delighted in outraging lo cal custom by
d raping his ho rse with what ever pl ant was sacred to the
women .
In Nad rau it was the baka vine . As villagers
re lated it fo rty years lat e r , he on�ode up trail ing baka
with an inso lent grin , so as soon as he was seated fo r the
142
wel coming ceremonies the women gathered in an ad joining
house to set up a continuous howl of outrage and grief.
' When wil l they ever stop? ' Reay asked his provincial
constable , wi th feigned ignorance . ' Si r , they won ' t s to p ;
y o u have done a fearful thing ( ka rerevaki ) . ' Finally a
delegate came from the women to demand that Reay attend
their ' cour t ' befo re he opened his own .
Reay went along
for the sake of his ears and found himself arraigned before
a lady ' magis trate ' and her sister- in- arms
as
the
' inte rpreter ' .
' O sa kila l i ni tabu na baka? You [ using
the singular fo rm wi th c alcul ated disrespe c t ] know , do you
not , o f the baka tabu? ' Reay maintained the sil ence of
consent - or bemused contempt _
and was sentenced to
furnish the village wi th twe lve cows wi thin a week . They
we re duly d elivered at a cost of £ 2 each, d rawn on the
provincial funds .
Reay ' s o therwi se undocumented sense o f the farcical in
his dut ies , and a liberal read ing of his o ffic ial powers ,
prompted him to exempt the village of Saumaki a in Waima
tikina of Colo East ' from the threat of the law and of
offic ial control ' al together . He was fed up wi th endless
prosecut ions
fo r
tax
evasion and
thei r
complete
ind iffe rence to his moral exhortat ions
and
overused
threats , he said , and chall enged them to manage their own
affairs from the beginning of January 1 933 .
Lead ership
reverted to the natural l ead ers of the villages . The
expe riment was a suc cess . The peopl e pl anted bananas and
made a lot of money , and in 1 934 their vil lage was one of
the best kept in Co lo Eas t . 3 1
Could the model be t ransfe rred? Reay chose the Tavua
peopl e , as they we re chronical ly sho rt of food , sodden wi th
yaqona , and resentful of autho rity . In March 1 934 he took
them to task :
' Why should it be necessary fo r the
Government to force you to maintain d ry roofs over your
heads and to cul tivate your gardens? If we washed our
hand s of you and left you to your own devices would you l et
your houses fal l about your ears and abandon your gardens
so you starved? ' The Tui Tavua was so provoked that he
challenged Reay to let them alone fo r a whil e and see the
resul ts . Reay accepted . Immediat ely in a fine speech the
Tui announced that the lal i d rum would be sound ed at dawn
the fo llowing day and eve ry d ay thereafter for the various
mataqali to begin wo rk . Was te land was to be cleared fo r
cane , yaqona was tabu for the young men , and j aunts wi th
taxi d rivers tabu for the young women . Reay left the
village feel ing�had done his best day ' s work in years .
143
Wi thin three weeks Tavualevu was a village transformed . A
new teacher ' s house had been bui l t in two days whereas his
pred ecesso r ' s had
taken three weeks
and
fifteen
prosecutions .
The tabu was effective , and
the Tui
compl etely in control .
Even after the first burst of
enthusiasm the expe riment went we ll for several months in
the eight vil lages o f the Tavua tikina . 3 2
In January 1 93 5 the expe riment was extended to the
five villages of Nadrau , one of the districts in Co lo North
that Lel ean had stripped of most o f its able-bodied men .
The resul ts we re disappo inting . The Buli and the Tui had
to seek res toration of l egal controls when they found that
their moral authority was insufficient to persuade men to
work . By contras t when Nakorovatu , Co lo East , was exempted
in February o f the same year , wi thin three months the
village had repaired all its houses , dug a new latrine
sys tem and planted 1 2 acres o f bananas . In May the other
vil lages of Waima t ikina were given the chance to emulate
Saumakia and also the three villages of Lutu tikina .
Soloira t ikina was includ ed at the beginning of 1 936 , and
Reay wondered whether the so lution to hal f o f the problems
of administration was not s imply to leave the peopl e to
themselves
wherever
traditional
lead ership
was
self- sus taining . 3 3
The need to restore regularly cons tituted
legal
autho rity firs t became apparent in Tavua where the Buli had
only retained his bureauc ratic powers to convene the
d istric t council or sign lease appl ications and other
documents . The Tui Tavua as hereditary chief wanted to
displace the Bul i entirely and virtually secede from the
Fi j ian Administration . Then in March 1 935 the Tui d ied and
there was trouble ove r the suc cession .
The qua rrel was a c lass ical ly Fi j ian one abso rbing
tremendous emotional energies whil e the mundane work o f the
community was virtually abandoned .
A mataqali in the
Buli ' s town of Korovou had the right at custom to offer the
This custom
yaqona to the Tui Tavua at his consecration .
was ignored at the installation of the new chief and the
Korovou party declared the rites invalid .
In July the
hundred days of mourning feas t ( burua) was attend ed by Ratu
Pope Seniloli and Dev e Toganivalu .
They intervened
unsuc cessfully to achieve a settl ement .
Reay resumed
official control of the villages in Augus t and asked Ratu
Sukuna to ad jud icate . The Tavua peopl e we re asked to atone
( bulubulu) to Korovou fo r the breach of ritual .
They
144
re fused , so Reay d eclared the March c eremony invalid and
ordered another to replace it on 28 November .
The people
sullenly refused to make the necessary preparations .
In despe ration Reay cal led in Ratu Sukuna again , and
in this chief' s presence on 1 2 December the two sid es
ag reed to reinstal l the Tui immediat ely . The ceremony took
place in a grudging spirit , and Reay pondered the dilemma
of the adminis trator forced either to use a s trong hand to
attain limited obj ects connected wi th hygiene - mat ters on
which the Fij ian consc ience was sil ent - or to respe ct the
autonomy o f the peopl e and allow t raditional- type feud s
such as this
to
consume
what
seemed
a grossly
dispropo rtionat e amount of thei r time and energy . 3 4
O n reflection Reay d ecid ed that village exemption
ac tually t ended to reinforce the very ' communal sys tem ' the
government was pledged
to modernize ,
even
though
traditional lead ership was l ess oppressive fo r individual s .
I n the several vil lages where i t was tried i n 1 935-37 the
final resul ts were mixed .
Some villages , espe cially in
So loira , went into immediate d ecline because the chiefs no
longer had influence over the peopl e . Others like Saumakia
thrived . Obviously much d epend ed on the personal quality
o f the trad i tional chiefs if autonomy was to work .
Elsewhere in Fi j i there were similar expe riments only
in Tailevu where Naila village was exempted in late 1 93 1
and for several years grew fair quantities o f rice and cane
vakoro ( the village working together) . Daku was exempted
in 1 937 and did very well under its visionary chief , Ratu
Emosi , although its main source of income was firewood . It
was hard to generali ze from these examples :
In some communities of Fi j ians we get as much and
sometimes more from vo luntary e ffo rt than can be
extracted by compul sion ; in others the little
more we get by compul sion is o ffset by the
disc ontent engendered ; we have reached a s tage
in Fi j ian developnent when the ind ividual will no
longer submit wi thout protest to the curtailment
of his l iberty and the planning of his time and
work by o the rs , and the
Communal
Se rvices
Regulation may be said no longer to have the
sanction of the community , except po ssibly in the
more out- of- the-way island s . 3 5
1 45
Al though hardly qualified to speak fo r all Fi j i ( and
in trouble as soon as he t ried ) , by 1 937 Reay had done a
complete volte- face and was now convinced that a better
so lution to the problems of Fi jian villages was their
aboli tion . Communal and coope rative effo rts , agricul tural
' c lubs ' and the like had been tried , he argued , and found
wanting . Even at Naila, o ften held up as a showplace of
Fi j ian enterprise , nine men who were exempt individually as
galala to work and live on thei r own land were much in
advance of tho se working communally . 3 6
Reay' s new- found enthusiasm fo r lone galala seems to
have been based on a small sample of some thirty families
on Co lo East and even fewer in Colo North who were already
l iving apart from villages . He frequently praised them in
his reports because all tended commercial crops , had
well-kept houses and compounds , children who helped the
family rather than ran loose in the villages ;
they paid
their taxes , were seldom in want , kept free of village
intrigue s , reduced
thei r involvement
in
ceremonial
observances , and appeared to Reay to be a lot happi er. In
1 938 Reay visited the Mogodro tikina of Co lo West and was
similarly impressed wi th twenty- five settl ers near Bukuya ,
all in ' excellent ' houses . They we re typical of about a
third of the distric t who had begun to move out onto thei r
lands after 1 93 5 on the suggestion of a fo rmer Bul i .
They
grew large quant ities of yaqona fo r the Ba market :
I feel j us tified in claiming from the Mogodro
example ,
and from the example of the many
settl ers I have s tud ied in three othe r provinces ,
that in Vi ti Levu outs ide the cane areas - and no
doubt in Vanua Levu also
where men can be
induced to break away from the village in this
way there is an overwhelming chance of success . 3 7
The Direc tor of Agricul ture naturally gave Reay s trong
suppo rt .
Jack had come to Fi j i in 1 934 after fourteen
years in Malaya where he had witnessed , he claimed , a
highly successful
and
sudden change- over from an
ineffic ient communal farming system to one of individual
smallholders intensively cul tivating up to 3 acres and
living on their own land
in pretty so lid comfo rt , whil e produc ing 40% of
the world ' s rubber and 80% of Malaya ' s c opra :
the Malay i s now a man of independence and enj oys
much more luxury than the Fi j ian and is far
146
happier in appearance , manne r , and mode of l iving
on his little piece of land with his wi fe and
usually 3-4 children or more .
The re was no hope fo r Fi j ians , Jack and his supporters
argued , until they became ind ividual peasant proprietors
wi th ' some security from the lazy and improvident ' . 3 8
The arguments fail ed to convince some of the DC s who
valued the village as a centre of a po lity that from its
s l end e r resources could provide all its members wi th a
church , a school , a foo tbal l ground or cricke t pitch , a
bathing pool , piped wat er, mutual help in times o f stress ,
the oppo rtunity to partic ipate in council s or church
assembli es , and access to the advice of chil d welfare
wo rke rs ,
nurses and medical prac titioners .
Did the
proponents of village d estruc tion , it was very fairly
a sked , s ee beyond the sho rtl ived benefits o f c ommercial
produc t ion by galala to ask who would care fo r them in
thei r o ld age or what would repl ace the civilizing and
broad ening influences o f village life?
The views of the ' individualists ' were put to the test
in Co lo No rth about July 1 93 7 in a decisive expe riment with
po licy repe rcussions for the next twenty years .
Reay
called in the Qal iyalatina and Savatu peopl e to Nadarivatu
and pe rsuaded them that they should abandon their villages
and go out and live on their planting land s . Four villages
in Waima tikina , Colo Eas t , we re given the same choice .
According to oral accounts Reay used a great deal of
rhetoric and even fear
that there would be a great
sho rtage of food
to obtain his way .
He indicated
ominously that anyone left in the villages woul d bear the
who le burden of the provincial program of work . The Waima
peopl e were reluc tant to move , hoping that the older
expe riment of village exempt ion would continue . Some had
no sui table land away from the village .
The men of
Qal iyalatina , who had had no taste of village exemption ,
began building houses on their lands with more enthusiasm ,
some in remote glens up to 1 6 miles from the village . Reay
assured Suva that the peopl e we re happy and that the women
who might have been expe cted to miss vil lage l i fe the most
we re enj oyi ng thei r freedom from the burdens o f feeding
visitors , and their greater degree of privacy and comfort .
Or so they told the Commissione r .
147
Reay addressed the Dis tric t Commissione rs ' Conference
of 1 938 - in the memory o f a chief who was there , ' like a
professo r to so many s tudents ' . Old men in Mogodro had
to ld him that scatt ered hamlets we re the usual mode of
settlem ent in ancient times , with o ccasional reso rt to
fo rtified settl ements in t ime of war . The centralized
village was an aberration in the interior introduced in
Gordon ' s time as a control device . The price paid by the
peopl e fo r settled government was a loss of individuality
and independence .
His latest expe riment , then, shoul d be
unde rstood as a harking back to a heal thier state of
so ciety . 3 9
·
The DC s we re not convinced by Reay ' s arguments ,
fearing wi th the Co lonial Secretary ' a hurricane flood of
detribalization at any moment ' . They wanted social changes
to ' evolve ' , t o come ' from within' . Final ly they arrived
at a compromise fo rmula s tating that the ' rural sys tem ' , an
extension of village so ciety to embrace some Fi j ians l iving
in groups on their own land and farming it systematical ly,
was the ' next natural step in Fi j ian development ' .4 0 And so
there , on the eve o f war , the t rustees of Fi j ian progress
l et the issues b lur into abstractions .
Unque stionably the 1 930s provided Fi j ians wi th greater
oppo rtunity and mobility than they had expe rienced before ,
and it was po ssible for a man to remove himse lf from
obligations to his community and kind red for years at a
time . Whether the net resul t was benefic ial to Fi j ian
so cieties d epends on the value attached to such signs of
' progress ' . Many individual Fij ians had mad e particular
choices that collectively threatened the viability of thei r
vil lages and local government institutions .
These alone
ensured that there we re wid e areas of human life where
Fi j ians we re still masters of their destinies in a manner
that could not prevail in the quarters , however congenial ,
provided by a fo reign- owned mining company or a sugar mil l
or a copra plantation .
Chapter 1 0
Epi logue : rendezvous wi th the modern world
' I t may be that to deny the omnipo tence of the great
o ctopus of the modern world bespeaks an old-wo rld outlook ' ,
wro te Ratu Sukuna in . 1 934 , ' but it is after all , o f a
semi- feudal , s emi- sel f- sufficing , so ciety that we are , in
the main, t reat ing . ' 1 Six years later the war effo rt , the
t entacles of the great octopus , drew thousands of Fij ian
men out of their narrow village wo rld in response to Ratu
Sukuna ' s own appeal s .
Glad ly accepting a commission as
Recruit ing Officer wi th the rank of maj or in the minuscul e
Fij i De fence Fo rce , Ratu Sukuna welcomed the oppo rtunity to
show the world and more espec ially the local Europeans and
Bri tish authorities his
peopl e ' s physical prowess ,
intelligence , loyalty and capacity fo r sus tained devotion
to a communal cause . He seems to have calculated that a
tremendous war effo rt by the Fij ians would achieve several
of the goal s he had espoused for twenty years : an expanded
role fo r traditional leade rship , a renewed appreciation of
the Fi j ian capacity fo r community and coope ration , and a
secure compact wi th local Europeans to safeguard at the
national level vital Fi j ian interests such as land . In
none of these was he to be disappo inted .
More immediat ely the future of the British Empire
itsel f seemed less certain as the German armies crushed
Ho lland and Belgium in May 1 940 and France ' s d efences began
In July almost every e ligible local European
to crumble .
1 s t Te rritorial
was c al led up fo r training in the
Ba . Ratu Sukuna
at
raised
was
second
Battalion , and a
Regular Rifle
a
r
fo
easily obtained fine Fij ian recruits
' young men could not bear the shame of not
Company :
I t was a
participating in such a community effo rt
peopl e if
his
and
i
source of honour and pride to the Bul
we re
ldiers
so
their
they we re wel l represented and none of
2
'
rej ec t ed
•
•
•
New Zealand , assuming the defence burden of the South
Pac ific colonies , bui l t up i ts Sec ond Exped i t ionary Force
in Fi j i to 4000 men by the Pearl Harbour attack of 7
December 1 94 1 .
The lo cal forces we re integrated into the
New Zealand command fo r ope rations and t raining . Fo l lowing
the invasion of Rabaul and decimation of the Aus tral ian
defenders in January 1 942 , then the fateful surrender of
Singapore the fo llowing month , ' i t was all too easy to
1 48
149
imag ine a Japanese tid e sweeping irresistibly over the
who le Pacific Ocean' . 3 Japanese troops landed on the New
Guinea mainland in March and occupied Tulagi in the south
Solomons in May, signalling a determined thrust south
towards Aus tralia, but not impo ssibly a sid e sweep through
New Cal edonia , Fi j i and Samoa as well .
To meet this danger New Zealand increased its Fi j i
garrison t o 1 0 , 000 men , and Ratu Sukuna raised a second
battalion of Fij ians at Lautoka .
New Zealand officers
second ed to Fi j ian units d eveloped a high regard for the
enthusiasm and soldierly quali ties of the Fi j ian recruits .
In May they fo rmed three command o units to develop further
the skills fo r which Fi j ians we re to become celebrated .
Ambush , s il ent movement , acute observation and instant
response to attack at c lose quarters became the fo rte of
the Fi j ian jungle fighte r . Fi eld training developed close
pe rsonal bonds between New Zealanders
and Fi j ians ,
transfo rming
the
old
colonial ist code of automatic
deference to one of mutual respe ct and affection . Fo r the
firs t time in decades o rdinary Fi j ians could see and judge
a white man by the true measure of his
integrity ,
individual pe rsonality and professional compe tence . Bo th
we re training fo r the field of fire where European lives
would depend as much on Fi j ian skill and intelligence as
the converse . Knowing there could be no racists ( any more
than atheis ts ) in foxholes , the New Zealanders seem to have
divested themselves of pe tty obsessions wi th white prestige
and shared their expe rtise willingly with Fi j ian officers
and NC Os . The re we re no invidious d istinctions to hinder
the training of a to tally professional fighting fo rce . 4
Unfortunately such distinct ions could still be made at
the expense of the Ind ians when most accepted their
lead e rs ' advice not to enlist at l ess than European scales
of pay and
thus
further institutional ize economic
inequality . Their ' indifference ' - so it was construed
to Britain ' s pl ight , the service of fewer than three
hundred in the military ,
the
po litical ly untimely
continuation of their pre-war struggle against CSR for
better cane prices , culminating in the refusal of CSR
tenants to harvest the 1 943 crop , threw into sharpe r relief
the quality of the Fij ian-European effort . Worst of al l it
left the who le Indian communi ty vulnerable to insinuations
of d isloyal ty and even ' subversion ' , serious charges that
could be d el ivered wi th those unpleasant aspe rsions on
manho od
other
wart ime
so ciet ies
reserved
fo r
pac ifists . 5 ( Not l east in the legacy o f these events was a
150
tacit unders tand ing that the
Fi j ian preserve . )
anny would be virtually a
The 7 500 men of the Fi j i Defence Fo rce came unde r
American operational control when the 3 7 th Division of the
U . S . Army rel ieved the New Zealanders in June 1 942 .
The
fo llowing month a new Governor , Maj or-Gene ral Si r Philip
Mi tchel l , arrived to mobilize the entire colony .
Having
come ' to wage war ' , he stirred the Council o f Chiefs in
September wi th a Churchil lian appeal fo r another thousand
men :
The business o f brave men in time of danger is to
fight , to suffe r , to die if need be : but above
all else to seek out the enemy and
fight
him
and if the enemy should come to our
land we a re going to fight him on our beaches and
in the road s and fields and in the woods and
hil ls , until we utterly d estroy him and d rive him
into the sea . 6
•
•
•
Perhaps , he conclud ed , Fi j i ' s d estiny was to be enrolled in
the stars wi th the other glorious islands of Mal ta and
Britain : Fij i had to be ready .
The chiefs unanimously
urged that Fi j ian so ldiers be sent overseas into action
wi thout d elay .
A t the end o f 1 942 reluc tant American consent was
given fo r thirty Fi j ian commandos to serve as sc outs in the
So lomons . They so distinguished themselves that Gene ral
Patch , the area commander , successfully appealed fo r as
many as he coul d get . The 1 s t Command os and the whole 1 s t
Bat talion we re emotionally farewelled in a march through
Suva on 1 3 April 1 943 . 7
The commandos saw action on New Georgia and Vella
Lavalla , and d id much to enhance the growing reputation of
Fi j ian troops .
Aft er useful work on Florida and
Kolomgangara , the 1 s t Bat talion was moved in November to
the front on Bougainville ' s east coast .
Thei r aggressive
patrols b rought on a determined Japanese at t empt to seek
out and destroy them . In February 1 944 they we re saved
from encirclement only by the local knowl edge of a resid ent
Fi j ian missionary, Usaia So tutu , who led the battal ion in
epic retreat over the Emperor mountain range to a we st
coas t b eachhead .
The battal ion saw seven months
of
continuous ac tion o n Bougainville fo r the loss of only
eighteen men and six ty- fo ur wound ed befo re they were
151
retired i n July 1 944 .
Meanwhile the 3 rd Battalion was in ac tion from March
to August 1 944 bringing the total number of Fi j ians to
fight wi th the All ies to 207 1 and the death toll to
fo rty- two .
Sadness fo r these lo sses was qui te ec lipsed by
popular exul tation over the award of a pos thumous Vic to ria
Cross to Co rporal Se fanaia Sukainaivalu . Twenty-nine other
British decorations marked official recognit ion of Fi j ian
valour and ski l l .
The war was such a disruption o f village life that
many feared the dislocation would be pennanent . Neglected
womenfo lk we re unwil ling or unable to repair their houses ,
and some tikina had less than a sc ore of men available fo r
the program of work . In April 1 944 , a year past the peak
o f the war effo rt , there were still 9503 Fi j ians working
fo r wages , or 36 . 5 per cent o f able bodied males between 1 6
and eighty .
Nearly 7000 men were in unifo nn or directly
employed by the military . 8 Cl early, firm plans had to be
made
fo r po st-war reconstruc tion , and especially in
relation to the place of the village and the old problem of
tho se who wanted to s trike out on their own .
Ratu Sukuna was particularly sensitive about the
encouragement the Department of Agricul ture had given to
its proteges to supply food fo r the fo rces as individual
contractors . They had been very successful , and H . W . Jack ,
s till Di rec tor of Agricul ture , was unrepentantly drawing
some future po licy implications o f his own : ' I maintain
very strongly' , he wrote in 1 943 , ' that those who wi sh to
farm individually should be encouraged to do so and to
exercise this freedom of c ho ice without compul sion as
Bri tish subj ects . ' Ratu Sukuna countered that ag ricul tural
offic ers and their Fi j ian assistants we re
operating
lucrative c losed marke ts fo r the exc lusive benefit of a
few . Government should look t o the long- term resul ts of
undennining the villages , for which the earlier experiments
( see Chapter 9 ) had provided some d ramatic evidence .
Mogodro and Qaliyalatina had become bywords fo r
deso lation and depression . Reay' s glowing accounts of the
benefits of the ind ividualistic peasant existence had no
counterpart in the ac tual expe rience of the peopl e fo r whom
there was more to life than d igging on thei r own land or
carrying produce to Ba . The young men found the iso lation
unbearable and fled to the coast to j oin the army or get a
j ob;
the women stayed fo r long pe riods in the nearest
1 52
villages , whil e the old and sick o ften fended largely fo r
themselves .
Minis ters coul d get no one to church ; the
schools we re empty of children living too far away ;
vil lage meetings and cus tomary observances al l suffe red .
As the chiefs had predicted at thei r first Co uncil in 1 875 ,
l i fe outs id e a s trong communal organi zation became a
struggle fo r subsistence devoid of stimulation ;
the deep
valleys no longer echoed to laughter or song . ( In the
wo rds of one informant the peopl e ' just went to sl eep '
until at the end of the war most of them were regrouped at
Navala on the Ba River . Old men interviewed in Co lo North
had nothing good to remember about Reay' s scheme , al though
fo rty years later there were survivors stil l scattered in
the bush . )
Governor Mi tchell himself rode through this district
( from Ba to Nad arivatu) and confirmed that it was indeed a
' mel ancho ly wi lderness ' .
He wrote
to
the
Co lonial
Secretary :
I ho pe we have heard the las t o f this lunacy and
that i t is gene rally recognized that the Fij ian
community is the basis o f Fi j ian so ciety and that
fo r Government to inte rvene to destroy it is
s tupid , if not indeed wi cked
Even if the
exempt ed man succeed ed in the sense that his
sponsors understand success , that is to say even
if he earned more money fo r himself and less
obligation to his fel lows , nothing would be
proved which has not already been proved by the
melancholy condition to which the same philosophy
[ of ind ividualism] has brought Europe . 9
•
•
•
Ratu Sukuna had made a powe rful convert .
Having
himself vis ited the much-vaunted ind ividualists in Co lo
North in 1 94 1 , the chief had condemned the expe riment as
' foreign in conception , novel in thought , and socially
d isruptive in form ' :
The real ity o f the po sit ion is that some natives
do well as individual growe rs where a marke t is
assured ; others suc ceed for a time and then ,
finding regular wo rk i rksome , either re turn to
thei r villages or become rolling stones ;
some
again stay on to esc ape so cial obligations ,
produc ing barely enough for
their
own
requi rements while living in hovel s . I n sickness
and in old age all re turn fo r aid to the village
1 53
community .
lO
Though since
regarded
by scholars
as
the
arch- conservative
spokesman fo r outmoded orthodoxy in
Fi j ian affairs , Ratu Sukuna d eveloped a telling critique of
the vague liberal ideology underpinning the colonial ist
preference fo r individualism . He insis ted that his British
colleague s we re unconsc iously a ffec ted by the disc red ited
Enlightenment hypo thesis of a blissful state of nature ,
impl icit in their enthusiasm fo r the virtue s of an iso lated
life in the bush . The his torical real ity in Fi j i , as he
saw it , was that moderately autocratic pe rsonal authority ,
re ligious and kinship ties had been the principl es of a
sophisticated so cial order redeeming the peopl e from ut ter
chaos and primitive subsis tence .
The
premise
that
civilization could now flourish in the bush in iso lation
and that the best settl ers we re individualists was a
utopian produc t o f the myopic liberal mind and ignored the
practical wisdom of c enturies . Nor could he countenance
the fo rced dependence of individual growe rs on the cruel ,
external ly d etermined cyc le of local and international
gluts
and sho rtages .
Fo r marke t fluc tuations always
rebounded hardest on primary producers , a wo rld-wide
phenomenon beyond dispute .
I t was much wo rse when they
were , as in the interior , tot al ly wi thout organizations of
their own .
Ratu Sukuna was al so keenly aware that centuries of
we stern
civilization and modern industrial ization had
produced the charac teris tic ind ividualism and capital is t
milieu o f European cul ture :
Wi thout this background and an assured marke t the
villager cannot by ukase be changed overnight
into an individualist , nor can he in iso lation
find
new
vigour
and
moral
purification
Freedom the new individualist
does not unders tand .
His word fo r it is tu
galala , which means freedom not in the sense of
laissez-faire ,
but in the sense of freedom
wi thout an obj ect . 1 1
•
•
•
He defended the vil lage as still ' the most natural , the
most conveni ent , and the cheapest unit of adminis tration
and for bes towing mos t effectively tho se inestimable gifts
med ical
civilization
can bring to a native race
attention , education in the broadest sense of the wo rd , and
rel igious teaching ' 1 2
•
1 54
Even befo re inspe cting the
effe c ts
o f village
disso lution , Governor Mi tchel l had determined to move
quickly to reorgani ze the Fi j ian Adminis tration in
accordance wi th Ratu Sukuna ' s views .
He appo inted the
chief himself as the new Tal ai , now restyled Sec retary for
Fij ian Affairs with an ex offic io seat on the Executive
Council .
The Fi j ian Affairs
Ordinance
of
1 944
recons tituted the old Nat ive Regulations Board as a much
more powerful Fi j ian Affairs Board , chaired by the Talai ,
and comprising only the Fij ian members o f the Legislative
Council and a Legal Adviser. The obj ective was to tie more
closely together the Executive Council , the Great Council
of Chiefs and the members nominated by the latter fo r the
Leg islative Council .
In other words a smal l interlocking
dire c torate of Fij ians c lose to the government was to have
unambiguous c ontrol over the who le Fi j ian Administrat ion .
The Fij ian Affairs Board assumed control ove r the local
government finances and all administrative po sit ions of
c onsequence , as wel l as any o the r , undefined , special
Fi j ian interests . Mi tchell noted that the significance of
these changes was that Fi j ians would be rul ed by ' Officers
and organi zat ions truly nat ive in compo sition and outlook
and able
to carry the confid ence of the native
' 1 3 At provincial level Rokos and magis trates
peopl e
were freed of direct European supe rvis ion , despite parallel
appo intments o f Dis tric t Officers , o ften European , to
att end to the business o f o ther government d epartments and
the affairs of the whole popul ation .
For tho se wi th
m emories such as Ratu Sukuna had of his boyhood years in
the 1 890s , Fi j ian colonial history had come full circle .
•
•
•
•
•
•
In the rapid ly approaching era of d ecoloni zation it
was a quit e novel defiance of liberal concepts o f progress
and individualism to reissue the Native Regulations wi th
the privileges of chiefs nominal ly intac t and stringent
conditions governing the rel ease of individual s
from
communal programs of work . For po st-war Fi j ian po licy , as
guided until 1 958 by Ratu Sukuna , d id not c onstrue progress
as the right to live a life free from obligations , nor as
the sabotage , in the name of d emocracy , of the capacity o f
village leade rs to maintain the so cial security o f all . 1 4
On the other hand Fi j ian leaders
shared
the
aspirations of their peopl e fo r better house s , education
and medical services . They shared too a general anxiety
about the faster popul ation increase of the Ind ians and the
outcome of their effo rts to win an equal place in the
co lony' s
affairs .
Fea r of Indian domination was
155
deliberately s tirred by European elected members o f the
legisl ature seeking to exploit the lack o f Indian support
fo r the war effo rt or to carry over the euphoria of wartime
European-Fi j ian solidarity into a permanent po st-war
po litical alliance . Local born Europeans now unctuously
identified themselves wi th the Brit ish authorities as
' trus tees ' of the Deed of Cession and took up the cry ' Fi j i
fo r the Fi j ians ' : ' those of us who have the interests o f
the Fi j ians as heart know the writing i s o n the wall , and
it spells disaster for them' , warned A . A . Ragg in 1 946 . l 5
European propaganda about
' the
Indian menace '
strengthened Ratu Sukuna ' s appeals for a greater Fi j ian
effo rt to bring their land s into full produc tion .
He
pinned his faith on the capacity o f the renovat ed Fi j ian
Adminis tration to inspire communal effo rts at village
level . A maj or innovation , which il lustrates his approach ,
was to bring all Fij ian copra produc tion unde r centralized
control , eliminating mos t of the European and Chinese
middlemen . A compulsory saving scheme in the fo rm of a
cess of £ 1 0 sterling on eve ry ton of copra funded a Fij ian
Development Fund which was used mainly to finance more
pe rmanent housing .
The goal , as always , was to achieve a
s tate of collective financial and social security without
breaking up the villages .
He was pe rhaps unreasonably
confid ent that Fij ians would work as enthusiastically for
thei r collective wel l- being as they would for themselves .
In parliament he defended the element o f compul sion as
the normal kind of compul sion which is exercised
daily in nat ive so ciety and which is its
l ifeblood . Wi thout it , Sir , village life at this
s tage would come to a s tand- still
From
time immemorial , communal work o f a compul sory
nature has been regarded as normal ; so also the
levy fo r a common purpo s e . It natural ly fo llows
that these services are enforceable in the Native
16
Regulations
•
•
•
•
•
•
Ratu Sukuna ' s generally progressive goal s we re
thoroughly in tune with village aspirations and needs , but
the renovated machinery o f adminis tration was not .
The
corpo rate strength of the old tikina based on the local
chiefly domain , the vanua , s t il l the most effective unit of
cooperation , was often sacrificed in the amalgamation of
two or three tikina into one ( reducing the total number
from 1 84 to 7 6 ) . For Ratu Sukuna was as impatient as any
English offic ial with the parochialism of distric t po litics
156
and inveighed agains t it o ften. Similarly , in an effo rt
that was a complete failure , he urged smaller villages to
combine into more viable and attrac tive communities capable
of burning a few ' bright lights ' of their own . 1 7 Fi j ians
c lung tenaciously to smal ler groupings and their own
chiefs . It was a singular Bul i indeed who coul d get peopl e
not his own t o work gladly under him i n the old way as if
he we re thei r own chief . And it was a rare village which
fel t prope rly represent ed by an outsid er-Bul i speaking for
its needs on the provincial council .
Ratu Sukuna had
over- estimat ed the dynamic s of trad itional organi zation in
trying to stretch it in new d irections and control it
bureauc ratical ly .
The resul t , in the opinion of many keen
observers , was a fundamental ly fl awed
administrative
machinery marked by rigid authoritarianism and village
apathy , leading in some areas to a near paralys is of
e ffe c tive local leadership . 1 8
There were new problems , too , at provincial level wi th
a siphoning of powe r from the Roko s and Dis tric t Officers
to powe rful Distric t Commissione rs re spons ible fo r four or
five provinces , so that , for instance , there was little the
Roko Tui of Nadroga and Navosa could do wi thout reference
to the District Commis sioner Western at Lautoka . 1 9 He in
turn answered c losely to
Suva ,
and
supervised
an
ever- growing corps of economic development and agricul tural
officers whose influence reached down to village l evel , not
always in coordination with the provincial o ffic e . The
Roko ' s l ead ership was thus c ompromised or bypassed , whil e
the annual provincial councils , usually dominated by the
new o ffic ial s , we re inc lined to rubber- s tamp their wishes
without real debate .
A c ritical weakness o f o fficial reliance on communal
labour was that local authorities could , and often did ,
wi thdraw their labour force from agricul ture to domestic or
so cial
tasks , principally house repairs .
The Fij ian
Developm ent Fund was
never able
to
make housing
improvements on a scal e that would diminish the burden of
c ommunal work . Secondly , the government was not wil ling or
able to control pe rsonal movement , so that by 1 956 a
quarter of the Fi j ian popul a tio n had chosen wage employment
or life outs ide the village . The ' burden of obligations '
fell ever harder on those that remained . Finally, inherent
in any fo rm of communal development was the need for
inspired pe rsonal l eadership c lose to the peopl e .
Ratu
Sukuna ' s bureauc ratic , top- heavy and highly ceremonious
adminis trative machine was simply inad equate to engage wi th
157
the risks o f commercial ag ricul ture . A hurricane , a new
pest or disease , or a sudden fall in prices could undo
years
of pati ent wo rk when growe rs we re ul timately
dependent on a single expo rt commodity , usual ly copra , a
laissez-faire economy , unskilled lead ership and minimal
technical or financial assis tance .
' To sum up ' , wrote
Be l shaw in his sc athing review of the po st-war years , ' the
effects of Fi j ian Administration on the economic growth of
the Fi j ian peopl e have been little short of d isas trous , and
the source of much difficul ty lies wi thin the struc ture and
philosophy of the Administration as a po litical unit . ' 2 0
Two maj or offic ial inqui ries published in 1 959 and
1 960 warned the Fij ians that Ratu Sukuna ' s d esign for slow
evolution from wi thin was utterly bankrupt .
Professor
Spate declared : ' The main po int is c lear : a people cannot
contract out o f the century i t lives in, nor can it be sole
judge of the terms on which i t enters , for modern economic
life has al so i ts own logic . ' 2 1 The road forward , the right
philosophy , the right way to moderni ze was firmly to
espouse democracy and individualism , to become a nation of
independent farmers and so- called free agents wi thin the
capitalist economy .
The critique s we re telling , much as many Fi j ians we re
angered by the Eurocentrism of their faith in capitalis t
models and naive if we ll- intend ed recommendations such as
an assurance in the Burns Report that Fi j ian cul tural life
could be ad equately sus tained by the equivalent of Highland
Games
and
eisteddfods
pleasant ornaments on the
struc tures o f a better, that is , Anglo-western , way o f
life . 2 2 O n another front the government was already under
strong pressure from London and the International Labour
Organization to abolish the last vestiges of ' forced
labour '
The dismantl ing of the communal sys tem began in
earnest in 1 96 1 with a series o f amending regulations ,
removing all communal obligations and the program of work
and finally abolishing the body o f Fij ian regulations in
favour of increased regulato ry powe r for provincial
council s . 2 3 The Fi j ian courts and their relatively harsh
and speedy sanctions we re no longer available to local
lead ers :
a man could now evade his taxes wi th relative
ease , and only moral disapproval could be brought to bear
on the lazy or improvid ent .
•
It was only logical to take the next step and abolish
the Bulis and the t ikina councils , and to give provincial
councils direc tly elected maj orities
( in
1 967 ) .
158
Councillors ( mata) represented large cons tituenc ies wi th
the same problems o f unity expe rienced by the amalgamated
tikina ,
leaving many villages wi thout a sense of
participation and commitment
to
the
province . 2 4 Not
surpris ingly there were spontaneous movements in many
provinces in the 1 970s to reconstitute the ' old tikina '
( pre- 1 944 ) wi th which peopl e still identified fo r church ,
spo rting and cul tural event s ;
fo r the old tikina was
stil l , after all these years , the lo cus o f their best
corpo rate energies .
( At the time of writ ing
these
ex tra- legal ent ities under trad itional lead ership we re
being given some
encouragement and
recognition by
autho rities
rather disillusioned
by the fruits o f
provincial democracy, and fur ther changes were i n the air . )
Fi j ians first exe rcised the franchise at national
level in 1 963 when cons titutional amendments provided for
two nominated Fi j ian members and four elected from a
communal rol l .
Similar and equal provision was made for
Indian and European members ,
reduc ing
the
official
government maj ori ty to one .
Bri tain then began pushing
towards sel f- government and independence at a faster pace
than most Fi j ians would have wished . A Constitutional
Conference in London in 1 96 5 agreed on the continuat ion of
three communal elec toral rolls , wi th the Chinese and other
non- islander minorities being count ed in with the Europeans
on the ' General ' rol l , and Pacific Islanders wi th the
Fij ians . A new sys tem of c ross-voting allowed voters o f
a l l races t o vo te together fo r a member from each race fo r
' nat ional ' seats , in addition to voting fo r a communal
seat , so that each elector voted for four candidates .
Mini s te rial government fo llowed in 1 967 .
Finally a
Cons titutional Conference in 1 970 , attended in London by
the entire Leg islat ive Council ,
incorporat ed
similar
principl es into the constitution for ind ependence , but
reduc ing
the
relative weight
of
the
' General '
representatives to eight of the fifty- two members ( twelve
Fi j ians , twe lve Ind ians and three ' Gene ral ' elected on
communal
rolls ,
t en Fi j ians , t en Indians , and five
' Gene ral ' elected on national rolls through c ross-voting) .
In most o ther respects the Cons ti tutional Ins truments ,
handed to Ratu Si r Kamisese K . T . Mara by Prince Charles at
a simple ce remony on 1 0 O c tober 1 970 , provided for a
Wes tminister- styl e government wi th the Bri tish Sovereign as
Head of State represented by a Governor-Gene ral .
( Fij ians
had remained attached to the throne - was any village home
wi thout a pic ture gallery o f the Royals? - and would not
159
countenance the repub lican sympathies of most Ind ians ,
whose leaders , in the prevail ing spirit o f compromise , did
not press the matter. ) A cruc ial feature of the legislature
was that eight of the twenty- two members of the new uppe r
house of review, the Senate , we re to be appo inted by the
Great Council of Chiefs ( with seven nominated by the Prime
Minis ter , s ix by the Leader of the Opposit ion and one on
the advice of the Council o f Ro tuma , a local government
body fo r that island , established in 1 927 and comprising a
Dis tric t Officer ,
t rad i tional
chiefs
and
distric t
representatives ) .
The consent of six of the ' eight chiefly
nominees had to be obtained to enact any l egislation
affecting certain entrenched measures - previous colonial
laws - or new l egislation regard ing Fi j ian land s , customs
and
adminis tration .
In short the constitution gave
iron- clad security , sho rt of revolution , to the paramountcy
of Fi j ian interests articul ated at Ces sion , d efended
against Europeans by Gordon and Thurston , weakly maintained
by their suc cesso rs , never threat ened by the Ind ians , and
reaffirmed effec tively in 1 944 by Governor Mi tchell and
Ratu Sukuna in alliance with the local European elite .
The triumph of Fi j ian po litical and European economic
interests at nat ional l eve l , matched by the unambiguous
c ommitment of Ind ian lead ers to national peace , allowed the
asc endant
Fi j ian
leaders
to
fos ter multiracial
participation in selected areas of national life such as
higher education and the civ il service , while accepting as
his torical ly determined the sharp racial boundaries in
community l i fe .
Fi j i unde r Alliance Party mul tiracial
governments moved very comfo rtably into the international
arena , enj oying an unexpe c ted and enviable reputation for
s tability , despite the continuing problems of Indian
farmers in negotiating with the Native Land s Trust Board
for adequate l eases .
The rapid demarcation of Fij ian
reserves in the 1 960s by the Native Lands Commission had
removed nearly a mil lion and a half acres from future
non-Fij ian use , whil e existing Indian tenants on these
land s had the bitterness of seeing their leases expire and
the land , in many cases , revert to bush , even where the
Fi j ian owne rs themse lves woul d have been glad not to lose
their rents .
The government did legisl ate , however , in
1 976 to extend existing ten-year leases fo r twenty years
and ensure that new l eases would be fo r a minimum of thirty
years - the payo ff to land lords being a five-yearly review
o f the rents . 2 5 I t s till meant there we re few Indians who
could look fo rward to passing on to thei r sons the land
they worked for decad es .
This condition made fo r high
1 60
mobil ity and openness to any avenue to suc cess , inc luding
emig ration to a few countries such as Canad a wi lling to
take skilled people Fi j i could ill affo rd to lo se .
Independent Fi j i sustained an elaborate architecture
of c ompromise , a balance of imbalances which prompted an
anthropo logis t writing in 1 977 to suggest that
Fi j i
' offe red an unusual lesson for stud ents of race re lations :
it may be the development of a cul ture that admits racial
contention , allowing it to be ac ted out in regulari zed ways
rather than repressing or denying it , which facilitates
c ontrol
of
conflict
and
the
achievement
of
integration ' . 2 6 G . B . Milner has paid tribut e to the Fi j ian
demonstration of a ' modest , unassuming , though unmis takable
sel f- confid ence , this silent , amiable though
eloquent
protest
agains t
the monotony and
the
impe rsonal
universal ism of
the Wes tern wo rld
a
cul tural
achievement of the first o rder ' . 2 7 Such c laims are beyond
empi rical demonstration , but wi ll ring true to tho se who
have lived any l ength of time in the homes o f ordinary
Fi j ians , not l eas t the shanty-dwellers on the fringes o f
Suva.
•
•
•
When the histo ry o f these decad es can be written in
d etail , however , the facts of economic powe r may well
diminish the t riumph of Fi j ian po litical leadership and
that enormous sense of unity , vitality and cul tural pride
fo r which Fi j ian leaders have gladly acknowledged their
general debt to the British colonial arrangements analysed
Two Aus tralian mul tinational groups
in this book .
Carpenters and Burns Philp - effortl essly maintained their
domination , not to say s trangleho ld , over the impo rting ,
who lesaling and retailing sectors , wh il e Fi j ians continued
to be unde r- represented in the uppe r status l evels of the
wo rkfo rce , especially in commerce . Though the government
was fo rced ·to acquire CSR ' s sugar interests in 1 973 , and
set up a mos t suc cessful Fi j i Sugar Corpo ration , there was
For the
l ittle inclination to apply the model elsewhere .
,
investment
reign
fo
on
ependent
d
heavily
remained
economy
minimal
th
wi
,
industry
t
touris
the
in
most visibly
restraints on the expatriat ion of profits . On the other
hand new ventures such as pine- growing and cattle schemes
for a much greater local and Fij ian
d esigned
we re
Fi j i wi th
as
small
A country as
partic ipation .
'
unemployment figures as large as New Zealand s could not
affo rd to c lose the door on any kind of investment that
would create j obs and compensate fo r the tragic loss o f
sel f- sufficiency in the villages .
161
The dilemmas of rural development throw into sharper
relief some of the basic achievements o f earlier colonial
organi zation . For the simpl e basic needs that fil ter up
from the villages through the modern adminis tration in the
requi red language of ' development priorities ' are often
reque sts fo r new housing , repairs to o ld housing , the
clearing of d rains and wells , the cutting of grass and
undergrowth - the very tasks that we re once att ended to by
the Bul is wi th communal labour . �2 8 Brookfield and his
colleague s have admirably delineated for eas tern Fi j i the
growing depend ency o f ' marginalized ' peripheral areas on
external
sub sid ies and direction , accompanied by a
paradoxical mix of ' disgus t at the breakdown of trad itional
co- ope ration ' and ' an equally general wish fo r greater
individual opportunity' • 2 9 While generally pred ispo sed , of
course ,
to encourage the latter still further, they
do cument the ( irretrievable? ) co llapse of the abil ity of
out er- island villages
to
exploit ancient ho rizontal
linkages wi th o ther villages to redistribute resources in
normal times and to survive maj or disasters such as
hurricanes or droughts .
Suva send s American food and
relief worke rs where once Moala may have sent seed-yams and
kinsmen .
And s o after six ty years of spo rad ic rhetoric and
twenty o f effective po licy , one dimension o f individualism ,
self- re liance , may have finally taken ho ld of village life
wherever leaders are absent , lacking or ignored . It means
that young men or poor men cannot call on mutual aid in the
cons truc tion of houses wi thout a prohibitive outlay of food
and cash fo r the buil ders ; and there are old men and women
who have none to care for them . If such individualism is
accompanied by l egalism , inequalities in land distribution
( as owning units increase and decrease) cause corresponding
inequali ties in the distribution of weal th .
Families are
much l ess inclined to share weal th , if only to protec t
their aspirations fo r children whose future remittances may
be the only way their parents and elderly relatives will
survive in the vil lages at all .
Already one finds , as
Nankivell repo rts of Taveuni , ' truly desperate cases ' of
poverty and neg lect , and this on the famed ' garden isl e ' of
the group . 3 0 And it can be safely said the housing
standards o f Fi j ians are the worst they have been in
centuries , wi th thin reed walls and stone-weighted sloping
iron roofs ' almost universal ' in most new settlements and
extremely common in villages . 3 1 Fij ians have never had less
to abandon when oppo rtunity beckons el sewhere .
162
Yet o thers insist that wherever Fi j ians l ive , not
l east
in Suva ,
groups
still dominate thei r lives
po li tical ly , cul turally and so cially .
' U rban Fi j ians ' ,
wri tes Nation , ' are no more individual istic than their
vil lage cousins . ' 3 2 Personal expenditure flows freely to
the support of weddings , funerals , fes tivals , church
collections and o ther so cial proj ects , as it always did
through the who le colonial pe riod . Named social groups
remain at the very heart of Fi j ian life .
Perhaps the
emascul ation of the communal system and the triumph of
l iberal concepts of d emocracy has not , a fter all , produced
a new race of individual ists ; it has l eft many villagers ,
though, in a perilous state of marginalization and
depend ency .
In the 1 980s they have the unenviable task o f
regaining basic sel f- sufficiency and
security while
satisfying the desire of their remaining young peopl e to
achieve higher produc tivity , higher incomes , and greater
self- real ization from the interplay of their human and
natural resources .
The Spat e report offered Fi j ians in 1 95 9 only two
choices :
individualism
or
a
rigid
authoritarian
collectivism ' . 3 3 The wi tness o f this history is that at
l east un til World War II Fij ians had a special talent for a
modest , low-energy but qui te admirab le and prospe rous
d esign for living and working together that avoid ed both
ex tremes - a d esign which maintained enriching continui ty
wi th
the
pas t despi te colonialist d isparagement of
everything they encapsuled in the wo rds , na itovo vakaviti ,
the Fi j ian way .
Perhaps the best hope for an uncertain
future is that Ratu Sukuna ' s memorable defence of Fi j ian
communal
values in the co lonial pe riod wi ll inspire
strat egies for more fully human modes
of community
d evelopment .
The
simpl istic
presc riptions
of
ind ividualism , so clearly pe rnic ious had they guided
co lonial po licy in the 1 870s , seem to have been equally
bankrupt in the 1 970s . Other than doub ting that communal
development can be led by t eams o f bureauc rats answe ring to
the centre , it is surely premature to prec lud e the rise of
innovative l eaders c lo ser to the groups wi th which Fi j ians
stil l largely identify .
By and large Fij ians commanded the banks if not always
the main- stream of their colonial his tory . A t independence
thei r leade rs resumed command of the sweep o f the stream
itsel f , wi th all its confl icting edd ies and currents .
Their chal lenge , in the fac e of urbani zation wi thout
indus trial ization , unemployment , marketing problems fo r
163
sugar and copra , and continuing institutional weaknesses in
local adminis tration , is to ensure that neither Fi j ians nor
Indians in suffic ient number ever begin to feel that the
stream has c eased to carry them , or has marooned them in
stagnant pools on the fringe . In a wo rld that is running
out of easy answe rs , no one wil l be surprised if the entire
nation looks to its own Fi j ian heritage fo r some of the
arts o f l iving wel l on island s , and to select aspects of
its colonial expe ri ence fo r containing the continents .
No tes
to text
Introduc tion
1.
See Deryck Scarr ' s life o f Thurston : I , the Very
Bayonet and Viceroy o f the Pac ific ; R . A . De rrick , !_
History o f Fi j i ; J . D . Legge , Britain in Fi j i 1 858- 1 880
and for the best sho rt account of the nine teenth
c entury pe riod lead ing into this book , Deryck Scarr ,
' John Bates Thurston : Grand Panj andrum of the Pacific ' .
2.
Ratu Peni Tanoa t o the NC , 5 March 1 908 , CSO 08/1 1 74 .
3.
See David Wilkinson ' s o pen letter to Sir Everard im
Thurn , We stern Pac ific Herald , 3 July 1 908 , fo r ano ther
account o f Ce ssion from the Fi j ian viewpo int .
4.
See Deryck Scarr , ' John Bates Thurston, Commodore J . G .
Good enough , and Rampant Anglo-Saxons in Fi j i ' .
5.
Much of the Indian story in Fi j i has b een told by K . L .
Gil lion in Fi j i ' s Indian Migrants and The Fi j i Indians .
6.
Pe ter Franc e , The Cha rte r of the Land , has the best
impressionistic survey of pre-Cession Fi j i .
?.
Sir Arthur Hamil ton Go rdon, Paper on the System of
Taxation in Force in Fi j i , p. 1 78 . See France , Charter
o f the Land , p . 1 08 .
8.
S e e Ian Heath , ' Toward s a Reasse ssment of Gordon in
Fi j i ' .
9.
After 1 904 the Council o f Chiefs submitted a panel of
six to the Governo r , and two were given seats on the
Legislative Council , three after 1 92 9 . Since
independence the Council chooses eight of the
twenty- two senators c omprising the uppe r house .
1 0.
Legge , Bri tain in Fi j i , has an exhaustive discussion of
the sys tem summari zed here and further elaborated as
need ed in the chapters bel ow .
11.
Fi gures suppl ied by De ryck Scarr . His Viceroy o f the
Pac ific has a ful l discussion of the taxation sys tem .
1 64
1 65
12.
Legge , Bri tain in Fi j i , pp. 1 93-4 .
13.
France , Charter of the Land , p . 1 23 .
1 4.
ibid . , p . 1 39 .
Chapter 1 . New white men without knowledge
1.
Sir Everard im Thurn ' s address , 1 4 Oc tober 1 907 ,
Legisl ative Council Debates , 1 907 .
2.
Sir George T . M . O ' Brien to Si r Ian Anderson , 30
November 1 901 , CO 83 /73 .
3.
Fi j i Times , 9 September 1 899 .
4.
Norma McArthur , Island Populations of the Pacific , pp .
26-3 2 .
5.
Basil Thomson , The Indisc re tions o f Lady Asenath ,
p . 1 86 .
6.
G . R . Burt to the Governo r , 1 2 Feb ruary 1 892 , CSO
92 /620 .
7.
Frank Spenc e to the CS , 1 1 February 1 892 , CSO 92 /252 .
8.
W . Slade to the CS , 1 8 February 1 892 , CSO 92 /645 .
9.
Re ort of a Commission of En uir
o inted to En uire
into the Dec rease of the Native Population 1 896 ,
P • 38 .
10.
The turaga ni koro of Cautata , Wi lliam Sutherland ' s
minute , 1 3 December 1 91 0 , CSO 1 1 /784 .
11.
S . Smith ' s minute , 1 0 June 1 898 , Kadavu Provinc ial
Council Book .
12.
W . Sco tt ' s minute , 1 2 April 1 91 1 , Serua Provinc ial
Council Book .
13.
Ratu Tev ita Suraki ' s repo rt , 29 Nov ember 1 898 , CSO
98/5 1 54 .
166
1 4.
Basil Thomson , The Fi j ians , pp . 228-3 2 .
1 5.
W . L . All ardyce ' s minute , 6 December 1 902 , CSO 02 /545 1 .
1 6.
Thomson , The Fi j ians , pp . 229-30.
1 7.
O ' Brien ' s minute , 8 January 1 898 , CSO 89 /42 ; add ress to
the Leg islative Co uncil , 7 Oc tober 1 898 , CP 33/99 .
1 8.
O ' Brien to CO , 31 December 1 897 .
1 9.
Walter Carew ' s minute , 1 1 July 1 896 , and Si r John B.
Thurston ' s , 1 4 December 1 896 , CSO 96 /242 5 .
20 .
See l etters o f appo intment , 1 4 Oc tober 1 898 , CSO
98/3498 .
21 .
O ' Brien ' s marginal s , CSO 00/2 693 and minute , 1 9
September 1 900 , CSO 99/3534 .
22 .
Spenc e diarie s at CSO 99/38 , 00/3 534 .
23 .
Excerpts from Sydney Smith ' s 1 900 diaries , CSO 02/5838.
24 .
Nailatikau to O ' Brien , 7 May 1 900 and O ' Brien ' s minute ,
1 8 May 1 900 , CSO 00/1 628.
25 .
Proceedings o f the Council of Chiefs , 1 902 .
26 .
Na Mata , May 1 899 ,
27 .
ibid . , March 1 899 , p . 47 .
28 .
For the hygiene mission see CSO 99/1 777 , 99/3 1 49,
99/4930 .
29.
O ' Brien ' s ad dress t o the Legislative Council , 27
September 1 899 , CP 29/00 .
30 .
See O ' Brien to Bisho p Vidal , 1 0 November 1 898 , PMB
micro film 455 .
31 .
W . L . All ardyce to the Commissioner of Co lo North , 31
January 1 899 , CSO 99/567 .
32 .
CP 29/00
PP •
74-5 .
167
33 .
Na Mata , July 1 905 .
34 .
ibid . , August 1 905 .
35 .
Proceedings o f the Council of Chiefs , 1 875 .
36 .
O ' Brien' s minutes , 9 December 1 898 , CSO 98/4850 .
37 .
See CSO 99/1 483 , 542 6 .
38 .
O ' Brien t o CO , 3 1 December 1 897 .
39 .
Fi j i : Report fo r 1 900 , HMSO London , 1 901 .
40 .
W. L. Allardyce ' s memorandum , 6 December 1 902 , CSO
02 /5457 .
41 .
Islay McOwan to the Rec eiver General , 3 June 1 901 , CSO
01 /2522 .
42 .
cso
43 .
Nathaniel Chalmers to the Re ceiver General , 1 June
1 898 , c so 98/525 .
44 .
O ' Brien ' s minute , 1 3 May 1 898 , CSO 98/52 5 .
45 .
Wi lliam Sutherland ' s minute , 1 9 June 1 901 , CSO 01 /2740 .
46 .
Ratu I sikeli Tubail agi to the NC , 1 5 November 1 901 , CSO
00/3795 .
47 .
R. Boo th to the assistant CS , 20 Oc tober 1 900 , CSO
00/3795 .
48 .
W. L. Allardyce ' s minute , 9 December 1 898 , CSO 98/4850 .
49 .
W. A . Sco tt to the NC , 21 Augus t 1 904 , CSO 04/422 9 .
50 .
Ratu A. Finau to the NC , 1 0 February 1 903 , CSO 00/221 5 .
51 .
O ' Brien ' s minute , 2 3 June 1 900 , CSO 00/22 1 5 .
52 .
William Sutherland to the CS , 1 July 1 909, enc . Sir
Charles Maj or to CO , 6 July 1 909 , CO 83 /92 .
02 /5457 .
1 68
53 .
Suthe rland ' s minute , 20 January 1 91 3 , CSO 1 3 /5856 .
54 .
H . B. Cox ' s minute on im Thurn to CO , 26 Oc tober 1 906 ,
co 83 /83 .
Chapter 2 . The assaul t on land rights
1.
Sir Everard
Papers .
2.
Add ress to the Council of Chiefs , April 1 905 , im Thurn
Papers .
3.
Fi j i Times , 20 March 1 909 .
4.
See Gordon to CO , 25 March 1 881 , in Si r Arthur Hamil ton
Gordon, Fi j i , vol . 4 , pp . 51 6 -1 7 .
5.
See Introduc tion .
6.
F . Spence to
F37/93 .
7.
Lo rd Stanmore ( Go rdon) to CO , 29 August 1 908 , CO 83 /86 .
8.
Im Thurn ' s minute , 6 December 1 907 , CSO 06/3236 .
9.
Im Thurn to CO , 2 November 1 907 , CO 83/86 and 1 8 March
1 908 , co 83 /87 .
im
im
Thurn ' s d iary , 1 1 Oc tober 1 904 , im Thurn
Thurn , 31 January 1 909 , enclosed in CSO
1 0.
Im Thurn ' s minute , 1 1 January 1 906 , CSO 05 /4 1 1 8. See
also CSO 05 /4029 , 05 /455 6 .
11 .
Proceedings o f the Council of Chiefs , 1 903 , Resolution
VI : ' it is our unanimous wi sh that the Government have
the enti re control of l easing suc h l and , fixing the
terms and the rents fo r it ' .
12.
Si r Charl es Ma j or ' s minute , 24 January 1 905 , and
Franci s Baxendal e ' s minute , 1 5 March 1 905 , CSO 05 /1 206 .
13.
Im Thurn to CO , 22 March 1 907 , CO 83 /85 .
1 69
1 4.
Im Thurn to CO , 26 Oc tober 1 906 , CO 83 /84 .
1 5.
ibid . The ord inance was approved wi th the proviso that
the Colonial Offic e ' s approval be ob tained prior to
actual resumpt ion .
16.
Mad raiwiwi to the NC , August 1 906 , CSO 06 /2854 .
17.
Dav id Wilkinson to the NC , 1 3 August 1 906 ,
copy enc losed in CSO F37/93 .
1 8.
See im Thurn to CO , 1 2 June 1 907 , CO 83 /85 .
1 9.
CO to im Thurn , 26 Oc tober 1 907 , CO 83 /86 .
20 .
Im Thurn to CO , 1 8 March 1 908 , CO 83 /87 .
21 .
See CSO 06 /3236 , 06/3 65 1 , 06/3602 , 07/481 6 .
22 .
W. A. Scott to the NC , 30 July 1 909 , CSO 09/63 93 .
23 .
MM
L/1 4 ;
Komai Sawakasa and others to the NC , 1 November 1 909 ,
09/92 95 .
cso
24 .
Le tter read to the Tail evu Prov inc ial Council , November
1 909� cso 09/92 95 .
25 .
Peti tion of the Planters Assoc iation to the Right Hon.
the Sec retary o f State fo r the Colonie s , 30 January
1 908 , article 1 1 7 .
26 .
Im Thurn to CO, 26 Oc tober 1 906 and 22 March 1 907 .
27 .
Rev . A. J . Small to
08/1 1 74 .
28 .
Im Thurn ' s minute , 1 6 March 1 908 , on Tanoa and others
to the NC , 5 March 1 908, CSO 08/1 1 74 .
29 .
See Peter Franc e , The Charter of the Land , pp . 1 59-61 .
30 .
Stanmore to CO , 29 Augus t 1 908 , CO 83 /86 ; im Thurn to
CO , 1 5 April 1 908, CO 83 /87 ; CO to im Thurn , 1 5 July
1 908 , co 83 /88 .
31 .
France , Charter of the Land , p . 1 65 .
im
Thurn , 1 4 March 1 908 , CSO
170
Chapter 3 . The erosion of hereditary privilege
1.
Ai Tukutuku Vakalotu [ The Church Times] March 1 932 , pp .
1 0-1 1
•
2.
Proceedings o f the Council of Chiefs , 1 892 , Resolution
III .
3.
David Wilkinson ' s memorandum ( ' Lala o r Fi j ian Service
Tenures ' ) , 1 8 December 1 875 , CSO 00/3434 .
4.
Wi lkinson to the CS , 6 January 1 898 , CSO 98/2 1 5 . His
singular spelling is no re fl ection on the quality o f
his observations .
5.
Franc is Baxendal e ' s minute , 21 Oc tober 1 904 , CSO
04/422 9 .
6.
W . A . Sco tt to the NC , 21 September 1 904 , ibid .
7.
Im Thurn ' s note , 1 6 November 1 904 , im Thurn Papers ,
ms2 , i tem 1 0 .
8.
I m Thurn ' s opening add re s s , 1 0 April 1 905 , Proc eed ings
o f the Council of Chiefs , 1 905 ; J. Baleiricau and
others to im Thurn , 7 April 1 905 , CSO 05 /1 971 .
9.
Im Thurn ' s minute , 2 9 June 1 905 , CSO 05/2720.
1 0.
Le tter to the edi to r , Na Mata , September 1 906 , pp.
1 38-9 .
11.
Let ter to the ed ito r , Na Mata , September 1 908 , pp .
1 36-7 .
12.
Ratu Joni Mad raiwiwi to the Governor , 26 Oc tober 1 91 3 ,
c so 1 4/1 745 .
13.
But see the confl ict between Bau and Verata on this
very po int i n Chapter 5 .
1 4.
See G . V . Maxwell to the CS , 1 1 July 1 91 7 , CSO 1 7/5947 .
15.
Rusiate R. Nayacakalou , Fi j ian Leadership in a
Si tuation of Change , p . 3 1 6 .
171
1 6.
CSO 01 /1 058; Ratu A . Finau t o the CS, 2 1 Oc tober 1 905 ,
cso 05 /4533 .
1 7.
W. A . Sco tt ' s minute , Nov ember 1 909 , Kad avu Provinc ial
Council Book .
1 8.
Similarly the chiefs pro tested in 1 932 when the
government removed from the Communal Se rvices
Regulation three items that seemed to offend the Geneva
Convention on fo rced labour effective 3 June 1 932 : the
transpo rt of mail and government offic ials , the
conveyance of the sick and the assistanc e of NLC
surveyors . The chiefs said that by the abolition of
free transpo rt ' a chiefly custom of our land would be
done away wi th ' - see Si r Murchison Fletcher to CO , 9
Nov ember 1 932 . The government was glad to al low the
provinc ial councils separately to re- enac t these
' forc ed labour ' provisions .
1 9.
Proceed ings o f the Council of Chiefs , 1 91 1 , Resolution
XVI ! ! . The Rokos o f Tailevu and Rewa held out
unsuc cessful ly fo r compensation .
20 .
Proc eed ings of the Council o f Chi efs , 1 91 2 .
21 .
D . R . Stewart ' s minute , 22 April 1 91 9 , SNA 1 9/1 095 .
22 .
Sir John B. Thurston to Ratu Epe li Nailatikau, 30 July
1 894 , CSO 94/2049. The fo llowing year relief suppl ies
of ric e were sent to the island - CSO 95 /2579 .
23 .
Similarly, d isputes over land near the Nausori mill
broke out whenever CSR requi red fur ther lease s . In 1 885
there was an unpl easant confrontation at Nausori
between the Chi ef of Namata - with his men and the Bauans
under Ratu Epeli . The Namata chief feared tha t some of
the Bauans we re bent on armed viol enc e and on depriving
him of all his land s - Ratu Marika To roca to Lt
Governo r , 6 December 1 886 , CSO 93 /3 676 . A fur ther
dispute over ' Nokonoko ' , some 70 ac res on the
Bau-Namata boundary , was reso lved in fav our of Namata
by W . L . Allardyce in 1 894 - ibid .
24 .
As spoken by Ratu Busa , 26 Oc tober 1 907 , CSO 05 /3764 .
Im Thurn minuted : ' The Bau chiefs seem always to have
pl ayed at young blackbird s in their nest doing nothing
but opening their mouths . '
172
25 .
See Sir F . Henry May to C O , 25 Oc tober 1 9 1 1 , for a
longer summary and the chie fs of Bau to CO , 1 4 May
1 90 9 , co 83 /99 .
26 .
Ratu Marika Toroca ' s confl ic t wi th the Bauans is
analysed i n De ryck Scarr , 'A Roko Tui fo r Lomaivit i ' .
27 .
J . Green' s minute ,
28 .
Wi lliam Sutherland ' s minute , 2 March 1 91 1 , CSO 1 0/72 5 9 .
29.
A . Erdhard t ' s minute , 1 6 Oc tober 1 91 2 , CSO 1 2/6371 .
30 .
See CP 1 7/06 . Prior to 1 906 the turaga i tauke i
received 8s in the £ , but was expected to distribute it
according to cus tom to the lesser chiefs - few d id . In
1 906 therefo re , ignoring the ac tual soc ial o rgani zation
of the peopl e , a new d iv ision was mad e : 1 s fo r the
turaga i taukei , 2s fo r the head of the avusa ( a
desc ent g roup o f third- order inclusiveness and 3 s for
the chief of the legal land- owning unit , the mataqali .
The Roko and the Bul i were given 1 s each whe ther o r no t
they were land owners . After 1 91 2 the government
d educ ted 2 s , leaving 1 0s to the mataqal i members .
31 .
See evidenc e of Wi liso ni Tuisawau and Serita Batei , CSO
1 2 /6371 . Inoke Nawa , ex-Buli Bureta ( Ovalau) sta ted
that the reason they had not sent fi rst frui ts to the
Vunivalu fo r some years wa s due to ord ers from the
European magistrate in charge of Lomaiviti .
32 .
Repo rt o f the NLC proc eed ings in Lomaiviti , 1 6 November
1 91 6 , CP 1 4/1 7 .
33 .
cso
34 .
Wainiu ' s evidence , ibid .
35 .
Sir Cec il Rodwell to CO , 31 Augus t 1 922 .
36 .
J . S . Neill ' s minute , 20 November 1 92 5 , CSO 23 /2888.
37 .
A . L. Armst rong ' s repo rt , 1 9 June 1 923 , CSO 22 /4936 .
38 .
Wainiu to Si r Arthur Ri chard s , 20 Augus t 1 937 , CSO
F50/68 . In 1 940 and in 1 942 the Council of Chiefs
unsuc cessfully a sked that the Vunivalu rec eive a
salary .
January 1 91 6 , CO 83 /1 27 .
1 6/7067 .
1 73
Chapter 4. The new po litics of chiefly power
1.
Journal of Rev . Thomas Bake r , 6 Ausus t 1 85 9 , Mi tchell
Library , Sydney , referenc e courtesy of De ryck Sc arr .
2.
Mad raiwiwi to the Governo r , 26 Oc tober 1 91 3 , CSO
1 4 /1 745 .
3.
ibid .
4.
Mad raiwiwi to the NC , 1 9 April 1 907 , CSO 07 /1 452 .
5.
See CSO 07 /5 549 for Adi Vasemaca . For many details I am
ind ebted to Ratu Tiale Vuiyasawa .
6.
See CSO 07 /5286 . The re were 300 ac res al ready und er
nuts .
7.
Wi lliam Sutherland ' s minute , 3 1 March 1 908 , CSO
07 /5624 .
8.
The Vunivalu o f Bau was installed first a s Tui Kaba and
hi s wi fe as Ranad i Kaba . Some time later the original
inhabitants of Bau now l iv ing at Namac iu on Koro ( the
kai Butoni ) instal led him as Vunivalu , and several
months after that the kai Levuka of Lakeba instal led
him and his wi fe as Tui and Ranadi Levuka . See Niko
Rabuk:u to the NC , 9 April 1 907 , CSO 07 /1 452 , explaining
the irregularity of the previous month ' s proc eed ing s ,
and accompanying papers .
9.
Wainiu had long been trying to disc redit Kadavulevu ;
fo r instance in Augus t 1 91 1 he charged Kadavulevu wi th
supplying liquor to Pi ta Raori and with beating one
Loga twenty times wi th a stick un til the man bled Wainiu to the Governo r , 9 August 1 91 1 , CSO 1 1 /6 509 .
--
---
1 0.
Wainiu to the Governo r , 1 8 Augus t 1 91 3 , CSO 1 4/1 686 .
11.
Wi lliam Sutherland ' s minute , 1 4 Oc tober 1 91 3 , CSO
1 3 /82 1 3 .
12.
Fi ji Times , 7 Oc tober 1 91 3 .
13.
Rabic i to the NC , 30 May 1 91 4 , CSO 1 4/5063 .
1 74
1 4.
cso
1 6 /89 1 8.
1 5.
See , fo r exampl e , G .V. Maxwell to the CS , 4 Dec ember
1 91 7 , CSO 1 7/201 and memorandum , 1 0 November 1 91 9, CSO
1 9/3 1 .
1 6.
Toganivalu to the NC , 26 June 1 908 , CSO 07/4 1 37; Na
Mata , March 1 90 9 , pp . 44-6 .
1 7.
Cyril Francis ' s minute , 1 9 Oc tober 1 91 2 , CSO 1 2/5 1 97 .
1 8.
See Islay McOwan ' s minute , 3 July 1 908 , CSO 08/3045 .
1 9.
See CSO 08/6325 and Vuama Vakabati and others to the
Governo r , 1 1 Oc tober 1 91 1 , CSO 1 1 /881 4 .
20 .
Sutherland ' s minute , 26 November 1 908 , CSO 08/6325 .
21 .
Qasevakatini to Cyril Francis , 25 November 1 908 , CSO
08/632 5 .
22 .
The presiding officer of the 1 909 Provincial Council ,
W . A . Scott , gave as the reason fo r the move that ' The
Roko wishes Co uncils to be held at different places
each year so as to lend impe tus to planting ' - n . d .
[ Nov ember 1 909] , Kadavu Provincial Council Book. But
the Co uncil did not move from Yal e in 1 91 1 . Few Tavuki
chie fs came to these meetings . Ratu Ase sala was
c onspicuously absent in 1 91 0 .
23 .
Chiefs of Tavuki to the Governor , 1 1 Oc tober 1 91 1 , CSO
1 1 /881 4 .
24 .
Qasevakatini t o Bul i Tavuki , 24 Augus t 1 91 1 , CSO
1 1 /404 .
25 .
Vuama Vakabati and others to the Governor , 1 1 Oc tober
1 91 1 , and Sutherland ' s minute , 1 5 November 1 91 1 , CSO
1 1 /881 4 .
26 .
Qasevakatini to Sutherland , 8 Dec ember 1 91 2 , CSO
1 2/7 9 3 2 .
27 .
David Wilkinson ' s repo rt on Se rua , CSO 99/1 575 .
28 .
A compari son of the kinship units l isted in the NLC
final repo rt on Serua , 1 932 , wi th tho se made by David
Wilkinson in 1 899 is the main documentary basis fo r the
1 75
inferences mad e he re and amply confirmed in many
conversations in vi llages of the provinc e . Fi j ian
read ers wi l l appreciate that out of consideration fo r
prominent living pe rsonalities I have not broached the
related que stion of the publicly disputed right of Ratu
As eri ' s mataqal i to ex clusive po ssession of the chie fly
titl es Na Ka Levu and Vunivalu .
29.
Sir F . Henry May to CO , 3 May 1 91 1 , C O 83 /1 01 .
30 .
Rev . A . J . Smal l to Rev . W . Bennett , 5 June 1 909 ,
F/1 /1 909 .
31 .
See CSO 04/4656 , 1 3/3 500 , 1 9/1 85 9 .
32 .
G . V . Maxwel l ' s minute , my emphase s , 2 1 May 1 91 9 , CSO
1 9/1 85 9 ; Komave ' s pe tition to seced e at CSO 1 3/3800 .
33 .
Ratu Ase ri to DC Navua , 1 7 Oc tober 1 91 7 , CSO 1 7/1 01 62 .
34 .
H . Disbrowe ' s minute , 28 Oc tober 1 92 1 , SNA 21 /1 1 37 .
35 .
Evid enc e at CSO F50/27/1 9 ; Sukuna ' s memorandum 3
January 1 93 4 , SNA 32 /552 .
36 .
Wo rds o f a Galea info rmant , 26 Augus t 1 973 .
37 .
ibid : ' Sa turaga l evu duadua ga vei keda o Ratu Aseri . '
38 .
At the time o f writing , Ratu Sukuna ' s o ffic ial
biography by Deryck Scarr was going to press . I was
able to check some detail s from the early chapters in
d raft , by kind permission of the autho r .
39.
Sukuna ' s memorandum in Si r Cec il Rodwell t o CO , 2 3 July
1 923 , co 83 /1 65 .
MM
Chapter 5 . The continuities o f village l i fe and politic s .
1.
Walter Carew t o the CS , 24 April 1 896 , CSO 96/1 43 1 .
2.
See CSO 08/1 2 40 . For a d etailed analysis o f 1 1 4
appo intments of Bul is see T . J . Macnaught , ' Chiefly
Civil Se rvants? • • • '
176
3.
Sukuna to the CS , 21 April 1 933 , CSO F 1 5 /1 .
4.
Regulation III o f 1 91 2 , Part III .
5.
Sukuna to the CS , 1 6 April 1 940 , CSO F 1 5/1 .
6.
Colo East Provincial Council Report , 1 929 .
7.
Rev . We sl ey Amos to Rev . A. J . Small , 1 3 June 1 91 8 , MM
F/1 /1 91 8 . The o ther party to the ex change would have
been the Bauans .
8.
I am ind ebted in part fo r this desc ription t o the
eye-witness account o f Rev . Robert Green in his
unpublished memoirs .
9.
Rusiate R. Nayacakalou , Tradition , Choice and Change in
the Fi j ian Ec onomy , p . 69 .
1 0.
H . C . Monckton ' s minute , 1 7 September 1 93 9 , CSO F50/6 .
11.
Ratu J . L . V . Sukuna , Po licy wi th Regard to Fi j ian
Communal Obl igations .
1 2.
CSO F1 5 /1 .
13.
cso
1 4.
Paro chial ism is a maj or theme o f John Nation , Customs
of Respe c t .
1 5.
Nai latikau to Sir John B . Thurston, 1 September 1 890 ,
cso 90/1 734 ; cso 90/3091 .
1 6.
Ravoka to the SNA , 21 January 1 92 1 and o ther pape rs at
SNA 2 1 /230 .
1 7.
cso
1 8.
Ratu J . A . Rabic i et al . to the Governor , 1 3 November
1 923 , cso 23 /1 725 .
1 9.
cso
20 .
A . J . Armstrong ' s minute , 1 6 February 1 92 5 , CSO 25/2441 .
1 3 /1 463 .
22/5 6 1 1 , 22/1 1 27 , 22 /1 728, 23 /1 622 .
23 /4338.
1 77
21 .
Bul i Verata to DC Rewa , 28 August 1 930 , CSO 30/3068 .
22 .
Sukuna ' s d iary , 1 2 September 1 933 , CSO F1 5 /5 .
23 .
ibid . , 5-1 2 September 1 933 .
24 .
CSO F23 /7 . The fo l lowing year he was exiled to Ba tiki .
Chapter 6 . Apolosi R. Nawai and the Viti Company
1.
Fo r Tuka , see De ryck Scarr , Vi ceroy o f the Pac ific ,
passim , and Thurston ' s maste rly despatches to CO , 1 5
January , 1 6 February , and 5 July 1 886 , 1 June and 4
July 1 887 , 1 2 August 1 89 1 .
2.
Sto ries such a s the se , which are legion , are equally a s
o ften asc ribed t o Apolosi a s t o Navosavakadua , one clue
to a linkage impossible to document firmly in the
records .
3.
Sukuna ' s memorandum , 1 2 March 1 91 7 , CSO 1 7/2286 . See
also Chapt er 2 .
4.
Sydney Smith t o the CS , 2 9 Oc tober 1 91 2 , CSO 1 2 /702 1 .
5.
The ord inance ( XXVI I o f 1 91 3 ) was based largely on G. V.'
Maxwel l ' s recommendations at CSO 1 3/3087 .
6.
K . J . Allardyce to the CS , 5 February 1 91 5 , CSO 1 5/1 1 66 .
7.
Oral accounts on which this parag raph i s mostly based
were gathered info rmally at Lutu vil lage in 1 973 , and
are no t nec essarily reliable .
8.
Sukuna ' s memorandum , 1 2 March 1 91 7 , CSO 1 7/2286 .
9.
Na Mata , January 1 91 4 .
1 0.
Kuruduadua to the Provincial Commissioner of Co lo East ,
28 January 1 91 4 , CSO 1 4/1 975 .
11 .
Recast from an awkward paraphrase of Ilaisa Seru' s
evidenc e , re stricted fil e .
1 78
1 2.
Es cot t ' s minute , 3 June 1 91 4 and other papers at CSO
1 4/4758.
13.
Ratu A . Finau to the CS , 1 8 February 1 91 4 , CSO 1 4/241 3 .
1 4.
Proc eed ings o f the Council of Chi efs , 1 91 4 .
1 5.
ibid . , 1 91 7 and CSO 1 4/471 2 .
1 6.
cso
1 7.
Registrar of Companie s to the CS , 25 November 1 91 6 , CSO
1 6/9253 .
1 8.
Apo losi ' s c ircular to the Bul is of Nad roga , 1 7 March
1 91 5 , CSO 1 5/2851 . See also Gaunavou R. Nawai and David
L . Toma ' s , Ai Tukutuku Bibi
1 9.
Fi j i Times , 30 March 1 91 5 .
20 .
Fi j ian tex t , ibid ; Gil christ Alexand er , From the Middle
T emple to the So uth Seas , p . 72 .
21 .
Re stric ted fil es and George Barrow to the Governo r , 5
April 1 91 5 , CSO 1 5/3 1 30 .
22 .
Escott to CO , 7 Dec ember 1 91 7 , CO 83 /1 39 .
23 .
Na Mata , January 1 91 6 ; Escott ' s text o f verbal warning
read to Apolosi in Korovou gaol , September 1 91 6 , CSO
1 6/63 90 .
24 .
H . E . Snell to the CS , 28 March 1 91 7 , CSO 1 7/3093 .
25 .
1 4/4385 , 1 4/1 93 1 3 , 1 4/1 0287 .
Rev . C . O . Lel ean to Rev . A . J . Small , 1 6 November 1 91 6 ,
F/1 /1 91 6 .
MM
26 .
From a c onversation with miners at Va tukoula in 1 973 ,
and A. Thompson ' s pe rsonal communication , 1 7 November
1 97 5 .
27 .
Lutu fil es are restric t ed .
28 .
Co to Esc ott , 1 1 July 1 91 7 , CSO 1 7/7208 .
29 .
Unless a source is c ited hereafter the fil es are
restric ted .
1 79
30 .
Es cott to CO , 7 December 1 91 7 , wi th enclosures , CO
83 /1 4 1 .
31 .
Sukuna ' s memorandum , 1 2 March 1 91 7 , CSO 1 7/2286 .
32 .
Escot t to CO , 7 December 1 91 7 , CO 83 /1 41 .
33 .
H . Long ' s minute , 28 February 1 91 8 , CO 83 /1 41 .
34 .
I could not l ocate the Fi j ian original of this
remarkable document .
35 .
For the narrative of these years see my earlier account
in Deryck Scarr ( ed . ) , Mo re Pac ific Island Portraits ,
pp . 1 86-92 .
Chapter 7 . The vein of d isc ontent .
1.
See Legislative Council Debates , 1 96 9 , pp . 780-842 for
European , Fij ian and Indian testimony on the prevalence
of black magic in Fi j i and Ratu Penaia L . Latianara ' s
article in Pac ific Islands Monthly , September 1 973 , pp .
2 1 -5 .
2.
A . J . Armstrong to the C S , 20 January 1 937 , CSO F50/46 .
3.
Ratu A . Finau to the NC , 8 March 1 906 , translation
enc losed in CSO F50/47 .
4.
Rev . Col in Bl eazard to Rev . A . J . Small , 22 April 1 906 ,
and Small to Rev . B . Danks , 3 1 July 1 906 , MM F/1 /1 906 .
The teachers were suspended and began a Free Church of
their own .
5.
H . C . Monckton to the CS , 2 9 July 1 91 4 , CSO 1 4/6 993 .
6.
Nathaniel Chalmers to the CS , 1 1 January 1 905 , CSO
05 /303 .
7.
David Wilkinson ' s minute , 27 January 1 905 , CSO 05/303 .
8.
A . B . Jo ske to the NC , 1 7 February 1 908 , CSO 08/974 .
1 80
9.
See Jo ske to the Commissioner of Colo East , 1 August
1 89 1 ' c so 91 /2344 .
1 0.
This account is based on a mass of swo rn Fi j ian
testimony at CSO 1 4/6 1 89 , 1 4/7090 and attached papers .
11.
Sit iveni ' s evidence , 1 1 July 1 91 4 , CSO 1 4/7090 .
1 2.
Sailosi ' s evidenc e , 1 1 July 1 91 4 , CSO 1 4/7090 .
13.
cso
1 4.
W. E . Rus sell to the CS , 1 4 De cember 1 91 4 , CSO 1 4/1 9450 ;
Picherit to the CS , 1 5 February 1 91 5 , CSO 1 5/1 62 1 .
1 5.
See CSO 1 7/7444 , 1 8/3 529 , 1 8/9707 .
1 6.
Rev . Harold Chambers to Smal l , 22 May 1 91 8 , MM
F/1 /1 91 8 ; SNA C 1 9/1 8; C SO 1 8/633 6 ; Escott to CO , 4 June
1 91 8 and 1 3 June 1 91 8, CO 83 /1 42 .
1 7.
See Stuart Reay' s d iary , 1 934 , passim , CSO F 1 3/2 1 ; Reay
to the CS , 25 May 1 93 5 and 2 5 August 1 93 6 , CSO F 1 3 /1 . I
v isited the area in September 1 974 but found the
subj ect too sensi tive to broach. Dr Karl Erik Larsson
d id extensive fieldwork in the area but has no t ye t
published an account of the se events .
1 8.
W . A . Scott ' s memorandum , 4 January 1 91 0 , CSO 1 0/1 242 .
1 9.
See CSO 23/2 576 , 27/1 1 1 5 .
20 .
I s l ey McOwan ' s minute , 21 March 1 927 , CSO 27/1 1 1 5 .
21 .
CO to Sir Henry Jackson , 8 May 1 903 , CO 83 /76 .
22 .
E . R. Leach , ' Ourselves and Others ' , Times Li terary
Suppl ement , 6 July 1 973 , pp . 771 -2 .
23 .
Proc eedings o f the Council of Chi efs , 1 91 7 , 1 923 and
ssim; J . S . Neill ' s minute , 27 January 1 92 5 , CSO
23 2576 .
24 .
Sukuna ' s minute , 22 March 1 92 6 , CSO 26/797 .
25 .
Native Regulation IV o f 1 92 7; SNA 23 /242 , 26/942 ;
Proceed ings o f the Council of Chiefs , 1 933 , Resolution
XXV and reply ; and 1 940 Re solution XXIX ; C SO F50/7 4 .
1 4/7297 .
18 1
26.
Rev . We sl ey Amos t o Small , 9 February 1 91 5 , MM
F/1 /1 91 5 ; Rev . W. Brown to Small , 22 February 1 91 3 , MM
F/1 /1 91 3 ; Rev . A. G. Adamson to Rev . R. L. McDonald , 22
Augus t 1 91 7 , MM F/1 /1 927 .
27 .
Small to Rev . W . Deane , 26 January 1 91 1 ,
and to Brown , 1 7 May 1 90 5 , MM F/1 /1 905 .
28 .
Chambers to McDonald , 1 9 June 1 933 , MM F/1 /1 933 .
29 .
See Ratu Sukuna ' s annual repo rts at CSO F1 5/1 .
30 .
Sukuna to the CS , 21 April 1 937 , CSO F1 5 /1 .
31 .
Rev . C . O . Lel ean to Smal l , 1 4 July 1 909 and 9 December
1 909 , MM F/1 /1 909 .
32 .
Smal l to Brown , 2 1 September 1 904 , MM F/1 /1 904 . For the
related issue of lay representation see A. H. Wood ,
Overseas Missions o f the Aus tralian Me thodist Church ,
vol . 2 , chapter XXXVI II .
33 .
McDonal d to Rev . J . W . Burton , 26 January 1 923 ,
F/1 /1 923 .
34 .
Chambers to McDonald , 26 February 1 933 ,
35 .
See charter documents reque sting canonical approval
from Rome , Records of the Roman Catho lic Mi ssion , PMB
mic ro film 454 .
36 .
Mo sese Buad romo (Presid ent) to the Ac ting Under SNA , 1 4
September 1 92 5 , SNA 2 5 /1 1 94 .
37 .
A . W . Seymour to CO , 2 Augus t 1 933 .
38 .
Dreki tirua to McOwan , 5 November 1 928, CSO 29/77 1 .
39 .
Ravai to SNA , 22 Augus t 1 933 , SNA 33/1 537 .
40 .
CSO 30/2704 . Ahmed Ali , Fi j i and the Franchise , pp .
1 58-93 , has a ful l disc ussion .
MM
MM
F/ 1 /1 91 1 ,
MM
F/ 1 /1 933 .
1 82
Chapter 8. Compromise fo r a mul tirac ial society
1.
W . L . All ardyc e ' s minute , 2 1 May 1 889 , CSO 89/4 1 5 .
2.
cso
3.
The C S t o the European Stipendiary Magis trate s , 1 3
August 1 91 0 , CSO 1 0/65 6 1 .
4.
See also K . L . Gillion , The Fi j i Indians , pp . 1 3-1 6 .
5.
Ratu J . Mad raiwiwi , Ratu J . A. Rabic i and Deve
Toganivalu to the Governo r , 2 February 1 91 5 , CSO
1 5/1 034 . In the preceding year the Council o f Chiefs
had been told it was nec es sary to bring nat ive
administration ' more closely into touc h ' with European
administration .
6.
Thi s account fo llows Gillion , The Fij i Ind ians , pp .
1 8-46 .
7.
Y . M . He lliet to the Bi sho p , 23 April 1 922 , Record s o f
the Roman Catho lic Mis sion , PMB micro film 466 .
8.
9.
09/7249 .
Rev . Stanley Jarvis to Rev . A . J . Small , 31 August 1 92 1 ,
F/1 /1 92 1 . See Gill ion , The Fi j i Ind ians , Chapters 2
and 3 for an account of the strike from government
reco rd s .
MM
Ratu Pope Seniloli , Ratu S . Seniloli and Ratu J . A.
Rabic i t o the Under SNA , 1 6 November 1 92 1 , CSO 2 1 /674 1 .
1 0.
Minutes of the meeting , January 1 922 , CSO 21 /6741 .
11.
Copy of D . R . St ewart ' s speech , 1 2 December 1 923 , at CSO
23/42 65 .
12.
F. Raiwalui and others to the Ac ting Governor , 1 0
O c tober 1 924 , CSO 24/7028 .
1 3.
Ratu Pope Senil oli and o thers to the Gov erno r , 25 April
1 92 5 , CSO 25/1 524 ; Sir Eyre Hutson to CO , 6 May 1 92 5 ;
C O t o Hut son , 1 6 June 1 92 5 .
1 4.
As told by S . M . Lambert , A Doc tor in Parad ise , p . 1 66 .
1 83
1 5.
T . E . Fell to CO , 7 and 1 5 February 1 924 , CSO 24/4078 ;
SNA 27/602 .
1 6.
See Pe ter Franc e , The Charter of the Land , pp . 1 65-75 .
1 7.
David Wi lkinson to the NC , 6 O c tober 1 905 , CSO 05 /45 56 .
Marshal l D. Sahlins , Moala , pp . 271 -87 has a local
study o f ac tual land tenurial prac tices fo r the 1 960s .
1 8.
Sukuna ' s memorandum , 2 1 May 1 93 2 , CSO F50/27/3 .
1 9.
In 1 903 Ratu Jo sefa Lala , then Tui Cakau , subdivided
the ho ldings o f the mataqal i Val el evu into ind ividual
hold ings retaining five blocks and five dowry po rtions
fo r his own use . On hi s d eath a commission se ttl ed
the se lands to his immediate heirs and they passed to
his son Ratu G . W . Lala who was ev entually , after a long
dispute wi th a rival claimant , instal led as Tui Cakau
( 1 93 6 ) . See CSO F50/27/1 .
20 .
Sukuna to the CS , 8 Augus t 1 930 , SNA 29/1 5 64 .
21 .
As repo rted by A . A . Wright ' s minute , 2 9 March 1 934 , CSO
F50/27/9 .
22 .
Sir Murchison Fletcher ' s minute , 21 Ma rch 1 934 , CSO
F50/27/9 .
23 .
Native land s ac tually under lease , 30 April 1 91 1 ,
comprised 1 40 , 974 ac res ( rental £23 , 500 ) , wi th
approximately 1 800 Indians ho lding a very small
proportion . The government paid small rents ( total
£643 ) fo r only hal f the Fi j ian land held fo r leasing .
See CP 1 4/1 1 .
24 .
McCrae , 1 4 Oc tober , Legislative Council Debates , 1 907 .
25 .
R . St Johnstone to the CS , 9 January 1 91 4 , CSO 1 4/1 349 .
26 .
See CO to Si r F . Henry May , 3 1 May 1 91 1 , CO 83 /1 00 ;
May ' s address , 27 June 1 91 1 and Reso lution XIV ,
Proc eed ings o f the Council o f Chiefs .
27 .
Ro Tui sawau and others to the Governo r , 6 December
1 91 5 , Na Mata , January 1 91 6 .
1 84
28 .
Native Land ( Leases ) Ord inance , XXI II of 1 91 6 , CSO
1 6/901 6 .
29.
Ruveni Naisua and 241 others to the NC , 8 Oc tober 1 91 5 ,
CSO 1 5/9 1 01 . See also Bul i Nausori to the NC , 22
December 1 91 5 , CSO 1 5/1 091 2 for similar dissatisfac tion
in the Rewa distric ts .
30 .
H . E . Snell to the CS , 25 March 1 91 7 , CSO 1 7/3 093 .
31 .
Proceed ings o f the Council of Chiefs , 1 920; D . R.
Stewart ' s repo rt , 1 5 December 1 920 , CSO 20/8025 .
32 .
cso
33 .
Sir Maynard Hedstrom ' s memorandum , 4 Augus t 1 924 , in CO
to the Ac ting Governor , 5 November 1 924 .
34 .
T . E . Fel l to CO , 20 February 1 92 5 . See al so CSO
23/4 1 1 7 , 25/53 .
35 .
Datwari and other leaseho lders to the General Sec retary
o f the Moslem League , 2 1 April 1 933 , CSO F37/42 .
36 .
See correspondence and reso lutions o f the Council of
Chi efs at CSO F37/42 /2 .
37 .
H . C . Monckton to the CS , 1 0 March 1 933 , CSO F23 /7 . The
no tes were signed suc cessively fo r amounts l ess
than £ 2 0 to render inappl icable the Native Dealings
Ord inance of 1 904 .
38 .
R . N . Caldwell to the C S , 31 March 1 93 6 , and A . E. Howard
to the CS , 6 Augus t 1 93 9 , CSO F1 6/2 .
39 .
Thi s c onclusion is based on the annual repo rts of the
Provincial Commis sioners and figures fo r appl ications
refused 1 93 7-39 in Lautoka , Macuata and Nadi .
40 .
Ratu J . L . V . Sukuna , A Vo sa nei [ the speech of] Ratu
J . L . V . Sukuna , Bo sevakaturaga 1 936 . Translation in
Juxon Bar ton to CO , 1 7 November 1 936 .
41 .
Fo r Cakaud rove , see the Cakaud rove Provincial Council
Book 1 93 5-1 938 , pp. 1 4-1 5 .
23 /401 8 .
185
42 .
Farewell address of Sir Arthur Richards , 21 July 1 938,
CP 53 /38 ; P roc eedings o f the Council of Chiefs , 1 938,
Re solution XL ( carried 38-3 ) ; Legisl ative Council
Debates , 1 940 , pp . 1 05-8 .
43 .
S . B . Patel to H . S . L . Po lak , 31 Oc tober 1 92 9 , cited by
Gillion , The Fi j i Indians , p . 1 3 6 .
44 .
Proceedings o f the Council of Chiefs , 1 933 , Re solution
XVI II , CP 8/34 .
45 .
Ratu Deve Toganivalu , Ratu Po pe Senil oli Cakobau and
Ratu J . L . V . Sukuna ' for and on behal f o f the senior
Chiefs of Fi j i ' to the Ac ting CS , 5 Nov ember 1 935 .
Ed ited tex t published CP 47/35 .
Chapter 9. The dilemmas of d ev elopment
1.
Sir F. Henry May to CO , 3 May 1 91 1 , CO 83 /1 01 .
2.
Tuisawau ' s repo rt o n Resolution I V o f the Rewa
Provincial Council , 1 1 April 1 899 , copy at PMB
mic ro film 455 .
3.
Nicholas to F . J . Corder , 25 March 1 92 9 , PMB mic ro film
454 .
4.
Minutes of the Synod , Oc tober 1 899 ,
5.
Im Thurn ' s message , 1 0 Oc tober , in Legislative Council
Debates , 1 907 .
6.
Rev . We sl ey Amos to Rev . A . J . Small , 30 March 1 920 ,
F/1 /1 920 .
7.
D r R . F . K . Roberts , ' Routine o f Child Welfare Wo rk ' ,
n . d . , CSO 28/5 904 .
8.
Mrs Ruby Brewer to Rev . R . L . McDonald , 1 Oc tober 1 928,
MM F/ 1 /1 929 .
9.
As repo rted by DC Navua t o the CS , 3 1 March 1 92 7 , and
Nicholas to the CS , 1 9 January 1 928 , CSO 27/2033 .
MM
F/4 /B .
MM
1 86
1 0.
CSO 30 /1 1 79 ; SNA 33 /1 347 , 33/1 348.
11.
See SNA 28/1 659 fo r a spontaneous reque st from the
daughte r of Bul i Cic ia and fiv e of her friends to begin
a program in the ir village .
12.
A fav ourite phrase of Governor May - 1 9 December 1 91 1 ,
Lomaiviti Provincial Council Book .
13.
See CSO 1 7/2 206 , Na Mata , September 1 91 7 ; Fij i : Report
for 1 920 , HMSO , London , 1 92 1 , pp . 9-1 0.
1 4.
T . E . Fell ' s minute , 1 0 November 1 920 , and H . W .
Harcour t ' s 1 5 February 1 92 1 , CSO 20/781 3 .
1 5.
CSO 1 8/8754 , 1 8/1 02 1 7 . Other examples at CSO 1 2 /1 01 7 ,
1 3 /2 997 .
1 6.
Frequent observations such as these are in the Lau
Provinc ial Council Book. See also SNA 29/2 1 01 , CSO
F 1 5/1
•
1 7.
Sukuna to the C S , 23 March 1 935 and 1 7 March 1 93 9 , CSO
F 1 5/1
•
1 8.
Sukuna to the CS , 1 4 August 1 936 , CSO F 1 5 /1 .
1 9.
A. J . Ac ton to the C S , 22 April 1 936 , and Sukuna ' s
memorandum , ' The Tabu in Lomaiviti 1 934-1 936 ' , CSO
F2/1 75 .
20 .
H . W . Jack to the CS , 5 Augus t 1 93 9 , CSO F2/1 75 , and
minute , 1 5 September 1 93 9 , CSO F 1 5/1 .
21 .
Jack to the CS , 1 6 Nov ember 1 936 , and Juxon Barton ' s
minute , 1 7 February 1 93 7 , CSO F2/1 32 .
22 .
See CSO F50/32 , 30/783 , 30/1 2 88 , F2/1 7 .
23 .
Rev . A . D . Lel ean to McDonald , 5 March 1 93 1 , MM
F/1 /1 931 . I am indebted to Mrs A . D . Lel ean fo r her
remini sc enc es . Lel ean d e st royed all his pape rs .
24 .
Sir Murchison Fletcher to H . K . I rving , 23 February
1 93 1 , CSO F2/1 2 1 ; I rving to the SNA , 30 May 1 93 4 , CSO
30/590 .
187
25 .
C . E . de F. Pennyfather ' s minute , ? May 1 930, CSO 30/5 90
and pape rs at CSO F2/1 2 1 .
26 .
A . J. Armstrong ' s diary , 23 July 1 935 and passim , CSO
F23/4 .
27 .
J . W . Git tins ' diary , 1 9 Augus t 1 935 and passim , CSO
F1 9/5 .
28 .
Sir Philip Go ldfinch ' s note , ? August 1 93 6 , CSR
records , Sydney , R1 -0 , 1 .
29.
In 1 966 of 241 7 Fij ian cane farmers , 1 95 were ex-D rasa .
By then 677 boys had graduated . The school had problems
of stud ent unrest in the 1 950s and 1 960s . Ex-Drasa
farmers I interviewed at Penang in Augus t 1 974 deplored
the school ' s c losure in 1 967 and insisted it had been a
happy plac e .
30 .
Re port of the third annual general meeting of Emperor
Mines , 1 1 November 1 938, CSO 1 3 /39/1 ; J . E . Wind rum to
the CS , 1 8 February 1 93 6 , CSO F50/53 .
31 .
Stuart Reay' s d iary , 7 May 1 934 and passim , CSO F 1 3/2 .
32 .
ibid . ' 8 March 1 934 and passim .
33 .
Reay ' s d iary , and repo rts at CSO F 1 3/1
34 .
ibid .
35 .
Reay to the CS , 1 1 April 1 938 , CSO F 1 3/1 .
36 .
See A . J . Armst rong to the CS , 1 3 March 1 93 9 , CSO F23 /7 .
37 .
Reay ' s memorandum , n . d . [ 1 938 ] , CSO F50/1 6 .
38 .
Jack ' s minute , 7 January 1 93 6 ,
39 .
Reay ' s sugge stion needs research - see diary , 21 March
1 938, CSO F 1 3/2 and memorandum at CSO F50/1 6 .
40 .
Barton ' s minute , 9 Oc tober 1 93 6 , CSO F 1 3/2 ; Proc eedings
of the Di stric t Commissioners ' Conference , CSO F50/1 6 .
c so
•
F20/2 .
1 88
Chapter 1 0
Rendezvous with the modern wo rld
1.
Sukuna to the CS , 29 Se ptember 1 93 4 , CSO F 1 5/1 .
2.
Asesela Ravuvu , Fij ians at War , p . 1 5 .
3.
Glen Barclay , A His to ry o f the Paci fic , p . 1 91 .
4.
See Ravuvu , Fi j ians at War fo r an evocative Fi j ian
account and R . A . Howlett , The History o f the Fi j i
Mi litary Forces , 1 939- 1 945 .
5.
See K . L . Gil lion , The Fi j i Indians , Chapter 9 .
6.
Fi j i Times , 1 7 Se ptember 1 942 .
7.
This summary follows Ravuvu and Howlett .
8.
Unless cited , refe rences hereafter are to restric ted
fil e s .
9.
Part o f this repo rt i s c ited in the Ac ting Governor ' s
address to the Great Co uncil of Chi efs , 1 944 , CP 1 0/45 .
1 0.
Ratu Sukuna ' s Memorandum , Policy wi th Regard to Fi j ian
Communal Obligations .
11.
ibid . See also Ratu Sukuna ' s speech and the debate in
Legislative Council Debates , 1 944 , Fi j ian Affairs Bi ll ,
espe cially pp . 5-6 .
12.
Native Lands Trus t Report on Ba , 1 94 1 , National
Archives o f Fi j i .
13.
Sir Philip Mi tchel l to CO , 1 6 July 1 943 , CP 24/1 943 .
1 4.
Ratu Sukuna ' s annual repo rts were published in the
Legislative Council Journal . See e spe cially CP 2/5 1 ,
5/53 and 2 9/5 5 .
1 5.
Legisl ative Co uncil Debates , 1 6 July 1 946 .
1 6.
ibid . , debate on the Fi j ian Development Fund Bi ll , 20
April 1 95 1 .
1 89
17.
The classic but in some respects anti quarian or at
l east ahisto ric al acc ount of the po st-war Fi j ian so cial
and po litical sys tem is G . K . Ro th , Fi j ian Way o f Li fe .
1 8.
The most influential publi cations of ' the development
writers ' are : Cyril S . Be lshaw , ' The Effect of Limited
Anthropological Theory on Problems of Fi j ian
Adminis t ration ' and Under the Iv i Tree ; Sir Alan Burns ,
T . Y . Wat son , and A. T . Peac ock , Repo rt of the Commission
of Enquiry into the Natural Re sources and Population
T rends of the Co lony of Fi j i , 1 95 9 ; O . H . K . Spate , The
Fi j ian Peo pl e ; R . F . Watters , Koro .
��
1 9.
The three Colo provinces l ost the ir id enti ty on
reorgani zation , as did Nad i and Lautoka ( merged into
Ba , as they we re prior to 1 920 ) , thus reduc ing the
number of provinc es from nine teen to fourteen .
20 .
Belshaw , Under the Ivi Tre e , p . 236 .
21 .
Spa te , The Fij ian People , p . 21 .
22 .
Fi j i Times , March-April 1 960 has several repo rts of the
Fi j ian oppo sition to the Burns Report .
23 .
Amending regulations dismantl ing aspects o f the
communal sys tem can be found in Fij i Royal Gazette ,
1 961 -62 , prior to the final Fi j ian Affairs ( Amendment )
Regulation , 1 4 December 1 962 , which had been approved
by the Great Council of Chiefs .
24 .
See John Nation , Customs o f Respe c t , for a detailed
study o f provinc ial politic s .
25 .
See Mi chael Moynagh , ' Land Tenure in Fi j i ' s Sugar Cane
Dist ric ts since the 1 920s ' .
26 .
Robert Norton , Rac e and Politic s in Fi j i ,
27 .
Mi lner' s introduc tion to Ro th , Fi j ian Way of Li fe , 2nd
28 .
Nation , Customs o f Re spe c t , p . 58 .
29.
UNESCO/UNFPA , Population , Re sources and Development in
the Eastern Island s o f Fi j i , p . 236 .
p.
1 60 .
edn , p . xxvi i .
190
)0 .
P. S . Nankivell , ' Income Ine qual ity in Taveuni
Di stric t ' , in Brookfield et al Taveuni , p . 295 and
passim .
31 .
UNESCO/UNFPA , Population , Resources and Development in
the Eastern Islands of Fi j i , pp . 1 73 , 2 1 1 .
32 .
Nation , Customs o f Respe c t , p . 38 .
33 .
Spate , The Fi j ian Pe opl e , p .
g.
Bibl iography
1 . Do cumen ts held in the Nat ional Archives of Fij i , Suva
The mos t important collect ions for this s tud y are :
(i)
(ii)
Records of the Colonial Secre tary ' s Office 189 7 - 1940 .
Records of the Secret ariat for Nat ive Af fairs 1 918-35 .
Not e : For the CSO series prior to 1930 , regre t t ab ly , it is no t po s s ible to
d i re c t the reader to files collected under subj e c t head ings - they once
were s o organ iz ed for admin i s t r a t ive use but lat er the bund les were broken
up .
And so , for example , to wr i t e the s to ry of the beginning of the Apolosi
movement in 1 9 1 3 the r e is no co llec t i on o f Apo losi f i les to consu lt : it is
ne cessary to s or t through 1 0 , 535 files for 1913 that have been reshelved in
the ir original numer ical o rder in twenty-one large bundles - pe rhaps 30 fee t
high if s tacke d , and s imilarly through the years to 1929 .
Let t e r regist ers
and subj ect indexes d e s c r ib ing ind iv idual files have to be used by anyone
whose t ime is l imi t ed , but they are neve r fully reliable or con s i s t ent .
From
1930 to 1 9 40 t he CSO f iles (but no t the SNA files) are co llected much more
conven ient ly under b road subj e c t divi s i ons pre f ixed by the let ter F and a
the
number , e . g . FSO is the p re f ix for all f il es on Fij ian Af fairs ; F50 /6 :
Council of Chi e f s papers 1 9 3 1-3 9 ; FS0 / 1 3 :
correspondence relat ing to
s orcery ; and s o on .
Other impo rtan t collec t i ons are :
(iii)
( iv )
(v)
(vi )
2.
P rovincial Counc i l Records Books ( inc omplet e ) .
Proceed in gs of the Council of Chi e f s .
Despatches to and from the Secre t ary of S t at e for the Colonies .
Methodi s t Mis s ion Co llec t i on .
Of f i c ial publ i�at ions
(i)
Government o f Fij i
Fij i Blue Book
Fij i Royal Gaz e t t e
Journal o f Legislative Counc i l
[ Colony of F ij i . ] Leg i s l a t ive Counc il Debates
Nat ive Regulat i ons 1 91 2 , 1 9 28 , 1 94 8
Repor t o f the Commiss ion Appo inted to Inquire into the
Decreas e of the Nat ive Populat ion , 1896 .
(ii)
Co lonial Of fice , Great Brit a in
Colonial Repor t s - Annual .
3.
Fij i , 1 8 9 7-1939
I m Thurn Papers , Royal Anthropo logical Ins t itute of Great Br i t ain and
Ire land , Micro f i lm , Research School o f Pac i f i c Studies , Canber ra .
19 1
192
4 . Rec ords o f t he Roman Cathol i c Mis s ion , Suva
Pacific Manuscripts Bureau , Canberra : microfilm , PMB 435 , 45 2-5 , 4 59- 9 ,
466 .
5 . Reco rds o f the Colonial Sugar Ref ining Company , Sydney
Ac cess was given to files on Drasa Training Farm
6 . Newspapers and p eriodicals
Ai Tukutuku Vakalo tu, Suva
Fij i Time s , Suva
Na Mata , Suva
Nat ive Medical Prac t i t ione r , Suva
Na Vit i 1924-30 , Suva
Pac i f i c I s lands Monthly , Sydney
7 . Unpublished
Al i , Ahmed , 1 9 7 4 .
Fij i and the Franchise : a his tory of polit ical respre s enta­
t i on , 1900-193 7 , Ph . D . the s is , Aus t ralian Nat ional Unive rs i ty .
Ca to , A . C . , 195 1 .
A survey of na t ive educat ion in Fij i , Tonga , and Wes te rn
S amoa , with s pe cial at t ent ion to Fij i , Ph . D . thes is , University o f
Melbourne , 195 1 .
Fis k , E . K . , 19 7 4 .
The t rad i t ional economy a s a bas is f o r rural development .
Based on a paper presen t ed at the Third Regional Conference o f
D i re c tors o f Agricult ure , Live s tock Product ion and Fisheries arranged
by the South Pac i fic Connni ss ion at Lae , Papua New Guinea , February .
Typescrip t in my po ssess ion , court esy of the autho r .
Geddes , W . R . , 1948 .
An analy s i s of cul tural change in Fij i , Ph . D . thesis ,
University o f London .
Green , Rev . Rob er t . Memo i rs .
Type script in possess ion of aut ho r , Melbourne .
Jans sen , Rev . Herman , 1 9 7 2 .
Rel igion and secularisat ion .
Culture s ,
Christ iani ty and deve lopment .
The Ca tholic Church and t he Development
of Peoples in the South Pac i f ic Conferenc e .
Typescrip t , Connni ss ion
for Jus t ice and P eace , New Zealand Episcopal Conference .
Nayacakalou , Rus iate R . , 1955 .
Trad i t ion , c hoice and change in the Fij ian
economy , M . A . t he s i s , Unive rs ity of New Zealand .
--�-
1963 .
Fij ian l eade rship in a s ituation of change , Ph . D . thesis ,
University of Lond on .
Economic problems of a mult iracial society - the
Peaco ck , Allan T . , 1960 .
Fij i c as e , seminar paper , Univers i ty of London .
Typescript , Na tional
Archives o f Fij i .
Rut z , Henry John , 19 7 3 .
Local-leve l responses t o induced economic change
in the Waidina Val l ey , Fij i : a case s tudy in anthropolo gical economics ,
Ph . D . the s i s , McGill University .
Sukuna , Rat u , J . L . V . ( S i r Lala ) , 1 94 0 .
Address to the Defence Club .
script cour tesy of Mr L . G . Ushe r , Suva .
-----
--�-
n.d.
No tes on Lau .
Type­
Typesc ript , Nat ional Archives o f Fij i .
No tes on cus toms regarding lands .
n.d.
of Fij i .
Typesc ript , Nat ional Archives
193
1 94 3 .
Memorandum for Dis trict Conunis s ioners ' Conference .
Na tional Archives of Fij i .
Typescript ,
1 944 .
Policy with regard t o Fij ian communal obligat ions (memorandum
for Admini s t rative Of ficers ' Con fe rence ) .
Typesc rip t , National
Archives of Fij i .
Wal t er , Michael , A . H . B . , 1971 .
Changing p rinciples o f social organisation
in the Exploring I s lands of No rthern Lau , Fij i , Ph . D . thes is , Aus t ral ian
National Univers ity .
Young , John , M . R . , 1969 .
Frontier s oc iety in Fij i , 1858-1873 , Ph . D . thes is ,
Univer s i ty of Adelaid e .
8.
Publ ished
No t e : This lis t inc lud es all s econdary works c i t ed in the text and a few
Be"COndary sources I found useful and which are not to be found readily in
the s tandard b ibl iographies .
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Monographs
D . W . Smi th , 1 9 7 5 . ! 2 9 + v i i PP ·
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No 2 1 The Po litica l Economy of Po litica l Deve lopment : a case study of
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N o 2 2 Food i n Fij i : aspects of the produce and processed food dis tribu ti on
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No 2 5 Food Distribution i n the New Hebrides, T . G . Mc G e e , R . G . Ward ,
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No 2 6 Black Out in A lice : a history of the estab lishment and deve lopment
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No 2 7 Popu lation Mobi lity and Deve lopmen t : Sou theast A sia an d the �acific,
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BuPma ' s Rice Surp luses : accounting for the dec line, H . V . Rich t er ,
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The Fading of Earthbound Compu Zsion in a Hongkong Vi l Zage : popu Zation
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No 7
No 8
The Limi ts of Economics for the Study of Deve lopment, R . M . S und rum ,
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'Pub lic Housing in the City States of Hong Kong and Singapore,
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No 9
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The Is land of Niue : deve lopment or dependence for a very sma l l
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No 15 Socia l and Economic Aspects of Tida l SWamp Land Deve lopment i n
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Rati ona l Fann Plans for Land Se t t lement i n Indonesia,
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The Intercropping of Sma l lho lder Coconu ts i n Wes tern Samoa : an
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The Aus tra lian Rice Indus try i n Re la tion t o the Internationa l
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Studi es in the Economics o f Agricultural Deve lopment, D . M .
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MA in Demog raphy Research S eries
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An Exp loratory Demographic Study of the Nupe of Niger State : the
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The Va lue of Chi Zd:r>en Among Tea Estate Workers ' Fami Zies : a
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Basic Mathemati�s for Demographers , S . K . Ja in , 1 9 7 9 .
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Beginning Popu lation Studies, Dav id Luca s , ed . , 1980 .
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Women, Demography
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The Aboriginal Component in the Aus t r al i an E conomy
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Pac ific Res earch Monographs
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No 2
Technical Training and Deve lopment in Papua 1 89 4- 1 941 , Tony
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Vi l lagers at War : some Papua New Guinea experiences in Wor ld War
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