Volume 14 Australasia - dana ward's homepage

464 AUSTRALASIA.duced as labourers on the plantations.Every year the mortality is also greatly inexcess of the births.A great variety of plants are cultivated iu the archijielago. A species of yamsupplies the staple of food for the natives, who also raise large crops of. the taroor dato ; but the sandalwood so largely exported at the beginning of the centuryis nearly exhausted, while the dakua, or Fiji pine [dammara Vifiensis), resemblingthe New Zealand kauri, has become very rare. The shores are fringed by hundredsof thousands of cocoanuts, owned, however, not by the natives, but by theplanters, who export the oil and copra to Europe and Australia. One of theplants most utilised for the local industries is the malo {broussonetia jiapi/ri/tra), thebark of which is pounded by the women to the consistency of a stout pliant fabricused as a loin-cloth or toga, and even for making fancy paper.Naturally of a purewhite colour, this cloth is dyed in various designs by a process which resemblesprinting, by means of carefully prepared bits of bamboo charged with pigment.The natural or acclimatised flora abounds in plants valuable for their fi-uits,edible roots, drugs, spices, fibres, colours, gums or resins, and if the plantationshave hitherto proved little remunerative, the fact must be attributed not so muchto the destructive cyclones as to the evils associated with the prevailing system ofcontract labour. During the first years of the colonisation the Ameiican CivilWar rapidly enriched the planters by the sudden impulse given co cotton growing.But since that time labour has become too dear to allow this industry to competewith the growers of the Southern States, and Fiji now exports only a few bales ofcotton. Tobacco is raised exclusively by the natives, and at present the chiefagricultural industries are the preparation of cocoanut oil, copra, and sugar. Upto the year 1882 the public lands sold to planters had a total area of over 280,000acres. The foreign trade is mostly in the hands of the English and Australians,although some Hamburg houses are also represented by a few local agents.Lenilri, the former capital, being inconveniently situated on the east side ofOvalau Island, the centre of government was removed to the new capital, Sura,near the southern extremity of Viti-Levu between the deltas of the two largestrivers, and not far from Eewa, the largest village of the interior. But the port ofcall for ocean steamers lies in Ngalao Bay, south of Kandava Island, where thewaters are deeper and less obstructed by reefs. Sam-Sam Bay, south of Yanua-Levu is also frequented by skij)pers. Near the port copious thermal sjjriugsbubble up on the beach.The natives take no part in the administration of the archipelago, whichis a Crown colony, with a Governor and executive council named by the Queen,and a legislative council of thirteen members, seven ex officio and six chosen bythe Governor.Fiji is divided into twelve districts under paid chiefs.The yearly budget has fallen off with the decrease of the pojjulation, whilethe public debt grows from year to year. Fiji has, in fact, disappointed theexpectations fo the first white settlers, and the local traders have already severaltime petitioned the Victoria Parliament to undertake its administration. In 1881the volcanic ishnid of Rotuma,. lying 300 miles to the noith-west, was formally