KANDAVAU

Grey River Argus, Volume XIV, Issue 1764, 31 March 1874, Page 3

KANDAVAU

The following extracts from a letter j written by Mr Hoskins, the actor, are , published in a Canterbury paper : — Kandavu, 22nd February, 1874. ■ We arrived here, after a rather rough passage, at daylight on Saturday morning. The ship is not a very comfortable one for passengers, her breadth being too narrow for her length ; she rolls a good deal, and the sleeping accommodation is very con- 1 fined ; still she is a noble ship, and well . commanded, and her officers are very jolly. The approach to Kandavu is very pretty, Mount Wellington, a large table rock, being very prominent at the extreme southern point. A large reef runs out about seven miles in length, and three from the shore. Bound this reef is the entrance to the harbor, which is very pretty indeed, and landlocked on both sides. We found the Star of the South here \ ■with a deputation of the merchants from Levuka to interview Mr Hall, who is ex- , pected in the Macgregor, to induce him . to substitute Levuka for Kandavu as a '. place of call. They had chartered the Star of the South from Levuka, at a cost of LSO a day steaming, and L 25 a day in harbor. Among those gentlemen, I met several old Australian friends, which made us very jolly. We got up a little entertain- . ment for them in the saloon— "The Happy Pair," and scenes from "The Hunchback." It passed off very pleasantly, and among our visitors we had the Premier of Levuka, the President of the Assembly, and other notables. The sable Governor of the island came on board, and I had the honor of presenting him with a meerschaum pipe, and Mrs H. gave him a necklace, both of which he received with the dignity of a European potentate. We went on shore in the afternoon, and now for the island. The natives are a very fine race, tall, wellmade men, and also the women ; but both are extremely primitive in their costume, neither sex wearing anything but a cincture round the waist to the knees. The women show no appearance of shame, but yet I am told they are a remarkably virtuous race, and I can believe it, for you see no mixture of the white race among them. Providence has wonderfully blest this place with its bounties. The inhabitants of . the island have no need to work for food, for it is here to their hands in unlimited abundance. The island itself is about forty miles long, and at its greatest breadth nearly ten. The vegetation down to the water's edge is of the most mixed prolific character. Cocoanuts, breadfruit, bananas, pineapples (I bought a dozen of the last-named for sixpence), the green orange (a delicious fruit), lemons, citrons, limes, nutmegs, ivinut (something like a chesnut), the wee apple, the candle tree, all meet you at every step . The timber of the island is also remarkable. The first in order is the vesi, of the most durable quality ; next, the dawa, an ornamental wood with a fruit resembling the peach in flavor ; the noko, a hard wood used for war-clubs, takes a polish equal to mahogany, and resembles the she-oak

of Australia in appearance. I greeted it as an old friend. There is also the ban or the rope-tree, from -which all their cordage is made, even to the fibres of the finest silk. Again, vegetables are in rich lnxnriance ; the yam (cultivated), the wild yam growing everywhere ; the dalo, a kind of turnip, grows either on land or uuder water, the leaves of which are very pungent — indeed, almost caustic — but when boiled are superior to spinach ; also the sweet potato. Good water is also very plentiful, and about which the natives are very particular, that used for drinking being fetched by the women from the mountain rills daily in cocoanut gourds. As to industries, the natives don't like work, and I don't wonder at it, for they have only to lie down and the food will drop into their mouths. When they do labor the pay is L 4 a year with rations, which cost nothing, for all they eat is there. They have poultry and pigs in plenty, and in addition they have an ell of cloth and a mat twice a ,'year. The Chinese get a large profit annually from gathering beche-le-mer. Sugar cane is here in abundance, and is now being cultivated more than cotton. There is also a little coffee. The mission is here is Wesley an, with native teachers, and there is a pretty little church, and I may say the huts of the natives are well matted, larger, and much cleaner than I have seen in the whares of the Maoris. I don't know what our fashionable ladies in England and the colonies would think if they were ' told when they dye their hair yellow that they are only imitating the natives of the Fijian group. Men, women, and children here all dye their hair with a preparation of lime, and it is an exception to see anything but yellow hair. However, the natives do not dye it for the civilised reason. I believe cleanliness is the object