SOME NOTES ON FIJIAN RACE EXTINCTION.

Hokitika Guardian, 21 September 1923, Page 4

SOME NOTES ON FIJIAN RACE EXTINCTION.

PART r. Jn tliv "Guardian” of August lltli, there appeared an unsigned article rcvit*W‘inj* the “Essays on the Depopulation of .Melanesia” edited by Dr W. 11. R. Rivers.

The several causes of this alarming decline in population were stated, and may he briefly enumerated as the results of Disease and Infant Mortality: the “settlement among them of Europeans and the consequent lack ut understanding” between the two races. The object of these present notes is to ,ee to what extent these eattses are applicable to the Fijian race, which though more of Polynesian than .Melanesian origin, is ecptallv in danger of extinction. It has been estimated that in the early nineteenth century fi.e. in 1SI58) the native population exceeded 200,000. Before annexation (IS7-I) it was 1-10,000. and shortly afterwards 10,000 died during a great epidemic of measles. In 1021, the census gave the total as SI,OIO Id.OlO males and ■10,409 females). A local example may emphasise this. Tn ISRI - as recorded in his hook) Peter Dillon, afterwards Chevalier tie Legion dTlonneur for his services in the La Pcrmiso Relief Expedition—and several other Europeans were attacked by -1000 infuriated natives at Wanlca in the district of Navakasiga on Vanua l.evtt —a district which to-day has less than 4n() inhabitants, and these are visibly disappearing from various onuses which will lie discussed later. There are some, however, who behove that the race was doomed to extinction, even before white men appeared on the scene, and then there are others who declare that the downward tendency is being checked by the improved conditions now becoming effective through the efforts of British administration. But it is to be feared this latter theory is based on statistics which omit the, many thousands of deaths due to the great influenza epidemic of IMS! Dr Rivers deals with the fundamental causes of depopulation, but as the observations on which these notes are based were made during the past lew years they will of necessity refer more especially to present day conditions in the Islands, as earlier statistics are here unavailable. T.i make clearer any possible iuture references, il will he its well to state briefly the elements of the native administration. The native- are rolled - ed in small communities or villages (“Korn"' cousisiing of from B> to 2b or more grass-1 Hatched houses. Each koro ha- its “Luraga-iii-koro” or headman who is responsible to the ‘Bttli’ or district chief—a Government appointed ollieial generally of hereditary rank, who holds a monthly ‘'hose” or District Council, lie generally wield- a most despotic power over his subjects, who literally crawl on their stomachs, in his presence, and who believe that he has, if a big chief, an hereditary Divine Right of life or death over them. A number of districts form a province or "Vasnna,” with a “Roko Tin” or High Chief, as chief executive representing the Secretary for Native Affairs, lie is assisted by a Provincial Native Stipemlnry .Magistrate (N.5..M.) and a Native Medical Practitioner (N.M.l’i—one of each to n province. There is an annual Provincial Council attended by all oflieials from the rank of turnga-in-koro and upwards : but its justice is marred by the intrigues between the Roko ami the Bulls. It is hoped that this system of natives ruled hv natives will, ill the course of these notes, he proved incompatible with true British justice as administered in other native countries—-lmt of this later. The life of a village is more or less communal. If a new house is lo he built or a garden planted the whole village has to assist ; hut a modern

commercialism is creeping into this up parentiy ideal in. Utuliun. One day n week, general!, ! tie .-.da v, i- set ruble

by the Reku as a "-iga in earn Korti.” or day for the town cleaning and, after the •‘davui’’ (Kriton shell) trumpet has sounded at dawn, no man may absent himself under penalty of trial by the X.S..M. and subsequent line or imprisonment. Women are not exempt, and may also be brought before and punished by a District or Provincial Court for failing to fulfil her communal duties. There is also the most damnable system a! "Kero Kere" or cadging which absolutely prevents individual advancement ; but its effects bear hut indirectly on Llie subject. The plea for this rather long introduction is based on the fear of obscurity, hut. in approaching the actual subject it seems advisable to retain the general headings menuoiied in the "Review (100. cit.). beginning at the olio he has cited as especially applicable to Fiji, and dealing with oath in turn. j This first is the "Interference in. the natives’ pursuits and the disturbance of his normal routine.” Under this! could be included the abolition of . Cannibalism and of the "Bure Sa” or "unmarried men’s quarters,” both of j which changes Basil Thompson (now

Fir) considers to have a direct and

serious bearing on the rapid degeneracy of the Fijian race. Of the first we can say little, remembering the baseness and treachery with which the Fijians conducted their horrible, (hough perhaps necessary, institution of cannibalism. For the second innovation, wrought by the early missionary’s zeal lor and encouragement of the home family life, there was no necessity, and this lack of mature thought and consideration has had such a fatal effect, that it may well lie condemned as a very grave mistake. But Dr Rivers refers to the land policy of the administration which, ho

says, through *'an honest desire to do tile lair thing has had unfortunate results. ’ "’I he hulk t>l the unalienated land of the oniony is claimed by the natives, and the usual form of tenure is native leasehold, of terms varying up to 99 years, according to the class of lease.” The Government holds open to] settlement some ISO,OOO acres, in lease from the natives, in various parts of the colony, besides several large blocks which have already boon taken up by European settlers. Of this area, 1 •25,000 acres are in the provinces of Hun and Macunta in which vicinity these observations were made; and the natives there now declare they - were misled by Ratu Joni Madraiwiwi—the chief who accompanied the Lands Commission some years ago. These same natives, however, have for years been receiving the proceeds of a rather large rent roll, and their present grumblings can generally he traced to several slightly educated natives, and to their jealousy of the white man’s successful exploitation of hitherto wastes of jungle grass and forest.

Whether Dr Rivers’ observation applies here is a doubtful question, for these natives seldom have the money long, their numerous creditors often appearing before the District Commissioner (whose duty it is to distribute the lease money to the various tribes), and then claiming their share of the booty. Dr Rivers’ Reviewer states “They do not want to work, and deprived of ttie I incentive of the struggle for existence, they are dying out.” This seems a little exaggerated, as most of the money so earned finds its way into the well-lined coffers of the Chinese storekeepers who see to it that the natives keep their “noses to the grindstone and spend their money before they, oven earn it. The Fijian’s improvi-1 denee which, is rather encouraged than curbed by his so-called Christian education, and tho constant claims being

made upon him by Government, Missionary, Roko, Buli and N.S.M. (in fact by everyone from the Governor and the Russian Relief Fund down to his wife and children) keep him in a state of practical abject poverty. A very recent injustice ..perpetrated under the auspices of the Lands Department- was the leasing of the whole province of Ra in the Island of Viti Levu, to a private individual. The accusation of bribery was never denied, and the facts are interesting. Ratu Saimnne Robui, a high ehic-f, now dead, was by some means employed to persuade the natives to consent to ihe leasing of 100,000 acres of their land—practically the whole area of the province. Generally liberal reserves are set aside for the natives, hut in this ease each man of the eighty villages affected, received a reserve of only five acres, concentrated in the immediate vicinity of his village. The women, who always have gardens, were not provided for, and the method of native cultivation, which is nomadic in character, and the fact that different crops require different soil and conditions of moisture etc, (for example “Dalo” Colocnsia Antiquorum, a staple food requires damp or swampy land, “Yngona” Piper Metliystieum, a rich soil ; Yams (Rioscorca Sp.) well drained land and so forth)—makes this reserve of five acres of homogeneous soil of no practical use whatever. Also many of the villages have cattle and horses, for the grazing of which no provision was made. Then, a most important item, native houses arc hulit of a basket work of reeds over a framework of wood, and are thatched with grass, all of which materials—as the lease is intended for a cattle ranch—will soon he unobtainable.

The only possible result in this case will he the dispersal of the inhabitants —the men to work at the sugar mills or on plantations, the women and children to find homes (probably temporary) among relatives in other provinces. The only way of preventing such an injustice being repeated, would he the abolition of the ruling ol natives by other natives hacked bv the Government. A chief is “tabu” or sacred, and no “kai si” (be. slave 01 commoner) would dream ol giving evidence against him in a court of inquiry, or of opnosing his orders and suggestions. This law against infringing the “tabu” which surrounds a chief has an important hearing on the subject of death by auto-suggestion or the morbid agency of fear—an inherited burden, which tlic present kind of Christianity taught them, can in no-wise either lighten or remove—and will together with witch-doetery come under that heading. From the above facts it appear.-, unlikely iliat the mere fact of becoming landlords and receiving an annual rent can, as voi, have a direct effect on (he mortality rate. BAYARD PARHAM. To he continued 1 .