CONFLICT OF RACES

Hokitika Guardian, 28 January 1933, Page 8

CONFLICT OF RACES

FIJIAN AND AISIATIC PEOPLES. SYDNEY, January 17. The racial conflict between the' native Fijians and the Asiatics, mostly Indians, now firmly established as sugar growers! in - Fiji, was described by Mr G. S. Sharp a principal of the Government Training College for native and Indian teachers in Fiji, who arrived at Sydney yesterday by the A.M.S. Mariposa. Within recent years, said Mr Sharp, a great change had come over the! younger generation •of Fijians, who I were beginning to realise that there was no future for their race unless they competed with the Indians as agriculturists. When the indenture system, under which Indian labour .was brought to Fiji from India, was abolished, the Colonial Sugar Be-j fining Co., Ltd:, leased its land to Indian farmers, and bought their crop. Where before there had been a floating population of Indians, who returned to their native land after seven years’ service, there was now a firmly established peasant class. The Indian and Fijian populations were about equal, and ?.s a result of the Government’s child welfare work among the Fijians, the rate of increase was also nearly equal. It was fairly obvious to- young Fijians that they were in danger of losing j the lands which their forefathers lu|d .t)wired. A Fijian .farming settlement' jjad been established,, on -the nortb-oastei h coast of Viti .Levu, the principal island, and the experiment was being watched with interest. Mr G. F. Grahame, Mayor of Suva, also commented on this development. The Fijians were at a disadvantage, ho said, because of the old tribal customs, which were, a form of practical Communist. The Fijian settlement was just reaping a crop, when a nearby village descended upon the growers and it had to be shared.