FIJI AS A FIELD FOR SETTLEMENT.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 53, 27 January 1872, Page 2

FIJI AS A FIELD FOR SETTLEMENT.

The special correspondent of the " Sydney Morning Herald" writes— It cannot be too strongly impressed upon persons who may feel inclined to settle al Fiji, that it will be madness for any one to think of doing so without capital. Tradesmen may sometimes get profitable employment if they happen to arrive just at a time when there is an especial demand for skilled workmen of their particular trade; but no working man who can get a crust in the colonies ought to dream of going to Fiji unless under some special engagement, or on the invitation of some friend or fellow workman who has preceded him, and on whose guarantee of employment he can depend. Fiji is no place for loafers. There are far too many there already, and how they manage to get a living it is hard to say—not verychonestly I am afraid, in some cases. No sooner had it become known thajt efforts were being made to establish a constitutional Government for the Archipelago than there was a rush to the spot, in the hope of obtaining " billets," of about ten times as many as could, under any circumstances, have been required for the "Civil Service" of the new kingdom. To go to Levuka in the expectation of getting some " snug little thing" of this kind is about as hopeless a speculation as can well be indulged in. Neither is there any opening in private employment for clerks, accountants, or business men without capital. There are more than enough of this class on the spot to meet all requirements for a long time to come. The demand even for assistants in stores, barmen, and the like, is very limited indeed, and is confined to Levuka. Many who, in spite of all warnings, have gone to Fiji in the hope that they, at all events, would succeed in getting something or other to do —although they had no capital to make an opening for themselves—have been bitterly disappointed, and have given the place an undeserved bad name; quite forgetting that their disappointment has been the result of their own folly. There are situations to be occasionally obtained as plantation overseers, but new comers who know nothing of the work to be done or the men to be dealt with, are of little use until they have served something like an apprenticeship. Such as get any employment of this kind only calculate, therefore, upon earning bare subsistence; although some of the older hands may do better. To men with capital, on the other hand, Fiji offers a very hopeful field. But even men with capital must not go there in the expectation of leading an indolent life, surrounded by tropical luxuries, and of making an almost immediate fortune. They must be prepared to " rough it " a good deal when necessary, both as to lodging and food, especially at first, and to labor steadily for, at least, seven or eight years ere they can feel themselves perfectly at ease and independent. That will depend upon what income a man may consider necessary to ensure independence, and what amount of capital he may have started with. The magnitude of the result will be generally proportioned to

the amount of the investment, but not always so ; for a person of steady habit who adapts himself to the life of a planter, and acquires a thorough knowledge of the people whom he employs, will do twice as well a&- one who has none of these qualities As a general rule, a man Vrught to have from £ISOO to £2OOO in hand to settle in Fiji now, in order to succeed well as a planter. Comfortable homes have been obtained, and good incomes secured by men who started in former times with very much less than this, but these times are gone by.