MY IMPRESSIONS OF FIJI.

Southland Times, Issue 1102, 5 February 1869, Page 3

MY IMPRESSIONS OF FIJI.

(from our correspokdentJ ; Under the above heading I propose '-' sending you from time to time a few notes of observations made in visiting these islands, believing that they may interest some of your readers who are desirous of obtaining reliable information aa to the climate, resources, and inducements to settlement. I arrived safely in Levuka on Saturday, Nov 1-lth, after a fine passage of 18 dnya. We were within 50 or 60 miles of the port four days previously, and should have reached it on the fourteenth day, had it not been for a mistake in the reckoning caused by the chronometer beiuijr wrong, in consequence of which we steered 100 miles too much to the west- , ward, and had to beat up against a head wind. As we entered the harbor I counted about thirty houses scattered along the beach, and the town presented much the same appearance as regards the size and number of the buildings as Invercargill did when I lauded there about nine years ago. Levuka is situated on the small island of Ooalan, near the largest island, Viti Levu. It is now the only town with a white population, in Fiji, the centre of trade, and the residence of the British aud American Consals, but whether it will retain its present importance when the islands are more fully colonized is a matter of some doubt. There are several large hotels in the place, and the accoinmodatton in this respect is equal to that of most towns in New Zealand, though I am informed that this has only been the case for the last few months. Having suffered considerably, and being very weak from sea-sick-ness, I was very glad to get ashore and partake of the hotel fare. I was a little disappointed at not finding the fruits aa plentiful as I had been led to expect, the only fruit procurable being bananas ; the pine-apples were nearly ripe, but the oranges would not be in season for a month or two. There are two streams of water running down from the mounta'us through the town to the sea, which supply the town with water, and in which the inhabitants, both white and Fijian, bathe themselves daily. Bathing in a warm climate like this is a great luxury, and must tend greatly to promote health. Several large war canoes arrived in the course of the afteroon, and watching the natives land from these gave me a good opportunity of observing their appearance and manners. The Fijians are bronze color, not as dark as I expected to find them, Their hair is decidedly woolly, and their noses slightly flattened ; in other respects, their physique will compare favorably with almost any' race, civilized or savage. The Tongans or Friendly Islanders of whom there are a few here, are still lighter in color than the Fijians, and are certainly the most handsome aboriginals that I have ever seen. One of them, a Wesleyan missionary teacher in Levuka, might stand as a model for a Greek statue, so thoroughly classical are his form and features. " The Tongans have a much larger development of the organs of amativiness, combination, and distinctiveness than the Fijians, and the preponderance of the two latter organs probably accounts for the fact, that they are the best warriors in the Pacific ; and but for the presence of the whites, would long ere this, have obtained the entire mastery of Fiji. As a phrenologist, I entertain a very high opinion of the Fijian race. A comparison with an educated European would scarcely be a fair one, but to compare the Fijian with the lower class of population in Europe would be to show his superority, intellectual development. The natives of those islands have almost invariably well formed heads, with well developed reasoning and perceptive faculties. The woolly hair prevents one from judging very accurately of the development of the moral organs merely form theappearanee withoutcloser examination, but one or two children whose hair was cut off short, had extraordinary development of conscientiousness ; they have not a sufficiently large development of coinbativeness, destructiveuess and firmness, to enable them to cope successfully with the white races, and will, I believe, consequently be found to be much more tractable than t \ie Maories have proved themselves to be to our cost. Those who have no faith in phrenology can just skip the last paragraph, but I must express my conviction that the observations I have made since I have been here have tended to strengthen my faith in the science, the phrenological development of the Fijians, and their known character coinciding most accurately. On the afternoon of the following day (Suuday) I took a stroll along the beach, which is composed of white coral sand. Passing through groves of breadfruit trees, bannanas, cocoanut, palms, pine apples, oranges, &c, one could not but be struck with the luxurance, beauty, and variety of the vegetation, while the novelty of every form of vegetable production, to any one visiting the tropics for the first timt, greatly enhauces the charms of the scenery. I noticed some fine sleek and tolerably well-bred cattle graziug in the vicinity of Levuki, which, I was told, belonged to the Rev Mr Moore, the resident missionary. There was abundance of grasb, looking fresh and green every where, and judging from the appearance of the cattle, and the fact that the grass is the same here all the year round, I felt disposed to credit Mr M'Kissock's statement that cattle thrive better here than anywhere else in the world. The wonder is that they are so scarce, seeing that the feed is so very plentiful, but I presume the principal obstacle to keeping them lies in the fencing, as a planter cannot have them wandering about his plantation among his cotton. There is no plant growing in Fiji which is poisonous to cattle, though there is one wh : cb. the natives call narala,

which is very destructive to sheep, the first flocks landed here having been greatly reduced by it. I ana informed that when the sheep become accustomed to the plant they avoid it, and the risk with acclimatised sheep is small in comparison with the newly imported. The plant, which is a small scrub, sending its branches close along the ground, would not be very difficult to eradicate, as its roots are all close to the surface, and might easily be taken out. The natives, who have been taught by the Wesley an Missionaries, are very rigid Sabbatarians, indeed so rigidly is Sabbath observance enforced that a stranger might suppose that they had embraced juiaism rather than Christianity. I had some conversation with Mr Moore, the missionary, the next day. He appears to be an agreeable and intelligent man, and very willing to give any information in his power. He expressed an opinion that capital might be made twice as productive here as in any of the Australian Colonies. I give this as his opiniou, and not as my own, for it would be presumptuous iu me to express one on such limite*d experience as I have had as yet. I may state, however, that I have heard the most conflicting accounts as to the position and prospects of the planters, but as there are croakers and over-sanguine persons to be met with everywhere, one may safely take a discount off the statements of both, and arrive at the truth only by observation and experience. One thing is pretty evident, however, and that is that money is not over plentiful in Fijis, but this does not necessarily imply that mouey cannot be made here, for I have observed that whenever there is any one pursuit in which large profits are expected to be derived, all the available capital is sure to be invested in that pursuit, leaving very little money in circulation till the profits are actu illy realised. This seems to be pretty much" the case in Fiji ; there is a very general belief in the profits to be made in cotton planting, and conse. quently almost every man has all his capital, and more besides, invested in the undertaking, depriving himself for a time of all the comforts and even some of the necessaries of life, in order to make his profits the larger. It does not require a very long experience here to discover that nothing can be done without money ; in fact almost the only opening is in cotton planting. The trade is carried on too much upon credit, and with too slow returns to offer any very strong inducement to strangers to embark in it The employment for artisans, with the exception of ship-carpenters and sawyers, is almost nil, nearly all the planters houses being built by the natives. I purchased a Fijian hand-book, and a Fijian dictionary, with a view to ge^ some insight into the language, and dis. pense as speedily as possible with the services of an interpreter. The language is said to be very simple, and easily acquired, but it would have been much more so, had the missionaries who first reduced the language to writing, adopted a phonetic, instead of an arbitrary spelling. The difficulties in the way of spelling every Fijian word with EngLuh letters, just as it is pronounced, are very trivial, and in my opinion it is very much to be regretted that the phonetic spelling was not adopted from the first, as now it is too late to alter it. Not only would this have rendered the acquisition of the native language much easier to Europeans, but it would have greatly facilitated the English language by names. This will be easily understood when I state that a Fiji boy would pronounce cat as if it were spelt that, and queen as if it were spelt ngeen, these being the sounds the missionaries have taught them to give to c (th) and q (ng). In order to obviate any difficulty which your readers may have in pronouncing any native words which I may require to make use of, I shall always spell them aa pronounced. I met with King Thakombau in the course of the morning, who made an ineffectual attempt to enter into conversation with me, but as he could not speak English I could not understand a word he said. He is a tall powerfully built man, rather darker in color than most of his subjects. He has a very large head, with an expressive countenance indicative of intelligence, dignity, and a strange mixture of benevolence and ferocity. I witnessed an amusing if not very imposing ceremony shortly afterwards, viz., the king reviewing and haranguing his troops preparatory to sending them on some warlike expedition. Some hundreds of men with their faces blacked on one side were marching up and down the beach yelling and shouting; presently they would all form in a mass and go through the strangest antics. Finally they all squatted on the ground to listen to a war speech from Thakombau, and then embarked in their canoes. I had intended to have visited the island of Taviuni first of all by a boat which was to have left in the afternoon, but as the boat was not likelv to sail for a day or two, and falling in with a Mr Maitland, formerly of Spar Bush, Southland, I accepted aa invitation to proceed with him in his boat along the coast of Viti Levu on Wednesday, an account of which expedition I will give in my next. S. Beaten.