FIJI FESTIVITY

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 837, 4 December 1929, Page 9

FIJI FESTIVITY

EXTENSIVE PLANS FOR MALOLO’S VISIT NATIVE DANCES INCLUDED According to American publicity agents special arrangements have been made in Fiji for the entertainment of the Malolo’s passengers. The celebration will be exceptionally elaborate because the week of December 7 will see three big Matson liners at anchor in Suva, and perhaps more visitors to Fiji than ever before at any one*, time. The Matson liner SiciTa arrives there from San Francisco on December 7, the same day as the Malolo, and will bring a number of passengers touring the South Seas during the winter months which fire summer below the equator. The third ship in port will be the Ma.son liner Ventura, arriving December 5 from Sydney, with a number of summer vacationists from the island continent. In charge of festival preparations is Ratu E. Pope Seniloli and his son. only surviving irale descendants of the late Ratu Cakobau, last King of Fiji before the cession of the islands to Great Britain in 1874. Rata Pope haF arranged for an escort of native canoes to meet the Malolo at the en .ranee to Suva Harbour. When the cruise guests land they will be taken for an automobile tour along the Princes Highway, viewing Government House. the Botanical Gardens, native villages and sugar plantations. Returning to Suva, the guests will have time for a swim in Fiji’s sea baths before luncheon. Ratu Pope has gathered 250 warriors and maidens to give an elaborate programme occupying the entire afternoon. All of them will be in ceremonial dress anl among the ritual dances to be enacted for the visitors will be the Spear Dance and War Club Dance by warriors and the languorous Fan Dance by a mixed group of warriors and maidens.