Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1880-02-20
Something About Fiji,

The receipt of the first discovery of
Fiji, published in 1879, suggests some
remarks about that group, which is
destined to occupy prominent place
in the future of the Pacific half of our
globe. The islands are situated in lat
itude eighteen degrees south, nearly in
a direct line between San Francisco and
Sydney, 1,400 miles from the latter
port, and about the same distance from
New Zealand, Tahita, Honolulu, the
Marshall Islands, Caroline Islands, and
New Guinea, and half as far from New
Caledonia and the New Hebrides, Solo
mon, Ellice, Samoan, and Friendly
groups. Amid all these, Fiji is a cen
tral point, with the prospect of great
commercial facilities when Micronesia
"a name including those small leland
of the South Pacitic-is we'll suppl. ed
with steam-vessels. Five years ago
Fiji became British colony, but the
civilized authority was so weak in some
of the smaller islands, or districts re.
mote from the seaports, that cannibal-
ism did not cease till two years later.
Long Pig" has ceased to appear on
the native bills of fare. There is an
orderly government, with police, courts
of justice, public records, and last, but
not least, regular system of taxation.
The group has an area of 1000, 600
acres, much of which belongs to the
| Colonial Government, and is offered
for sale at five dollars an acre for first
class, and less for poorer qualities.
The area cultivated by white settlers is
$4,000 acres, and no mention is made
of the acres sold to white men, be-
| longing to natives, or of unsold of the
first quality. The group has eighty
islands, making an archipelago $40
miles long by 260 wide. There are l2O,-
900 natives, including 10000 available
for work, but, when employed as labor
ers, they idle away their time, unless
closely watched. Their wages are TWEEN.
ty dollars year, besides food, cloth.
ing, and tobacco, costing twenty dollars
more, making the total expense less
than four dollars a month. Natives OF
New-Britain and New-Ireland, hired by
terms of three years at twenty dollars
year, are more industrious. With
such wages there is no chance for a
white man to make anything as Ia
borer, and there is little opportunity to
make much as an employer unless he
has $40, 900 capital to begin with. The
chief exports are cocoanuts, cotton and
sugar, and it is supposed that coffee
will be largely cultivated. The dried
cocoanut, called copra, makes up
nearly two-thirds of the exports; and
of the $4,000 acres planted by white
settlers, 5000 are in cocoanuts, 1900
in cotton, 1000 in sugar-cane, 1000 in
coffee, and 25O in arrow-root. We are
told that all these can be cultivated
profitablY. January, the hottest month,
has a mean temperature of "a degrees,
with maximum of SO degrees in the
shade, and 160 degrees in the sun; and
July has mean of II degrees, with a
minimum of 81 degrees three feet from
the ground, 90 degrees in the grass,
and a maximum OF 80 degrees in the
shade and l40 degrees in the sun. There
is never a month when the heat does
not go to 140 degrees in the sun. The
coldest month of Fiji is about twenty
degrees hotter than the warmest
weather in San Francisco, if the adiec-
tive cold can be applied to any month
in the former place or warm to any in
the latter. Though Fiji has 100 inches
of rain in the average year, it has only
100 rainy days, and the climate is gem
orally considered very pleasant one
for those accustomed to the torrid zone.
There are no malignant fevers or ma
larial diseases, and the vegetation is
most luxuriant and beautiful. Taken
altogether, Fiji will always be consid-
cred a tropical paradise. Fran
cisco AltG.