New Britain herald., 1924-02-01
FIJI ISLANDS WANT
 UNION WITH CANADA
Anxious for Relations Like Ha-
 Eaiian Islands and U. s.

Washington, D. c. Feb. Fiji wants Canada; will Canada have Fiji? That will be the question before the foreign office of Ottawa if the move ment on the famous cannibal islands to join Canada as Hawaii joined the United States develops to its logical end.
 'Terrors of Fiji's fierce savages, name to. chasten children, have given way before the nameless dreamy charm which now wraps the islands of the South Pacific" bulletin from the Washington. D. C., headquarters of the National Geographic society says and continues:
 CsnnibaIism Only a Memory
 Though old men still live who confess knowledge of the taste of cooked human flesh, they. like their sons and daughters have become good abiding Christians. Today, their tempers are as equable as the climate of this twentieth century Eden.
 The Fiji group is 500 miles from Samoa. It proudly claims the worlds unique self-rebulating climate. A thermostat on a modern heating plant could do no more. When it is hot the corrective comes automaticaf- ly. Heat brings coolness from the mountains Dryness brings rain. Stiffness brings the breeze. Fiji en- thusiast ayers. Protecting nature has even gone so far as to build eoral-dikes against angry waves al- m,st completely around the main island. vit Levu. Extremes of tenn perature are 5e degrees and 94 de- grees.
 Find Good in Hurricanes :.
 ''But every Eden has its serpent which. in Fiji's existence. takes the form of a hurricane. These disturb snces are affectionately known as 'blows.'
 Hurricanes cannot jar the mental serenity of Fiji residents. one of whom claims blows are not an un- mixed evil. maintaining that: They stir things up. They prune the | trees of fruit and leaves and give | their fecundity a rest, so they bear | better afterwards. They loosen the soil around the roots. They dig l about them, as it were, and even blow moths and other insect pests out Into the ocean
 Disciples of Rip Van Wrinkle.
 "of tho three main racial groups | of the population numbering 157,2sr the native Fijians are still dominant | tottaling st.17S; but their predomi- | nance is fading fast. In 1921 there | were so,6s4 East Indians and 3.s7s Europeans. Natives Of India were | imported for labor because the | Tfjians themselves are too ardent dis | eines of Rip Van Wrinkle, and the Indians have multiplied rapidly. With happy resignation the Fiji na- | tlves believe that the world is made | for leisure and not for work and worry The story told by birth and | dsath statistics, however. is very 1 similar to onr American Indians | position for many years; Fiji birth | rate. S1.ss. death rate, :7si; Indians | tfrom Tndia) birth rate, $500, death rate. 75.1
 Although .Flians. loss than 70 years sgo.s killed. cooked and ate two men to ,cecbratey the establishment of . new school, this south Sea Eden Is tamed now. So easily is law main. tained that criminals can be seen sobbing in the doorway Of suva's jail because they arc shut out As the hour Of six approhches men will come running from all points of the town 10 gain the jail with its food and bed, before the doors arc. closed for tho night leaving them. fgura. lively, out in the cold.
 Helped by psnnp,a Canal
 Together the islands make up an area almost equal in size 10 the state Of Massachusetts. Nitl Jeyu, II tho largest. is mountainous, some peaks rising to 5000 feet. rye,u, Il capital and one of two towns in the group Is on the south i,ir Of Witt ll 1evu. To this small town : have lately come the reverberations of world event which bids fair 10 put Fiji on the map commercially. This VAS the opening of the Panama III Canal. Before this event Fiji was ss far off the world trade routes as Robinson Crusoe's Isle. But now it is on the traveied path between Eng land and her important possessions. Australia and New Zealand.
 ships having given 1Nji reason for commercial existence. the islands have striyen gallantly 10 produce sugar-cane. coffee. copra, cotton, rubber and cattle. The odds are against Fiji Tn two respects: native philosophy insists that life is made for fun and froiic and the warm tropics conspire to produce pests as Ft nerously ss piants. Tn the tropics. Ii 1t is said. there is no ointment with out its fly; suEar-canc had Its labor shortage. tho banana it's borer. ] coffee it's leaf disease. cotton the { caprieious American market. the lr cocoanuts the hurricane. In spite Of { these obstacles Fiji's exports rose i from ss.0oo.ooo in 1919. to nearly s12.o0o,o GOO in 1921.
 Weased From Australia
 Every man-made world develop ' nent seems to have it's commercial ( Ethiopian in the wood-pIif. Rack i of F1h's inclination for Canada is the , fact that these South Sea Islands are [ developing q profitable trade with ths a Maple-leaf Dominion. On the face f cf things if would seem that Fiji , might be better attached to NeU !.