Note 61 — Chapter XXVII

It may be considered a sure symptom of a reviving faith in the commercial prospects of Fiji, that sundry capitalists in New South Wales are at this moment, 1880, engaged in the erection of large sugar-mills on the Rewa, Raki Raki, and Taviuni, while others are in prospect. That on the Rewa is the property of the Colonial Sugar Refining Company. All its appliances are to be of the most perfect description, and it is estimated that its prime cost will be £100,000, that it will give employment to 100 white men, and be capable of turning out 500 tons of sugar per month. So at least we may now hope that the broad acres of sugar-cane will no longer be left rotting in the ground for want of mills; and carriage will be made easy by the use of steam-punts capable of navigating the rivers, and so collecting produce.

It will be strange indeed if the speaking results of collecting native taxes in kind, instead of, as heretofore, in coin, does not give an impetus to cultivators throughout the group. Mr J. B. Thurston, the Colonial Secretary, who from the time of annexation has been the strenuous advocate of this policy, says that when, about four years ago, he distributed his first thirty bushels of maize to be sown in native gardens, he was laughed at, and asked if he ever expected to see a bushel of that maize grown? Last year he answered the question by exporting 30,000 bushels, and sees no reason why the amount should not ere long become 300,000. Already the people have been taught to raise coffee, cotton, and sugar on these district gardens, with the result that where five years ago the revenue derived from native taxes was almost nil, it last year amounted to £22,500.