. Fiji-its problems and resources. nes, or Australians bushrangers. They aresimply the fairy godmother in a fit of is soon over, and the air is clear. Chapter II PEOPLES—THE FIJIANS THE Islands are inhabited by 89,562 Fiji-ans, 61,150 Indians, and 4,552 Indians have grown rapidly by im-migration and natural increase from 25,955 in1905 to 61,150 in 1917. The Fijians have de-creased in numbers. The figures might have beendifferent had it not been for the epidemics ofmeasles and influenza, which carried off^ not lessthan 50,000. Dysentery was a scourge in the time of Thak-
. Fiji-its problems and resources. nes, or Australians bushrangers. They aresimply the fairy godmother in a fit of is soon over, and the air is clear. Chapter II PEOPLES—THE FIJIANS THE Islands are inhabited by 89,562 Fiji-ans, 61,150 Indians, and 4,552 Indians have grown rapidly by im-migration and natural increase from 25,955 in1905 to 61,150 in 1917. The Fijians have de-creased in numbers. The figures might have beendifferent had it not been for the epidemics ofmeasles and influenza, which carried off^ not lessthan 50,000. Dysentery was a scourge in the time of Thak-ombau, but the kindly and wise dispensation of theBritish regime has given pure water and a sanitaryenvironment to white and black alike. The Fijians are the native race, the whites andthe Indians are the colonists. Before the advent ofthe whites the natives were a race of savage, ifcowardly, cannibals. Their favourite diet was hu-man flesh, but it was not always the flesh of a heroslain in war. It was the flesh of a woman slyly. Peoples—The Fijians 21 slain, perhaps by the hand that ostensibly protectedher, or the flesh of a ward for the time being, orof a guest, or of a helpless victim. They were notonly cannibals, these stalwart giants, they were can-nibals without chivalry, or heroism, or courage. There are some still living who have partakenof human flesh. A well-proportioned Britisher bomin Fiji, and knowing the language well, venturedwhen in a village of their mountain fastnesses tocross-question an old native about his once grue-some diet. Would you like it now, do you think?the youth diffidently asked. The old rip grinned ashe nipped his guests thigh between his fingers andthumb, and said, Youd eat fine! No one would think, to meet and observe thefine Fijian of to-day, that so recently he wascompletely a savage. He is docile and kindly, aswell as hospitable and courteous to a is unreliable and inconstant, and has no con-tinuity of purpose. He will work ha
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