Extracts from 1877 and 1878

WE reprint the historic events from 1877 to 1878. The main aim is to give readers of today a snapshot of the things their predecessors thought and talked about. The extracts also give some indication of the great wealth of information about Fiji contained in the pages of The Fiji Times.

April 18, 1877

Complaints have been made that the privacy of females resorting to the public bathing place in Levuka Creek during the hours set apart for their occupancy of the place, is disturbed by passers along the pathway running immediately alongside the bathing hole.

As the road in question is a public thoroughfare, and in constant use by both whites and natives indifferently, there remains only one way to secure the desired seclusion of bathers from the public gazeby the erection of a suitable fence around the pond.

July 14, 1877

The advantages anticipated by his Excellency in connection with the employment of Indian labour are twofold.

The first is that a service of five years, with a probability of a further residence for the same period for the whole of the immigrants, and of a return to their homes of an average of twenty-five per cent only.

The second, that the Indian immigrant is a cheaper labourer than the Polynesian, even at the present rate of wages.

August 1, 1877

We are informed that an earthquake disturbed the inhabitants of Bureta, at the back of the island of Ovalau, on Sunday evening last, at about 6 o'clock. The oscillation was noticed by our informant and several natives resident in that locality.

The shock was accompanied by a tremulous rumbling noise, and appeared to pass from north to south. No damage appears however to have been done.

August 8, 1877

Three splendid specimens of the pure bred Angora goat have been imported by Ly-ee-Moon; one for Messrs Ryder Bros and two for Mr Pincock.

May these praiseworthy efforts to acclimatise such a valuable animal meet with the success they deserve. We opine they will, as the hill country of Viti Levu seems by nature fitted to become the habitat of these beautiful creatures.

August 22, 1877

The colony of Fiji seems to be for the moment in anything but a prosperous condition. Valuable plantations can be bought, it is stated for one pound an acre, and, dissatisfied as the settlers are, there is no complaint about the fertility of the soil.

The Fiji Times contains more than one statement of their grievances, some of which are due no doubt to the change in the Government of the Colony.

September 1, 1877

Today being the second anniversary of the reading of the Royal Charter erecting Fiji into a British Colony, has been proclaimed a public holiday, and the various government offices, the Bank, and the principal places of business will be closed.

No doubt the pleasure seeking portion of the community will eagerly avail itself of the opportunity to leave the cares of business for a day and seek relaxation.

October 20, 1877

The drought still continues and is beginning to be severely felt. Information has reached Levuka from outside districts of the backward state of the food crops and presaging quite a famine in the event of rain being much longer withheld.

Yesterday the sky was overcast with every appearance of a change, but up to the time of writing no rain has fallen.

November 17, 1877

The proprietor of the Levuka Hotel, ever fond of creating amusements, or some variety or other, for the weal of his fellow citizens, has opened a billiard tournament, to be closed at the end of this present year. The winner is to receive a prize of three pounds.

December 22, 1877

Saturday the 15th December 1877 will be remembered as a day which marked an epoch in the era of the colony.

The first sale of Crown Lands by public auction then took place.

The time necessary for, and the conditions incident to, the properly advertising of the land, having elapsed and been complied with, the sale by auction was duly announced, and the result will be found in this article.

January 9, 1878

On Sunday last, about 1am, the startling cry of fire aroused the dwellers in Beach Street South, and New Street from their peaceful slumber; a fierce light, apparently in the rear of the Polynesia Hotel, indicating at once the locality of the conflagration.

The burning premises proved to be the kitchen and bure of the house occupied by Mr Henry Milne. It appears that the native boy employed by Mr Milne had stolen a candle and he composed himself to sleep in the bure, leaving the light standing up amongst the sasa on the floor.

January 16, 1878

On Monday, Mataleka, a member of the native armed constabulary, was charged with having in his possession three combs, portion of property stolen from the premises of J.C.Smith and Co, and for want of evidence was discharged.

It appears that while the prisoners from the goal were conveying the last portion of the cargo of the Wentworth to the store, a case was broken open and a parcel of combs stolen.

May 29, 1878

We have received information which points to the perpetration of a cruel murder, committed on the person of an unfortunate Fiji woman, at Nadi.

The unfortunate victim was discovered by a party of the townspeople, lying in a portion of Blatchford's plantation of Waqadra, with a terrible gash in her head, evidently inflicted with an axe or other sharp instrument of that class.

August 3, 1878

Stray cattle are becoming a general nuisance to owners of gardens and plantations. During the last few nights a great many bunches of bananas have been eaten, and other damage done in the neighbourhood of Totoga creek.

Owners of these animals should be compelled to keep them secured at night, as it is then that these depredations are committed.

September 4, 1878

With this day's issue, commences the tenth year of the publication of the The Fiji Times. It may be deemed neither unnatural nor inappropriate that a short review of the changes which have marked that period shall be presented.

When this journal first came into existence, Fiji as a settlement was thoroughly in an embryo state. Enterprise, aided by rich returns in the pursuit of cotton growing, was very general.

December 28, 1878

A quiet and unoffending citizen was annoyed last evening by having a stone of about one pound weight thrown through his window.

A reward of 20 pounds is offered in our advertising column, but though this may secure punishment to the offender in this instance, too much reprobation cannot be cast upon this description of larrikinism from which our peaceful little community has hitherto been so exempt.

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