The family behind Suva’s
BREWSTER St is a small road on the east side of the long Augustus St, it goes into a steep path down to the creek and if you head up you’d come on to Amy St.
The name is connected to the Joske family, who arrived in Fiji as part of the Australian based Polynesia Company in 1870.
Paul Joske’s wife was a Brewster and was part of a family that went to America in the Mayflower, an English ship that transported a group of English families , known in history as Pilgrims, from England to the New World (America) in 1620.
Her maiden name was assumed by their son Adolph Brewster Joske who arrived with his parents to Fiji as a young 16-year-old lad. It was noted that the name Brewster instead of Joske was used after a suicide in the family and years after the st itself was named.
The information in this article can also be found on the shelves of the National Archives in a book titled Suva, History and Guide written by Albert J Schutz.
The book noted that young Joske later served as the resident commissioner for Colo North and after he had changed his name he was famously known as AB Brewster.
According to Barry Chandler, in his journal article titled, The Fijian Collections at Torquay Museum published in the Journal of Museum Ethnography in 2007, young Joske was educated in England before he re-joined his parents in Melbourne.
“With the Australian gold rush coming to an end, the Joske family had set their sights on Fiji where they were granted a land concession by the Polynesian Company to grow sugar cane,” Chandler wrote.
“The Joskes built the first sugar mill in Fiji on land around Suva, their enterprise being recorded on company banknotes of 18771875.”
It was specifically Paul Joske, his son Adolph and other European settlers that had started the sugar mill and imported machinery, beginning the country’s sugar industry. About 460 acres of cane were planted on the site.
“The mill which operated between 1873 and 1875 was on the site where Fiji’s parliament building (Government Buildings) currently stands.
“They were pioneers of what was to become the islands’ main modern industry, but after massive investment the business faltered due to unsuitable soil conditions and they were forced to close in 1875.
It was noted by the Fiji Museum that 30,000 pounds was invested in the venture that proved to be a failure.
Chandler stated that because of this Joske threw himself into creating the new town of Suva, which was to later become the capital of Fiji in 1882.
“In honour of his work the locals renamed the local peak Rama as ‘Joske’s Thumb’, a name that - I am informed by the Reverend Dr David Brewster is still in use today.”
Meanwhile, Adolph worked for a brief period as a coffee planter but later had taken on the opportunity to join the Fijian civil service when offered a post by Dr William MacGregor the acting colonial secretary who served from 1884 untill 1910.
“Initially he worked as stipendiary magistrate and assistant to the resident commissioner of Colo East and deputy commandant of the armed native constabulary.
“He was later appointed governor’s commissioner in the mountain province of Viti Levu, where he developed a great love of the local people, their language, and customs.
“Through his interest in the histories and genealogies of the tribes under his jurisdiction, Brewster gained a reputation as an amateur anthropologist; he claimed to have recorded the genealogies of most of the leading hill tribes of Viti Levu by 1895.”
Chandler said Brewster’s work today could be described as oral history. He employed local clerks or scribes that had been taught by the Wesleyan missionaries to record the histories that he used as basis for his research.
“One of Brewster ‘s own typescripts survives in the Royal Commonwealth Society Library (at the Cambridge University Library), dated 25th September 1923 and entitled Genealogies and Histories of Fiji Tribes.
In 1902, he married Alice Caroline Stracey Tyler in Bath while he was on a visit to England and in 1908 he was appointed to the Legislative Council by the Governor.
The Pacific Islands Monthly dated December 21, 1937, stated that Brewster retired from the service in 1910 and after 26 years of service, settled down in Bath.
“The Brewsters first appear in the Torquay directory as residents in November 1917 when they moved into ‘Tregantle’ in Bampfylde Road and in March 1924 they moved house to Lynwood.
“During his retirement in Torquay, Brewster published two books - The Hill Tribes of Fiji (Brewster 1922) and King of the Cannibal Isles (Brewster 1937) - and continued to take an active interest in Fijian affairs.”