Griffiths on the move
MUCH is known about how The Fiji Times founder George Littleton Griffiths started his business in Levuka as a young man in his 20s and the legacy he left behind.
But we hardly get to know the little insights into the big Griffiths family and their experiences throughout the years they were In Fiji.
George was a generous man who had a deep sense of civic duty. He and his wife, Annie had 10 children and adopted five more.
Two of the adopted children were an Indian boy and girl whose parents had died of smallpox on the Leonidas, the first immigrant ship to come to Fiji from India.
The Griffiths seemed to be closely knit also and ran the newspaper as a family unit.
Arthur’s (George’s son) wife, Jennie, for many years, wrote and edited for The Fiji Times in the early 1900s.
She was a relative of Woodrow Wilson who was US President between 1913 and 1921 and widely regarded as the leading architect of the League of Nations.
When she was 21, Jennie began travelling the world and while in Suva, she met Arthur and agreed to marry him the day after they met.
Later, Jennie became the mother of a family of 10, nine of whom were born in Fiji from the eldest Randolph born in 1898 to Ciwa (a Fijian word for nine) who was born in 1910.
Ciwa Griffiths later became a pioneer in methods of dealing with deafness in children.
Arthur and his family sold The Fiji Times in 1912 and moved to Sydney, Australia in search for better educational opportunities for the children.
In Australia, Jennie was appointed the editor of The Australian Women’s Weekly in June 1913.
One of her daughters, the youngest of those born in Fiji was a girl called Ciwa, named after the Fijian word for the number 9.
After leaving Fiji as a baby, Ciwa lived in Australia for a number of years before eventually emigrating with her family to the US.
She later graduated from the University of Michigan and founded the H.E.A.R Foundation in 1954 which later became the HEAR Centre. Today, Dr Griffiths is fondly known as the mother of Auditory Verbal method.
This is quite an amazing achievement for someone who was born in Fiji and an outstanding legacy for a member of the founding Fiji Times family.
The Griffiths had an exciting time in Fiji. Some of their unforgettable moments are recorded in Arthur’s book, Memories of Fiji.
In 1870, soon after Annie Griffiths (George’s wife) arrived in 1870 some of the people of Lovoni with whom George had become friendly, visited the Griffiths’ residence to give Annie a gift of food wrapped in banana leaves.
She was horrified when she discovered this gift was a baked lower limb.
Apart from running a newspaper George was involved in a number of commercial ventures. He devised a banking system where he issued currency he printed.
He once promoted the sale of an energy drink and ran an active land agency as well.
During 1886, Suva was excited by the report that a ghost had been seen near a small bridge at Nasese, outside Suva.
In 1888, George leased the house of William McGregor which was located near where the ghost was seen.
Arthur was returning home from band practice one night when he had a creepy feeling and thought it was a ghost.
He started shouting “the ghost, the ghost” which startled his family while they were having dinner.
It was the family’s grey male horse which was standing asleep with his rear end showing.
George and Arthur, were involved in the frantic search for a cure for leprosy in the early 1900s.
One of George’s employees, Beni, had knowledge of dispensing traditional herbal medicines.
So when a reward for a cure for leprosy was offered in the colony, Beni approached the Griffiths family and revealed to them that he knew of a possible cure and had used it to treat many lepers, including his wife Salanieta.
His statement seemed so feasible that George promised he would help by demonstrating his before British Government officials. But members of the British Medical Association had reservations, citing “ethics” as a reason.
George wrote a long statement of the “discovery” and accompanying facts in an effort to “stir some recognition for the benefit of mankind”. This was later forwarded to London but was not received with any enthusiasm.
“The absence of response caused disappointment to my father to such an extent that he allowed the matter to become dormant, and Beni, very disappointed, returned to his district,” Arthur said.
The Fiji Times office in the early days of the newspaper was not only a place of business. It was also a place people went to for help.
This was because George was regarded a kind hearted man who engaged in numerous civic and volunteer activities.
In 1909, one year after George died, the people of Namata in the province of Tailevu visited The Fiji Times to lodge a complaint regarding moves to relocate them from their ancestral lands and threats to put them in jail.
Arthur sought assistance from lawyer Robert Crompton (later Sir Robert) who suggested that an appeal be made to the Secretary of State for the Colonies at 10 Downing St, London.
This was done and after a few months the Colonial office ordered that the people of Namata remain on their land. There was great celebration among landowners.
In November of 1911, the people of Namata gave him a bag of money as present, perhaps to thank him for his help in their land complaints.
They also invited the Griffiths family to spend Christmas in Namata.
This was to be their last Christmas in Fiji before they moved abroad.
As soon as they had their meal, the men of the village presented a tabua to the family.
They were invited to attend Christmas church service the next morning.
In 1912, at his wife’s urging, Arthur sold The Fiji Times to a limited liability company and the family moved to Sydney, Australia so that their 10 children could have access to a better education.