Report of the Commission appointed to Inquire into the Decrease of the Native Population, with appendices.

  • Fiji. Commission appointed to Inquire into the Decrease of the Native Population.
Date:
1896
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of the Commission appointed to Inquire into the Decrease of the Native Population, with appendices. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

    314/442 (page 36)
    Paragraph 23. Now, as an excuse, wLicli, from what I have noticed in the older towns, I hare not been able to accept, many of tlie common people have said to me, ' We cannot have raised foundations to our houses for it would be disagreeable to our chiefs ; in the old days, it would perhaps have brought the club on our heads.' ParagTaph 27. Now, as to the second cause, insufficient food. We often hear that there is a scarcity of food in certain districts, but seldom indeed do the chiefs of the land admit that there is any want. The reason of this is, that if the chiefs are diligent, and show a good example, there shoiild seldom be any scarcity of food in Fiji. A chief is therefore ashamed to say, ' Food is scarce with us,' for any one hearing him would exclaim, ' What! has this chief been indolent ? Perhaps he limes his head, paints his face, and stalks about, thinking onlj^ of himself ; or is it that he squabbles with his neighbours about some border town, and lets his people starve ? ' Paragrapli 28. I ask you, chiefs, is it not strange that on the poorest soil of Vanualevu, that of Bua, there is always sufficient food. What one of us who does not know the reason ? Paragrapli 29. A Regulation regarding the jilanting of food is in force ; how many chiefs or magistrates can say it is carried out ? I have seen with my own eyes in several districts that it is not enforced, and that food is not sufficiently abundant, because you now plant less than formerly, and sell more. One Lau Bull recently asked aid from the Government because some of his people were starving. Had he i-eported to his Koko the latter could no doubt have procured them assistance from some other district. Perhaps that Buli wished to affront his Eoko, or to escape reproof for his own negligence if he applied to him ; but such things should not occur in Fiji. In the old times there was hardly ever scarcity of food of good quality. Paragraph .31. I come now to the uncleanness of towns. When the town is full of filth and rubbish, the water used by the jseople is usually bad. Far too little attention is paid to this. How many of you have not forgotten altogether about the regulation as to water supply ? None of you would eat a rotten yam, or swallow decaying sea-weed from the beach, but thousands of you drink water more poisonous, and are content, careless whether you suffer from dysentery on the morrow. I have been to towns where the water-pools stink at the doors of the houses of the peojile, and have even seen it run into the houses in wet weather. Paragraph 32. If you chiefs do not take care, you will soon have only rats and mud-crabs to rule over in such towns. ' Paragraph 34. As to the neglect of women, children, and the sick . In, one of your former Councils, a Bull, when asked hoiv It was that the popzdafion ivas increasing so fast in his district, replied, ' Perhaps it is because no woman is alloived to stir about for three loeeTcs after giving birth to a child, nor until the chief of the town has seen that both mother and child are strong.'' How many of you have followed the wise example of Buli Bouboucou in this ? Paragraph 36. ''■ Some of you say, ' The children of the whites live because they get cow's milk ; our children die because we have no cow's milk to give them.' How many Fijians are present here that were brought up on cow's milk ? Yet ye are strong- men, and so we were your fathers ; and they and you were brought up on the produce of the land. The truth is, that you chiefs were reared by women that were ivell fed, that, tvere kept comfortable, and had nothing to do except to care for you. But the only food employed was that of the land, the same as had been used by your fathers from time immemorial. Pai-agraph 37. The keeping and tending of cows is unknown to you Fijians, and is moreover rendered very difficult on account of the nature of your cultivation. I therefore doubt that for a long time to come it will succeed with you. But if a mother has rest, a dry comfortable house, and an abundance of good food, the produce of the land, she can nourish her child herself until it is able to eat. Paragraph 3S. The rearing of fowls and the preparation of arrowroot, articles of great use in case of sickness are, I find, not attended to as provided in the regulation, and often proper use is not made of such fowls as are available. [Enclosure E.'\ Extract from Eeport on the Vital Statistics of the Jfative Population of the Colony for the year 1885. (Correspondence relating to the Native Population of Fiji. [In continuation of C. 4,434, May, 1885.] Printed in 1887, page 159). Provincial Department, Suva, June 16th, 1886. The hirth-rate i,s high, and has been increasing steadily. The death-rate for young children is also fiigh and is general everywhere. I respectfully submit, hoivever, that there are causes at ivorlc to produce this high death-rate which are not natural, and these causes spring from the strain above mentioned.* That is my argument. The conclusion to which I have come is that the root of the matter is in the minds of the people, not in their bodies ; in other words, that it is mental, not physical, and that the vitality or fecundity of the people is unimpaired. One phase of it is seen in the men, who no longer rely on their own elforts to achieve some common good, but trust to the Government doing for them that which they ought to do for themselves, and hence creeps in that incipient indifference to do what they know they ought to do, and in fact, what they wish to do, followed by a careless and fatal inaction. It shows itself under another aspect in the carelessness above referred to, of the tvomen. in the nature of their offspring ; and it exists in yet other forms not so easily grappled -n-ith, though no less widely spread, to which I now advert with some diffidence ; not on account of want of knowledge of the facts, but from a consciousness that these facts are more intimately connected with the minds of the actors, and their object and intention, than with the means employed. There can be no doubt that the native women use native drugs, the effect of which, they believe, is to counteract the laws of nature in child-bearing and child-rearing. Whether or not the drugs have the effect they are believed by them to have is not to the purpose. They are taken with a specific object in view, though that object is not always the same. In some, the intention is to prevent conception, in others, to produce a child that will not live. In the polygamous times tliis science was known to a few old women only. Now every girl in the country knows some one or otlier of these roots or leaves, and a very great number of the girls use them, chiefly to avoid exposure and punishment. There is a way to cope with this evil which has many recommendations not unaccompanied by some drawbacks. It would help the end in view, though perhaps it would not attain it, if girls who were found to be pregnant were exempted from the operation of the Native Regulation regarding fornication {veidauci). I do not say that the regulation should then affect the men only, but it would affect them chiefly. It is possible that by this means the women would gradually cast away their fears and cherish the love of their offspring which is natural to them. The fear I speak of has nothing to do with the girl's conscience. It is a fear born of missionary-monogamy and matanitu. This exemption would not in my judgment be (as at first sight might appear), a premium on immortality—I should even be disposed to dispute the accuracy of the cx]3ression—but rather an acknowledgment of the sacredness of life. It would also be a tabu on future misconduct. In the old days when a girl (unwed or not betrothed) was found to be pregnant, her mother took her in cliarge, and a strict watch was kept over her. This is one of the many good customs prevailing in polygamous times that have lapsed, or rather have been snapt in the strain by the violence of the change. I propose to revive it if possible, or at all events to direct attention to the necessity of doing so. I do not know that the natives would altogether approve of this change being made, but I think that the more intelligent of them would welcome any effort made to discontinue the baneful use of noxious herbs. (Signed) JAMES BLYTH, Secretary for Native Affairs. [^Enclosure * The sudden change to monogamy and a system of morality foi-eign to their policy was a great check to, and a strong strain on the race.