No matter how frustrating life may become in Fiji one is compelled to admire the stoicism and sheer patience of Fijians.

Fijian Land

Lets take Fijian land as an example.

Fijian land comprises something like 85% of the land mass in the country and it is said to be “owned” by them. Everyone knows that being a land owner means that you have assets and sooner or later the ownership of those assets should translate into some form of disposable income or wealth. It is puzzling then that there should be few if any wealthy Fijians.

An owner of a fleet of logging trucks said to me some 5 years ago:

"You know we work in the forest up in the Namosi area.  Every day that we drive in towards the forest we see some old Fijian women coming out from the village.  They are going out to gather wood for the fire and to forage for food."

"When we come back out of the forest we have about $10,000 worth of logs on the back of each of six our trucks.  We also see the same old Fijian women who we saw in the morning going back to the village with some sticks of wood tied up in a bundle and carrying it on their bent old backs."

"We know that in the village there is hardly anything to eat.  No tavioka, no dalo, no fish, maybe just a little rice and some flour.  Yet the timber we are carting out on our trucks belongs to them."

How can it be that the land-owners get nothing.  What happens to their money? If the Government allows this kind of thing to continue then sooner or later the land-owners are going to “do something”. After all its their land and their timber.

Scratch a little below the surface and we find that far from being “their land,” Fijian Land is owned by the Native Land Trust Board. 

The right exercisable by a Fijian land owner is to have his or her name entered in the “vola-ni-kau-bula” (native land roll) and perhaps claim a chiefly title (if one happens to be vacant). 

For a member of a chiefly clan there may be a realistic  prospect of  income but for the commoner there is little more than hope. So they sit and wait.

The Native Land Trust Board

As for the Native Land Trust Board it is their prerogative to say whether the land shall be used and to decide on the nature of its use. For deigning to exercise their prerogative they are entitled to deduct as commission from revenue derived from the land at the rate of 25c in every dollar.

The need for such a body is of course founded on the assumption that Fijians need protection from the wiliness of land dealers who may deprive them permanently or otherwise from the use of their land without adequate recompense.