bands are attached to the handle of the oar, yet it requires two and sometimes three men to keep the canoe on her course. Nearly all these large canoes have an outrigger.

The general dimensions of the larger vessels rarely exceeds 100 feet by 20, but the measurements of one of the largest I saw were as follows:

The capacity of such a canoe is such that it will carry 100 native passengers and several tons of freight. The ordinary canoe is simply a 'dug-out,' with an outrigger, and these are common to the whole of the Pacific, and in fact, with the single exception of the Solomon Isles, are to be found from Ceylon in the west to the Marquesas in the east. I have had some little experience of short trips in canoes, and unromantic as it may seem, I infinitely prefer a coasting-steamer for interinsular travel.

The Fijians and other islanders of the South Pacific are good sailors on European-rigged craft, and are capital divers and swimmers, as the following cutting from a Fiji newspaper testifies :

A Tongan and his wife, the sole survivors of twenty-two who were lately capsized in a canoe near Totoya, arrived recently in Levuka. The man was severely bitten by a shark on the heel, and he and his wife, after being a day and a half in the water, reached Totoya. All the rest of their friends were eaten by sharks; but they managed to frighten off these ravenous monsters by constantly waving their sulus in the water. Though completely exhausted when they reached the shore, they seem now none the worse for their terrible swim.'

CHAPTER XII.

THE FIJIAN OF TO-DAY.

THE Fijians live under a community system-are divided into two qalis, which are redivided into mataqalis. Of these qalis or tribes there are about 140, and of matagalis or families about 4000, residing in about 1220 towns or villages.

As already stated, the colony is politically divided into 13 provinces and 3 districts called yasanas (districts have not the distinction of being governed by a Roko Tui), 4 of which contain about 10,000 inhabitants each, 2 over 4000 each, and the remaining 3 under 2000 each. These numbers are very fairly proportioned to the extent of each province, so that the population is scattered with some degree of equality over the whole group. In fact in Fiji it may be truthfully said, that with the exception of some lands claimed but not occupied by white men, no large tract of country or island of importance is uninhabited.

The provinces are again subdivided into 139 districts called tikina, and these divisions, each of which is ruled by the hereditary chief of the rank of buli, generally contain one or more galis, which were generally considered the unit of the wider political combinations in former times.

The chiefs and people are the hereditary owners (ai taukei) of the lands, and reside in towns and villages. Each town again contains one or more of the family divisions called mataqali, which may be considered the unit of tribal combinations. There is little doubt that they are originally the germ from which the qali, or tribe, has sprung; or perhaps, to make it clearer, qali is nothing more or less than an aggregation of

families or mataqali. The family community, assumed to be of common lineage and descent, are the hereditary holders in common of the land, the matagali is in fact the only true proprietary unit; and no matter the number of individuals or families within itself, it is the only true owner of the land, holding it for the present and future use of the community or brotherhood, whether they be full birthright members, or only strangers admitted to share in the benefits for a time, or adopted into it for good.

Each matagali has a distinct name by which it is known, and which is not unfrequently the name of the principal allotment of its land, which belongs to its chief or head.

A Fijian's house consists of bamboo canes diagonally interlaced, fastened to cocoa-nut tree uprights, with a cocoa-nut log for a ridge-pole, and thickly thatched with dried cocoa-nut leaves. In many cases the thatch exceeds three feet in thickness. The ridge-pole generally extends for a foot or more on either side of the building, and some of the condemned cannibals in the war of 1876 made their exit from this world from the ridge-pole of native houses. The interior is not luxurious. The floor is covered with layers of straw and reed-mats, in the manufacture of which the natives show great skill. One end of the room is raised slightly for a sleeping quarter. A few kava bowls or dishes, mostly made out of solid pieces of wood and having four legs, lie around, while some oval taro or yam platters, also carved out of solid wood, with some cocoa-nut shells for drinking purposes, represent the furniture in the living part. The Fijian's pillow is a piece of timber, or more commonly bamboo, resting on two crutches of wood about four inches from the ground. On this apparently most uncomfortable receptacle for the head, the natives recline with pleasure and sleep with

astonishing soundness. Their hair is always kept with great cleanliness and care, and they prevent it in this way from touching the ground.

At Suva, in Viti Levu, the house of a chieftainess is a gem in its way. Outside, the bamboos of which, like all other native houses, it is constructed are arranged in lozengeshaped patterns; the thatched roof is nicely trimmed along the eaves; the inside walls are tapestried with native cloth; the beams and doorposts polished and ornamented with variously coloured sennit, or cocoa-fibre rope, and the floor is laid with fine white matting. The bed is raised about a foot from the floor, and enclosed by a mosquito curtain.

The people live a settled life, in towns of good and comfortable houses; they respect and follow agriculture; their social and political organisation is complex; they amass property, and have laws for its descent; their land-tenures are elaborate; they read, they write, and cipher. Women are usually respected, and are exempt from agricultural labour. There is a school in almost every village, and to the classical Fijian of Bau is added the English tongue. Some of their chiefs possess accounts at the bank, conduct correspondence, and generally exhibit capacities for a higher grade of civilisation. The Fijians, as I have said, all profess an at least nominal allegiance to Christianity; and that it has largely influenced the life and character of great masses of the population, the most sceptical cannot, I think, deny.

The political unit is the village. In every one of these is found a local chief, practically hereditary, but nominally appointed by the district council. He is assisted by a council of elders and certain executive officers, a magistrate, frequently the chief's brother, one or more constables to carry out his decisions, a town-crier (an hereditary and important officer),

and a garden overseer. An uncertain number of villagessometimes few, sometimes many-are grouped together under the buli of the district, who once a month assembles all his town chiefs, and discusses with them, in the Bose ni Tikina, or district council, the affairs of his own district. These district councils nominate the chiefs of towns, whom they may also suspend from office. They discuss and regulate all local matters, such as the cleansing and scavenging of villages, the management of animals belonging to the different communities, as distinguished from individual property, the keeping open and maintenance of roads and bridges, the control of public bathing-places. The council also superintends the payment, out of local rates, of the village constables. In a similar manner the buli districts are grouped under the headship of a greater chief, the Roko Tui, each of whom twice a year assembles the bulis of his province in the Bose vaka Yasana, or provincial council, where the local affairs of the province are discussed and settled, by which local rates are imposed, and to which each buli makes a detailed report of the condition of his own district.

This organisation is purely native, and of spontaneous growth. To it has now been added a meeting annually of the Roko Tuis and the Governor. This Bose vaka Turanga, or Great Council, is also attended by the native stipendiary magistrates, and by two bulis from each province, chosen by the Bose vaka Yasana. At it each Roko Tui in turn makes a detailed report of the state of his province, and suggestions are offered as to executive and legislative measures which it is thought desirable by those assembled that the Government should adopt. The suggestions made by the Bose vaka Turanga have received, and I think merited, the warm commendation of Her Majesty's