FIJI or VITI WO) ISLANDS. A group of islands and a Crown colony of Great Britain, in the Southern Pacific, between lati tudes 10° and 20' S., and lictween longitudes 177' E. and 178' \V. (Map: Australasia, K 4). it is the largest and most valuable group in Polynesia. It consists of about 250 islands, of which about one-third arc inhabited and among which the most important are: Viti Levu, 4527 square miles (about the size of Jamaica) ; Vanua Levu, 2199; Tit\ inni, 217; and Kandavu, 215 square miles. The total area, including the island of Rotuma, lying north of the group and added thereto in 1SSO, is estimated at SO45 square miles. The larger islands have, as a rule, a mountainous surface, with elevations 4000 feet above the sea. The islands on the south and southwest side of the group are clothed with dense forests, con taining many valuable woods. The coasts are surrounded by coral reefs, and form many good harbors. The islands are very fertile and well provided with rivers, a number of which are navigable. In spite of their tropical situaiion, the Fiji Islands have a comparatively cool cli mate. The temperature seldom rises above 90° or falls below 00°. The rainfall is abundant, although unequally distributed. Owing to their sanitary preeautions, Europeans enjoy almost complete immunity from the diseases common to the natives and the Indian coolies. The thorn of the islands is exceedingly rich. The principal native plants are yams, cocoanuts. bananas, breadfruit, and sugar-cane. The ehief occupation is agriculture. The sugar and cocoanut indus tries lead, about 50,000 acres being in these two crops. The former is controlled by the Colonial Sugar Refining Company, which has several mills in the eolony. Most of the sugar estates are owned by Europeans, but sonic land is held by the Indian coolies, who, after the expiration of their term of indenture, generally devote them selves to agriculture. Stock-raising is not im portant.
The commerce of the colony is mainly with New Zealand and the Australian States, and shows an almost uninterrupted growth. In 1895 the imports, mostly from New South Wales, were 4:211,759, and the exports £332,209. In 1899 the former increased to £349.890, and the latter to £019,330. The lending exports for 1900 were: f_393.09,7: copra, E151.701: green fruit, f2S,112; distilled spirits. £2S,839. There is regular steam COMIMInication with New Zea land and other points in the Paeifie. The total tonnage entered and cleared in 1900 was 190..820 tons. The administration of the colony is in trusted to a Governor, assisted by an Executive Council of three official members, and to a Legis lative Council of twelve members. Administra tively the group is divided into seventeen prov inces, of which eleven are under the rule of na tive chiefs. The other six are in the control of European officials. The island of Rotuma is ad ministered by a European commissioner, who has both political and legislative functions. The finances of the colony are in good condition. The revenue is derived principally from customs duties and taxes in kind levied on the natives, and generally exceeds the expenditures by several thousand pounds.
The population of the group in 1901 was 117,800, more than 80 per cent. being natives and about 15 per cent. East Indians. There are many
churches and schools. The Indian coolies are imported for the sugar plantations by the Gov ernment, under whose supervision they remain for ten years. The capital of the group, Suva (o,.v.), is situated on a fine harbor on the south coast of Viti Levu, and has a European popula tion of about 1100.
The aborigines of the Fiji Islands are general ly looked upon as essentially Papuan or Mela nesian in origin, with a considerable Polynesian element, chiefly Tongan. Some regard the Fiji ans as Mongoloid-Negroid hybrids. while others have sought to discern in them, as in the Aus tralians, an ancient strain related to the Cau casian, cropping out occasionally in features of European type not attributable to race mixture. The western Fijians are longer-headed than the eastern, and some reach a stature surpassing the European. The Fijian language closely resem bles Tongan, and Tongan and Samoan influences reveal themselves in Fijian art, industry, etc. The Fijians were long famous as carpenters and ship-builders: their large canoes with sail and outrigger, to which Tongan improvements have been added. are famous. Other arts well de veloped in the Fiji Islands are pottery-making (unknown in Tonga) and the pattern-printing of taps or bark cloth with blocks. The mytholo gy and primitive religion of the Fijians were imaginative and rich in legend and poetry. The Fijians have long been Christians. and cannibal ism and other savage practices for which they were once notorious arc little else than memories; hut that the old ideas are not completely de stroyed is proved by such occurrences as the promulgation of a new religion. which was an ingenious compound of Christianity and heathen ism, to the advantage of the latter, by the `prophet' Dugmnoi. in 1885. Under British gov ernment the Fijians seem to be holding their own in numbers, notwithstanding epidemics of dis eases, etc.
Some of the islands of the Fiji group were dis covered by Tasman in 1643 and visited by Cook in 1773. The first accurate knowledge- of the archi pelago was obtained through the explorations of Dumont d'Urville in 1827, and of the American expedition tinder Wilkes and Bale (1840 12). Though fugitive ennviets from Australia settled in Levu as early as 1801, the European p0p11 t 1011 grew very little. owing to the hostility of the who were numerous. warlike. and addicted to cannibalism. Wesleyan missionaries ruavited the islands in 19.35. and in Itt54 succeed ed in not only Thakomban. the most powerful of the native chiefs, but the mass of the people also. Complications with the United States led Thakombau to offer the sovereignty over the islands to Great Britain (1858). The proposal was declined. Between 1860 and 1869 immigration was rapid. An attempt to estab lish a parliamentary government wider Thakom bau did not prove successful, and the offer to Great Britain was renewed and accepted (1674). Consult: Agassiz, "The Islands and Coral Reefs of Fiji," in Museum of Comparative Zoology Bul letin, vol. x.xxiii. (Cambridge, 1899); Seeman, Viti (Cambridge, 1862) Williams and Calvert, Fiji and the Fijians (London, 1870) ; Cumming, At Home in Fiji (ib., 1887) ; Reed, Recent Wan derings in Fiji (ib., 1888).