Cotton

Australian National Library
Record ID:
799484
Author:
Pechey, W. C.
Title:
Fijian cotton culture, and planter’s guide to the islands / by W.C. Pechey.
Publisher:
London : Jarrold and Sons, [1870?]
Description:
vi, 108 p. ; 18 cm.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
ANU Library
Author Srubjan, Ingrid
Title Colonists and cotton in Fiji, 1860-1881 : the Ryder Brothers and the informal colonization of Fiji / by Ingrid Srubjan
Published 1978
Location Call number Volume Copy number Status
MENZIES thesis DU600.S79 NOT FOR LOAN

Description iv, 104 leaves

Bananas

But bananas travelled to Queensland via a very convoluted pathway. In 1828, two banana plants were taken from Mauritius and hand-delivered to Lord Cavendish. He grew some bananas from them in what became the current Kew Gardens in the UK. Missionaries took some of his banana plants to the South Pacific in 1840, where they flourished. Later, a missionary called Williams took some of these bananas to Fiji. In the 1870s, Queensland sugar cane plantation owners "drafted" sugar cane cutters from Fiji, and brought back some banana plants with them. In 1891, Herman Reich used these plants to start the Coffs Harbour plantations, which, after a century or so, had gone bananas.

Early Settlement Pre-Cession

John B Williams demanded payment of his supposed debt of $43,000 from Cakobau in 1860 payable in produce.
William Pricthard , Amercan Consul, arrived in Fiji in 1858 was urged to encurage the Fijians to develop their natural resources by stinulating their demand for industrialised products " leading them at the same time to cultivate those Articles which will most readily find a sale in British Markets".
The renowned botanists from Kew was invited to survey the wide river flats of Rewa for expert advice on the growing of cotton for the looms in Manchester.
In response to an advertisement for settlers, a newcomer to the islands from Australia proposed to "Make Fiji a cotton field- turn out the natives to work in it, and set the chiefs to look after them- all under wise and paternal laws- and then this poor nation of savages will produce wealth for the English, and will, in the course of ages, gradually become fit for our liberties, our laws and our civilization".
(deryck Scarr- a short history of fiji)

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