Native Customs in Suva.

In Suva town, just off its main thoroughfare, is a “Street of All Nations,” where you will see the Chinaman and the Indian carrying on business with an application which the Fijian despises. Here are the Indian craftsmen in silver, squatting on the floor of an untidy little shop, anvil between their toes, fashioning the heavy silver bangles and chains without which the Indian woman would feel the inferiority complex. Rising to further heights of display, a lady whose husband can afford it will wear a bright half sovereign pinned into the nostril. At the street intersection, controlling traffic with great dignity and composure, is a tall Ghurka policeman—a proportion of the police in Fiji are of that race. There are good roads on the main island of Viti Levu, in which Suva is situated, and the visitor has ample facilities for travelling around in good motors. Native life presents many interesting aspects, and the views from the hills at the back of Suva, with luxuriant tropical growth in the foreground, and the sea pictures beyond, are a constant delight to those unaccustomed to such sights.