The chief of Vabea Village on the island of Ono, in Kadavu, tended to his own plantation even when he was able to have the men of his village do it for him.
Ratu Laurisio, who served as a buli of Nakasaleka (district) for more than 23 years, was featured in The Fiji Times on January 8, 1973, because he was 72 years old.
The article said the fact that he still worked hard was probably the reason he looked young compared to other men his age. His position was an administrative post, which was abolished only years after Ratu Laurisio retired from the position.
It came under the jurisdiction of the provisional council. Ratu Laurisio found that planting his own cassava, dalo and yams was a good form of exercise.
“I believe this is the reason why I’m able to enjoy life even at a very old age,” he told The Fiji Times at Vabea.
As a chief, the people of his village were supposed to plant his food, but he did not allow them to do so. Ratu Laurisio lived in a single room wooden house which his family built many years prior.
The timber used had been able to withstand weather conditions, even though the house had not been painted since it was built.
“The house is built of timber of the old days,” the chief said proudly. Ratu Laurisio was a great believer of the “old ways” and strict discipline.
“The world would have been different if its people followed the old way of life when people had respect for each other,” he said.
“Now there is no respect, especially the young, for the old. One would only have to go to Suva to see this.”
Ratu Laurisio avoided going to Suva as much as he could.
“I only visit Viti Levu if I really have to.”
Ratu Laurisio was also concerned about the drift of the younger people on the islands to centres in Viti Levu. He could not see any way to remedy this.
“They think that village life is dull, but I don’t think it is, there is so much they can do but there is no one to help them.”
He said the Social Welfare Department should have been encouraging young people in the city who could not find jobs to return to their village homes.
“If only some Fijians realised that educated people were needed back home in the villages, we would be much better off.”
He also said that many people had the idea that the village life was only for “numbskulls”.
“This was also another wrong attitude to have, and having educated people back at the village could help with the development and upgrading of the village.”
A member of the Kadavu Provincial Council and a staunch Catholic, he said that he was not a keen student of politics and believed that the political government had spoilt people’s way of life.
“People’s thinking has changed – I think politics have made people meaner. The different races are watching each other.”
