We have come full circle and there is nothing more rewarding and exciting, not only to be celebrating 150 years of The Fiji Times, but what is most significant and important is that it is locally owned.
And somehow, it is only fitting that this is so. If I may be bold enough to say, this is our newspaper. It belongs to this country.
This is indeed a grand occasion and how fitting that we are launching this book at the Grand Pacific Hotel which first opened its doors in 1914 as first reported in The Fiji Times.
This book is a kaleidoscope of cinematic proportions. That might be viewed as hyperbole, but it isn’t, because it really is, that.
Like a good movie, it is well-directed, and Anurag, has carefully and artfully selected the stories and the pieces and the important events of national and global significance into one major story, that of 150 years of The Fiji Times.
The story opens with this country called Fiji, an outpost of empire but more specifically the small, beautiful, enigmatic and almost elusive island of Ovalau with the buzzing capital of Levuka, home to an assortment of individuals, many of whom were of very suspicious nature who came to seek adventure, seek their fortune and sometimes seek their own demise.
This is the scene, it has been set and now we need the characters, the protagonists and antagonists and other minor characters who populate the story.
The British Consul, William Thomas Pritchard, arrived in 1858 and one of the things he saw and had to “deal with, were drunkenness and riotous conduct among the British community”.
In fact, Ratu Cakobau is reported to have told Colonel William James Smyth, a visiting British Commissioner, that the white settlers did “nothing to civilise or improve the natives; on the contrary, they have in many instances fallen to a lower level.
Whenever they can obtain spirits, most of them drink to access”. Apart from the British, the Australians and New Zealanders began arriving, the scene is set and the characters are forming and developing.
The first significant of these characters, was one Thomas Johnson who arrived in July 1869 and he is the one who can be credited with starting Fiji’s first newspaper.
But that was short-lived as the venture was not viable and he returned to New Zealand. Enter George Littleton Griffiths, the main, man.
The one who started it all. The Fiji Times was born. Creating a newspaper is like building a new road.
They both create access and opportunities. With access comes connections and with opportunities, business and entrepreneurship is created. So, we now know that a good newspaper and wellbuilt roads are vital and important to the development of a healthy and sustainable country.
An example of this is an advertisement in early 1870s for the Criterion Hotel. It reads;
There are No Lies about it. No! There is no Molestation at Meals Now the PUNKAH Waves delightfully at Turner’s Criterion Hotel Come and Try its Influence The Only one in Levuka Comfort and Pleasure unknown before may Now be obtained whilst sitting down to a good DINNER THE PUNKAH The Great Oriental Luxury, has at length Been introduced into the Fijis And may be seen Alive! Alive! Alive! At the CRITERION
And with the roads built, people were indeed able to travel to dinner at the Punkah thanks to the advertisement in The Fiji Times. The Fiji Times was our “connection” not only throughout the nation, but also to the rest of the world.
How appropriate that it was established before the signing of the deed of session, when Cakobau was still alive and in the ensuing years there were reports of his travels within the country and ultimately announcement of his death in The Fiji Times on Wednesday, February 7, 1883, with the words “the last tie which bound the old Savage Kingdom of cannibals to the present Colony of enterprising, earnest, peaceful work, is severed”.
When we reflect back over a hundred years ago, this was a significant and important piece of news.
Here was a man, larger than life, who ceded Fiji to Great Britain and was notorious for his wars and indeed The Fiji Times reported on “his activities, his wars with rival chiefs” and now he was dead.
That was the end of an era, coupled with the move of the capital from Levuka to Suva. Cakobau and Levuka were inextricably linked as he was a frequent visitor to the town.
His demise and that of the move of the capital, somehow sealed the fate of the that beautiful and enigmatic town. Suva appeared to be a bustling little metropolis.
From the reports of various activities that appeared over the years the city was not only growing and developing at a fast pace, but was also buzzing socially, and with the advent of the cinematorgraphe the scene was enhanced further as the Lumiere brothers of France “held the world’s first public screening of moving pictures at the Grand Cafe in Paris.
Shortly thereafter, in fact three years later, the Lumiere exhibition arrived in Suva for a season of picture shows.
And that for a long time was what we called it, “the picture show”.
The Fiji Times reported on World War I and II. During the course of the first world war, the paper reported two stories that showed patriotism for the empire.
The first from January 21, 1918, is titled “Indian Boy Joins Up – Former Cable Messenger enlists in artillery”. A letter has been forwarded from a Fiji Indian boy to The Fiji Times and it read; “I am an Indian boy from Fiji and have joined up with the Royal Garrison and Artillery and am feeling very proud to be able to fight for King and country in this great war, which we are going to win and give the Germans a big beating. I was a messenger boy for the Pacific Cable Board in Suva for eighteen months.” At the end he says: “We expect to go to France soon. I will write again. Good bye and thanking you for obliging me.”
The second one is from the November 5, 1918 issue. “It reported that King George V had inspected the Fijian Transport contingent in Italy”. The photograph showed King George chatting with a member of the Fijian contingent, “described as a chieftain of high rank” who remarked, “he was now quite ready to die”. When probed as to why, his reply was simple, I have seen the King”.
Anurag talks about “a people’s history” and this is something he has been working on for a while and will no doubt continue to do so, documenting stories and events of ordinary people, who are no big names, yet are integral to the story of this nation, and it is the ordinary people, who are in the “engine room” driving this country forward and very often we see them but we don’t know who they are, we don’t hear their stories and when we do are amazed and fascinated and that their stories are as important as everyone else’s.
150 years is a very long time for a small country like Fiji, but perhaps not so long when viewing it within the context of global history.
What Anurag has done is show us snippets of Fiji’s history and how it is interlinked with the history of the world, this country and her people; we part of that world history. We are no longer an outpost of empire, we are, to quote that often-used phrase, part of the global village.
We have arrived at the 21st century yet our history remains fractured from pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial, somehow for this country history keeps repeating itself.
The Fiji Times has been writing that history from pre-colonial, colonial and now to the post-colonial. Are we ever going to learn from our history and try not to make the same mistakes?
From the wars of Cakobau to the war in Ukraine and while these two wars may appear to be the antithesis of each other, it is still war where people are killed and injured.
And The Fiji Times is there to report it and at the same time, often in the very next column, we read stories of hope and resilience and of course the flotsam and jetsom continue to amuse us.
There are many things that I liked about this book, and in particular, which seems to be in line with Anurag’s philosophy of a “people’s history”, are the stories of certain individuals who worked for the Fiji Times, behind the scenes, who were in the engine room, so to speak, operating those massive machines so that the nation can wake up to fresh news in the morning.
People like, Richard Lobendahn, Peter Wendt, William Simpson, Don Mitchell, and Winkie Samuels were just a few of the people behind the scenes.
In the front and often the faces we recognise were the journalists. Who could ever forget the enigmatic, Robert Keith Reid, Matt Wilson, Emelita Wendt, the exuberant Seona Martin, now Seona Smiles, Jale Moala, Anne Livingston and of course the one and only Stan Ritova.
These people were not just names associated with the newspaper, they were also wellknown personalities known to many of us.
The Fiji Times has withstood the test of time, it began as a small newspaper shortly before Fiji became a British Colony and has grown into a large newspaper that is internationally recognised.
For almost a hundred years it operated under colonial rule and the owners were foreigners.
One could say that The Fiji Times was a construct of colonialism. It was established to cater for the Europeans as they were the only ones who could afford to buy the papers, but also the ones who could read.
Very gradually that changed over time. Many locals have rallied against colonial rule, for good reason yet we also need to acknowledge that colonialism played an important part in our education.
The Fiji Times has been part of that education. What was once a newspaper for the elite Europeans is now a newspaper for the people, the local people of this country.
Do we continue to blame colonialism for our failures and shortcomings, or do we view colonialism as an important and integral part of our history and learn from it?
A very dear friend mine, renowned academic and historian, the late Teresia Teaiwa wrote and I quote; “The paradox of colonialism is that it offers us tools for our liberation even as it attempts to dominate us. Education is the perfect example of this colonial paradox. I value my “colonial” or “Western” education, even as I attempt to use it to help myself and others discover more about our precolonial heritage, and fashion futures for ourselves that are liberating.”
This book has evolved out of that colonial construct. In that evolution it has illustrated our progress as a nation.
These stories are for the people by people who have traversed the length and breadth of this beautiful country.
The stories have revealed much that is unsavoury and horrible while also revealing the joy and beauty of people who work hard and in spite of their struggles and hardship continue to smile and love this country. This book is indeed a kaleidoscope of colonial and post-colonial Fiji.
Every library in the country should have a copy of this book. It is an important introduction to our history told in manner that is easy and accessible to read.
Thank you to The Fiji Times for not only acknowledging the last 150 years, but to deem it important enough to document it and to put it in the hands of someone who is not only a historian but also literary.
You have made and continue to make an important contribution to this country.
I hope that we will continue enjoy another 150 years, although none of us here will be around to witness that.
Anurag has so ably and meticulously written this book and in doing so remind us of the importance of the newspaper, of reading and the important role the media plays in our society.
What we have is not only a beautiful book but an amazing record of 150 years of The Fiji Times but also of Fiji.
• LARRY THOMAS is a writer, playwright, and documentary filmmaker and is currently the acting Director of the Oceania Centre for Arts Culture and Pacific Studies at USP. This is his speech at the launch of the book The Fiji Times At 150 – Imagining the Fijian Nation (or, a scrapbook of Fiji’s history) at the Grand Pacific Hotel on Tuesday.
