Thursday, February 13, 1975
IN February 1975, angry landowners of the country’s three biggest pine forests in the Western Division threatened to forcibly repossess their land.
They alleged that Government had failed to pay rent for the past two years, but the Government said it was up to date with its lease payments to the Native Land Trust Board.
The NLTB said the landowners had received regular lease money since October 1973.
Three spokesmen representing the mataqali (landowning unit) for Nabou in Nadroga and Drasa and Lololo in Ba, told The Fiji Times the landowners would march up to all three pine stations and take over them.
They said they would shutdown the stations at Nabou, Drasa and Lololo at 6am, close all access roads and stop all work on the land.
One spokesman said they had to collect rent arrears and key money totalling about $17,000 in January.
Now they would exercise their right under the lease terms to repossess the land for non-payment of rent.
They said the government leased the land from the owners at 10 cents an acre for unplanted land, 50 cents for land on which pine was planted under a joint scheme between the owners and the Government and $1.25 acres as key money.
The areas involved were 38,000 acres at Nabou, 10,000 acres at Lololo and 5000 acres at Drasa, near Lautoka.
Landowners said until rent arrears and key money were paid in full and the landowners had resolved their dispute, all the three stations would remain closed. They added that there was growing restlessness among landowners, as creditors were pressuring them.
On top of that, they had to pay interest on debts they owed. The spokesman said landowners had lost credibility with their creditors because they made commitments to pay based on rent money they expected to receive from Government.
