Comments for Levuka History and Timeline

Comment on This site aims to provide a Levuka timeline structure for the period 1700 – 1880 by gonenitubou

gonenitubou — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 21:03:18 +0000

Sa malo a Bula Levuka …
Unfortunatetly YES my internet connection is very slow… well thats Fiji for you … everything is slow. But your idea of creating a blog for the Lau Islands is a great idea .. I might have to change my connection plan just so I get a high speed internet connection and then I will contact you for any help you can give me …
Many thanks again and GOD BLESS!!

gonenitubou

Comment on This site aims to provide a Levuka timeline structure for the period 1700 – 1880 by levuka

levuka — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 08:10:11 +0000

Many thanks for your kind words and family interest!
Time I did some more updates!.
- Has your family considered starting its own blog – say “Lau History and Timeline” ?
- If they would like to do that I can give a little help to set it up. Reply here if you would like to do that.
But it could depend on the speed of your internet connection. A fast connection makes a blog practical.
- then, your “Lau History and Timeline” ? could link to this one.
View of the world: My readings for this site changed my own view of the world, and my view of Fiji; and of the family context for my lost ancestor. That ancestors genes were strong ones – as they appear in my latest grandson; the big bones and dark eyes of my mystery Levuka ancestor.
Latest Military Republic in Fiji: In the context of the latest Military Republic in Fiji, I noted with interest that the planters government of those times (1860s) was formed in the same way. They simply, formed an army, of 20 young people, said “we are the government”, and ( with the aid of guns), began to collect harbour taxes on all boats which entered Levuka Harbour. They then issued “money” with no backing. They then taxed villagers, and when villagers could not pay the taxes, required men of those villages to “work” as – well, slaves…
Dust off Parliament House and re-start democracy: But in Fiji there is the promise to dust off Parliament House and re-start democracy. Democracy is messy – but I think its the best way. Blogs offer a new form of information democracy.

Comment on This site aims to provide a Levuka timeline structure for the period 1700 – 1880 by gonenitubou

gonenitubou — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 22:32:26 +0000

I surfed the net last week from home and stumbled on your Blog… Actually I was trying to find out if there was any historical website for the Lau Group…
I must say I was impressed … very impressed with your Blog Site….
I believe that what you have created will be beneficial to young people especially Students who are studying history.. My nephews have taken a liking to your blog site and all four of them would make it a tradition to sit on the computer every afternoon and read at least one or two articles before they spend the rest of the evening talking about it … So, thank you very much for a very educational initiative. And my Nephews and I look forward to many more interesting additions to your blog site…. Sa malo….

Comment on 1883: Burns, Philp & Company Limited incorporated in Sydney by levuka

levuka — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 09:18:34 +0000

Hello Christine, I would be happy to give you authors’ access to post items, if you like. Or you can email items to me, and I could post them, if thats easier for you.

Comment on 1868: Frederick Moss came to Fiji to grow cotton after American civil war made sea-island cotton price rise by levuka

levuka — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 08:21:07 +0000

Thank you for your interest and very useful comments. This site gets many hits from India – people looking for relatives who travelled to Fiji, as indentured laborers in the 1870s. My ancestor – about that time owned the island which was used a quarantine station for the early arrivals from India. I also have current family in India; in Auroville, Tamil Nadu.
Invitation: As we have mutual interests; shall we swap links – I will link to your site and you link, your ‘blogroll’ to this site? To do this, first you need to add the blogroll feature to your site.
Impertinent question: Speaking as a fellow-blogger – I see you have Google ads. Do they make any decent return for you?
Cotton trade: As you say ‘Before the 1850s, India used to export cotton to Britain, and import textiles’.
The slave-trade connection: As I read, more on this topic. I was surprised to learn textiles milled and printed in India, and Manchester, were then traded for African slaves, who were them shipped to Jamaica and South USA – to grow more cotton!
1860: cotton mill industry in Mumbai: You write “However, the the cost of importing textiles ballooned to Rs. 20 millions by 1860. This led Mumbai entrepreneurs to create a cotton mill industry in Mumbai. By 1870, there were 13 cotton mills in Mumbai. Cotton supplies from the US were interrupted during the American Civil War. Before the Civil War, cotton mills in England used to import only about 20% of their needs for cotton from India. However, with the blockade of the Confederate ports, Indian cotton prices rose. By the time, General Lee’s army was defeated (1865), traders in Bombay had earned 70 million Pound Sterling in cotton trade. So much was the haste to make money in cotton that farmers in Gujarat were cutting down grain crop ready to mature to free up land for cotton.”
Cotton in Fiji: There was a mini-cotton boom in Fiji, too; which collapsed after 1865. I think its possible my ancestor made a few pounds shipping hopeful cotton planters to Levuka, around that time, in his barques and schooners. These did not last long; and soon rotted; with timber holed by tropical wood-worms; more than one was sunk in Levuka harbour.

Comment on This site aims to provide a Levuka timeline structure for the period 1700 – 1880 by levuka

levuka — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 08:03:03 +0000

Hello Cousin Ken!
Very, very pleased to hear from you. I would indeed like to share information. For example, a family story was, – there was a Family Bible with births and deaths in the front; and it was held by Martha. I found five further births in Fiji; but no birth records of Martha’s sister (or stepsister) – Christiana (sp?), my part-Pacific ancestor. The family tale, was there were 13 children. One was clearly part-Polynesian; Samoan or Tongan were dominant genes, I think. But raised – poor thing – in pukka mode, to wear whalebone corsets, in the tropics. There was a Dufty portrait of this sister of Martha – – now, I fear, lost. But I have one brother with Fijian hair; my mother, myself, a niece and nephew, and one of my sons and one grandson all show the Pacific gene; the men, tall, dark, strong and big-boned; the women small and finer. I have a primitive chart I have compiled of those Thompson siblings I could find. I will go and look at it now and see what’s there, about Martha. The Thompsons owned Vanutha Lai Lai – an island near Levuka, for 17 years. I found Levuka a lovely little town; with friendly people. That island is now called Lost Island, and owned by the Khan family, I believe. (I have a copy of the old deeds) . I will email you so we can chat offline. I can also give you an authors access so you can post content to this site, if you like.

Comment on 1868: Frederick Moss came to Fiji to grow cotton after American civil war made sea-island cotton price rise by guessworker

guessworker — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 22:06:53 +0000

It is interesting to know how events in the distant past have parallels to what we have going on. For example, did you know of the link between the American Civil War and Mumbai's rise to industrial age. There was a cotton bubble going on at that time in Mumbai. Right now it is real estate and credit bubble.

Comment on This site aims to provide a Levuka timeline structure for the period 1700 – 1880 by tradercannon

tradercannon — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 07:13:36 +0000

What a find when a friend with great expertise in genealogy came across your site, as I have the Thompsons as my gt-gt-grandparents. I am descended from their eldest daughter, Martha, the first of four born between 1855 and 1860 in Melbourne where they had married in 1853, and have a wedding day photo from 1876 of her in NZ. I would love to share this and any information I have about the Thompsons with any you might have further from their days in the Pacific. With many thanks.

Comment on 1863: Consul W. T. Pritchard, frames Fiji code of laws, but was unjustly accused and removed as Fiji administrator by levuka

levuka — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 10:50:47 +0000

Talofa Poima Oilau F. Brown-Lutali

Good to hear from you, as we sure do have a connection; your great, great grand Uncle,( or was it gggfather- please advise) William Thomas Pritchard, sold my ggg father, Thomas Thompson, the Island of Vanutha Lai Lai. Pritchard had bought it from Cakobau. My gggfather sold it again 17 years later, for some barrels of coconut oil after the family and left, the island, ceased to trade with Fiji, some before 1870. My gggfather was by then Harbour Master of the port of Bluff, New Zealand; then in a boom-time, with the gold rush and shiploads of settlers from Scotland.
I agree with you on the pivotal role of WT Pritchard, in Fijjian affairs; he combined the record-keeping and administrative powers of the British with the subtle graces of the Pacific; he was born and raised a Pacific Islander; raised as a Pacific diplomat, saw the theft of Tahiti by the French, spoke the languages of the Pacific; and – I agree with you – appears the one who chose between Tongan control and Cakobau control – of Fiji.
In my reading so far, it appears some early missionaries who ran-land-dealing, blackbirding, and coconut oil trading – on the side – felt Pritchard’s decisions tended to damage their prospects; and they succeeded, in an unfair plot, to remove him.
I will soon put up some more reports about WT Pritchard; I have not yet read “Prelude to Empire”. But it appears his two small daughters, and his sister, were drowned in a ship wreck just before he left Fiji for the last time. Is that correct, do you know?
Many thanks for your comment. L

Comment on 1863: Consul W. T. Pritchard, frames Fiji code of laws, but was unjustly accused and removed as Fiji administrator by taupoimasina

taupoimasina — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 19:15:44 +0000

Talofa Levuka,
I am quite elated to have come across this website and especially your page which focuses on Fiji’s history and that which includes William Thomas Pritchard.
William Thomas Pritchard(my great,great grandfather…)George Aillen’s brother was clearly a victim of the circumstances and underhanded political intrigues of the time. I surely agree with Professor Robson in the biography of William T. Pritchard: Prelude to Empire….that it was a “kangaroo court” , with the commission that was sent to investigate any and all so discrepencies and deficiencies in Pritchard’s conduct/actions as Consul.
My great, great grand-Uncle did not have a chance as he was already deemed “GUILTY” even before the Commission was formed, even before the said Commission embarked to Fiji.

Thanks to Colonel Smythe, Binner,others who found fault when there was none, and the Wesleyan missionaries and the commission as well…who made sure that any flimsy so called “evidence” that didnt hold water…was accepted nonetheless. A mockery of the adjudicative process!!

Its amazing that such a group of people should feel so threatened by a single man, whereas his concern was to do what was best for Fiji, whilst the rest of them were embroiled and writhing in bitter jealousy, feeling they would not have the power to control the fijian chiefs. The power handed over to Consul Pritchard, to oversee the interests of Fiji was not done out of fear by the fijian chiefs and their clans….it was given out of trust. Perhaps this is what also added to his demise…the fact that he was able to secure the trust of the Fijian chiefs… take this matter up with King George Taufa’ahau Tupou I…(with regards to Ma;afu and Cakobau)whereas none of them could.

Perhaps if William Thomas Pritchard were not there at the right time…as I believe when he needed to be,..Fijian history would have taken another turn. It would probably be a part of the Kingdom of Tonga. This I believe was not what Pritchard foresaw for Fiji and leaning perhaps on the lessons of the past, especially with his exposure and knowledge of what happened in Tahiti with the Tahitians and the French.

With all said and done…it may be the past, but it is still history nonetheless. William Thomas Pritchard will always be a noteworthy hero in my book, irregardless of what the British Government does or say in order to justify the actions and stupidity of their subjects at the time (the Commission,their superiors,Colonel Smythe etc) , what other historians may say or continue to say in order to smear his good name and reputation, to ignore and dismiss his achievements and contributions to history.

William Thomas Pritchard passed away on November 1,1907 at the age of 74 in Mexico City, Mexico. (Robson:Prelude to Empire,p.169-170)

As always William Thomas Pritchard contributed his time, energy and passion in helping to enrich the lives of others….whilst living in Mexico… thereby enriching his own.

In loving memory of my great,great grand Uncle William Thomas Pritchard…You are never forgotten.

Poima Oilau F. Brown-Lutali