"Coast Scene, Fiji". [Bay of Islands, near Suva.]

Hand-coloured postcard, no publisher. 

Postmarked San Francisco Apr 28 1915, with a 1 cent US stamp. Postmark celebrates "World's Panama-Pacific Exposition 1915". Addressed to Mr Geo S Brent, Leon, Kansas (Route 1) and brief message signed Chas Brent notes "sent you some pc [postcards] of Expo".

"View at Lau, Fiji, Fiji". [Bay of Islands]

Publisher Morris, Hedstrom & Co., Levuka, Fiji. 

Unused and undated, divided back so post-1906, but probably not long after that date.

"Lami River, near Suva, Fiji"

Publisher Caines, #26. Unused and undated.

"The summit, Colo-i-Suva Road."

Photographer/publisher Harry Gardiner.Undated, probably c.1920. Printed in Germany. Original Collection: W.J. & R.M. Ewins.

"Red clay cutting, Colo-i-Suva, Fiji."

Photographer Harry Gardiner. Undated, but probably also c.1920. Printed for Gardiner by the Rose Stereograph Company, Armadale, Victoria. These clay cuttings are still a feature of the Prince's Road through Colo-i-Suva between Suva and Nausori, and characteristically are prone to occasional landslides in that area's heavy rainfall. The road also gets very boggy and sticky at such times.

"Nasinu Bridge, Suva, Fiji".

Unused. No publisher or date, but probably early 1900s. The advertisement for Dr Sheldon's patent nostrum occurred on many cards of this period, including one version of the Kadavu scene and one of the House at Bau. The latter was a Waters photograph published by Caine's, but there is nothing to indicate whether this and the Kadavu picture were from the same source.

Nasinu is in fact not in Suva but is a large area about half way between Suva and Nausori.

"Ba River".

Divided back. Publisher A.M.Brodziak & Co., Suva - Fiji. Used, postmarked Lautoka 03 Jun 1908.

There is a message that starts on the front of the card and finishes on the back, signed H.N.Walcot, addressed to Mrs Johnstone, Newland St. nr. Queens Park, Waverley, Sydney N.S.W. The message is headed Nasaele, Ba River, June 1st. Ba is about 25 miles from Lautoka, but has always been a smaller settlement and at that stage probably had not post office, hence the Lautoka postmark.

"Navua River".

Divided back. Publisher Co-Operative (Stinsons) #118.

Unused and undated, but Stinson's was operating under that name during the late 1920s and 1930s, from which date this comes.

"Picnicking Vesari River".

Publisher Harry Gardiner, Suva, Fiji. Unused and undated, but Gardiner was operating during the 1920s, from which date this comes. This is further testified to by the boater hats worn by the European ladies, fashionable at that time.

"Rewa River looking up from Nadurulolo".

Publisher: J.W. Waters, Suva, Fiji (#109734). Original Collection: Mrs Amy Wager, 1900s.

Addressed to "Mrs Wager, 20 Fairfield Rd, Montpelier, Bristol, England." Bears the inscription on the top front: "Taken from the Clerk of the Peace's house  my shack is Down on the flat hidden by trees." There is a house marked with an 'X' and below it the note; "X Courthouse with my sentry on duty."

Chris Wager was a member of the Fiji Constabulary for some time (information from his grand-daughter, Mrs Christine Hyde), and evidently from the remark about "my sentry", was so at the time of sending this card.

"On the Rewa River, Fiji".

Publisher: Caines, Suva, Fiji (Caine Series #114).

Unused and undated, but also taken in the 1900s. It looks as though the photograph was taken from the other side of the river the previous photo, but the topography of the bank opposite the photographer, and in particular the well-formed road and bridge on his side, suggests that rather the negative was reversed when printing this, because on the other side of the river from Naduruloulou was only farmland right into the 1950s, and as far as I know still is.

"Loading Sugar Cane on Rewa Riveri"

Pacific Island Series, 1 of 10. Unused and undated.

The cane on these barges was destined for the Nausori Mill of the CSR Company. It came from riverside plantations that did not have rail access to the mill.

"Roman Catholic Mission Naililili Rewa Fiji".

Published by F.W.Caine, Suva Fiji (#174828). Postally unused but message in pencil on back (part 2 of a series of cards with running message).

The message makes it clear that the view is of the mission and not of the church which gave the site its name of Naililili, "the hanging object", which referred to the bell in the belltower of the church.

"On the Wainunu River, Fiji".

Published by Robbie and Company Ltd, General merchants, Levuka, Fiji. Printed by Deutsche Erfindungen, Milano. Original Collection: W.J. & R.M. Ewins. It should be noted that Capt. David Robbie, who owned the company that published this card, was witness at my grandparents' wedding in Levuka in 1899

Addressed and sent to "Mrs Spence, Navua", sender's address "GPO Suva, Xmas 1913" and message signed " F.C. Straube". Message reads: We came here Oct. No house yet waiting to hear, Left Labasa. P. [presumably Paul] still [undecipherable] here. Boarding at Mrs. Beddoes. Rene herself away 1 month. Best wishes from us both."

This information elicited the following fascinating response from someone who had seen the website, John Stewart in southern USA: "That was my great great aunt Frances Caroline Valentia Webster-Wedderburn (the Ogilvy-Wedderburn family is in Burke's Peerage). She married Paul Frederick Straube, who was a first generation Victorian (i.e. the state of Victoria, Australia) at Albany, Western Australia in 1895. Frances was a friend of Florence Nightingale, and in Fiji was matron of the Colonial [War Memorial] Hospital in Suva. and . She died on Sept. 10, 1932, in Labasa, Fiji. She had no children."

The website http://perso.wanadoo.fr/euroleader/wedderburn/blackness/zapn13.htm#899 gives the additional information that she was born on 27/1/1854 at Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia, that some correspondence she had with Florence Nightingale is in the MS dept., British Museum, and that Paul Frederick was born in 1858 in Bulleen, Victoria.

It should also be noted that Mrs Spence was Laura, née Niemann, who was the wife of Frank Spence, Stipendiary magistrate and Inspector of Native taxes for the district of Navua. The Spences were related by marriage to Rose Ewins, which perhaps explains how this card was in her possession.

"Fiji river scene".

Unused. Tuck's Post Card. "Oilette" [Regd.] postcard 7601. Publisher Raphael Tuck & Sons Ltd., By Appointment. Art publishers to Their Majesties the King & Queen.

This is one of six "Oilettes" produced by Tuck in the early 1900s, reproducing oil-paintings done over photographs taken in 1879 by B.G.Besse. His negatives were sold successively to A.Stevens and the Dufty Brothers, via whom they may have been sold to Tuck (Stephenson p.113-15).

On the reverse is the caption: "This is a picture of Nadi creek, the estuary of the Nadi river which flows into Savu Savu Bay on the south coast of Vanua Levu, the second largest island of the Fijian group. Luxuriant vegetation is a great feature of the scenery of these lovely islands, the graceful cocoanut palm being the most frequently found tree."

"The home of the Cocoanut Palm, Fiji".

Publisher J.W.Waters, Suva Fiji 103408. Used, no message but addressed to Mrs D. Carman, Warhina West, Fielding, New Zealand.

"Mountain view, Namosi, Fiji".

Photographer Harry Gardiner, Suva (#59). Published for him by the Rose Stereograph Company, Armadale, Victoria.

Used, sent from Suva but stamp and date removed. However a "postage due" stamp on it is intact, and franked 10 September 1923. That is consistent with the fact that this photo was almost certainly taken on a trip to Namosi undertaken in August 1922 by Harry Gardiner and others (ref.Stephenson p.52). Namosi is the mountainous area NW of Suva on the main island of Vitilevu. A number of other pictures from this trip are reproduced elsewhere on this website.

Addressee is Sister B.H. Robinson, Nurses Co-operative, 22 langham Street London W1. The message is all but indecipherable — medical handwriting perhaps!

"Buretta [Bureta] River near Levuka, Fiji."

Written on but not posted. Published by Robbie & Co. Ltd, General Merchants, Levuka, Fiji (see note about Captain Robbie, above).. Printed by Deutsche Erfingdungen, Milano. Probably late 1800s.

"River Scene - Ovalau - Fiji".

Hand-coloured card. No Publisher. Original Collection: Mrs Amy Wager, 1904.

Addressed to "Mrs Amy Wager, Fairfield Rd, Montpelier, Bristol, England." Bears the inscription on the front: "This is really a good picture. Am not al all keen on leaving yet in spite of banana scares"

This may suggest that the sender, Chris Wager, was interested in banana planting (though at the time he was working either for Cable and Wireless or for the Fiji constabulary, and was not to become a planter for several years). Alternately, it may have been the fact that the economy of Fiji, indeed the viability of the youg Colony, was severely threatened by anything that adversely affected its primary industries at the time. The scare was presumably one of the outbreaks of bunchy-top, a disease that has on occasion afflicted Fiji's banana plantations severely.

"Path round Ovalau".

Photographed and published by J.W. Waters, Suva, Fiji (#154390).Used, 1 penny stamp postmarked August 14, 1912. Addressed to C.E.McKenney Esq., McKenny Taylor & Coy, 117 Pitt St, Sydney. Brief message signed "Dal" and dated two days before the postmark.

The man carrying the coconuts on a carrying pole may not be a Fijian. from his appearance and headscarf he could be Melanesisn or even Indian.

"Mummy Apple Tree, Fiji".

Published by John Mills, Suva, Fiji. Unused and andated, but certainly pre-1920. Handcoloured.

Mummy-apple is the colonial colloquial name for pawpaw, Carica papaya - weleti in Fijian.

"Coastal Scene, Labasa, Fiji".

Publisher: Morris, Hedstrom & Co, Levuka. Hand-tinted. Unused and undated, but almost certainly from the first decade of the 20th Century.

Labasa is on the north coast of Vanualevu, Fiji's second largest island. It grew around the CSR sugar mill located there. The ship in the bay appears to be an inter-island ketch, of which many plied the waters of central and eastern Fiji.

I also own a black-and-white version of this card, from the Wager collection, published by Hedemann & Co., Levuka. It was sent by Chris Wager to his mother Mrs G Wager, Hurlingham Villas, Ashley Hill, Bristol in 1904, and bears the inscription on the face "This is a big Sugar Company's Station. Big plantation and sugar mill."

"Coastal Scene, Taveuni, Fiji".

Publisher: Morris, Hedstrom & Co, Levuka. Used and postmarked Nov.(19)09.

Taveuni is Fiji's fourth largest island, located off the southeastern tip of Vanualevu. Copra is still a major export from there, and this is collected by inter-island ketches such as the one at anchor in the bay in this photograph. These call regularly and deliver provisions as well as carrying passengers.

This card was sent to Mr & Mrs Robt. Meinhoff, 94 Sixteenth St.N., Portland OR, USA, and the brief message to "Dear sister & brother" signed Augusta.

"Native bridge, Ngau [Gau], Fiji".

Publisher Co-Operative - No.178. Caldwell collection.

Gau is the largest of the Lomaiviti ("Central Fiji") Group of isl;ands. It is mountainous and famed for its natural beauty, its women's matweaving skills (see Rod Ewins's Matweaving in Gau, FijiI, 1982, Fiji Museum, Suva). The bridges of the type shown here are generally made of long coconut palms thrown across a stream or gorge, or jutting out into a bay. The handrails and their supports are bush saplings. The whole affair is easier to fall off than to walk along, particularly in wet weather.

"Bungalow, Labasa, Fiji".

Publisher unknown. Printed in Australia. Hand-tinted with sunset hue.

Not posted but short handwritten note "A view of one of our rivers."

"Coastal view, Loma Loma, Fiji".

Publisher: CoOperative - No.170. Unused, undated, and no location or caption for the picture.

Lomaloma is the principal settlement on Vanuabalavu Island, northern Lau.

"By reef & palm, Fiji".

Publisher: Caines, Suva, Fiji (Caine Series #107).

Unused and undated. It is difficult to guess where this might have been taken, but the high vantage point and the reef view are features that occur on the road between Nadi and the Coral Coast. That is pure speculation however.

Canoes and beach, evening.

Publisher: CoOperative - No.109. Unused, undated, and no location or caption for the picture. Caldwell collection.

"Evening shades".

Publisher: CoOperative - No.158. Unused, undated, and no location or caption for the picture.

"Coastal Rocks, Rotuma".

Publisher: CoOperative - No.149. Unused, undated, and no location or caption for the picture.

Rotuma is administratively part of Fiji but geographically separate, and ethnically and culturally quite distinct despite centuries of interaction. It lies north of the Fiji archipelago. See Noa'ia 'e Mauri, the Rotuma Home Page.