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After driving for half an hour along the winding Savani-Serrea Road, the Sunday Times team arrived at a vast flat land where rows of century-old rubber trees were evenly distributed in the fields, standing quietly.
We visited what the locals call Veirapa, which was the center of the rubber trade in Fiji’s Naitasili Province during colonial times.
Believe it or not, in addition to sugar, copra and bananas, Fiji has a small rubber industry, and Serea is one of the few places in the country where rubber is grown, harvested and processed.
Veerappa demonstrates that the British rulers experimented with a variety of agricultural products to increase revenue for the colonies and strengthen the empire.
Although those involved in rubber farming in Serea have passed away, residents interviewed said the vast rubber plantation in Wirapa may have belonged to a man named Mr. Witherow, who was also interested in banana and dairy farming in the 20th century.
I found a report from the New Zealand newspaper Marlborough Express in November 1912 on the website www.paperpast.natlib.govt.nz which included an article titled “Rubber in Fiji. A mature industry. Returns for the first time next year (1913)”.
According to the article, one of the first major rubber growers on Viti Levu in the early 20th century was a man called F. Powell, who managed several plantations on behalf of New Zealand owners.
Powell oversaw a 400-acre rubber farm at Waidoi (possibly Wainadoi) in Serua Province, a 300-acre rubber farm at Yarawa, a 500-acre rubber farm at Qaraniqio, a 300-acre rubber farm at Taunovo, and a 200-acre rubber farm at Naloa (possibly Galoa).
- I. Studholme of Materoa (Main Line) and Mr. T. Crosse of Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand, were the principal owners of the properties managed by Powell.
Commenting on Fiji’s rubber planting techniques, the article noted that “the spacing between trees is 18 feet, the row width is 8 feet, and the average is 155 per acre.”
To defray some of the operating costs before the rubber trees produce rubber, bananas are planted between the young trees, but after six or seven years the rubber trees are reduced to a forest.
History of Rubber
Fiji Planting
Some historical documents claim that Fiji’s rubber stumps came from Ceylon (Sri Lanka), but the distance between the two countries made it impossible to use stumps.
Afterwards, the plants are propagated using seeds and then transplanted into the field when they are 18 months old.
The Marlborough Express article said that in Fiji, the good condition of plantations in the early 20th century was due to “capable management and the country’s demonstrated adaptability to the growth of this valuable tree species.”
About 500 indentured servants worked on the plantation, and the conditions in which they labored cast a shadow on the “slanderous reputation” of “enslaving British subjects.”
Although the outlook for Fiji’s rubber industry was “particularly bright”, it did not last long.
The Marlborough Express added that the estimated production of rubber for 1912 was 419.375 hundredweight, with a revenue of £8,180,262.
Since rubber production petered out in the late 1920s, the article sounds overly optimistic.
Professor Brij Lal states in his book The Breaking Wave that Fiji’s “emerging rubber industry emerged between 1923 and 1926”.
The professor said that like other agricultural products, rubber cultivation was halted by “the worldwide economic depression that began in the late 1920s and the devastating hurricanes and floods that hit many parts of the colony at the same time.”
“The rubber industry was in a slump, pineapple and meat canning factories closed, 500 Indo-Fijian merchants went out of business, European entrepreneurs faced bankruptcy, and even the sugar industry went into decline.”
Although the rubber industry no longer exists, all that remains today are the nearly leafless rubber trees standing in the fields of Serea (and Wainadoi, and probably other parts of Fiji).
Rueli’s Story
“My father told me that there were two big plantations in Serrea during the colonial period. Our ancestors called them Vilive and Witherow,” said Rueli Rawalana, a Vilapa landowner.
“They hired indentured labourers from India who had found work in Serea, parts of Melanesia after the Nausori factory closed, and any nearby villagers who wanted to ‘saini’ (which means to sign a contract).
“Once they signed the contract, they belonged to the owner and were treated like slaves. I heard that the owner of the rubber plantation would ride on a white horse with his whip and whip anyone who was slow or late.”
More than 100 rubber trees still grow on Rayleigh’s land, a reminder of the colony’s relentless pursuit of increasing imperial wealth in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
He said his rubber trees were remnants of a dead industry and were now “useless and a hindrance to agricultural production”.
“My father told me that there used to be a rubber processing factory on a nearby hill.
The Sunday Times team visited Serrea this week to try to trace the remnants of the rubber industry and find out if any rubber trees still exist there.
Ruelli demonstrated how rubber trees are struck (carved into their trunks) with special steel knives to extract their milky sap, called latex. Latex is 30 percent rubber and can be processed into flexible yet strong products such as pencil erasers and tires.
Once the latex was collected, he said, it would be sent to factories on the hill to be dyed, dried and spooled, ready for sale to buyers or trading vessels that were then handling Dunlop tires.
“The owner of the rubber farm lived in a log house built of Oregon lumber. The house can still be seen today and the current owner lives in it.”
“The European man also used what looked like a small excavator to till the land in preparation for sowing. That machine sat unused in the paddock but we used to play with it when we were kids.
“We heard that after the collapse of the rubber industry, plantation owners tried banana and dairy farming, which is why we built three old dairy sheds within the rubber plantation area.”
Rueli says
Fiji has its own variety of rubber trees
An article on “Fiji India Rubber” in the Bulletin of Miscellaneous Information (Kew Gardens, Kew) Vol. 1898 No. 139 (July 1898, pp. 164-166) states that a sample of the native rubber (natural rubber) was given by the Governor-General of Fiji, Sir Arthur Gordon, in 1877.
At the time, people had a high opinion of this rubber, optimistically describing it as “a strong, elastic, pure rubber having the same properties as the higher grades of African rubber. Its value, if free of water and impurities, is said to be 1 shilling and 6 pence per pound.”
When the Gazette was published 21 years later (1898), the price of the same Fijian rubber was estimated at “about 2 shillings or 2 shillings and 6 pence per pound”.
“After such a promising beginning it was hoped that a successful rubber industry might be established in the Fiji Islands. So far, however, this expectation has not been realized,” the 1898 article read.
This meant that it was not until the early 20th century that rubber cultivation began in earnest, and eventually rubber plantations were established in Serrea.
It is known that in 1878, John Horne (FLS), Director of the Mauritius Botanical Gardens, visited Fiji and was concerned about the economic resources of the colony.
Horne’s report was recorded in the publication of The Fiji Year (London, Stanford, 1881), and in its appendix there is this description of the rubber trees in Fiji: “When the rubber tree is wounded, it exudes a thin, milky sap, from which a small amount of raw rubber is produced.”
He noted that locals call the tree “kau drega” or “talotalo.” Horn called it “the best rubber tree we have here,” adding that “it grows very tall.”
“The roots I saw were about 18 inches at the base. They were scattered throughout the forest on the hills and valleys, but not in groups,” Horn added in the report.
Rubber Tree Facts
Rubber trees can grow up to 130 feet tall and live for more than 100 years.
In the 20th century, Fijian trees had to be eight years old before they could be tapped.
When tapping, the inner bark of the rubber tree is cut and the latex flows out from the inner bark.
Workers usually pour the liquid from the cup into buckets and carry them to collection stations.
Next, the rubber is extracted from the latex. Some manufacturers mix the latex with an acid, which causes the rubber to coagulate and float to the surface in a thick layer.
The sheet is then placed in rollers, where the liquid is squeezed out, leaving dry rubber.
Some descendants of girmitiyas and Melanesian laborers who worked for rubber, banana and dairy farmers during the colonial period still live in Serea.
“These families speak the Naitasiri dialect and live peacefully with the locals. When our parents were alive, they ate together, fished together, drank together, sang together, and spoke our dialect.”
“Those were the good old days.”
Fiji’s once “commercial” rubber trees are now disappearing due to advanced age, with little evidence of their presence to be seen in the near future.
One of the last few stories about these places is probably this week’s Discover Fiji story and Rueli’s description of the Seria Welapa rubber fields in the Naitasiri Highlands.
History is a discipline, and one group’s account of events may differ from another group’s account. In publishing a story, we do not intend to cause disagreement or disrespect other oral traditions. People who hold a different version can contact us so that we can publish your account of history as well. — Editor
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