After a half-hour journey along the winding Sawani-Serea Road, our team arrived at a vast flatland marked by rows of century-old rubber trees standing uniformly in the field. This area, known as Veirapa, was once the hub of Fiji’s rubber industry in the Naitasiri province during the colonial period.
Remarkably, Fiji had established a small rubber industry alongside its more dominant agricultural outputs like sugar, copra, and bananas. Serea was one of the few locations where rubber was cultivated, harvested, and processed.
Historical records suggest that British administrators experimented with various agricultural products to generate revenue for their colony and bolster the empire. Although those who formerly engaged in rubber farming in Serea have passed away, local residents recalled that the extensive plantation might have belonged to a person named Mister Witherow, who also had interests in banana and dairy farming in the 20th century.
An archived article from the New Zealand newspaper Marlborough Express, dated November 1912, highlights the establishment of the rubber industry in Fiji, stating that one of the earliest substantial rubber farmers on Viti Levu was a Mister F. Powell, who managed several plantations for New Zealand owners.
Powell oversaw rubber farms that totaled hundreds of acres across various locations, including Waidoi and Yarawa. According to the article, the spacing for planting rubber trees was approximately 18 feet apart, with rows 8 feet wide, yielding an average of 155 trees per acre. To offset expenses until the rubber trees matured, bananas were planted between the young trees, which eventually grew into a forest over time.
Some historical accounts indicate that Fiji’s rubber industry began with stumps imported from Ceylon (Sri Lanka), though the distance made this approach unfeasible. Eventually, seeds were utilized to propagate rubber plants for transplantation when they reached 18 months of age. The flourishing state of the plantations in the early 1900s was attributed to effective management and the suitability of the land for rubber tree cultivation.
Around 500 indentured laborers worked on the plantation, and the conditions they faced refuted claims of exploitation of British subjects. While the initial projections for the rubber industry in Fiji were promising, production ultimately declined by the late 1920s. In 1912, it was estimated that rubber production would yield significant financial returns, but these expectations were short-lived.
According to Professor Brij Lal, the rise and fall of Fiji’s rubber industry occurred amid the global economic downturn of the late 1920s, coupled with devastating hurricanes and floods that impacted the colony. While the rubber industry has vanished, remnants remain in the form of nearly leafless rubber trees scattered across Serea and other parts of Fiji.
Rueli Rawalana, a landowner in Veirapa, shared insights about the colonial period, mentioning two significant planters whose names were Vilive and Witherow. These planters employed indentured laborers from India, as well as local workers from nearby villages. Rueli recounted tales of harsh treatment, where the plantation owners would ride on horseback, punishing those who were perceived as inefficient.
Today, only a handful of rubber plants exist on Rueli’s land, serving as a reminder of the colonial era’s ambitions. He described the historical presence of a rubber processing facility located on a nearby hill. During a recent visit to Serea, our team sought to uncover any remaining evidence of the rubber industry and confirm the existence of rubber trees.
Rueli demonstrated how rubber trees were tapped to extract latex, a milky sap containing rubber that could be processed into various products. Once collected, the latex was processed at a facility where it was colored, dried, and prepared for sale. Rueli also mentioned the past use of specialized machinery for cultivation and the subsequent attempts to diversify into banana and dairy farming after the rubber industry fell into decline.
Fiji is known to have its own native rubber tree species, and historical documentation from the late 19th century suggested promising beginnings for a rubber industry in the islands. However, the anticipated success did not materialize, and widespread rubber planting did not gain traction until the early 1900s.
Despite their historical significance, Fiji’s rubber trees are now gradually fading due to old age, with little remaining evidence of their past prominence. The stories and accounts shared by residents, like Rueli, encapsulate the rich but fleeting history of rubber planting in Serea, shining a light on a bygone industry intertwined with Fiji’s colonial past.