Sugar cane Sugarcane or sugar cane is a species of (often hybrid) tall, perennial grass (in the genus '' Saccharum'', tribe Andropogoneae) that is used for sugar production. The plants are 2–6 m (6–20 ft) tall with stout, jointed, fibrous stalk ...

grew wild in

Fiji Fiji ( , ,; fj, Viti, ; Fiji Hindi: फ़िजी, ''Fijī''), officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consis ...

and was used as thatch by the Fijians for their houses (''bures''). The first attempt to make sugar in

was on

Wakaya Island Wakaya is a privately owned island in Fiji's Lomaiviti Archipelago. Situated at 17.65° South and 179.02° East, it covers an area of eight square kilometres (3 square miles). It is 18 kilometres (11 miles) from Ovalau, the main island in t ...

in 1862 but this was a financial failure. With the cotton boom of the 1860s there was little incentive to plant a crop that required high capital outlay but after a slump in cotton prices in 1870, the planters turned to sugar. In an effort to promote the production of sugar in Fiji, the Cakobau Government, in December 1871, offered a 500-pound reward for the first and best crop of twenty of sugar from canes planted before January 1873.

History

The first

cane sugar mill A sugar cane mill is a factory that processes sugar cane to produce raw or white sugar. The term is also used to refer to the equipment that crushes the sticks of sugar cane to extract the juice. Processing There are a number of steps in p ...

in Fiji was built in 1872 by Brewster and Joske at the present site of the city of

Suva Suva () is the capital and largest city of Fiji. It is the home of the country's largest metropolitan area and serves as its major port. The city is located on the southeast coast of the island of Viti Levu, in Rewa Province, Central Div ...

. By the end of 1874, there were four mills in operation, six by the end of 1875 and ten by the end of 1878. Most of these mills crushed for only a few years and only a few survived the crash in sugar price of 1884. The surviving mills were Navua Sugar Mill, Panang Mill, Holmshurst (Taveuni) and the Rewa Sugar Company (Koronivia). The arrival of the Colonial Sugar Refining Company led to the establishment of Commercially viable sugar mills. In 1880, Thurston went to Australia seeking investment for Fiji and persuaded the Colonial Sugar Refining Company (CSR) to extend its operations to Fiji. The first mill built by the CSR was the Nausori Sugar Mill on the banks of the Rewa River and began crushing in the 1882 crushing season. In 1883, construction began for its second mill in Ba, the Rarawai Mill. Another mill was built at Viria, also on the Rewa River, and crushed from 1886 to 1895. It was closed because it was too small to be viable. In 1890, the Labasa Mill was erected from a dismantled mill in Queensland. By 1926 all other sugar mills had closed down and the CSR owned the five existing mills in Fiji of which Nausori mill closed down in 1959.

List of sugar mills

* Suva Sugar Mill - 1872 to 1875 * Selia Levu Estate (Taveuni) - 1974 to 1890 *

Penang (Rakiraki) Sugar Mill The Penang Sugar Mill in Rakiraki, Fiji was one of the four sugar mills operated by the Fiji Sugar Corporation. The FSC is the sole producer of raw sugar in Fiji. History The Charmers brothers built a mill at Penang in 1878. It was later trans ...

- from 1878 * Nausori Sugar Mill - 1882 to 1959 * Rarawai (Ba) Sugar Mill - from 1884 * Tamanua (Navua) Sugar Mill - 1883 to 1923 * Koronivia Sugar Mill * Holmshurst (Taveuni) Sugar Mill - 1882 to 1896 * Viria Sugar Mill - 1886 to 1895 *

Labasa Sugar Mill Labasa (pronounced ) is a town in Fiji with a population of 27,949 at the most recent census held in 2007. Labasa is located in Macuata Province, in the north-eastern part of the island of Vanua Levu, and is the largest town on the island. The ...

- 1894 *

Lautoka Sugar Mill Lautoka () is the second largest city in Fiji. It is on the west coast of the island of Viti Levu, in the Ba Province of the Western Division. Lying in the heart of Fiji's sugar cane-growing region, the city has come to be known as the Sugar ...

- from 1903 * Namara Sugar Mill - from 2015 * Matanisivana Sugar Mill - from 1992

List of sugar cane railways

* Labasa Mill Tramway, 1894 to 1982 *

Rarawai–Kavanagasau Light Railway The Rarawai–Kavanagasau Light Railway was a long narrow gauge railway on Fiji. Operation The railway with a gauge of was built and operated by the Colonial Sugar Refinery Co. The operation started in December 1914 with free, twice-weekly, ...

, from 1914

Bibliography

References

{{coord missing, Fiji Industrial buildings in Fiji . Fiji sugar industry

History

List of sugar mills

List of sugar cane railways

Bibliography

See also

References