Suva: 'Pride of Fiji' (1940) Online

This charming piece of footage from 1940 was one of the many short films put out by Fitzpatrick. While it is very politically incorrect in some ways. It concentrates on Suva in the Fiji Islands before the second world war engulfed the whole region. Thankfully Fiji was never overrun in the war, but as the administrative headquarters for a number of British possessions in the Pacific there was plenty of activity during that period. When my wife and I arrived in January 1960 the place looked very much the same as it does in this film. While there was some political unrest due to the rivalry between the Fijian and the descendants from the Indian sub-continent it was a lovely place to be, and quite prosperous due to the thriving sugar industry and other smaller agricultural undertakings. Suva became a very popular port of call for the ships bringing out the migrants to Australia and tourism still plays a vita part in the country's economy although there are now many thriving businesses there.