1869 is a very long time ago. A very, very long time ago. During that time, celluloid was invented, the Suez Canal is opened in a grand ceremony, and Night at the Museum’s playground ‘The American Museum of National History’ is founded. More closer to home, the Fiji Times newspaper had just started out, a fledgling little newspaper, and as newspapers go, had much to report on, with history in the making. In those days, Levuka was still the centre of Fiji, Civil unrest is on the rise, Britian starts to take a very strong interest in the islands, and powerplay amongst the chiefs reached new heights with the introduction of weapons and foreign powers.
Pretty heady times indeed.
While being of long ago, copies of the papers have been kept over the years, and as luck would have it, I’ve managed to secure a scanned copy of an issue of the Fiji Times all the way from 1969, which is still quite a long time ago. As in, I wasn’t even born long time ago. In this particular issue, they’ve brought out the archives and reprinted the Fiji Times as per 1869, and as such, have granted the readers a chance to peer into the past and see what Fiji was like, in both 1869 as well as 1969.
Blast From The Past is going to be a new weekly (or somewhere around that timeframe, as I claim ‘Fiji Time’ as my defendent) post, and will go through 1 page a week, allowing you to have a read of issues, politics and topics that formed the news in those days. To read the page in detail simply click the picture to load a close up version.
#1 by Picky Eater on May 31, 2009 - 11:09 pm
Oh! to live in such enlightened times!
Fish’s Hair Restorative and cocaine listed side by side, available from your ‘drugist and chemist’ … now that’s what I call customer service!
#2 by sharky on June 1, 2009 - 4:10 am
ahhh..this used to be a favourite pastime back home (under the disguise of ‘research for work’),loved spending hours browsing through old copies of the Fiji Times at the archives. Laxative ads were very common in those days…and the locals were very nonchalantly referred to as ‘natives’ by the British journos before independence…sigh, them colonial days!
#3 by L.Cass on June 1, 2009 - 7:10 am
HEY! Where’s Big Ben Bolt!!