ABSTRACT
AMONG institutional arrangements for the control and distribution of resources, systems of land tenure and land use stand jLjLout in peasant agricultural societies as major determinants of productive efficiency and flexibility, and hence of economic growth. In Fiji, several systems operate together, affecting different sectors of the population. Cane growing is very largely on company controlled land. European farming takes place mainly on limited areas of freehold land, or land leased on long-term arrangements from Fijians. Fijians themselves participate in a very minor way in these arrangements, but for them the most important issues result from the superimposition of a government system of registration on a highly complex but flexible traditional land tenure system. The irony, as we shall see, is that the registration was carried out in the name of tradition, and is designed to protect Fijian interests against the inroads of other ethnic groups. While these goals have in fact been achieved to some extent, it may also be argued that the particular form that the registration system has taken has removed the adaptive factors from tradition, leaving the Fijians with a situation which throws them back upon informal procedures and discourages productive enterprise, thus leaving them in a weak position by comparison with certain of their neighbours.
