Pacific and Pasifika Theses

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The theses listed in this collection were all completed at Massey University in a range of different departments and institutes. They have been included in this collection if the topic is strongly related to Pasifika/the Pacific.

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End date: 1999Subject: search.filters.subject.Fiji

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    An analysis of the environmental planning framework for coastal developments in Fiji's coral coast tourist region : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements of a degree in Masters of Philosophy in Resource and Environmental Planning at Massey University
    (Massey University, 1995) Tuvuki, Suliasi Wavu
    This thesis examines Fiji's environmental planning framework with particular reference to tourism development along the coast. This focus is an acknowledgement of the coastal ecosystems upon which the tourism industry depends. However, despite this emphasis, the findings in this thesis could be relevant to all types of development in Fiji. Firstly, the shortcomings of the present planning framework are identified, with particular attention being paid to the sectoral nature of the existing institutional and legal arrangements. The important role of EIA is also discussed and is applied to the situation in Fiji's. Particular attention is placed upon the way the present system does not sufficiently recognise the important role the indigenous Fijian plays in the development planning process. This seems unjust since the indigenous rural dweller is the most affected by tourism developments along the coast and so the case study area, Korolevu, was chosen to provide a typical example of how such large scale, unsustainable, coastal developments have in the past, because of flaws in the present system, were often established with little appreciation for the traditions, protocols and more sustainable environmental management practices of the traditional local people. Now that the international community is beginning to recognise the importance of providing sustainable development which preserves the environment in the fullest sense, including the cultural environment into which development is placed, the Government of Fiji is starting to recognise the importance of applying such strategies as Caring for the Earth (IUCN/UNEP/WWF 1991) and Agenda 21 (Sitarz 1993) to the situation in Fiji. The findings of this thesis result in various reforms which have the achievement of sustainable development practices in the Fijian cultural context as the underlying focus. These reforms emphasise the need to recognise and implement indigenous rights into the environmental planning framework at policy, institutional and legal levels. The incorporation of the indigenous Fijian's interests in this framework is an essential component to providing sustainable practices in Fiji. This inclusion can only be achieved by providing meaningful public participation opportunities for such communities. Ultimately, the IUCN/UNEP/WWF (1991) and Sitarz (1993) documents and, in addition, New Zealand's Resource Management Act (1992) collectively provide a useful model out of which the Fiji Government could develop its own environmental management regime which promotes sustainable development through the identification, avoidance, mitigation and remedying of the many environmental problems encountered in Fiji's coastal environment.
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    Participation of women in development, with particular emphasis on people participation in the Fiji pine forestry sector : a thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the degree of Master of Philosophy ... Development Studies, Massey University
    (Massey University, 1993) Fellmann, Felix
    The study examines the degree and authenticity of women's and men's participation at four levels of the development arena: The development organisations of Development Assistance Countries (DAC), the New Zealand Development Cooperation Division of the Ministry of External Relations and Trade (MERT), the Fiji Pine Limited and the two participating case study villages of the Fiji Pine project; Vakabull and Tau. The thesis starts with the premise that the degree of participation depends on the question: who controls the central institutions of a given society? For the development organisations of the Development Assistance Countries, strongly positive, significant correlations were seen between the independent variable of the Proportion of Women Parliamentarians and the dependent variables of the UNDP Gender Index, Proportion of GNP spent on Development cooperation and the Proportion of Development Budget spent on Women in Development. These results present strong evidence that a high proportion of women power-holders are influential in improving development solidarity and gender equality at the policy level. Compared to most Development Assistance countries, nominal women's representation in the Ministry of External Relations and Trade of New Zealand's Development Cooperation Division was above average with an increasing number of women in mid-hierarchy positions. Overall, the study of the Development Cooperation Division found a low level of gender awareness and a high variability of conceptual understanding of participation among the survey participants. Within the organisation of Fiji Pine Limited significant inequality was found in regard to women's access to training. Furthermore, as was the case with the Development Cooperation Division, the degree of gender awareness was low and the conceptual understanding of participation highly variable among the survey participants. The village case study found that for women, patriarchy is most strongly pronounced during adolescent, early marriage and the reproduction phase, and that patriarchal control reduced with age. Women were found to participate to a low degree, and in a passive mode in project implementation. While women had access to most of the project's inputs and benefits, they practically never had control over them. Overall, the men and women of Vakabull and Tau villages were participating in a passive mode which was characterised by minimal information flow, little project related knowledge, little project co-responsibility and inadequate conflict solving structures. The study found that women could be more actively involved in the tree nurseries, tree planting and tree weeding in the area of independent contractors. The second avenue for active women's participation was professional women extension workers, forestry managers and project administrators. Overall, the thesis confirmed the view that the degree of participation in development is a function of the importance of the roles played by gender in their society's central institutions.
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    Self reliance and the YMCA's of Fiji and Western Samoa : a thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for a Masters of Philosophy degree in Development Studies
    (Massey University, 1995) Oliver, Dennis
    The role of Non-Government Organisations (NGO's) in the process of development in Third World countries has become a focus of attention over the last decade. Their work is seen as an important contribution in the development of the human resource. Most NGO's have become users of overseas aid. In recent years they have been challenged by the overseas funding agencies to become financially self-reliant. This study enquires about the nature of the meaning of the concept of self-reliance, whether it is a universally held value or whether it is a logical by-product of the world capitalist system. The YMCA's of Fiji and Western Samoa are used as case studies along with some other NGO's in Fiji and Western Samoa. The study concludes that the YMCA of Western Samoa is not likely to become more than fifty percent financially self-reliant because of a severely limited resource base, especially the absence of a sizable middle class. It is also immersed in a national climate of dependency from the family, community and government level. The YMCA of Fiji is making progress and will in all likelihood achieve operational financial self-reliance but in setting its goals on self-reliance it has been captured by the middle class and has reduced its programme with the poor and the rural people.
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    The 1960 Fiji sugar dispute : the cane growers versus the CSR Company : a thesis presented ... for the degree of Master of Arts in History
    (Massey University, 1970) Charan, Prem K
    Sugar is Fiji's chief export and accounts for over eighty per cent of its total export earnings. The set up of the Fijian sugar industry is perhaps unique in the world. The buying and processing of cane as well as the distribution of sugar up until 1962 were entirely in the hands of the Colonial Sugar Refining Company (usually referred to as the CSR or the Company) of Australia. The Company was also the owner or lessee of nearly half of the colony's total cane lands which were leased or sub-leased to over 5,200 small Indian tenant farmers. In its milling operations and transport network the CSR employed over 2,500 workers. Thus the CSR enjoyed a monopoly in the manufacture and distribution of sugar as well as holding an oligopoly as far as control of cane lands was concerned. From this strong position it could deal with the cane farmers successfully over matters such as cane payments to the farmers or conditions regarding harvesting and transporting of cane to its mills. If the cane growers failed to reach a favourable agreement with the CSR over the sale and purchase of cane they were faced with the unenviable position of having in hand a commercial crop with no buyers. The growers' position was aggravated by the fact that the cane crop deteriorated if it was not harvested in season and further it remained at the mercy of floods, hurricanes, droughts or even fires which were not uncommon occurences in the sugar districts. The livelihood of over 80 percent of the Indian farmers depended solely upon the income derived from the sales of sugar cane which brought by far the biggest return of any other crop. Sugar cane growing thus dominated the farming activities of Viti Levu and Vanua Levu's western coastal plains, the only plains large enough for extensive agricultural use.
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    The breeding biology of two populations of the white-rumped swiftlet (Aerodramus spodiopygius assimilis) in Fiji and (Aerodramus spodiopygius chillagoensis) in Queensland, with special reference to factors that regulate clutch size in birds : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Zoology at Massey University
    (Massey University, 1987) Tarburton, Michael Kenneth
    White-rumped Swiftlets Aerodramus spodiopygius (Apodidae) build nests of vegetable material and cement (from their saliva) in the dark sections of caves at Chillagoe in Queensland, Australia, and in Fiji. Fijian colonies average 1,762 nests while the colonies at Chillagoe contained an average of 77 nests. Breeding takes place between September and March in Fiji, and from October to March at Chillagoe. There is no sexual dimorphism and both sexes share in incubation and the feeding of nestlings. At Chillagoe the clutch is one egg whereas in Fiji it is two eggs laid three to five days apart. At Chillagoe incubation took 27. 8 days in the poor year and 26.6 days in the good year. In Fiji incubation averaged 23 days and 58% of eggs hatched compared to 64% of eggs at Chillagoe. The Fijian birds successfully fledged an average of 92%, a breeding success of 53% or 1.1 young fledged per breeding pair. From the two single-chick broods the birds at Chillagoe fledged 69%. a breeding success of 44% or 0.9 young fledged per pair in the good breeding season. In the poor year at Chillagoe hatching success was 60%. fledging success was 50%, reducing breeding success to 30%. At Chillagoe the fledging period was increased from 46.9 days in the good year to 49.8 days in the poor year. At both locations most chick mortality resulted from chicks falling from their nests. Lost eggs or chicks were normally replaced by eight to fourteen days. Chicks in Fiji were fed an average of 2.2 times a day, whereas those at Chillagoe were fed an average of 5.2 times a day in the good season and 3.0 times a day in the poor season. Placing the data for this species with those for other species of apodids shows a positive correlation between egg size and adult size and a negative correlation between feeding frequency and the nestling period. Producing a third egg would not benefit the Fijian Swiftlet, which could not hatch significantly more eggs when given a third egg and could not fledge significantly more chicks when given three chicks instead of their normal brood of two. Fijian birds fed the artificially enlarged broods more frequently than normal sized broods, but neither the number of feeds per chick nor the number of chicks fledged in the larger broods was increased. Parents are apparently maximising the number of fledglings that they can raise. It is suggested that when there is a food shortage in the breeding season some passerines will lose more newly fledged chicks than normal whereas White-rumped Swiftlets in Fiji will lose more nestlings than normal. Nest size is not restricting clutch size as swiflets at Chillagoe did not raise more young when their nests were enlarged, and predators cannot be restricting clutch size because their nests are in total darkness. The swiftlets at Chillagoe are on the "mainland" yet produce a smaller clutch than those on the Fiji Islands. This is the reverse of predictions from the theory of "competitive release" on islands, therefore this theory cannot be used to explain the smaller clutch size of the birds at Chillagoe. The remaining factor is the food supply which is controlled by the occurrence of rain.The abundance of aerial insects was greater during days when rain fell. Adult swiftlets gathered less food in the dry season and in the dry periods between rain, and chicks put on more weight during rain periods, indicating that food was the critical factor restricting chick growth. Additionally, artifici.ally enlarged broods grew more slowly and never fledged more chicks than single-chick broods. This demonstrates that the abundance of food during the breeding season is the factor that not only regulates chick growth but also restricts clutch size. The food supply at Chillagoe does not last long enough for swiftlets to raise two single-chick broods, but it does last long enough for a unique strategy to have been developed which allows them to raise two chicks without producing a two-chick brood. This strategy involves the female laying the second egg after the first chick is fully feathered so that the first chick completes most of the incubation of the egg. The second egg hatches after the first chick fledges. The timing of laying the second egg leaves both parents free to forage for one chick only and allows them to raise two chicks in the shortened breeding (rainy) season that is characteristic of the savannah.
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    An evaluation of the role and effects of tourism policies on the development and growth of the tourist industry in New Zealand and in Fiji : a comparative study : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Business Studies at Massey University
    (Massey University, 1982) Taal, Alieu Badara Saja
    [Please note: this is a shortened version of the abstract which is very long.] This thesis is an examination of the proposition that tourism development is to a great extent dependent upon the effectiveness of government tourism policies and government tourism organisations. Put another way, the greater the degree of effectiveness of tourism policies and organisations. the greater the degree of tourist industry development. Tourism policies and organisations are seen here as playing functional roles towards the development of the tourist industry. There are two basic hypotheses to be tested in the thesis, namely: (a) There are causal relations between tourism organisations and policies, and tourist industry development. (b) There are evaluable functions that tourism policies and organisations play in the development of the tourist industry. To test the validity of the above propositions, government tourism policies and organisations in New Zealand and Fiji are researched. analysed and evaluated.
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    The urban squatter question : squatting, housing and urbanization in Suva, Fiji : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Geography at Massey University
    (Massey University, 1978) Walsh, Allen Crosbie
    The proliferation and apparent intransience of urban squatter settlements in Third World countries have produced numerous explanations of their cause, nature and solution. In Fiji, it is estimated that nearly one-fifth of the population of the Suva Urban Area were squatters in 1976 and that squatter numbers, in recent years, have increased by over 10 percent annually. These increases have occurred despite development plan objectives which aim to reduce regional and class disparities and a public housing programme which has housed about one-fifth of the urban area's population since the late 1950s. In the early 1960s many scholars supported the view that squatters were 'marginal' to the life of the city and this view is still held by many administrators, in Fiji and elsewhere. Studies commencing in the mid 1960s, however, have led to a revision of opinions on squatter marginality and the emergence of two major schools of thought among scholars. The Dependency School considers squatting a product of the type of urbanization experienced by Third World countries and sees no solution short of major changes to the 'system'; the Progressive Development (or Progressive Housing) School, on the other hand, sees squatting as a housing problem caused by the rate of Third World urbanization and inappropriate public housing programmes. The latter School advocates the encouragement of self-help activities among the poor to close the gap between housing supply and demand. The public housing programme in Fiji has been influenced by such arguments and during recent years there has been some official support for site and service, squatter upgrading and core housing schemes. The present work proceeds from a statement of major theoretical questions derived from the literature, and a description of urbanization and the housing situation in Fiji, to test the assumptions of the Marginality, Dependency and Progressive Development Schools. Data were obtained on urbanization and housing in Fiji, and sample surveys were conducted among Fijian and Indian squatters and other low-income households in Suva City and Urban Area in 1976. The data were used to consider six propositions which were tested via 36 hypotheses; comparisons were made between ethnic, squatter and other low-income, and city and urban area households. The propositions were found to be substantially correct. Squatter behaviour was shown to be as modern and as urban as the behaviour of other low-income people, and households with 'modern' attributes tended to be more 'successful' in the city. Modern and traditional behaviour, however, were not found to be antithetical and, at least among Fijians, the households which were the most traditional tended to be those which were most 'successful.' Squatters were also shown to make a positive contribution to the economy of the city and to be no more an obstacle to rational urban land use than many other land users. The views of the Marginality School were therefore found wanting. Squatters were shown to participate in self-help activities which led to increasing adequacy in housing. The squatter residential environment was found to permit greater all round flexibility than official public housing and was therefore considered more appropriate for poor households which relied heavily on the use of the residential environment for supplementary informal economic activities and kinship networks. In particular, squatting was found to allow Fijians and Indians to adopt strategies of survival and improvement based on their respective cultural mores. Some support was therefore provided for the views of the Progressive Development School. The levels of improvement, however, were found to be generally insufficient and to involve too few households to accept these views without reservation. Improvements occurred among more modern households, among owner-occupiers and those with some security uf tenure as claimed by the Progressive Development School, but income was found to be the most critical variable. Income increased among Fijians by accretions of kin and among Indians by accretions of time, but few households had sufficient income to permit them to alter significantly their position in society or to ensure minimally adequate housing. The views of the Dependency School that squatting is a residential manifestation of poverty, and not a housing problem as such, were therefore accepted. In accepting this explanation of the causes and nature of squatting, however, the writer maintained that practical measures advanced by the Progressive Development School could lead, if not to the solution of the problem, at least to its improvement. At the macro level, the solution to the urban squatter question in Fiji was seen to lie in the implementation of the egalitarian proposals of the VIth Development Plan, a change in Fiji's relations with other countries, and a reassessment of the position of the urban poor. At the micro level, much improvement can be achieved by the formulation of a housing policy which gives close attention to the needs and aspirations of squatters indicated in the present study. The distinction between macro and micro level 'solutions' is seen to offer a compromise position between the viewpoints of the two most prominent schools of thought on the urban squatter question.
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    Lime-aluminium-phosphate interactions in selected acid soils from Fiji : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Soil Science at Massey University
    (Massey University, 1985) Naidu, Ravendra
    Poor crop production in Fiji has long been associated with Al-toxicity and/or P deficiency problems. Although attempts have been made to alleviate these problems, the lack of suitable soil-testing procedures and a limited understanding of lime-Al-P interactions are restricting the better utilization of these soils. Following a preliminary investigation, 4 contrasting Fijian soils (Batiri, Koronivia, Nadroloulou, and Seqaqa) were chosen for a lime-Al-P interaction study. The soils, which had pH and M KCl-extractable Al values ranging from 3.9 to 4.9 and 35.6 to 0.3 mmol kg-1,.respectively, were used to investigate the effect of liming on surface charge, P-sorption characteristics, the amounts of P extracted by a number of soil-testing procedures, and plant uptake of P. A study was conducted to compare M KCl-extraction procedures for exchangeable Al and analytical techniques used in the determination of Al. For each soil, different extraction procedures and analytical techniques measured significantly (P < 0.01) different amounts of extractable Al. It was recommended that extractable Al in Fijian soils could be best determined by the oxine reagent following a 2 x 1-h shaking with M KCl. The ion retention method, which is commonly used to measure charge, was examined critically with a view to standardising it for the range of soils used in the present study. The method involves an initial washing of soils with an electrolyte of high concentration to remove exchangeable ions, equilibration of the washed soils with an electrolyte of the desired concentration and subsequent extraction of the equilibrated soils. The concentrations of prewash electrolyte (0.5M CaCl2, 0.1M CaCl2, and 0.01M CaCl2) used to remove exchangeable ions prior to equilibration with 0.01M CaCl2 and the soil:solution ratio were found to have a marked effect on the magnitude of the surface negative charge of unlimed soils. However, these differences were largely related to the amount of Al removed during the prewash and the equilibration procedures. Thus when the Al released in the extracting solution (0.5M KNO3) was included in the calculation of charge, the differences in the measured negative charge obtained either because of varying concentrations of prewash electrolyte or for the effect of soil:solution ratio were reduced. Surface charge, determined in 0.01M CaCl2, was always found to be higher than that determined in 0.03M NaCl and this difference was more pronounced in limed soils at high pH values. Subsequent studies revealed that this anomaly was largely due to the inability of Na to exchange with Ca at high pH values. The results of these studies, together with those involving the prewash electrolytes and the soil:solution ratio, suggested that a suitable method of measuring surface charge of limed soils would use 0.01M CaCl2 as the equilibration electrolyte and include in the calculation of charge the amount of Al released in the extracting solution. Incubation of soils with added lime caused a large increase in surface negative charge. However, the magnitude of increase in the negative charge varied considerably between soils. For example, the negative charge in the Seqaqa soil increased from 8 to over 38 cmol(p)kg-1, compared to only a small increase of 2 to 10 cmol(p)kg-1 in the Batiri soil over the same pH range. In contrast to liming, P additions resulted in only a small increase in negative charge. Interestingly, all soils possessed positive charge up to 1 cmol(p)kg-1, even at pH values as high as 7. Subsequent Studies showed that this may have been due to substitution of Ti4+ and/or Mn4+ in the iron oxide lattice. Extraction of lime- and P-treated soils with Olsen and Mehlich reagents showed that liming had a marked effect on the amount of P removed. Whereas Olsen P increased on either side of pH values 5.5 - 6.0, Mehlich P consistently decreased with increasing soil pH. For example, in the high P-sorbing Seqaqa soil, Mehlich P decreased from 0.2 mmol kg-1 at pH 4.5 to < 0.01 mmol kg-1 in soils with pH higher than 7.0. The decrease in Mehlich P was shown to be due to the neutralizing effect of lime on the extractant. An isotopic-exchange study revealed an increase in exchangeable P up to a pH approximating 7, above which there was a sharp decrease, possibly indicating the formation of insoluble Ca-P compounds. Although liming had only a small effect on the sorption of added P, this was sufficient to have a significant effect on equilibrium solution P concentration. Generally, liming caused an increase in equilibrium solution P concentration up to pH values of 5.0 - 6.0, above which there was a marked decrease. The initial increase in equilibrium solution P concentration appeared to result from an interaction between added P, surface negative charge and electrostatic potential in the plane of sorption. Subsequent sorption studies using Nadroloulou soil incubated with either KOH or Ca(OH)2 showed that the decrease in solution P at high pH values was probably due to the formation of insoluble Ca-P compounds. The effects of lime and P addition on the growth of the tropical legume Leucaena leucocephala were studied in a controlled-climate laboratory. With all 4 soils, there was an initial increase in the dry matter yield of the plant tops with liming which was followed by a marked decrease. This trend was most pronounced in the Seqaqa soil where dry matter yield of tops increased by ~2000% at the pH at which maximum growth occurred. Similar but smaller increases were noted in the other soils. The concentration of Al in plant tops increased on either side of the pH of maximum growth, but Al uptake by the whole plant (tops + roots) declined steadily with increasing pH. Poor growth at low pH values waS attributed to Al-induced P deficiency within the plant and at high pH values largely to a soil P deficiency and to a smaller extent to the increased concentration of Al in the plant tops. P deficiency at high pH value was attributed to the formation of insoluble Ca-P compounds and this was supported by the data obtained from isotopic-exchange and P-sorption studies. A further plant growth study was conducted on the limed soils, previously used for the growth of Leucaena leucocephala, Ryegrass (Lolium perenne L) plants were initially grown in sand and then transferred onto the soils. Plant growth was again retarded at low and high pH values but comparison with control plants grown in a similar manner but not transferred onto the soils demonstrated that the poor growth at both high and low pH was due in part to a toxicity effect rather than simple P deficiency. It is likely that Al was responsible. Comparision of the data obtained by resin extraction and plant P uptake gave a close 1:1 relationship. In contrast, Olsen-, Colwell-, Bray (I)-, Bray (II)-, and Mehlich-exractable P were only weakly correlated with P uptake. The difficulty in relating plant P uptake data to extractable P levels was attributed to the problems associated with extracting P from limed soils.