Queen Elizabeth II 25th Anniversary Coronation First Day Cover, Fiji postmarked on April 21, 1978.
Fiji
Fiji consists of Viti Levu and Vanua Levu, two large islands of volcanic origin, and of about 300 others, mostly small atolls and reefs. They are situated in the tropics, about 1100 miles north of New Zealand, and have a population of approximately half a million, half of which are Melanesian, and half the descendants of indentured Indian labourers brought to the islands between 1879 and 1916 to work the plantations. The highest point is Tomanivi (4341 ft.), on Vitu Levu.
The distant history of the islands is uncertain, but it is likely that they had Austronesian contact at least 1000 years BC. Melanesians probably arrived in small groups, without complex tribal organisations or high chiefs, by canoe from the northwest, possibly New Guinea. When first contacted by Europeans in the 18th century, the Fijians were among the best sailors in the Pacific, their sailing canoes sometimes being over 100 ft. long, with woven mats as sails and steering oars carved from single logs, over 30 ft. long. It was most likely in such craft that they reached as far afield as Hawaii. Certainly they were formidable warfaring instruments, being used to ram enemy canoes, whose unlucky occupants were then clubbed in the water.
Fiji's Omnibus issue shows the Iguana and White Hart of Richard II. The Iguana derives from the legend of the Great Serpent God, Dengei, who taught the art of canoe building. He was, with the son of the Sky God, a leading deity, and probably related to the Maori 'Whiro', god of darkness, evil, sickness and death. Whiro showed himself as a giant iguana, which is known both to Maoris and Fijians as moko'. The Maoris used to tattoo their faces to resemble this feared reptile. The 'moko' however, although it has powerful jaws, is a vegetarian, and no real threat to man.
The White Hart of Richard II was most probably adapted from the White Hind of his mother, Joan, the Fair Maid of Kent, to make the supporter more appropriate to his name (Rich-hart). The shield shows the 'planta genista', or broom- pod of the Plantagenets, first used by Geofirey of Anjou, and from which the name is derived.
