I've seen another take on this, where the pole clubs were given to the weakest warriors, while the heavy "pandanus fruit" spiked clubs were the weapons of the strongest warriors in the front of the line.
Remember, a club can have more than one use, and smaller people do need to use lighter weapons. Personally, I suspect that any club that was designed primarily for wife beating would "accidentally" end up as firewood under the cooking oven.
While I'm not sure Fiji used quite the same logic for inheritance that the Polynesians did (e.g. rank was based on descent), but often, the oldest woman had the highest rank in the family. An aristocratic wife-beater makes me suspicious, especially when the description comes from a missionary.
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