FIJI OF TO-DAY

Dominion, Volume 18, Issue 182, 4 May 1925, Page 8

FIJI OF TO-DAY

PLIGHT OF COUNTRY SETTLERS UNION WITH NEW ZEALAND URGED (BY TELEGRAPH—SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.) Auckland, Alay 3. “What these islands want worse than anything else is development, and that is the last thing they are likely to get as a Crown colony. Alost of the country settlers in Fiji are no better off to-day than they were 20 or 30 years ago.” This view was expressed in a letter received some days ago by an Auckland professional man from a resident of Fiji, who strongly advocates the administration of the Fiji group being transferred from the Colonial Office to the Government of New Zealand. A proposal along these lines is receiving considerable support in Fiji, and a petition is now in circulation, with a view to its presentation to the ■Secretary of State for the Colonies. The Fiji correspondent referred to has forwarded a> copy of a letter written by Mr. C. J. Parham, a well-known settler in the Bua province, of Fiji. He mentions that this settler voices the opinion of the great majority ot men on the land in advocating union with New Zealand. Influence in the Tropics. Air. Parham says that it is apparent that New Zealand seeks where possible to extend her influence in the tropics, mentioning that she now controls Western/ Samoa-, the Cook Islands, and has recently agreed to assume the administration of the Union Islands in Fiji. Her influente had extended to the education department, and her latest accession was the Anglican Church. “New Zealtnd capital is helping to utilise our timber resources,” says Air. Parham, “and will doubtless help us increasingly if given encouraging treatment It not checked, her peaceful penetration will continue, and who will deny that it is for out best interests that it should be so." Insufficient Advertising. After pointing out that the' needs of the tropics were advertisement, capital, and European energy, he states that an opportunity of extensively advertising at the Empire Exhibition was neglected outside, that investors had not been welcomed as they might have been, and that sturdy settlers were not being encouraged as they should be. The root of the evil lay in the remoteness of Downing Street. Fiji,-, to the average official, being merely the name of some outlandish spot on the map. What New Zealand Could Do. “In the matter of white settlement,” continues the writer, " New Zealand would soon see that the land tenure was made attractive. The nationalisation of native lands and the adoption of a system that has proved so successful in the Dominion would soon be in force. The present prosperity of the New Zealand dairy industry is largely due to the policy of Air. Alassey. 'With New Zealand as headquarters, only four days away, instead of England, which is over four weeks distant, this colony would soon be stirred out of its present state of stagnation. We need live wires here, not blown out fuses, short circuits, and dead ends.” Air. Parham makes reference also to the unsatisfactory state of the Fiji Civil Service, which he considers would be vastly improved under New Zealand control.