FIJI.

Evening Star, Issue 3329, 21 October 1873, Page 3

FIJI.

Lbvuka, September 30 There has been a narrow escape from a Berious row here. I be Camber of Commerce met, and passed a resolution that the shops and stores should be closed, and all business cease till a Legislature was again legally convened, and tuxes and duties imposed by its authority. Cf course this could not last and was followed soon by deputations to Captain Simpson, of the Blanche, which did no good, and to the King, which, as he is entirely guided by his Ministers, did no more. A deputation of 150 white men went to see the King, and would not be refused. They asked him to dismiss the Ministers, which be declined to do. They were very good men ; he knew them and had confidence in him, and did not understand the changes of which the white men seemed so fond. He asked them to send a smaller deputation of five men to see him next day, but fearing these five might be arrested, the whole number went instead. They were not armed outwardly, though some appeared to have had revolvers, but were met by 1,500 of the drilled Fijian soldiers, under white officers, who barred the way. Seme of the white men went in spite of the levelled bayonets and loaded rifles, but in the melee that followed thr?e revolver shots were tired, ho one knows by whom, and a Tongan soldier was shot in the shoulder. The troops then lost temper, and drove the white men before them at full speed, severely injuring some as they escaped. The thing came io a climax when a Mr Schulle, refusing to pay duties, and taking goods out of his bonded store by breaking open the door, was fined, and orders given for his arrest. As a German, he appealed to the acting German consul, and with fifteen other Germans raised the German flag over his store, barricaded and fortified it, and shut himself and companions in it, armed with cannon, rifles, and grenades made of giant powder. The troops were drawn up outside, and the thing looked serious, with a hundred or two Englishmen looking on, and in doubt as to the side they would take. At the last moment Captain Simpsou interfered, and Mr Schulle was induced to surrender himself to bis own Consul, to save the threatened bloodshed, as the Government bad a large force, and were evidently determined to use it. The ultimate result from this has been the intended issue of a new Constitution, So far as I can learn, the Legislature will be called the National Assembly, and consists of twelve native chiefs, who are the governors of districts, eight elected white men, and a number of nominated whites and natives, There is to be no Upper House, and the Executive is to be permanent ao long as they please the King. The Government have certainly conquered, and if they use their power wisely and prudently, opposition against them will soon cease. The majority here are sick ot the petty squabbles and personal selfishness which marked the House of Representatives, q hey want to grow sugar or cotten, and if left to do that in peace and security will not trouble themselves much about the politics of the country. Their real temper and views, whatever they may he, they can shew when the eight members to represent them come to be elected. If they elect good men, their influence with the native members and nominated white men who sit with them will be great If they elect the floating politicians to this as they did to the last Assembly their influence will be lessened, and it will be a proof how little value they set on the privilege of self-government in the circumstances in which they are placed. The elected members are to have a property and a of quo Or two

years before entitled to sit. It only remains to sea what Commodore Goodenough and the new Consul, Mr Layard, decide upon as the Commissioners of England in this matter. It is thought here that, satisfied the natives will have full justice and a fair voice in the administration of affairs under the now constitution, the commissioners are very likely to recommend the open recognition of the kingdom in preference to its annexation as a Colony. Vita leva and Vanua Levu, the two largest islands, are at last in peace. Some hard engagements have been fought with the mountaineers, and some loss on our side both in white men and Fijian soldiers. At Wai Cavu we lost nine native soldiers, and five white officers. Gresham and Jack were killed; Harding, Jones, and Johnson dangerously wounded. , Jones was shot through the lungs; Johnson had both arras broken, and Harding hadsixmusket balls extracted. So youwillsee the work wa* pretty hot. Major H. Thurston is in command there, and has carried all before him, taking all the towns in the mountains which have so long been the stronghold of the cannibals of these islands. Among others he took the town where the King was defeated in 1868, and has recovered the skull of poor Baker, the Wesleyan missionary murdered and eaten in 1857, and which has been exposed in the heathen temple there ever since. He has a’so brought from there a very singular carving in ivory’—a huge whale s tooth beautifully done and much in the Japanese style. It represents two women, and how it got there is a myslery. Sugar is all the rage. Plants for the manufacture are imported from Sydney and Melbourne, and the cultivation of the cane is superseding cotton in most of the districts. A Mr Clarence, form rly of Natal, and down h- re on behalf of a Melbourne company, considers the Row a and the other river valleys of Fji the finest sugar country he has ever seen. Sugar weighs more with the majority of us than forms of Government, and if they keep down the taxes, give ns peace, and import coolies from India for our plantations, they will have strong support from the planters, who, after ad, are the backbone of the kingdom. —New Zealand Herald.