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The Evening Star WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 21, 1874.

The annexation of Fiji may be considered as a matter decided upon by Mr Disraeli’s Government, although the measure has not met the unanimous approval of the House of Commons. On the 3rd of August the subject was introduced by Mr M‘ Arthur, who, in the opinion of the‘Times,’ moved a malapropos resolution which elicited some opposition, and drew from Sir \V. Lawson the following observations, which will be conned with amusement, if not co-incided with, by our readers, to whom we remit the task of agreeing with or rejecting them according to their own light :

His hon. friend the member for Lambeth would probably excuse him if he designated him the patron saint of the Fiji Islander, and his hon. friend appeared that evening not solely as an independent member advocating the cause he had at heart, but as the confederate of Her Majesty’s Ministers. For his own part, he regretted that the subject should be brought forward at a period of the session when they were worn out with discussing, first the regulation of publichouses and then the regulation of public worship.—(“ Hear, hear,” and laughter.) It seemed from the accounts they bad received that, though Fiji was a place where only man was vile—man there was very vile indeed. The inhabitants numbered 150,000, and until lately they were the most horrible cannibals in the world. Since this question had first come before them he had obtained a book upon Fiji written by a Wesleyan missionary. The writer referred to one of the inhabitants who was in the habit of adding a stone for every fresh victim to a certain lino° of stones which indicated the number of men he hud eaten. There were 172 stones in all; but as, no doubt, a great number of stones had been removed, this man had probably killed and eaten about 900 people.—(A laugh.) Another, again, had a line of stones which reached the number of 58 before he became a Christian. All this was. however, now changed, and of these 150,000 no less than 107,000 regularly attended a place of worship. It is gratifying to find that they had not yielded to the vices of civilisation, and if he could prevent it he would do his best to prevent their being further civilised. But in addition to the 150,000 people, who attendedjchurch m such enormous numbers, there were 20,000 mountaineers, who retained their original practices, and there seemed to be some fear lest those 20,000 should come down from the mountains and eat the 150,000 Methodists. —(LaughM In the report it was stated that those iO,OOO mountaineers were scattered, and it was recommended that they should be “ visited by soldiers,” summoned to give in their allegjance, and that “ teachers” should be sent among them. So that we were first to kill them and burn their villages and then to send them teachers, in conformity, probably, with the old notion that the British Army should be regarded as one of the branches of the Society for the Propagation of Christian knowledge.— (Laughter.) The Government, as described by the Junior Lord of the Admiralty (Sir J. Elphxnstone), consisted of a “ set of the most unmitigated ruffians in the world.”—(A laugh.) The appendix to the report, at page 59, told them

“Worthless adventurers driven from other countries by their evil habits and other faults, have sought a refuge in. these islands in uumbers out of all proportion to the rest of the settlers, and by their example and influence too often led their weaker minded neighbors in their footsteps.” They drink rava, which—- “ Producing a partial paralysis of the muscular system, together with a lethargic state of the sensibility, without the excitement, coma, and following discomfort of drunkenness, has recommended it to many when alcohol cannot be got.”

(Laughter.) He begged to recommend this to the Home Secretary when he next meddled with Intoxicating Liquors Bills—(a laugh) “ Its taste has been compared to that of Gregory’s mixture (a laugh), combined with soapsuds, and its appearance to that of dirty ditch water, &c.— (Laughter.) Of the presence of delirium tremens there is no lack of evidence.* There must surely be some great and good object to be gained by taking these people over. They were told the proper thing was a Crown Colony—a despotism tempered by the advice of the House of Commons. But what did they know about these people ? They were in almost total ignorance respecting them. There were, he believed, fifteen ways of spelling the name of those islands, and they all knew they pronounced it differently on the two sides of the House.—(A. laugh.) The boa, member for Lambeth sard this subject had been much discussed both in the House and in the Press ; but his bon. friend was wrong on that point. The question had been discussed only twice, and really the Press could not know much about it whatever the papers might say.—(A laugh.) In fact, nobody knew anything about it but the hon. member for Lambeth. His hon. friend had talked about an unanimous request for an-, nexation, but he thought that had been exploded. If it was really desirable to adopt this

policy, was it not curious that'the groat boon of annnexation should have been reserved for this country ? Germany and America had declined , ere they sharp enough ? It was a bad bargain that was left to us. We made a, bad bargain with reference to the Gold Coast. It had already cost us L1,000,W30, and it would shortly cost us another if we did not speedily get rid of it. ine Gold Coast should be a warning to us. He knew how these things were managed. Whenever there was any difficulty about the financial arrangement they contrived to throw in a little philanthropy. He was always suspicious of such cases. It was said annexation was necessary to put down the slave trade; but, m his opinion, they might put a step to the slave trade without annexing the islands, ihe case of New Zealand should be a warning to us. What occurred there ? Simply because we did not clearly understand the titles to land in that country, we had been involved in a war which cost us L 11,000,000. It would be cheaper to send _ships to bring over or take elsewhere the 2,000 sufferers from delirium trement, and leave the Methodists and the cannibals to sett'e matters between themselves.—(A laugh.) But the Colonial Minister let the whole truth out when he said the moment English sovereignty was acknowledged, the value of land in the islands would be—not doubled, but quadrupled for those in behalf of whom we were about to pledge our and possibly our blood and treasure. Something had been said of the blessings of our rule and civilisation to the natives of Fiji. The blessing we conferred on native tribes of any country we colonised was their extermination. It always ended so except in the case of India. He had heard of one tribe of North American Indians —a noble tribe, now so nearly extinct that it was said it only consisted of one old chief, five horses, and three gallons of whisky.—(Much laughter.) Did the hon. member think that we were such excellent governors that our rule abroad must be perfect ? Was the state of this country an absolute paradise? He could not think so when we had a standing army of 1,000,000 paupers and when our gaols were crowded. We talked of spreading our national religion abroad, but he would tell the House what our practice was. We raised about L 30,000,000 a year by encouraging people to drink, and we spent nearly that L 30,000,000 in weapons, men, and war. Our gods might thus be said to be Bacchus and Mars—the god of battles and the god of bottles.—(Laughter.) But he would put the case - on rather lower, although, perhaps, stronger grounds. Had not this Parliament enough to do ? What a session they had had of it! How many classes had they been called upon to put right? During the last five months they had been engaged in legislating for enthusiastic ritualists, plundering publicans, indiscreet bishops, aggrieved commissioners, and bond fide drunkards. Parliament had been overburdened with work, and he entreated it not to add to its anxiety by annexing the King of the Cannibal Islands (a laugh) and those interesting saveges who had wound themselves round the heart of his hon. friend the member for Lambeth.—(Cheers.)

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/ESD18741021.2.10

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

Evening Star, Issue 3639, 21 October 1874, Page 2

Word count
Tapeke kupu
1,425

The Evening Star WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 21, 1874. Evening Star, Issue 3639, 21 October 1874, Page 2

The Evening Star WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 21, 1874. Evening Star, Issue 3639, 21 October 1874, Page 2

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