TROUBLE IN FIJI.

Gisborne Times, Volume V, Issue 74, 2 April 1901, Page 3

TROUBLE IN FIJI.

ARBITRARY TREATMENT.

[By Telegraph—Press Association.] Wellington, last night,

The Premier has received a letter from Mr Humphrey Bcrkcly, of Fiji, confirming the previous telegram to the effect that several Natives of Pcrna have been deported to Kandarau for waiting upon Mr Berkeley with regard to federation with [New Zealand, and concerning the grievances under which they labored. Under all Fijian law, Mr Berkeley points out, such deportation is illegal. Immediately on sentence of deportation being pronounced, the men were taken to the wharf and shipped on a cutter for Kandarau. Mr Frank Cecil Bcddard, who. joined Mr Berkeley in practice a year ago, is moving the Court for a writ of habeas corpus, and the Governor having heard of this has brought in an ordinance to prohibit Mr Bcddard from practising, although ho has been practising without question for years past. If Mr Bcddard is refused a hearing on the motion for a habeas corpus, Mr Berkeley states lie will have to find some other way of getting the very great wrongs to which the people of the colony are subject accorded a hearing. Mr Berkeley had just returned from the place where the deported men came from, when a high Government official was sent down to warn the natives that if they retained his services they would follow their chief into deportation. Mr Berkeley also states that four chiefs who were imprisoned in connection with Vakel’s case were, on liberation from prison, deported by Government for ten years. Now the Governor has sent out orders, Mr Berkeley continues, “That his speech at AVainiboltasi shall he read in every village in Fiji, and those orders have been most literally obeyed. The only gain by his so doing is on our side, for the people are now at one on the question of federation with New Zealand, or failing that selfGovernmcnt. If you could understand what this disregard of Government instructions means you would know that the people of Fiji (and here I mean Fijians) would to a man vote for federation with your country.”