THE NON-ANNEXATION OF THE FIJIS.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 18, Issue 1084, 2 August 1871, Page 2

THE NON-ANNEXATION OF THE FIJIS.

|MELBOJJWE DAILY TELEGKAJffI. J The English Government, it appears, has declined to annex Fiji—a conclusion which probably will take few by surprise. The mother country has had enough of New Zealand. That Colony stands as a shocking example to both the economist and the philanthropist of interfering with countries already populated with twolegged beings, who not onl,- in their erect; attitude, but by their powers of perverting speech and of committing crimes strongly resemble man, in which case of course, they would have the same right to theircountry that Englishman have to theirs The economist declines to be responsible for any more native wars, and the philanthropist to countenance the extermination of another race. And, of course, the decision of the British Government is fatal to the project of annexing the island* to Victoria or New South Wales. We have no authority to hoist the flag of the Empire over them. If they cannot be brought into the empire by the front door* they cannot by the hack. The result may perhaps retard settlement a little i$ the" isles, but it will probably lead to a more certain growth. It is the belief of many of the settlers to this day that had their never been a British soldier nor a British caunon landed in New Zealand,, the native difficulty would have settled, itself; there would have been no implacable hostility; there might have been a mixed Government, such as the Fiji chiefs are trying now to establish. After all, however, it appears as if the restless adventurers who, not content with coming to Australia, want to go on a little fur? ther, will not have long to wait before administering the estate of the Fijians,. Accounts published in the last number of the Wesleyan Chronicle represent that disease and intemperance are doing theirduty in the isles. The missionaries circulate the Bible, and the storekeepers the bottle. The clergy have shown the blacks their titles to mansions in the skies. Like good christians the settlers are putting them in immediate possession,!