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Hokitika Guardian, 7 April 1925, Page 2

“Half the world away, one of the communities which make up the British Empire has celebrated its jubil" says the London “Telegraph”. ‘The islands of Fiji (there are 288) are precisely our antipodes, for the parallel of longitude of 180 degrees, on which the

reckonings east and-west of Greenwich meet and become the same passes through ®the middle of the archipelago. Though it was not till 1874 that the British ensign flew over Levuka, white men had seen the islands centuries before. The manner of their incorporation in our Em] ire is one of those satiric commentaries on the theory that we are a nation of greedy Imperialists, of which our history contains many. The first European who ever saw the surf on the coral shores of the little outer islands was Abe! Tasman, who came that way about tlie time Charles I. and Cromwell were fighting heie. Captain Cook found Turtle Island in 1773. Bligli, of the Bounty, after his crew had turned him adrift in his launch, came down to Fiji and had trouble with the natives. But in 1840 missionaries were at work in Fiji. A chief of some governing power emerged, King Thakornban, who turned Christian, and in 1839 offered his realm to Great Britain. A gunner colonel was sent out to look into the matter, advised against annexation, but recommended that the British Consul should be given full powers over his own countrymen in the islands. Whitehall would not go even so far as that. Settlers came in by hundreds, and every man did that which was right in his own eyes, for there was neither civil nor criminal law. Again the sovereignty was offered to Britain, again refused. The Islanders turned to the United States, but Washington was as afraid of responsibility as Whitehall. King Thakornban tried his hand at constitutional government with an amateur English Ministry. It did not work, and in 1874 reluctant Britain had to hoist her Mag at last. There were some dark yeats. Ten would not do, coffee went wrong, sugar did not pay. But nowadays Fiji is prosperous with sugar and copra, bananas and rubber, and likely to do still better servite to a world which needs year by year more of the produce of the tropics.”

Tim proposal of the bands Department to throw open some 3.000 acres of good pastoral country in the Cooks river district, i.s to he commended. It is a step in the right direction which wo may regard as a beginning, leading up, we hope, to a mole vigorous effort still on the part of the Department to bring about closer settlement in Westland. We note the Minister of bands is touring the North Island, and in some quarters which he has visited lie is not very pleased with the land offering for settlement. The Minister is due to tonic here next month, we believe. As usual Cinderella-like Westland is left out in the told and will u ,4- be favored with a visit from Die Minister of bands till the lion, gentleman has dene all the rest oi New Zealand. Vet, Westland is mainly a large Crown estate, le.lt largely to itself to work out its own salvation. As regards the movement for closer settlement in the south district, the locality now favored, lias the reputation of Icing a goad district. It is one notable for the quality ol the stock which lias come out of the south season after .season. Now that it is being linked up to the main south road by tlie bridging of Waikiiktipa and Wailio rivers, it should conic into its own rapidly in the matter of settlement. The proposed diversion of the read via the Fox river and a new ford crossing over Cook’s river, should bo

■ a useful, road to open up a considerable hell of country on the southern side of Cook’s liver, and thereby give further facilities still for settlement. There will lie a considerable distance of read to i oust met, hut- a.s it will tap an enlarged area of Crown bipods, it .should be a payable proposition to the country to prosecute tire mail construction. Closer settlement iii the region referred to. should result in the expansion ol dairying south, and with good mail access, there should lie no difficulty in getting the produce to market economically. The policy adopted by the Lands Department will he watched with interest, for it shows a closer interest in Ihe possibilities of Westland for closer settlement, and any movement in that direction will ho useful in milling to the permanent prosperity of the district a.s a whole. The now departure, we hope, marks a fresh era governing the future of Westland.