British Crown Colony Rule.

Maoriland Worker, Volume I, Issue 6, 20 February 1911, Page 11

British Crown Colony Rule.

(By F. SPRAGG.)

One doesn't realise the benefit of representative government, till they have lived for some time in a country where it doesn't exist. It would do some of our New Zealand workers, who seem afraid to trust their own class to run the country, a power of good to see the mess that " gentlemen " selected by influence have made of Fiji. A short article can really only give the headlines. What is required to expose the network of scandals perpetrated in this place. The Crown colony system is autocracy from start to finish, and the Governor is monarch of all he surveys. The Governor is sent out by the Colonial Office for political or personal reasons, and he lias full power in selecting and disposing of his officers, so that they are absolutely at his mercj'. He is alleged to be assisted and advised by a Legislative Council, consisting of ten official members, all under his thumb, six members elected on a property and income franchise by white people, and two native chiefs, who are nominated. The Government can never be put out of office; no censure can be passed in the Council, and nothing can be passed, no matter how much the people want it, if the Governor is opposed, and he can inflict all sorts of hardships on the people, who can only send their grievances to the Colonial Office wastepaper basket. A few of the results of this system of " Government of the people, by the Civil Service, for the Civil Service," should not go amiss. First there is no jury, or at least in a few cases against white a scratch j'-irv of seven, has been formed, but even this has been refused to the coloured races. In place of the jury two "assessors" are appointed, but their decision can be over-ridden by the Judge. Yet anything upwards of thirty Indians are annually hung on this sort of trial.. To one not acquainted with "Brown Brother " and his methods, thirty hangings in one year sounds like a long stretch of the bog, but every week brings news of Indians chopping up their wives, friends and an occasional overseer. In fact, Fiji labour laws leave indiscriminate "use of the cane knife the only recreation for the indentured coolie. These poor wretches are indentured to work for five years at Is per day for men and 9d for women, working nine hours a day. Then the boss can 'J cut the pisa," dock the pay, if he isn't satisfied with, the work, and the victim has no redress. It is amongst the slaves politely called indentured Indians, that practically all the murders occur. There is a law to prevent thrashing labour, but what chance have people in this condition of seeing the thing through, especially as one white mans word is worth more than five hundred niggers , in any tropical country, and the missionaries are too busy fleecing the native of -is cocoanuts to take any notice of these outrages. The public works for the whole of Fiji would not come up to a moderate-sized New Zealand county 7 s expenditure, and practically the whole of the revenue is spent in keeping up an absurdly large Civil Service. Income tax is an unheard of thing; the revenue is raised by Customs tariff, shop licenses, and a poll tax of £1 per head per annum on the natives, men, women and children. Coloured people commit an offence punishable by fine or imprisonment if they are out after 11 p.m. No attempt on the part of the Government is made to educate any but a few whites. Every possible obstruction is put in the way of a pro bable white settler, and every encouragement is given to the Indian to become a landholder. The only reason 1 can see for this is that every additional white settler is a danger to the Civil Service by being one step nearer responsible government and the day of reckoning. Of course, it may on ly De a coincidence, but all the snips inland fall into the hands of those who are in the swim. Then there is that insult to colonials the " cadet system," by means of which men who often would otherwise become remittance men, are pushed into the top circle, be ginning at £200 per annum, and rising rapidly, while the men who do the work start at £8 per month and take a life-time to rise to what the others started at. The latter are colonials, many of them the sons of old Fiji residents who have paid the .taxes for years. Britain, the country that has sworn to protect the Fijians, has flooded Fiji with the vilest scum of Asia, the gaol-birds of Calcutta. A little to the north-east is the German colony of Samoa, and this must be said to the credit of the Germans: the Chinese who labour on the plantations in their colony must get 2s per day and found, as against the Fijian Is per day and find themselves. When John's time is up in Samoa he has a choice of two things—one ia to reindenture, the other to go back to the " Flowery L.and." In Fiji It ham Singh is given

every encouragement to settle down and crowd the native out, and in a few years it will be an Indian settlement. Samoa will always be Samoan, and the German Government cannot be more lax than the Fijian in enforcing their laws against thrashing labour. I wonder what would happen in a civilised country if a state of things like the following were exposed (nothing happened in this British Crown Colony):—An elected member of the Legislative Council asked for a return of the number of police at present in the force who had served sentences in gaol, and got the answer: "So far as can be ascertained,, there are at present seven constables in the force who have served terms of imprisonment. The return does not include Indian constables who may have received short terms of imprisonment for breaches of the labour laws while serving under indenture, nor Fijian constables convicted of breaches of native regulations." Here is the return .as copied out of the "Western Pacific Herald" :— Term of Rank. Imprisonment. Offence. 2nd-class Indian 12 months Assault 2nd-class Indian 6 months Assault 3rd-class Indian Short sentence Not known Srd-clas3 Indian Short sentence Not known Brd-class Indian 5 months Assault 3rd-class Indian 7 days Larceny Brd-class Indian 6 months Contempt of Court Not so bad for a colony with onetenth the population of New Zealand, - —-especially as an Indian sergeant has just finished a term of six months for theft, and three Fijians are at present serving sentences for burglary while on duty. Rule Britannia i Suva' Fiji, December, 1910.