TEN TRUE PIONEERS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 807, 30 October 1929, Page 11

TEN TRUE PIONEERS

CESSION DAY CELEBRATED IN FIJI HOISTING OF FLAG From Our Oxen Correspondent SUVA, October 11. Ten “grand old men” of Fiji met at Suva on October 10 and celebrated the anniversary of Cession Day, 1874. As the only remaining settlers who were in the colony on that occasion, they j are privileged residents. Those piVsent at the reunion were Messrs. G. A. F. W. Beaueierc, F. Corser, G. Halstead, M. Browne, J. Kennedy, L. St. Julian, G. Wright, C. J. Morey, E. D. Poulton and H. Bentley. The latter three actually saw the British flag hoisted. Mr. James Kennedy, 94 years of age, was the oldest member present, while Mr. Beauclerc, 84, came next in age. Mr. St. Julian was only a month old when the flag was hoisted. Reminiscences were freely indulged in, and there were many tales told of Levuka's 25 hotels, and the “good , old days” when gin was a shilling a bottle. Stories of cotton planting were forthcoming, and Mr. Morey told how he had worked out that he would be a millionaire within three years—-“but that was only on paper,” he added as an afterthought. A humorous strain was touched on when a speaker recalled Tim, the Irish cook, who used to listen at the keyhole and hear the Fijian chiefs discussing how they would do away with him..He was mortally afraid of being eaten alive, and on one occasion he carried a revolver with him. At long last, his plea to get away -was grauted, and strangely enough the vessel which took him to Taveuni contained 100 i native labourers. “I don’t know how he fared with them,” concluded the ; speaker.