A CLOUD IN FIJI.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 12, 8 February 1909, Page 2

A CLOUD IN FIJI.

THE INDIAN COOLIES. (JRAVE UPKISINO THREATENED. COULD IT HIS QUELLED'; Auckland, Thursday. The. Suva correspondent of the Herald Hays that for a long time past there have been rumors of an Indian rising in itliu sugar districts. Seditious literature has been coming into the country, and ■in several instances the postal authorities have been able to seize and destroy it. The big coolie steamer Sangolia is 'expected to arrivo at Suva in a few ilaya with close on two thousand luidiau immigrants. This vessel is re))orL'ed by local cumpatriots to .have severa l lire-brands aboard, and the uprising is timed for when they shall come ashore and intlanie their countrymen to lighting pitch. 11l .Suva people are rathi-i"in-irlined to look on the talk of a l'isin"' ■as a. bit of what is called in the East

h bunder, or "bazaar gup." On the other hand, white residents in the cane districts are promptly laying in stores of arms and ammunition,' and the (ioveinnient has already been notified ol' the talk from the coolie "lines." V •present at Lautoka 11a. Labasa. and Sanson the coolies outnumber the whiles by many more than 100 to I, so it will be ,ecn that the situation is an Ugly one if trouble arise-. Most of the male adult huropeans outside Suva are members of local rille clubs, and possess iLee-Mctfords of latest pattern, but the ■danger is in tile distance their homesteads lie apart. The Fijians can always be depended on to stand loyally to tile whites in a Lrouble of this kind.

They have the utmost contempt for ; the Indian, and a case iu point will serve. Some eighteen months or so ago a lot ol Punjabis came to Fiji iu a coolie ship. They may have been led to believe that their duties were to lie of a military or police nature (as is natural to tile Punjabi). Instead of that they ■found that lliev were drafted out ns agricultural laborers with the Madrasis and Calcutta and Bombay coolies. This annoyed thc.m greatly, and w hcn ;l t 1,:,. ; l>asa they found that their party was I to bo split up, the Punjabis broke into I open revolt, and threatened bloodshed. The white otlicer in charge of the halfdozen Fijian police sent to a near-by village, for reinforcements. Up came the [ natives (some iu old-time war-dresst in quid; time, hearing clubs, axes, shotguns, knives, and all .manner of weapons. They shouted their war-cries and their eyes blazed, and when they learned tint there was to be no light their faces fell and they went home sadly disappointed. Should any such outbreak occur as indicated, the white population of Fiji .would be in a very grave peril indeed.