THE FUTURE OF FIJI.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 196, 16 February 1912, Page 5

THE FUTURE OF FIJI.

DISCUSSED BY AN EX-GOVERNOR.

By Cable—Press Association—Copyright.

Received 15, 10 p.m. London, February 15. Sir E. Im Thurn, ex-Governor of Fiji and High Commissioner of the Western Pacific, in an article in the Quarterly Review on Fiji as a Crown Colony, states that the native question is complicated by the introduction of colored labor, which some Australians reprobated, and wrongly held the view it was better that the island be left in an undeveloped stated than to be developed by natives from elsewhere. Manual labor in the tropics must largely be supplied by colored importation. This was essential where indigenous labor was insufficient. Besides Canada's, Australia's and New Zealand's interests in the Pacific islands, the United States, Japan, Germany and France were also concerned, and were strengthening their positions and political influence. Britain should do the same.

There were strong the writer says, why the Pacific islands at present should not be annexed by either Australia or New Zealand, despite their geographical position and their commercial interests, but the time had come to assist Fiji towards the point where it could pass from a Crown Colony and join the United Dominion of Australasia.