FIJI'S GREATEST PROBLEM.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 114, 30 September 1912, Page 4

FIJI'S GREATEST PROBLEM.

NEW ZEALAND JOURNALIST'S IMPRESSIONS. CRIME IN INDIAN QUARTERS. Just how great a problem Fiji has to solve in dealing with its Indian population was recounted to a Star representative by Mr. T. D. Taylor, who arrived in Auckland,last week by the Makura. Mr. Taylor is an erstwhile New Zealander, who has for some time been editing and managing the Fiji Times, and the control of the coolie is one of the problems in the Crown colony which has most closely engaged his attention. At the last census it was ascertained that the Indian population totalled 42,000, the European 4000, and the Fijian 90,000Mr. Taylor admits, to begin with, that without the Indians there would be no industrial Fiji, and without the Colonial Sugar, Company no commercial Fiji. Sisal, rubber, copra and fruit are all industries with possibilities, but sugargrowing is the main business proposition ef the group. The natives are too lax and too lazy to man the industry, so that the importation of the Indian worker is imperative. They come under indenture for a period of five years, but after their contracts expire they ar« free, and it is only a very small percentage that goes back to India. So it is that there are ten Indians to every white man in this Crown colony. Free of their indenture, they take up land, and it now happens that for nine miles along the Nasinu road from Suva Indians have secured all the best frontages. Those to whom they are indentured ar# compelled by law to provide almost palatial habitations during the period of their indenture,. but immediately they become free citizens the Indians are content to live in wretched and insanitary dwellings, which become a menace to th« health of the community. They also become entitled to the franchise, and at the last municipal election a Chinaman was elected, largely on the vote of the Indian populace. The modus operandi followed in such elections is declared by Mr. Taylor to be absolutely unfair, and to constitute a violation of the secrecy of the ballot.

Most of the crime committed in Fiji is, Mr. Taylor says, traceable to the Indian section of A ' e community. A recent cable indicated that two Indians, condemned to death, went back to their cells singing comic songs. That, he declares, is typical of the absolute placidity of the Indian criminal. Both murders, committed before Mr. Taylor left the group, were terribly brutal. In the first an Indian employed on road work at Suva was reprimanded by a superior for not having properly carried out his duties. Immediately after the had been administered, the Indian borrowed his overseer's sharpening stone, whetted his gross-cutting knife, and then coolly severed the overseer's head from his body, after which he went on with his work. In the second case, an Indian boy was reported to his mistress by an Indian girl for improper behaviour. The boy retaliated by hacking the girl to pieces. Yet another brutal .murder, which recently occurred that at 'Momi, where the Indian lighthousekeeper took an unauthorised holiday. The light went out in his absence, and another keeper was apwakited. The absentee returned to fiisu his place filled, and the new keeper refusing to vacate the post, the Indian made him captive, drenched him with kerosene, and burned him alive. The fatalism of the Indian, and the belief in reincarnation, is considered by Mr. Taylor to be one reason why crimes of this description so frequently occur in the group. The problem, therefore, is one which is seriously vexing the minds of the white population of Fiji. Already possessing 40,000 Indians in the group, and receiving additions at the rate of 2000 or more per season, the position is one for some concern. It is estimated that not more than 20 per cent, return to India. Asked whether the contract could not be made to include compulsory return at the completion of their term of indenture, Mr. Taylor said that that was the policy which the authorities in Samoa pursued in regard to the importation of Chinese labor, but just how Fiji would grapple with this, itsgreatest problem, remained to be seen.