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Thames Star, Volume X, Issue 3171, 18 April 1879, Page 2

A FE"Vf days ago we published a telegraphic item from Fiji stating that the Levuka "Chamber of Commerce had transmitted a petition to the Queen against the-present native taxation, and condemning the policy of Sir Arthur Gordon." The system of Native taxation in Fiji is most iniquitous, and certainly requires the intervention of the Home Government—in fact it is a system of legalised slavery. Under the provisions of the Native Plantations Act, "the poor ground down natives are compelled to work on the plantations— to pay a poll tax for the right to exist on their native soil. After the crops raised by this native labor have been sold, the amount of the tax is deducted from the proceeds, and the natives are handed back the paltry balance, if any, as payment for their hard labor; More frequently than otherwise the crops do not yield more than the amount of the tax, when the cultivators go unremunerated. Besides paying the Government tax, the natives are illegally taxed by their own chieftains, and have no redress. Some time ago a Fijian chief had a vessel built for him in Auckland, to pay for which he taxed his subjects all round. The natives, however, were to have the right to travel free in the vessel from one island to another. Some little time ago the chief died, and the vessel fell into the hands of another Fijian ranga-

tira, who abolished the right of the people of the previous owner to travel in her, but, as we saw by a recent copy of a Fijian paper, was endeavoring to again lax the people for the refitting of the boat; and this is .winked at by the Government, who, to secure the friendship of the chiefs, permits them to scourge and otherwise tyrannise over their unfortunate subjects. Fijian human nature can, perhaps, stand a good deal, but there must be a limit even to their endurance of tyranny and oppression, and, perhaps, some day we will be sorrowfully reading the news of a fearful outbreak at these Islands. Well may the Chamber of Commerceas in the words of the calogram—condemn the policy of Sir Arthur Gordon, and so should every right-thinking subject of the British Empire, whose chief boast is that all living under its flag are free.

The County Council authorised their engineer to see that steam was got up in the Big Pump boilers to-day, and a turn given to the engine. The balance bob is to be lifted, and the pump put in such a state that it may be started when required. We are requested by the County Chairman to contradict the report that the County Council hare had an offer of £6000 for their interest in the pumping securities. The rumor jprobably originated from a private letter the County authorities received from their Auckland agent, asking if they would dispose of the securities for that Bum. , We are sorry to learn from a private communication that Mr Jerome Cadman, J.F., one of our earliest settlers, is lying dangerously ill at Coromandel.—Herald. ' The disclosure of the real secret of the .Kellys being at large involves a humiliating admission of. blunted public .morals. By way of illustration :—>A. respectablydressed old man presented himself at the office of a newspaper published not far from Wilcannia, and asked for a copy with the latest news of the Kelly gang. Having obtained one, he requested the editor to read it to him, which"the editor did. " Poor boys," said the sympathetic listener, "many a day's work they did for me. Success to them."—JEgles. Some days ago His Worship the Major received a telegram from the Chairman of the N.Z. Commissioners for the Sydney Exhibition,"asking that steps might be taken to form a local committee for the purpose of collecting exhibits. The Mayor communicated with the County Council requesting cooperation, and the result has been that the County Chairman and Messrs Porter and Carpenter have been appointed local commissioners. It is probable that at the Borough Council meeting to-night the municipal authorities will take steps in a similar direction. ■

We sincerely regret to learn that Mr H. A. Cleary, Secretary to the Thames Scottish Volunteers, died last night from an affection of the lungs. As he has been for a long time connected with the volunteers, it is probable he will be accorded the honor of a military funeral. The deceased leaves a wife and family totally unprovided for. V

We have heard of many instances of Justice's justice, but one of the great unpaid in our midit, in order to mark his first appearance on the Bench, took a novel way of hansling his appointment and at the samel administering the law of the land. It seems the case brought before him was one of drinking— not wisely, but too well, and our worthy, in the fiercest manner possible, inflicted a fine of 10s, or 48 hours' imprisonment, at the same time looking as if he could hold forth upon the wickedness of drinking to excess, and the pernicious effects of the intemperate habits of society; but in place of doing so, he handed the Clerk of the Court, from the seat of judgment, the sum of 12 shillings, the delinquent's fine, and costs. "Justice, tempered with mercy," should be adopted by the latest addition to the ranks of the glorious company of the great unpaid, as his motto, when he applies, as in due course he will, to the Herald office for a crest and coat of arms.

The following was recently telegraphed to the Australasian by their Sandhurst correspondent:—A man named Richard Dowsey attempted a rather sensational role, on Saturday night, about half-past 11' o'clock, by walking into Lloyd's Arcade Hotel, in Hargreaves street, and representing himself to be Steve Hart, one of the members of the notorious Kelly gang. The fellow, whose appearance unmistakably showed that he had been on an extended debauch, delivered himself of. a cock-and-bull story, to the effect that he had just ridden from Echuca with the Kellys, and the remainder of the gang might be expected at the hotel. The landlord with a customer were called upon to " bail up," and singular to say, although the man did not produce even a detective's popgun, they at once complied with the request, and,the former even walked at the bidding of the pseudobushranger to the stables at the back, in order that it might be ascertained whether the accomodation they afforded would be suitable for the discriminating tastes of the bushrangers' horses. On the return of the party to the bar, another man happened -to 'dropin. He was called upon to walk behind the bar, and meanwhile the landlord was compelled to supply liqnor to the whole lot. The Jast man who entered, however, flatly re fused to .comply with the demand to bail up, and while the pretended bushranger and he were wrangling about the matter, the landlord slipped out and obtained the services of a policeman. Dowsey. was then arrested without much trouble, and was taken to the lock-up, where he was recognised as a man who had only last week been discharged from gaol, after serving a sentence of'three months for larceny at Kerang. He was brought before the Bench at the City Police Court this morning, when he was fined 10s, or in default three days' imprisonment for his joke.

The Herald says:—ln a communication from a Wellington correspondent on the subject of the Otago Land Company which we published on the Ist inst., the following passage occurs:—"lt is said that a considerable sum of money is to come to the promoters in New Zealand, and that two of these promoters are Ministers of the Crown. The two gentlemen named are, it seems, Mr Ballance and Mr Stout." We are now glad to be able to state, on authority, that these gentlemen have nothing whatever to do with this company or its promoters, and regret that our correspondent should have been made the medium for .propagating a canard. It is of the utmost importance that our public men should be "clean handed "

and above suspicion, and that is why we have found it necessary to ventilate the subject and to pass strictures upon Sir Julius Vogel's connection with this company, which though perhaps defensible in the case of a private individual, is improper on the part of the Agent-General for New Zealand. No doubt more will bo beard of the matter when the Assembly meets, but in the meantime it is. satisfactory to learn that Ministers have not been influenced by any personal interest in the action they have taken with the AgentGeneral relative to this company.