Fijian Affairs.

Thames Star, Volume XI, Issue 3658, 16 September 1880, Page 2

Fijian Affairs.

(feom oub own cobbespondbnt.)

Levuka, 25th August, 1880. The arrival of the Vattuu from Auckland on Friday last with the dowb that Sir Arthur Gordon was appointed to the Governorship of New Zealand, was the cause of greater rejoicing in Levuka than any other event has been during the whole five years of his administration. The news spread like wildfire along the beach, and there was such hand-shaking, so much loud talking, so many smiling faces, that a stranger could not have attributed the reason to such a solemn event as the contemplated departure of our Governor should be. However, the jubilation did not end with this—champagne was freely drunk, flags were .hoisted, invitations for dinner parties issued, and a large number of natives were dispatched to collect timber for an enormous bonfire. The Governor hearing of these proceedings sent up word to the Fiji Times that he did not intend to relinquish the Government of Fiji, so if he keeps to that determination we are afraid the colonists of New Zealand will have to look elsewhere for a Governor; but it was thought by those who were best capable of giving an opinion that the message to the Fiji Times was merely a ruse to prevent the hostility to His Excellency taking any active shape. Had we not for all the time he has been here been such a peace-loving, community we should long ago have carried him on board a foreign bound vessel \ and insisted on his leaving the country; and in spite of himself we believe his departure now will be but a question of a month or two. If he goes to New Zealand—-and I have every reason to believe that he will—he will find himself in a very different position to that which he has occupied in Fiji, as here he is the Alpha and Omega, there he will merely be your servant. A constitutional colony will, I imagine, be very distasteful to him after so many years of Crown colonial life, and the tows that we anticipate between him and your legislators are already the subject of much discussion. We cannot congratulate you; but we trust the colonists of New Zealand will endeavor to fall in with his views, and that he will be a popular Governor. In the Legislative Council of Fiji the colonists are supposed to be represented by six unofficial members, who are selected by the Governor without any reference to the wish of the settlers. There are supposed to be four quarterly meetings every year, and during each sitting the Council meets three, four, or more times. There are seldom .more then two unofficial members present at any one meeting, although the Governor by special instructions from Her Majesty is empowered to appoint substitutes for absentees. The Legislative Council, of Fiji is really the voice of but one man — His Excellency Sir Arthur H.Gordon. The Press is excluded from it, and everything in this colony is done in a dark and mysterious manner. ; ' \ ' The Editor of our independent journal, the Fiji Times,! was offered by the Governor a lucrative appointment of five guineas a day,- extending over some weeks; and the editor, no doubt desirous of acknowledging , the favor, threw himself boldly into the arms of the Government. He has reaped his reward, and has been now appointed Acting-Attorney General, when of course his connection with the Fiji Times ceased; but the Governor gained his point by removing a dangerous adversary from his,path. We are approaching the time when the next great meeting of chiefs will be held. This year it is to be on Maafu's island of Loma Loma, and as he has invited several white men to be present at it, the proceedings will not be so secret as last year. It was then held at the island of Bau, and an ordinance was passed on the 10th day of November, 1879, making it penal for a white manbto approach within a quarter ot a mile of the island between the Ist December and the 15th January, consequently beyond the Government officials, no one knew what tcok place. This ordinance was numbered 26, and the ordinance published next in order (on 29th December) was also numbered 26 instead of 27. The reason presumed for this being that the Governor was subsequently so ashamed of having passed such an ordinance as the one published on the 10th November, that he dare not submit it to the eyes of Downing Street, and perhaps they have never seen it. It would be very amusing to find that they had not. ; Sir Arthur's rule in Fiji has not been a particularly happy one, either for natives or settlers, if things had remained under the old Government in the condition in which they were inaugurated previous to the date of annexation, the country would have been in a much more .prosperous condition at present than it is, and the natives would have been happier and far more contented. The natives have now to work from morning to night in Government gardens the whole year round, and native labor for planters is secretly prohibited by the Government. the natives are paid next to nothing for thoir services, consequently they have no money to spend ; the imports of drapery goods for their use has steadily fallen off every year since Sir Arthur Gordon's M Native Taxation Schemo" has been in force. The imports for the whole colony are also £3000, less for 1879 than for 1877, and the exports are £23,000 less in 1879 than in 1878. At a meeting of the Levuka Chamber of Commerce last week the, Chairman pointed out most strongly bow this "Scheme" was affecting the trade of the colony, and not locally but over the whole group.. The principal article of export is copra and a higher price was obtained for this in 1879 than ever before. And notwithstanding this higher price there is a falling off! The Governor takes credit for the amount of copra made by the natives; but to prove with hpw little reason he can dp so, the trees from which it is made were planted years before annexation. The natives have also made j a great deal of it from trees belong-: ing to white men, the nuts of which they stole j bnt as the settlers are gradually getting their Crown grants—when the natives will be unable to steal their nuts— the amount of copra produced by them will get less and less every year. The Fijian is now a British subject and a free man, and he ought not longer to remain a slave.to his cEief and to the Government. I Were he free, 9nd allowed to sell his prcduce and bis labor in any market he chose, as the Fijian seldom hoards money, the imports would increase to so great an extent on account of the articles he would bttjjr, that the customs duties from them would amount in a year or two to more than the.£20,003 which it is now alleged

is obtained under the Native Taxation . < Scheme, and there would then be no i necessity for taxing the Fijian specially at | ' all. We say alleged because the accounts |', connected with the scheme are not made public—they simply go through the hands of the Colonial Secretary, and he is'his own,auditor. Owing to the working of the Taxation Scheme, coupled with the Native Marriage Laws, the Fijiun population in rapidly and steadily decreasing. '.I lie Chairman of the Wesleyan Mission Society wrote to the paptr thes other day, and said that in a district with 7,100 inhabitants there had been in nine months 266 deaths against 213 births; and it is well known that the greatest mortality is amongst the young children. If the preseut system is persisted in, the native population of Fiji will iv about 40 years be numbered by hundreds as against thousands of to day. The principal grievance which is exciting the residents of Levuka just ik>w is the rumoured suddeu change of capital. There appears to be no necessity to remove it to Suva, to the injury of Levuka, for some yean to come, when the change might be sj gradual as to be scarcely perceptible; but whether the capital is removed or not, Levuka will always hold her own against any other place on account of her central position, and the convenience it is to the windward planters to come here. Suva has a great many drawbacks ; the chief one being that produce from the Ifewa district will be shipped from Lauthaea Bay, some seven miles distant, and will not go into Suva at all. Owing to the despotic manner in which we ha*e been governed by Sir Arthur Gordon, most of the spirit seems to be knocked out of the settlers. When the Lands Title Appeal Court commenced its sittings some months ago the proceedings thereat were conducted in such an unjust manner towards the white settlers, and so palpably in favor of the natives — otherwise of Her Britannic Majesty's Gorernment—that a petition was drawn up to send to Her Majesty, aud the form of it was to be ,• settled >at the July quarterly meeting of the Fiji Agricultural Society. The Governor hearing of this petition attended the meeting of the Society, of which he is patron, and delivered a prepared address, pointing out how useless it would be to send such a petition home, and using many untenable, though plausible, arguments against the members carrying out their determination. As the Agricultural Society did not care to offend their patron, they desisted from their intention, but other members of the community intend to send home a similar petition shortly. The Germans and Americans have each made a representation to their Consuls, and no doubt they will get attention paid to them; and if the above petition had reached home about the same time that their complaints do, the British subjects would have had a much better chance of being listened to. The grievance is this: That the Governor in Council having decided the claim—the Governor as Chairman of the Appeal Court has power to reject the appeal. Claimants are not allowed to, plead before any Court of Law I Some, however, are determined to try the question, and hope, like Mr Busby, of New Zealand, to eventually obtain their rights. Had Fiji been lucky enough to, have had such a man as Sir Julius Vogel for her first Governor, the position she would have been in to day would have been one we cannot now hope to attain for many years to come. - ;