FIJIAN AFFAIRS.

Thames Star, Volume XI, Issue 3681, 12 October 1880, Page 2

FIJIAN AFFAIRS.

(FJIOM OUB OWN COBBESPONDBNT.)

Levuka, 2nd October, 1880.

By the arrival of the s.s. Suva from Melbourne last week the residents of Levuka were made further acquainted, with the utter contempt in which the Governor holds us, as we received by her files of the Argus and the Age, in which the sales of Crown lands at Suva had been advertised since 16th August, and yet not a word had been breathed even to the clerks in the Government offices m Fiji that such sales were about to take place. Seldom has a more genuine outburst of public indignation found forcible and universal expression than that which followed upon this announcement reaching , the community, as it did through the columns of journals published £000 miles distant, and when it was seen how pitiably insignificant a, character we are compelled by the Governor to assume before the outside world. One would have thought that by his last acts in this Colony he would have endeavored to' conciliate public opinion, but so far from that being the case he seems determined to leave Fiji followed by the execrations of everyone. The Observer of 18th September says of Sir Arthur Gordon :■— " Those who are personally acquainted with him are unanimous as to his urbanity and suavity of manner," &c. It would be a pity to knock down their idol,' but we shall read with eagerness you' opinions of him six months hence. We wish you joy of him. Mr W. J. Hunt formerly of Auckland, but at present Chief-Secretary and Minister of Lands for Malietoa, King of Samoa, has also felt the power of Sir Arthur's autocracy. Some six weeks ago he issued an order of prohibition against Mr Hunt remaining in Samoa, and in order to prevent bloodshed (as the Samoans, who are all in favor of Mr Hunt, wished him to stay with them, and they would fight for him) accepted the position, and came down to Fiji, and took advice on the business. The result is that a few days ago Sir Arthur Gordon was served with a writ at the suit of Mr Hunt, who claims only the modest sum of £2000 as damages. Some 2\ years ago Sir Arthur caused Mr Hunt to be singled out of the whole community in Samoa and imprisoned in Fiji for taking part in the lynching of the man Corcoran in 1877, when Hunt's only part in the affair was fetching a clergyman to pray with Corcoran for the. few hours that the infuriated residents allowed him to live. As soon as ever the papers reached Home with Mr Hunt's trial in, he was granted a free pardon by Her Majesty, and ordered to be set at liberty. This order of prohibition therefore looks like persecution, but whilst the case is sub judice, we refrain from further comment. Unfortunately in this colony no one has any respect for the Chief Justice's decisions, as his temper is so violent that he allows himself to be carried away by it, and consequently his decisions are guided by his feelings more than by law or justice. Although he has quarreled with most of the men-of-war visiting Fiji, socially over the whiskey bottle, (he is a Scotchman) he is an amusing companion; but mention of one or .two matters will enable you to judge of his official character. A man named Mair who was t suffering from ophthalmia and confined to a dark room, was wanted as a witness before the court. His medical man, told him that if ho went out of the room he would lose the sight of his eye, and he gave him a certificate to that effect, but as the Judge; had sent for him, this certificate only increased his wrath at his not coming, and he sent word that if Mair did not come he would be fetched. Mair knowing that he would keep his word, went. The doctor's warning proved true. Mair is now totally blind in that eye. The Jud^e sits with two assessors without a jury, but in this Crown Colony qf a severe type that palladium of our birthlight is not allowed to British subjects';- Whatever the decision of the assessors, it makes no difference to the verdict. If they both say " not guilty" the Judge can and does say :—" I do not agree with you, I give him 12 months' imprisonment," A man was indicted for shooting at a Fijian with intent. There was no evidence, and it was purely by accident that the gun exploded. Prisoner would have been discharged, but wishing to prove his entire innocence to the Court asked that his wife might be called to prove it. Contrary to English law, the Judge allowed the prisoner's own wife to goiato the witness box to give evidence for her husband, and when she" was there he so bullied and frightened her that he made her say whatever he wanted her to say, and although both the assessors found him not guilty he gave him 12 months. This was au old Crimean here, a man- with a good character, and a hard working, industrious, and steady fellow. ' The Captain of alabo* vesselhad occasion when on a cruise to tell one of his crew, a savage, that he should punish him when he got back to Levuka, This man, about a month afterwards, went to a labor agent on board, when the Captain was on shore, and told him that some weeks before the Captain had told him to fire at some savages who were threatening to shoot at them, and that he shot and killed some of them. The labor agent entered this statement in his log without first speaking to the Captain about it, and about three weeks after the Captain returned to Levuka, he was indicted on the unsupported testimony of this savage, and convicted before the Judge and two Govern* ment officials for assessors and sentenced to nine months imprisonment, and fined £25.

Aa American citizen was indicted for the manslaughter of a child by ill using its mother; As the child was born in Fiji the prisoner ought to hare had a jury, but the Judge would not allow him, one as he wanted to punish the prisoner, and he gave him a term of imprisonment. An old settler in Fiji, aa English gentleman's son, honest, hard-working and industrious, with a wife and four small children, received five years penal servitude, for calling a Fijian " a nigger." He was indicted for shooting with intent, &c, and the evidence proved that the Fijian was trespassing in the prisoner's garden, and when told to go was impertinent, and struck the prisoner a violent biow across the thigh with a heavy bamboo. He ran to get a stick too, but seeing the gun outside the house he took it up, and instead of returning to where the prisoner stood on the river bank he went to a yard lower down the river, and without taking e:m he fired the gun off to frighten the Fijian. The Fijian, as soon as he struck the prisoner, jcjjped into the rirer and swam

across, and when prisoner fired he was about 104 yards distant, and only the back of his woolly head was visible above the water, yet he said a shot hit him in the forehead. The gun was an old mus« ket used for frightening birds, and was loaded with small shot and half a charge of. powder. The complainant said in cross-examination that he cut his forehead with a piece of bamboo, and then when it was pointed out to him by a leading question by counsel for the Crown how inconsistent this was with his statement that he was shot, he said he cut it because of the pain the shot caused him. "When asked whether he had anything to say, the prisoner said "the nigger was trespassing, and he only came out of bravado." This was too much for Judge Gorrie, the champion of the Aborigines Protection Society. Mr Chippendall was tried some months ago for manslaughter, the fact being that. about three weeks before one of his labourers died; he had given him a sort of half-push, half-kick with the side of his foot, having a pair of canvas shoes on at the time. Although a medical man could have proved that the man died from congestion of the lungs, Mr Chippendall was not permitted to call him, but committed for trial. A barrister from Sydney was retained for the defence, and Mr Chippendall was honorably acquitted, although Mr Justice Garrie tried his utmost to secure a conviction. As this case has been taken up by the House of Commons, and a Royal Commission of Enquiry into the conduct of sir Arthur Gordon promised by Mr Grant Duff, Mr Chippendall is now on his way home to give evidence before the Commission. . The " Vagabond " has been spending two or three months in Fiji, and he delivered a lecture the other evening to a crowded house. He is a better writer than a lecturer, and the truth, told in his forcible if not strictly polite language, seemed to grate on the ears of such a loyal and law-abiding community as we are. He regretted the absence of the Irish element in Fiji, saying that he would rather be next to an Irishman than anyone else in a row. As the Governor is so soon, leaving us there is no reason now why we should take "The Vagabond's " advice and deport him.