THE Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1880.

Thames Star, Volume XI, Issue 3729, 7 December 1880, Page 2

THE Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1880.

"Whatever was required to be done, the Circumlocution Office was beforehand with all the public departments in the art of perceiving How Not to Do It."— Little Dorrit, Ch.X.

Thus wrote the immortal novelist Charles Dickens, and the same remark is applicable to the state of things existing in Fiji previous to His Excellency Sir Arthur Gordon's departure from that fertile spot in the Pacific. He appears to have qualified himself for the position of Lord Decimus Barnacle at the head of the Circumlocution Office, and his great abilities and learning fully convinced him that all governors who endeavored to practice the art of ci Sow to do it" were laboring under a most egregious error. Sir Arthur Gordon, as will be seen from our Fiji correspondent's letter, has practiced the art of " How not to do it" so successfully that when he departed from Levuka he was feasted and made merry over, and the merry bells, and bonfires of the populace proclaimed the joy they felt in getting rid of him. "He was most cordially hated in Fiji,'! writes our correspondent. There must have been some grave cause of complaint against His Excellency, when the whole of the colonists treated him with such contumely, and that he made himself obnoxious to them there is no doubt. Sir Arthur Gordon stated that " Fiji was not a white man's colony " —neither Iwould it ever be if the devotees of the Exeter Hall Party had their way. That great party, among whom we suspect are numberless Barnacles, has had the effect of causing more trouble by far than any good it has accomplished. Sir Arthur Gordon has no doubt been the puppet used by the Exeter Hall wire pullers, in his dealings with the native owners of those islands. The white men who have made such marked and valuable improvements in Fiji, are left wholly and solely unprotected; while the Fijians, whose highest idea of life is,confined to eating and drinking, have every protection extended to them. There has been too much making fish of one, and flesh of another in Fiji, and it is to be hoped that the

gentleman succeeding to the gubernatorial office at Levuka will exercise his authority with more wisdom and impartiality than did the late High Commissioner of Polynesia. If he does not, he will probably find himself treated with the same deserved contempt. From the Mauritius Commercial Gazette of October 22, 1874, too, we learn that the Queen's subjects in that dependency did not at all appreciate Sir A. H. Gordon, who was administering the laws of the Crown in that place at the time; w,hile the Madras Mail said that the " Colonial Office has acted wisely in selecting a man like Sir Arthur Phayre to succeed the blundering and unpopular Sir Arthur Gordon." From these facts it would seem that Sir Arthur has made himself a bete noire wherever he has been stationed, and it is to be devoutly hoped he will not do the same in New Zealand as he did in the other dependencies of the British Crown. If he endeavours to carry, matters here with a high hand, and makes himself as disagreeable as he has hitherto done, he will find that a hornet's nest would be preferable to the position in which he will find himself.

They have a judge also in Fiji who has only one equal in our minds—Mr Fang, in "Oliver Twist" —who so far as we may judge by the newspapers is a moat remarkable gentleman. He appears to be arbitrary and unjust in his decisions, and it is asserted denies the colonists of Fiji the privilege .of trial by. jury. This expositor of legal technicalities, and decider on legal quibbles has Quixotic notions of his own power, and presides over his court with a tyranny indescribable. Here is an extract from the Commercial Gazette, Mauritius, of March 21, 1876: " He has frightened some subordinate policemen out of their wits; tortured morally, witnesses deposing before him; abused a few solicitors; silenced one or two advocates ; threatened notaries; quashed the judgments, whether rightly or wrongly is not the question of a magistrate or so; bearded the protector of immigrants; insulted the subardinato procureur - general, overborne his brother judges; dictated to the ministere public; and trifled with the Governor in Executive Council." These are only a few of the pleasing peculiarities of this eccentric specimen of human nature, but such a list of offences is placed against him, that would damn him in the minds of any honest man. Poor Fiji, truly your troubles are great! However, your motto should fca the same as that of the ancients, and altering the name to suit the occasion' it would stand thus: "Nil desperandum! Dcs Voeuxduce et auspice Dcs Voeux.',' You have succeeded in getting rid of an objectionable Governor, and your next stsp should lbs to give Mr Justice Gorrie his walking ticket, with a polite wish that it will I;long ere he returns to resume his official duties.