A.—3,

10

enforcing such powers, by proceedings for penalties or otherwise, and shall be subject to all the conditions, limitations, and restrictions in the performence of such duties as are contained and enacted in the said Town Ordinance, with reference to the powers and duties of the Warden and Town Board appointed thereunder. 111. The Warden, when directed by the Governor so to do, shall transmit to the Colonial Secretary an estimate of the probable amount which will be required during the ensuing twelvemonths for the making, maintenance, and management of any roads, streets, bridges, or other public works within the Town of Suva. Such estimate shall be laid before the Legislative Council, who shall fix the amount which may be expended for the above purposes, and such amount shall be raised by an assessment and rates upon all rateable property within the Town of Suva, such assessment to be made and such rate levied or otherwise recovered in the same manner in all respects as assessments and rates under the Towns Ordinance, 1877. Provided that the valuation of such rateable property for the ensuing year may be made at any time which the Governor shall ajmoint, and that there shall be the same right in any person to appeal from such valuation as if the assessment were made under the provisions of the Towns Ordinance aforesaid. IV. The rate shall be collected by the Warden, and paid by him to the Beceiver-General, and the Beceiver-General shall expend the same upon the purposes for which it was levied in such manner and in such proportions as may be fixed and determined by the Governor, and any such rate, if unpaid, and overdue, shall, together with the costs of recovering the same, be a charge upon the rateable property in respect of which it is due, in the same way and to the same extent as is enacted of overdue rates under the Towns Ordinance, 1877. V. If at any time while this Ordinance continues in force, the Governor shall by Proclamation establish a Common School for the Town of Suva, the Warden for the time being appointed under Section 11. shall have all the powers and duties which would be possessed by a School Board of Suva, duly constituted under the provisions of Ordinance No. X. of 1882 : Provided that the amount to be raised for the purposes of such school shall be fixed by the Legislative Council, and shall be raised in the same manner as is hereinbefore provided for the rate for public works within the Town of Suva. VI. This Ordinance may be cited as " The Temporary Suva Ordinance, 1882." Passed in Council this sixth clay of December, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and eighty-two.

ANNEXUBES. [Extract from the Fiji Times, 7th November, 1883.] Sie, — To the Editor of the "Fiji Times." The oppressive course of action adopted by the Government against the European settlers, is defended by officialdom as necessary in view of the welfare of the native race. But similarly highhanded methods are pursued in respect to the Fijians themselves, and their real needs are as disregarded, their just demands treated with as much scoVn, as ours. The latest instance is in respect to the Bokoship of this province (Lomai Viti). The taukei have hitherto regarded themselves and been regarded as belonging to Bau, and as subject only to a Boko Tui taken from the great ruling Bau family. There is the strongest evidence that this view is the natural and correct one. Namata (Province of TaiLevu), on the mainland near Bau, is also a dependency, and one of even less importance ; yet Batu Marika, of Namata, is, in opposition to the distinctly-expressed wishes and protest of the Lomai Viti Chiefs, forced upon them as their Boko. This people ask, "When did our ancestors and we send mata to Namata, as to Bau? Where are the houses for our reception at Ngamata, as at Bau? Our ancestors and we are degraded and insulted by this appointment. Against Batu Marika, as an individual, we have nothing to say, but his gods were not our gods, nor ours his. Why should a stranger be forced upon us ? Why should our revered traditions and customs, our very family honour, be gratuitously outraged? If the Governor insists on making Batu Marika a Boko Tui and will not place us under Boko Tui Tai Levu, why not promote Boko Tui Ba to Lomai Viti, and send Batu Marika to Ba kei Yasawa ? Boko Tui Ba is a high Bau Chief who would have a right to our obedience and whom we would gladly obey, but Namata and his Chiefs we do not know and will not serve." All the Bau connection of course sympathize with their vei wekani, and those who are not so related feel that, under the present regime, they may at any time be similarly dealt with, without reason and without hope of redress. The Governor, when he treated the Chiefs so courteously (?) at Cakobau's funeral, warned them against listening to Europeans who sought to taint them with their own disloyalty. The Fijians are not disloyal: they venerate Her Majesty and British constitutional law as highly as we do, but there is among them as among us very grave dissatisfaction at the arbitrary rule now in vogue. For the causes of this there is no need to seek for supposititious disloyalty among the colonists, but His Excellency may find it much nearer home. I enclose my card, and subscribe myself by the name of what we all urgently require. I am, &c. Levuka, November sth, 1883. Na Uli Vou. [The subjoined letter has reference to a large block of land at Bua, Vanua Levu. The land was surveyed with the full knowledge and concurrence of the Chief and people concerned, who, for the purposes required by Government, assisted the surveyor in every way.] The Govebnment and Land Claims. Sie, — *To the Editor of the " Fiji Times."* I have understood from statements made at various times by, or on behalf of, the Government, that it fully recognizes the right of the native taukies to the use and enjoyment of lands which

* The Fiji Times is taken by all settlers in the group, and by numbers of them the hostile and suspicion-breeding articles and letters it contains are read (translated) to the natives.—J.B.T.