THE GOVERNOR OF FIJI

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXI, Issue 19, 7 May 1903, Page 4

THE GOVERNOR OF FIJI

INDIGNATION MEETING IN LEVUKA.

It will bo remembered that at a Methodist Confererence held m Sydney in March it was decided that the Imperial Government should be memorialised., and thenattention directed to the disturbing influence alleged to have been caused by the appointment of a Catholic Governor. The New Zealand Methodists, at their Conference at Christchurch later on recommended the Boai d of Missions to communicate with the British Government their strong sense of the unsuitabihty of the appointment of a Catholic Governor to Fni.

When the purport of these resolutions became known in Fiji the greatest indignation was aroused, and a ■well-attended public meeting was held in .Lev uka lor tho purpose of protesting against the action ot the Methodist bodies in these colonies. We take the account of the proceedings, necessarily condensed, noiu the 'Polynesian Gazette' of April 4. r l he meeting was held in the Oddfellows' Hall, Captain Robbie, Warden, presiding

Mr 1). «7 Solomon, in proposing the lirst u'solution, said they luul met there th.it evening to pi otest against the action of religious bodies in Australia or elsewhere interfering with the j olitics of the cole m He hoped jthat the chairman would .see that no leligious discussion was allowed It seemed a most peculiai thing that such resolutions would le passed b> an\ religious body, and he might sa> it was impudence on the part of the Methodist Mission to ask lor the recall oi any man, Governor, or atnone else on account of his religion When we in Levula wei c agitating lor ledeiation, when religious bodies could ha\ c helped us, what did they do '> Stood aside ' t'lid now because a ceitam leligious sect had got a knock, they cried out and wanted things their own way Again we ha\e a resolution by the same body, something about th. pea< c ot Fiji Tins is an old civ We hen id how the natnes weie going to rise whilst the agitation foi iedeiation was going on, and again when this last distui bance occutied but .so far there is no risintr nor is theie hkelv to be although Mr Duncan tells the people of Australia Justly ' they only want a leader for a rising ' . shoitlv after that ' the native is the happiest of the British subiects ' Gentlemen, we in Levuka have neaily always l>ei n against the Go\einenint, anyway we have never t'sked for a Governor to stay, but now we are m the unique position of upholding the Governor and denouncing those vrho asked for his recall . and why '> IVc ai.se he ,s the only man who has ever rially shown us he wishes to do something for Fiji Before our delegates went to Suva on the question of representation this Govemoi had already written Home proposing it, and when the delegates visited him he was only too irlad to talk the matter over and consult those who knew the i equn einent s of Fiji. . . We have eveiy confidence in Sir- 17 M Jackson ; we do not wish him lciroved We in Fiji am; the people to ask for the recall of the Governor ' not outsiders, and when we ask for such a thing 1 think it is time for the Home Ofhce to take action W> in Fni do not want to know any man's religion and any nan that is competent for the position of Governor, it does not matter what his leligion is (Resolution lead as follows) —'That this meeting irotests against the action of religions bodies in Australia nn'l New Zealand interfering in the politics of this colony and view with surprise and alarm their intention of petitioning for the removal of Sir IT M Jackson, ,!s Governor of Fin, on the scoie of his lelieion, nnd fin t her we wish to e\ press our entire confidence in the ability, justness and courtesy displavod by Sir II i\f Jackson ;s Governor up to the present moment ot his Governorship ot this colony '

Mr Carr said he had inurh pleasure mi 'runidiii" th" proposition nnd he could .ilso ihotoiiL'lih eneloi se nil that Mr Solomon had said. ITe noticed that it had

been lemarked m New Zealand that Fiji was a special field for Wesleyan missionary enterprise. This was quite true if applied all round, but it was not and could not be considered an enclosed field to the exclusion of equal oppoitunities to all other missionary efToi ts The Government had no moie right to fa\or any particular lehgion or sect than it had to favor the interests of any particular trader, and thus was well borne out by the lacts, because the Christian population of natives was last dying out and was much faster being replaced hy a Mahometan population. It wab iuu dly necessary to point out that New Zealand and some of the Australian colonies had had Roman Catholic Governors A succes&lul Governor-General *?of India had been a Homan Catholic, while judges and many other high appointments were held by them ; in fact a man's religion was not taken account of by the British Government at all. J hose met there that night were not so much doing an act ot justice to the Governor as to themselves. It would be a disgrace to allow our Governor to be maligned by strangers when we have had nothing but fairness and impartiality from him.

The resolution was carried unanimously Mr. S. Wilson said that Sir William Hackett, the best Judge the colony ever had was a Roman Catholic He well remembered when the Attorney-General used the word 'expediency ' before him, he said': ' Mr. AttorneyGeneral, this is a court of law and does not recognise the word "expediency" Let me never hear that word in this court again.' In moving that the foregoing resolution be forwaided to his Excellency the Governor, lor tiansniihsion to the Secretary of State for the Colonies, Mr Wilson further said,' as one of the oldest colonists, in Fiji, |1 beg to deprecate any introduction of the religious element into the politics of the colony Messrs. S. Edwards and W. Craig also spoke in supr port of the resolutions. The latter said he was sorry that such a question had been brought up as to religion, but was of opinion that we were quite able to work out our- salvation and grind our own axe. We did not wish to see these axes being ground on a religious stone. 3t seemed extraordinary that the religious Mews held by the Governor should' interfere with his position of Governor. The Governor had done all he could to improve the condition of the colony. By some it may be consideied that tho Governor was not the article ordered, but his Excellency had grasped the necessity for a change, and had himself recommended Representative Government

In the course of a letter to the ' Western Pacific Herald,' of April 15, the Rev A J. Small, channian of the Methodist Mission, Fiji, wrote : — ' During the few months that his Excellency has resided in our midst he has won the* esteem o"f all by his impartiality and Christian courtesy To myself and colleagues he has, troin the first, shown marked kindness, has visited several of our mission Stations, addressed our native ministeis, teachers, and students in wends that they warmly appreciate, and, moil-over, has borne generous and unstinted testimony to the good woik, that God has enabled this mission to accomplish in these on> c savage isles Speaking for mysell and colleagues, we have strong hopes that under his Kxcellency 's able adnimisti ation the best interests of all classes oi the' community will be piomoteel, ami that at the expiration ol his teizn of oflice he will retire with even a higher leputatmn than he brought with linn to these she>res '

When the letter iiom (lie Rev Mr Small appealed in our last issue csavs the ' Heialel ') it was lelt by .several ol our leading citi/ens that in v ie'W ol the e-\tieme resolutions which had been parsed by the> Weslevan C'onterence m Australia, m reference' to his Kxcellency, tho lefteM- should be nnnieeliatelv cabled to Sydney to rebut the stateme'iils made in that city, and the infeiences which would nattnallv be> drawn theieirom '

'1 he le)lle>wing cable message, signed by the) leading citi/e'iis of Suva, was loiwarded te> Sydney <oi publication — The opinion given i ospectini" the> Coveinoi ill the letter fremi the- chairman ol the Wesle>\an Mission m Fiji, published by Ihe> local Pi ess, is endoised by undersigned and Fuiopeaiis generally m Fiji

One of the Pope's oldest Chambeilains writes to the

'Westminster Ga/e'tte ' — ' r l hough it is true that the hoi.se cannot be identified where the 1 Pope staved when in London, it is ceit.nn that he staved either in Regent street or just out ot that street, clo.se to the Warwick street chapel His Holiness told me this himself after his election, when 1 was in waiting at the Vatican as one> of his Chamber lams (Camenere Segrolo), and I made a note of it at the time ' r J he statement would seem to confirm that of the 1 late Re'\ Monsignor Talbot as forwaick'd to us by the Rev Sir D O Hunter-Blair.

Mr W Rourke Cockrnn telegraphed to Mr John Redmond the chairman of the Irish Nationalist Parliamentary Party th.it although he was progressing satisfactorily towards health he reqiets that it would be impossible lor him to attend the Insh National Convention in Dublin as he had | nmuscd to do Mr Cockian fell ill while on a visit 1o Vultnd Blunt, who lives eveiv Winter in a desert near- Assouan Fgv pt m regular Arab t.ishion even weaimii Arab (iiess 11 is wile, Lady AnnJ>lunt is a »>i and-dauuht er ol Lord Byron.

Dr D M () Donnell, ol Melbourne, who had been spending a short holulav in Svdiiev was entertained by his inanv acimueis in Ihe \'ew South Wales capital at a garden party he-Id at the' jjieiunds of Riveivrew College, and in the evening at a dinner given at the Woolpack Inn, i'at raniatt a