ALLEGED BIBLE BURNING IN FIJI COMMENTS ON THE REPORT' BY A FIJIAN RESIDENT

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXI, Issue 26, 25 June 1903, Page 4

ALLEGED BIBLE BURNING IN FIJI COMMENTS ON THE REPORT' BY A FIJIAN RESIDENT

The alleged Bible-burning in Fiji (says the Sydney Ireemans Journal') was so thoroughly explained at the time and the incident was so colliding to the dust-bin of things forgotten, that the report of the three Commissioners ' deputed to mqune into charges which somehow had mislned at the proper moment came upon a public already convinced that there was no mala fides 'on the Catholic side. All the same the report was given prominent publicity in the ' S M Herald ' and ' Daily Telegraph ' ol the oth instant. The report, which was signed by the Re\ George Brown the Rev George Lane, and the Hon William Robson MJL C was presented to a meeting of the Methodist Board of Missions in Sydney, and reserved for discussion at a subsequent meeting. The repoi t, though it labors to explain away both the wholesale Namosi conversions to Catholicism, and to fix the alleged Naihhli Bible-burning as an act of wanton insult to Protestant sentiment, is not by any means the formidable document one might expect as the confirmation of charges lormulated for the Methodist meetings of a few months back. Moreover it will be observed that the Catholic Governor of Fiji is qiuite a different sort of personage to the one painted by his detractors at the various Methodist conlerences which a lew months ago attempted to • damn him to tame ' Mr. James B Turner, in a letter to the S\ dney Morning Herald,' deals as follows with the ' report ' of the Methodist special commission referred to in the last issue of the ' N Z. Tablet ' :

' I ha\e read the report of the Methodist special commission re the burning of Bibles by the Roman Catholics in Fiji, and would like to say a few words thereon. The leport commences thus : " 1 That the perversion at Namosi was in no way the resVilt of reJigious conviction on the part of the people in favor of Roman Catholicism, but was caused by the political dissatisfaction and anger of the chief " This assertion is a direct acknowledgment that Wesleyanism in Fin or at all events in the huge and important district of Namosi is a failuie , for what does it disclose? that because the chief of the disti ict was dissatisfied with the Crown colony ol a sewie t\ pc foini of Government as at present existing, and disnes that the islands should be annexed to New Zealand the whole of his tribe abandoned the religion they had followed for many years past and embiaced the Roman Catholic ldigion *J>oes not this fact pio\e that leligion in Fiji amongst the Fijians is just

About " Skin Deep "> " The perveision at Naniosi is not the only one on record. A lew years ago the natives m the Vina district seceded from Weslevanism and went back to heathenism—" kai tevero " (they weie teimed in English " devils "; It was durum tune the seceding took place, and after they had been deleated they became "\\esle\ans again, because then concpieroi s weie Wesiexans

Paiagruph No 2 oi the upoit may or may not be true, but ] would ask the commission on what authority the;* base then- assertions contained in this paragraph 1 do not behe\e one word of it, and the majority oi unbiassed people in Fm are of the same mind as myself (The following is the paragraph referred to aiio\pEd N Z.T : • r l hat the Roman Catholic priests took ad\antage of this political disaffection and the federation agitation with the specious promises made to the chief and his people by its ad\ocates to pervert the people to Roman Catholicism ') In paragraph '.i the priests are accused of taking unjustifiable possession of Methodist church premises If these said premises belonged to the Wesley an mission, and were illegally taken possession of by the priests, there is a law court in Fin that would speedily have remedied the matter r J he truth appears to be this The premises belonged to the people, and when the said people embraced the Catholic faith they disposed of the premises as they thought fit to do And the same may be said regai ding the collecting of the Bibles, as refei'red to in clause 4 '

(In clause 4 the commissioners state that ' the Bibles bought, used, and prized by the people wcte systematically collected ami brought to the priests who publicly took them from the people, giving them rosaries in exchange as a -sign of their admission into the Roman Catholic Church, and promising them Roman Catholicbooks instead ' — Ed ' N 7, T ')

'The Bibles belonged to the people They individually bought and paid for them (1 ha\ c one in my possession in which the owner has written that he had paid one shilling for it), and they certainly had an owner's right to give them to the piiests And what more reasonable that they should do so, to show that they were earnest in abandoning Wesleyanisni and becoming Roman Catholics'? They c ( vc up the books they ha<l purchased and paid for, and. which, in the words of the report, they prved, to be ieplace.d with books of their new faith Pn'Yiemph ."> deals with the tearing up of some of the Bibles on the wav from Naniosi to Nailihh And Alt- Swavnc is said to have marie an official import to the Government on the matter V\ell. n the Bib'es were torn up and thrown into the ii\ci. then, m addition to " P.ible-buminir in Fiji," there had boon " Bihledrowning in Fiji " T. for one iim or heard of this " Bible-di owniiig " till 1 lead of it in the report of the

commissioners, as published in your issue of June, 5. I wojild ask the commissioners did either of them read Mr fc>waynes oflicial report, and, supposing it is true that portions of the Bibles were found floating in the Rewa Kiver what proof is there that the priests threw same into the river, or anywhere else ? Might they not have been J Thrown into the River by their Owners ? ' Paragraph 6 deals with the burning of the Bibles at JSiaihhJi, and the commission has affirmed that Mr Bums published report, " excepting one important particular, is correct. I have not Mr. Burns report on hand, but if I remember correctly, it was stated therein Unit a large number of Bibles, about 150, had been publicly tjurned in a limekiln at Naililili. Father Rougier publicly denied this, and explained that it was only the dirty fragments of Bibles that were burned along with other '• sacred " rubbish. He stated that it was the practice of the priests to destroy 'by fire all wornout or dirty articles connected with their church, and this in preference to getting rid of same by some more unworthy way. As a proof that it was only the very dirty and damaged portions of the Bibles that were burnt, the commission produced along with the report "some samples" of the Testaments recovered from the Bihlo-burning at Naililili. These, as may be seen, are not tattered or fragmentary, but " are complete and in nood order," etc., etc. Just so, if they had been dirty or tattered they would have been burnt, and not put on one side on the logs close to the kiln by the persona doing the burning , and, allowing that the covers had been recently violent] v " torn away. who was it that did the act of tearing off the covers ? Further, I have in my possession a number of the Bibles said to have been Ijturnt. Being a curio collector in a small way I wished to obtain one of the Bibles to add to my collection, and I intimated to Father Rougier my desire. He replied by sending me a basket full, stating in a note that the books sent me were considered " too good " to be burnt and asking me to imagine what those burnt were like. Some of these books had seen eight years' service with their owners, and They were all Horribly Dirty. ' The letter of the Rev. A. Small that appeared in the press in Fiji, the same letter being published in the Sjdney press, was considered a " back down " on the part of the Wesleyan mission in Fiji, and in the Australian colonies. The Governot of Fiji had been mentioned in connection with the secession or the Namosi natives (the Governor is a Roman Catholic), the Bible-burning incident had been magnified to such an alarming extent and amongst other exaggerations a rising of the Fijians was said to be probable, and the advisability of the removal of our Governor was being hinteti at. The white residents of the colony, apprehending that harm might possibly result if these exaggerated statements were not contradicted, were taking steps to disprove the same, when the Rev Mr Small's letter appeared in both the papers published in Suva That letter was at once cabled to the press in S\ dnev by the most influential citizens of Suva, not one of whom cured a jot whether the Fijians are Wesleyans, Jews, or Romaii Catholics, or whether the Governor is a Jew. or Wesleynn, or Roman Catholic, .so long as the affairs of the' colony are carried on in a fair businesslike manner to its adv ancomcnt As regarding paragraph 9 (which reads as follows : Fiom the evidence before us we are compelled to conclude that at later stages in connection with the perversion of N.iniosi the Governor's name was iinpi operly u^ed tor the purpose ol influencing those of the people who were wavering to ioin the Roman Catholic Church." —Ed 'NZT') I will ask the commission how and from where has it derived its information sufhcient to warrant the assertion therein contained I would remind the commission of the old legal maxim, that " Assertion is not Proof " The many assertions made in the report should be capable of being proved correct by unbiassed proof, and I claim that information obtained from Wesleyan ministers and Wesleyan Fijians is not unbiassed There are hundreds of people in Fiji that could have given valuable unbiassed information to the commission, but as far as t! could learn from the lion W Rob.son and the Rev. J. l.ane, the pet sons who could have given unbiassed information concerning this " storm in the teapot " burning Bibles incident wore not invited to do so Tn conclusion, f will suv that no " Bible-buinintr " as cabled from Fin to Sydney, ever took place; that the white settlers m Fiji will not allow the Wesleyan mission to dictate as to what religion their Governor shall he; that a relicjious paper wariaie 1-ctweon Catholics and Wesleyans as existing in New South Wales, will never be tolerated in Fiji ; and that any assertions T have made herein I can prove to the satisfaction oi any reasonable man.'