The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, The Morning News, and The Echo. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 1870.

Auckland Star, Volume X, Issue 2994, 21 November 1879, Page 2

The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, The Morning News, and The Echo.

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 1870.

For tho causa thnt lncl—> asslstKnco, Fcr the wrong tlia needs resistance, For the future in the distance, And the cood that we can

Sir Arthur Gordon, the Governor of Fiji, has found that irresponsible personal power iv a Crown colony has its sorrows as well as its joys. His Excellency, we believe, is sincerely anxious to do the best he can for the young colony, but iv all his endeavours he fails to satisfy the majority of the colonists. In this respect the settlers of Fiji differ in no wise from communities of Englishmeu in all parts of the world. They believe that they know better what is for their own good than any one man can possibly do. His Excellency has lately made a speech on the affairs of the colony, his exertions for its good in England, and his general policy, and the "Fiji Times," which is regarded as the planters' advocate, passes the following judgment upon Sir Arthur's deliverance :--

"Upon dissection, it will be readily observed that it contains nothing at all by which any information is conveyed, aud that, with the exception of the ad interim arrangements made with respect to the loan, and to a contingent possibility of lloatiug a Land and Credit Company, the colonists arc left with precisely the same amount of acquaintance with the affairs of the colony us they possessed before having heard the deliverances of His Excellency. Although the Governor succeeded in making his audience laugh two or three times, the amusement was dearly purchased at the cost of the walk to Nasova aud back under the broiling sun, and of the two hours spout there. However, where everybody has been attacked—the wicked Bank, whose directors presume to grumble at the tonus offered by the Government iv settlement of their claim ; the Fiji Agricultural Society, whose absurd representations havo yet effected some change in tho Lauds Commission ; the Chamber of Commerce, who know nothing whatever of tho effect which the Governor's policy exercises upon trade, and are even manifestly ignorant of the time that it takes a cocoauut tree to ripen its fruit suißcieutly to enable it to be mado into copra; down to tho " Fiji Times," whose publisher and printer has been guilty of the incomprehensible folly of having a broadsheet struck off in his office announcing the issue from the Press of a haudbook on Fiji—tho community can rest pretty well satisfied. The public can reckon up Sir Arthur Gordon's policy and his panacea for all inconveniences in very few words. They are virtually these. ' Leave me to govern. All you have to do is, to pay and look pleasant.'"

But though Sir Arthur's speech may contain little or nothing that is now to I-jians, it does give a good deal of information to others less familiar with the progress and prospects of England's youngest colony. We learn iirst of all that His Excellency found in England the moat profound ignorance evcu among well-educated classes relative to Fiji. One story he told was of a well-known writer, a distinguished Professor of a distinguished university.who after expressing great surprise that His Excellency should be content to devote his time and thoughts to tho affairs of so obscure and petty a spot, inquired with the tone of making a great concession, " Aud how big is the island now ? Is it as large as the Isle of Wight?" evidently thinking it was much smaller. He showed much more respect to the colony when he had learnt its true size and its probable capabilities." Perhaps many readers nearer the group arc unaware that the islands have au area of over 8,000 square miles. Sir Arthur Gordon claimed credit for dispelling many misconceptions. In practical proof of this he stated that though he found the time mo-t inopportune for raising a loan he succeeded in getting an advance of between £30,000 and £40,000 to pay off settled and admitted claims on the colony. "Iv addition to tho settlement of those specific points, his chief objects during his Btay in England had been to induce capitalists to select Fiji as a field for investment, and to secure tlie establishment of a Land and Credit Company." His Excellency said: "It was not the business of a bank to lend money to those who had not got it, but to take care of the money of those who arc lucky enough to have more of it than they can conveniently put in tlieir pockets. A Bank might, and in rough and unsettled countries often must, advance money to individuals ou landed security, but it was not part of its regular busiuess, and he believed few greater benclits could bo conferred on the settlers and the colony generally, than by the establishment" here of a sound Credit Company. His negociations on this subject had not been concluded before he started, but he had left their conduct in excellent hands —those of a well-known financier, connected with one of the most important and respected Credit Companies in Loudon,— and who would, for many reasons, not be indifferent to tho interests of the colony. Thgse things, with tho settlement of the system on which land claims in the Colony are to be decided, and the increase of nonofficial Executive Councillois from four to six, sum up the results of Sir Arthur's achievements in Great Britain.

His Excellency's speech, however, contained some useful information upon the colony itself. Wo gather from it that " there' aro al, present on the estates of various settlers,

1772 acres under sugar 121!) „ ~ cotfee 2390 „ ~ cotton !)lfili „ „ cocoanuts Over 1000 „ „ maize 70 „ „ tobacco. This" docs not include many small plantations of coffee, or the large coll'ec nurseries existing on several estates. There is also probably a very much larger acreage of maize than that put" down, which only included cases where it is grown on a large scale. The revenue for the first nine mouths of 1878 was £35,952 14s 3d. The revenue for the iirst nine months of 187'J has been '£39,931 18s. lid., roughly £10,000. Tho

expenditure for the first nine months of 187S was £49,57914s 6d. The expenditure for tho first nine months of 1879 has been £48,17419s 4d, not taking into account payments made as advances against the loan with respect to services to be defrayed from it. The colony, therefore, has before it the unpleasant duty of adjusting a deficit. The amount of loan charges, however, is expected to be met from an unexpended balance of the Imperial grant. His Excellency stated that; under tho immigration system, 1428 Polynesiau labourers had been introduced from the Ist of January to October (only 250 of the number by private charter); 257 employers have engaged 3,200 Polynesians; and. 94 employers have indentured 1,300 lijians. The re-en-gagements of labour—both local and imported—have been considerable. His Excellency said : " He had always maintained that the imported Polynesian laborers wore well off and well treated here, that the objection to their employment consisted only m the manner in which they had. in times past been recruited, and that those abuses being, as they now were, wholly, or almost wholly abolished, no reasonable fault could be found with our system of Polynesian immigration, or the condition of the immigrants during their term of service. But it was his duty to tell them, however unpleasant that duty might bo, that the reports or the medical officers and inspectors now for the first time gave evidence of the existence, in some places, oi a very unsatisfactory condition of things, and he had heard, with great pain, of cases of labourers being habitually supplied with insufficient food, of their being lodged in improper dwellings, and of au entire want of medicine for eases of sickness, followed by a heavy mortality. Of course he would do all that could be done by Executive action, to check and to punish such abuses ; but far less could be done really by the government than by the planters themselves, and ho called oil them to bring public opinion to bear very decidedly and very sternly on such offenders, who were doing a greater injury to the mass of honest employers of labour than could well' .be conceived." The scheme of native taxation appears on tho whole to have realised expectations. His Excellency gave the following summary of the actual local gxports from tho colony : Tons • Value. & b, d. • 1870.. .. 1533} :-•* 26,300 10 0 1877.. .. 1371 - r>f>,.il 12 0 1878.. .. 5311 — 73,u.'J 5 0 These facts concerning a colony which, from geographical position, should havo very intimate trade relations with Auckland arc of Rreat iuterest. They shew that Fiji is steadily advancing and promises to become a most important exporter of semi-tropical products to all tho South Pacific colonies. But for tho appearance of the coffee-leaf disease, His Excellency stated, a considerable amount of capital would probably have been embarked iv the cultivation of that berry. This, however, is only a temporary difficulty, and as the islands aro unRuited for the cultivation of potatoes, the fattening of stock, and tho growth of various agricultural commodities of moro temperate zones, articles of interchange between tho colonies will, wo beliove, in a few years become numerous nnd mutually advantageous, Wo should like to see the hold of New Zealand upon tho increasing trade of the group rendered mora secure by the re-establishment of regular steam communication.