FIJI AND NEW ZEALAND.

Auckland Star, Volume XVIII, Issue 116, 18 May 1887, Page 4

FIJI AND NEW ZEALAND.

The agitation in Fiji for annexation to _Tew Zealand is, we learn from yesterday's advices per Arawata, likely to be revived. The case of tlie colonists is one of hope deferred.; One expectation after another of improvement under their present system of government has been doomed to disappointment, and they are driven to the conclusion that no change could be for the worse. The trade returns for 1886 exhibit, in all its naked ugliness, the decline that has taken place in the commercial prosperity of the country. The foreign commerce; which amounted to • in 188'3'aud in 1885, had fallen to last y»ar. The decrease in the imports-was the decline, however, being chiefly.upon sugar-making '..machinery':; and the decrease in the exports was notwithstanding that there is a very substantial increase in the export of sugar. Great expectations wero formed of what the htw Governor might do, but his instruction!, appear to have directed him firsdy and. mainly to bring "expenditure within income ; and the dismissal of officials aud reductions in pay do not improve the position of struggling tradesmen at the capital. -The discontented colonists now naturally iturn. their eyes towards New''Zealand as offering a possible means of escape.from .'the official, rule of Downing-street. .We do not. believe that anything will come ' of the agitation. The Colonial Office, unless coerced by something bordering on a revolution, will never relinquish the patronage which remains to it in tho Crown Colonies, and New; Zealand might hesitate to. saddle itself

with the responsibility of governing a country so peculiarly situated as Fiji ie. "We sympathise heartily, however, with our fellow-colonists of the old Cannibal Islands, and think the agitation is one that deserves encouragement. Fiji is perfectly self-supporting, and being so is entitled to a much larger share of self-government than it enjoys. The majority of its Legislative Council oaght certainly to be made elective, the interests of the Crown being sufficiently protected by the Governor's veto. A league to resist the payment of taxes until the rights of the colonists are conceded in this respect would have a more powerful influence upon the Colonial Office than a ship-load of petitions. Wo advise the colonists to try it.