The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and Echo. MONDAY, JULY 29, 1901. TYRANNY IN FIJI.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXII, Issue 168, 29 July 1901, Page 4

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

MONDAY, JULY 29, 1901. TYRANNY IN FIJI.

For the c&uso that lacks asalstanoe, Yor the wong tiwt needs roaistanofl, Jor the htan in tha dintanco, jDd the good tiiai, we oan uo.

The appeal from the British residents in Fiji for help and sympathy will surely not be disregarded by the New Zealand Government. Since we called attention to the outrageous ordinance lately passed by the Fijian Council, particulars have come to hand which fully confirm the opinion formed by most people in this colony about the conduct and qualifications of Sir G. O'Brien. The decree forbidding any criticism of the existing autocracy was forced through the Council at a meeting'for which in-

sufficient notice was accepted, on the Governor's plea of "extreme urgency.'" Sir (.!. O'Brien began by referring to the movement in favour of federation with New Zealand, and commented upon what he chose to call the "peculiar manner" in which it was started, and the methods by which it had been conducted. It had come to the notice of the Government, he said, that certain persons intended to enter upon a regular campaign of agitation, to '.spread discontent and disaffection among- the Fijians. On these grounds he urged the Council to pass at once the extraordinary measure which we have already quoted, rendering any-

one'who, in the opinion of a magistrate, "should cause any Fijian to be disaffected towards the Government, or should attempt to induce any Fijian to take any action having for its object the subversion or alteration of the present form of Government," liable to six months' imprisonment.

The Fijian Council has been described as only a recording- insmiment for the Governor; but even those members who might be supposed to be accustomed to Sir G. O'Brien and hiß ways were a little aghast at the sweeping nature of the measure. Why should so grave a matter be rushed through at such headlongspeed? Kh" (i. O'Brien replied i;i mysterious and ominous terms — lie had secret information which he could not divulge, and he hinted darkly at conspiracies and revolutions and massacres, until the more nervous

members of the Council seem to have thoroughly lost their heads in apprehension and bewilderment. Mr Burton, of the Bank of New Zealand, alone made a determined stand against the Governor's despotic will. He pointed out that such a measure would tend to prevent any private or commercial intercourse between the natives and the whites; it would breed suspicion and distrust and resentment; and it would hinder any Fijian from getting redress for grievances, or from asserting legal rights, as any European to whom he might appjy might render himself liable to the six months' penalty. Mr Burton declared that there was no disloyalty among the natives; he protested against the panic into which 'the Council had evidently been. worked, and he gave it as his opinion that all the trouble had arisen, not through the suggestion for federation with New Zealand, but through the arbitrary action of the Government itself.

Sir G. O'Brien made answer in words that might have been justifiable if Mr Humphrey Berkley had been Te Kooti and the Fijians Hauhaus. He talked of the overwhelming number of the natives, and the isolation of the whites; he described the

Fijians as an excitable and sanguinary race, goaded to frenzy by unscrupulous agitators; and the Council, disregarding;, Mr Burton's remonstrances, passed the ordinance without further delay. It was altogether rather a dramatic performance and did , considerable credit to Sir G. O'Brien's skill as stage :inianag*e(r); but as an exhibition of the merits of British Crown Colony Government, it was by no means' an edifying lesson for the intelligent natives, who watch Hheir masters closely and understand a great deal more about government than Sir G. O'Brien

seems to imagine

The pJain facts of the case have already been pointed out by us, and the new statute only accentuates the difficulties in which Sir G. O'Brien's curious conceptions of British rule have landed the colony. The Fijians are neither excitable nor disaffected. In an interview which lately appeared in these columns, an experienced observer who has spent many years in Fiji declared that "there never was a more phlegmatic people." But this same authority has formed an opinion of Sir G. O'Brien which may go some distance towards explaining the present crisis in Fiji: "He has never gone about the country," we are told; "he is almost unknown to the Europeans at Fiji, and has never had conversations with anyone outside the .Government to find oiifb •what tne natives are like. He is absolutely tactless, and has never endeavoured to find out by personal experience the feelings of the people he governed."

Ar for the hints and warnings of a rising among- the Fijians, the missionaries, who certainly understand the feelings of the natives, simply ridicule such an idea. The Fijians are a docile tnd loyal race, quite as well fitted for

representative government as many whiie communities; and Sir G. O'Brien's attempt to justify his folly at tbeir expense will meet with little sympathy from anyone who understands the character of these intelli-

gent natives. But we are naturally more concerned with the. position of the European colonists who are at present exposed to the Governor's tyranny. We repent that the ovdiutt nce Which Sir G. O'Brien frightened his Council into passing is an outrngeouß subversion of the principles of "the British constitution; and we trust that the Premier of New Zealand, to whom the Fijian colonists have intheir distress appealed, will exert himself to the Utmost) to lay a full and accurate account of the present position of affairs before the Imperial

authorities