FIJI AND CROWN.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 308, 28 December 1940, Page 5

FIJI AND CROWN.

GOVERNING METHODS. QUESTION IN COUNCIL (By Air.) SUVA, Decemiber 23. During the debate on the Appropriaitions Bill in the Legislative Council on December 19, Ratu J. L: V. Sukuna, C.8.E., the senior native memiber, criticised the administration methods of the Government as affecting the native race. At the recent meeting of the Council of Chiefs a resolution was passed commending the deetiraibility of native chiefs in ■charge of districts being placed directly under the Adviser on Native Affairs, rather than under the district comimdssioner or district oihVsr, as at present. Cession to Great Britain had created the notion of personal relation between the sovereign and the native chiefs, who looked to the Governor as their dmimedi-l ' ate overlord. The tendency now is to| merge the Native Department .into the Colonial Secretary's Office. The immediate personal relation wkh the Governor had been lost, and in its place they had the appointment of district officers, who were mostly new and knew nothing of the language and nothing of the customs, yet they were sent to rule over native people and chiefs grey in years. What was required in native affairs, continued Ratu Sukuna, was continuity of policy and a strong policy, especially now that a commission (had been appointed to go into the question, of ■reservations of native lands for the natives. They needed a directing band and a sympathetic hand to deal with the various problems of development which would arise. Continuity of policy could not he carried out by district commissioners because they were here to-day and gone to-morrow. Continuity of policy could only be induced by a strong Native Department under the immediate direction of the Adviser on Native Affairs, rather than direction from the Secretariat. ".~ ~' < ■ »• ->».