The Daily Telegraph. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 3, 1883.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3581, 3 January 1883, Page 2

The Daily Telegraph. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 3, 1883.

The unfortuate settlers of Fiji have been doomed to another disappointment:. The Imperial Government, to whom they appealed, as the Romans of old to Ciesar against the arbitrary administration of the Governors, has distinctly declined to investigate the grounds of their complaints. The "claimants to lands in the Fiji Islands, failing to obtain what they regard as justice at the hands of the Land Commission, petitioned Her Majesty's Government, praying for the appointment of an independent tribunal to deal with their claims. The latest advices from Fiji state that an answer has been returned directly refusing to grant the prayer .of the petition, owing- to the representations of vho late and present Governors of the colony and tho observations of Mr Williamson, it docs not strike us as altogether consistent with one's ideas with respect to the impartial and just administration of Her Majesty's Government that the prayer of a

petition should be refused on the representations of men at whose doors lies_ the ground-work of the grievance It is an old saying that "there is no smoke without fire,"'and from the number of petitions that have gone Home from Fiji bearing upon the settlement of land claims, it might have been thought worthy of the British Crown to enquire into the causes of the complaints of its subjects. Englishmen arc not apt to fly to the "fountain head of justice " for light or frivolous reasons; it is a national characteristic to exhaust all constitutional means for obtaining redress of grievances before making the final appeal to Ciosar. But the means for obtainin" - what is alleged to lie justice in the matter of their land claims are exceptionally limited to the settlers of Fiji. A good idea of what those means are can be obtained from the text of the last petition, the prayer of which has been refused : — 1. Your petitioners are claimants of land in the colony of Fiji, or directly interested in such claims. 2. That by the deed of cession all lands bond file alienated to Europeans by natives prior to the date of the assumption of sovereignty over the Fiji Islands by Her Majesty, 'were, subject to investigation, recognised as the lands of such persons. 3. In view of settling Avhat lands had been so bond file alienated it was decided by Her Majesty's Government to appoint a Commission to deal with the claims to land, so arising, and in view of this object Lord Carnarvon in his instructions to Sir Arthur Gordon, on Ith March, 1ST"), No. G, of C. 1337, of 187"), writes : —" With the view of disturbing as little as possible existing tenures, and of maintaining all contracts honestly entered into before the cession, the Colonial Government should forthwith require all Europeans to give satisfactory evidence of their transactions with the natives, and if the land appears to have been acquired fairly and at a fair price a Crown grant in fee simple should issue to the owners forthwith. Li appoin'inp the Commission to dent irith the. question it is mod important that, it shonbl be indej/cndent of local influence, ami composed as far as possible of persons nneonnccled with the colon;/ prior to the cession.'' •I. A Commission was appointed in the latter end of 187') to investigate all claims to land arising under any contract entered into before the proclamation of the Royal charter in September, 187'), but constituted in direct contravention of the wise and equitable suggestions contained in the portion of Lord Carnarvon's despatch cited in paragraph 3 hereof ami underlined. '). The Commission so appointed was not allowed to decide upon the claims submitted for their consideration, but were restricted fo reporting on such claims to the Governor in Council for decision thereon. .").'/. The Governor in Council, without any legislative authority so to do, constituted itself into a Court finally dealing with aud deciding on all claims reported on to the Governor in Council by the Commission, and without a hearing being granted to the claimants by the Governor in Council. (j. At the initiation of the enquiries by the Lands Commission those claimants to land whose claim* were dealt with had no reason to be dissatisfied with the adjudicaeation upon their claims. 7. Subsequently the Lands Commission was re-organised aud several stipendiary magistrates and members of the Governor's private stall' were appointed members of the Lands Commission, and as subsequent claims were dealt with great dissatisfaction arose, fill on the 17th June, 1870, a petition was sent home by the Fiji Agricultural Society, praying that, an independent tribunal might bo appointed to deal with the question of land claims, and in September, 1579, the Honorable Victor A. Williamson came to the colony and assumed the position of chairman of the Land Commission, and in October, 1870, tin ordinance was passed to give legal effect to the past and future decisions on land clrms. 8. Under this ordinance the Lands Commission still were confined to reporting on the claims submitted to them, the decision being still vested in the Governor in Council, with a right of petitioning for a rehearing- to a. Board composed of the Governor in Council, with the addition oi the Chief Justice, and the Commissioner for Native Affairs. 0. The appeal to the Board for re-hearing petitions of claimants to land restrict such re-hearing to argument of counsel or the parties personally, and allow fresh evidence only to be adduced in exceptional cases and on grounds that satisfy the Board why such evidence was not produced before the Commission. 10. Since the formation of this Board certain rules of procedure have been adopted, and certain schemes of native land tenures elaborated, the result of which has been tc invalidate titles to land which had prc\ lously been recognised by both natives and Europeans as good subsisting titles. 11. In petitioning against the decision of tlic Governor in Cotmcil on the report oi the Lands Commission the European claimants petitioning arc not permitted te have access to the report of the Commissioner, but are furnished with a brief and bare statement of the grounds of the disallowance of the claim, and in cases in which a portion, of tho land claimed lius been allowed and portion disallowed, a European petitioner, by petitioning, imperiithe poiiion of the land already allowed, and in several cases land previously allowed the petitioner has been disallowed him on blown petition though no one disputed the land allowed to him and disallowed on the re-hearing, and thereby your petitioner.* have been in many cases debarred from petitioning. 12. Above all other causes of dissatisfaction with the decisions on land claims in this colony your petitioners urge that, as under the deed of cession, all lands not bondfdc alienated to Europeans or required for the use and support of the natives became Crown lands, and some lands so disallowed have been appropriated by the Crown for public purposes, or sold and the proceeds become Crown revenues, while many of the grants issued have been issued r.e i/rtitia after disallowance as of right, thus showing such lands are treated by the Crown as Crown lands. That the Crown is by virtue of Ordinance No. 21 of 1880 made the a/limns lucres of all native lands, and for that reason also incapable of adjudicating on claims to lands which they will, if disallowed your petitioners, ultimately inherit. 1-1. That the provisions of Ordinance No. 20 of IS7O, providing for a reference to a special tribunal when the Crown was interested, with one or two exceptions, has been ignored by the Governor in Council. 1"). Under such circumstancos it is, your petitioners urge, against the first principles of nature and justice that the Governor in Council should be judges in such cases, or should take part in any way in adjudicating upon claims to property in which the Crown is so directly interested.