FIJIAN POLITICS

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 89, 14 April 1923, Page 7

FIJIAN POLITICS

AUTOCRATIC PROCEEDINGS

DISSATISFACTION OF COUNCIL.

(UNHID PRESS ASSOCIATION.—COPIRIGHT,)

(AUSTRALIAN . NEW ZEALAND CABLB ASSOCIATION.)

SUVA, 13th April. The export duty of £1 per ton of sugar was expected last season to realise £56,000, but the Secretary of State agreed with Mr. Knox, of the Colonial Sugar Company, to a refund. As the result of negotiations, the company waived its claim to the refund, provided the ordinance was repealed in April. The Legislative Council, sitting this morning, passed the- necessary Bill. The Address-in-Reply was "then read, in which the elected members protested' strongly against the action of the Secretary of State in promising the return without consulting "the Council, arjd arked for an undertaking that such a tiling would not recur, as it rendered the work of the Council useless. The Council further refused to carry out the functions of government until such an' assistance was received.

A motion that the Address •m-Reply be received as an expression of the opinion of the elected members wan carried.

The Governor dissociated himself from the result of the delay in the transaction of business, and expressed the hope that the action would not damage the financial prestige of the colony. The Council adjourned sine die.