FIJIAN AFFAIRS

Evening Star, Issue 20483, 14 May 1930, Page 9

FIJIAN AFFAIRS

; LEUSUmVE MUN6IL MEETS Pres* Association—By Telegraph—Copyright. SUVA, May 13. The Legislative Council was opened to-day. The Governor (Sir Murchison Fletcher) presided. He presented to Captain Edward Twentyman. harbour master at Suva, the badge or the civil division of Member of the British Empire. At the age of sixteen the captain was presented with a gold watch for gallantry at a fire; in 1884 for a gallant rescue of a drowning man at Gape Town he received a sextant; in 1898, in Sydney Harbour, he rescued a drowning man, and was presented with the silver medal of the Royal Humane Society: in 1919, at Levuka, Fiji, he rescued the master of the ship King Cyrus from poisonous fumes; and he received the gold Stanhope Medal for the most meritorious deed of the year in June, 1929, when he assisted in rescuing a drowning passenger oft' Suva Harobur. A Fijian boatman. Aliki, also received the M.B.E. for assisting in the .last incident. The Governor’s address at the opening of the Council met with the approval of the Council. It stated that in 1929 the revenue amounted to £678,000, and the expenditure to £1642,000, being a surplus of £194,000. The speech emphasised the need for economic, development. The absence of malaria was an asset of incalculable value. The Government favoured extensive road development in Vitilevu. Provision was made for the inauguration of ah interisland air service, and a new Canadian, Australian, and New Zealand mail subsidr. The speech also emphasised the necessity of steamers remaining for six hours in daylight. An exhaustive exposition of Indian education was favoured. Vocational training affected 6.68 per cent, of the Indian population and Fiji students, compared with 3.47 in India. The speech eulogised the Colonial Sugar Refining Company’s achievement with its Indian tenants. Regarding Indian representation in the Legislature, the Governor was prepared to issue a writ if any division desired representation.