A Fiji Commission

Manawatu Standard, Volume XL, Issue 7404, 20 September 1902, Page 2

A Fiji Commission

The British Government has apromM a Commission to inyatiwtathe,!£ question, and more especial* Uwjwi. ~g ol the present form of go; ormno"t. W, tt is hoped, will be .he V**™ io a change in tho present ryb m-°™ il.at is admittedly working cry Miuy ' be government is p.-.icth-.iilly autocratic, ■md under it tho life of the colony » , utterly warped The number of white men in Fiji is fewer than it was twenty rears ago. the native race is rapidly uc'cying, and the population is only kept up by importing coolies, of whom there me now 20,000 t030,000, principally emp'oyed ou the sugar plantations. In many respects the treatment of the natives is little less than Statcrrgulated slavery. The keenest dissatisfaction -xists both among the while men and the r.a'ivos, the former because they really nave no voice in the government and are, without redress, subject to any decree of the Governor; the latter because the system of segregation is fatal to their 'health and prosperity. Ti.i-; Commission may not solve he ~,ic,tion whether Fiji w to be M«'£-° with New Zealand. b,;t it is certainly a step mthat direction. It is at any rate boper.il that Sir Henry Jackson, the new Governor, is on his way to take up hu duties, so there may be changes.—London Mail. ,