“NON-CO-OPERATION.”

Manawatu Times, Volume XLVI, Issue 2645, 14 May 1923, Page 3

“NON-CO-OPERATION.”

FIJIAN POLITICAL CRISIS,

LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL ADJOURNED.

Fiji is faced just now with a most serious political crisis. Owing to alleged interference from Downing Street, elected members of the Legislature have refused to sit in the Council until assured by the Secretary of State for the Colonies that he will never do it again. It is suggested that if no such undertaking is given the white people of Fiji will refuse to pay taxes, writes the Suva correspondent of the “Sydney Sun’ on April 12. The facts leading up to the present deadlock are as follow: — Mr E. Knox, representing the C.S.R. Company, went Homo, and there interviewed Mr Winston Churchill, the Secretary of State for the Colonies. Mr Churchill fold Mr Knox that he would then and there abolish the export duty on sugar and molasses for the current year—£sß,ooo. This was done without consulting either the Governor or the proper authority—the Fiji Legislative Council. In the arrangement came to the cars of the paid. Mr Knox returned to Sydney via Suva, but not one word of this secret arangement came to the ears of the elected members. At the meeting of the Legislative Council, which ofponed on Tuesday last, the Governor made the following reference in his Address: “I shall deal in a message to the Council with the considerations which have influenced the Government in agreeing, subject to the Council's consent to the removal of these (sugar export) duties.” This message (No. 2) stated that the export duties have to be abolished as from April 1. UK JUSTIFIABLE VIOLATION. The disclosure of such a direct attack upon the rights and privileges of the Legislative Council at once set the town and the elected members in a blaze of indignation. The local press called upon the elected members to protect the rights of constitutional government at ail hazards. The House adjourned to permit of the elected members to prepare their Address in Reply. The Council reassembled on Friday, when the Address in Reply was read by Sir Maynard Hedstrom (the senior member). The elected members prior to the reading had, without comment agreed to the amending ordinance repealing the export duties on sugar and molasses as the colony was committed to the bargain. But they had something to say in protest of the attack by the Secretary of State on the privileges of the Council. After referring to a previous interference by Mr Churchill id the financial affairs of the colony against which the elected members at the time (last year) had vigorously protested, and Mr Churchill had replied: “The failure to lay the proposal before them was due to a misunderstanding of my instructions, and that I had no intention of departing from the usual practice in such matters,” the Address went on to say: “In the present instance the principle transgressed is the same, but the amount involved, and all the circumstances make the case all the more serious. In our opinion the action of the Secretary of State in undertaking to dispose of the funds of the colony without' first obtaining the consent of the Legislative Council is an unjustifiable violation of the rights and privileges of this Council. No such serious infringement of these rights has- been attempted since a measure of elective representation was granted, to this colony. THE GAUNTLET. “If your Excellency, under instructions, had attempted to force the Legislative Council to carry out the wishes of the Secretary of State, we, the elected members, would unitedly have resisted to the utmost, by every constitutional means in our power, and we are confident that we should have had, in that action, the strong support of every section of the community. "The principle involved is so important, affecting as it does the whole Question of the constitutional government of the colony, that the elected members of the Coundil are not prepai ed to take any further part in the procedings of the Council until they have received some definite assurance from the Secretary of State that no similar infringement of the constitutional rights of the Council will be attempted in the future. We respectfully request your Excellency to transmit our views on this subject to the Secretary of State by cable. Until the question raised has been settled, wc consider it inadvisable to express any opinion upon the other important questions referred to in your Excellency’s address.” WORSE MAT FOLLOW.

The Governor, in reply to the address, deprecated the “attitude of non-co-operation” of members, and also deeply deplored” it. His remarks generally made members a litt'le an£>’y. But he had to adjourn the Council sine die, disclaiming: as he did so any responsibility for such delay as migrht occur in the transaction of business.