FIJI ANNEXATION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XI, Issue 4026, 7 October 1874, Page 3

FIJI ANNEXATION.

Tin-: London ih'iir has the following pertinent remarks on this question:—"Air. Disraeli's < iov.-rnment have pledged their honor to a policy of foresight, humanity, and justice. The advent of British nil': should be a blessing to the Fijian group ami to the adjacent aiehipelagos. The Government are not in this matter pursuing a policy of greedy acquisition. They are accepting a pressing duty, and Sir W. Lawson alarmed himself without cause when he predicted an ambitious and ominous ' Polynesian Confederation.' It is clear, in spite of the insinuations of two or three lion, members, that the native Fijian population have made the oiler iif cession as unanimously and absolutely as possible. It is of no use to say that they only gave their cousent cnlourably, since it (.'.'line from the mouth of the chiefs alone. Th-.'y expressed their wishes in the national fashion, not by a brand-new Napoleonic }M.YncHe, but through their tribal superiors. "When we establish the machinery of government in the Fiji Islands we shall receive the hearty co-operation of the respectable merchants and planters. The disreputable minority, composed o£ sharpers and adventurers who have thought lit to retire from New South Wales, can bo easily coped with. They Vv ill probably find less play fm- their energies in a Crown colony than in -Mr. Thurston's •'Constitutional" Government, or the legal r-'jima of Mr. St. Julian, J. and Chancellor of Fiji." The alleged debt of ,t'!j7,ooo, out of which £3(>,000 are said to be due at this moment, must be sharply scrutinised. That part of it which is genuine should be chiefly paid as the Commissi mers recommend, by the Fijian whites, for whose benefit it was contracted. A small tax laid upon the natives would also help to reduce the debt. In spite also of Sir W. Lawson, we can well believe that the trading community at Sydney, who will be intiuitc gainers by the cession of Fiji to the Imperial Crown, will liberally subscribe their share. The <r«.r of the land tenure will, moreover, have to be solved with skill and patience. Accurate surveys must be made, both hydiogvaphic and cadastral; the area of the Crown lands, said to amount to 4">0,000 acres must be carefully ascertained ; and last, but not least, there must be no pretended sales from private native vendors. This was the root of all our agrarian troubles in New Zealand. Land must only be conveyed bv the chiefs or tribal heads acting in the name and with the active consent of their fellow-tribesmen. If these prudent steps be taken, the British nation may laugh at Sir \> . Lawson's silly fancy that we are being duped by the Fijian oiler, since the Americans refused it as a bad bargain. Neither need we be disconcerted by Mr. Gladstone's dismal vaticinations, or Stir Wilfrid's homely jokes about our new fellowsubjects, "the converted Methodist cannibals"—jokes, wo may observe, which were out of keeping with the highflying morality of the rest of his speech, it- is certain that in annexing the Fijian Islands our Government are entering upon a political mission most creditable to themselves and bcneficial to humanity."