THE ANNEXATION OF FIJI.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XI, Issue 4045, 29 October 1874, Page 9 (Supplement)

THE ANNEXATION OF FIJI.

At last Fiji is annexed. There is no doubt of the news this time, and we may now regard these Islands as fairly within the rule of British colonisation, and as offering new and splendid fields for colonial energy. The cession wa3 formally made to Sir Hercules Robinson on board H.M.S. Pearl by King Cakobau, and the necessary preliminaries would, it was expected, be settled in time for the flag to be officially hoisted on the 9th or 10th October. Sir Hercules appears to have done down with full powers and explicit instructions. His interview with Cakobau was on board the Pearl, no one being present but Mr. Wilkinson, the recognised Government interpreter. What took place we have no means yet of knowing, beyond the fact that cession was offered unconditionally, and accepted by Sir Hercules. Letters hare been received, dated 2nd October, which leave no doubt on this point, and Sir Hercules has evidently made the best of his time and of the powers confided to him. The result will bo hailed with universal satisfaction in the colonies, while the settlers in the Islands cannot but feel profound relief at tliis termination of their long and patiently borne tribulation. Mr. Thurston, so far as we can learn, is also likely to find his energectic and resolute endeavour to maintain equality between, the two races fully appreciated by the new Governor, and will probably fill a responsible, office in the new Government when formed. The thorough confidence reposed in him by the natives will render liis accession to any office important, and the lieats of past controversies will soon subside under the genial influence of the new prospects before the planters and business people of the colony.

The latest from England in connection with Fiji was another debate in the House of Commons on August 4. This debate has a new interest in the right of the annexation of which we have now heard. It was initiated by Mr. W. McArthur, who moved, " That this House is gratified to learn that her Majesty's Government have yielded to the unanimous request of the chiefs, native population, and white residents of Fiji, for annexation to this country, so far as to direct Sir Hercules Robinson to proceed to those Islands with a view to the accomplishment of that object." The motion was useful in eliciting opinion, but, in other respects, it could not "nave any direct effect. The Government had previously declared its intentions through Earl Carnavon in the House of Lords, and it was then distinctly understood that the issue rested with them. It was unlikely that the House of Commons would feel called upon to interfere at this stage, and either hamper the Government with conditions or give a premature approval before the case was fully before it. The motion, therefore, after exciting discussion, was negatived without division. Mr. McArthur liad expressed a desire to withdraw it, his end having been gained, but Sir C. Dilke, who had moved an amendment to the effect that great caution should be used in approaching the subject of annexation, refused to allow the withdrawal. His own amendment was also negatived, the avowed wish of the House being to leave the Ministry unfettered to deal with the question. Sir. Lowther, speaking for the Ministry, accepted the responsibility, and stated that if, in their opinion, annexation should be found desirable, it would be; decided upon their own responsibility without seeking to throw on the shoulders of Parliament any portion of that responsibility. The House negatived both Mr. McArtliur's motion and Sir C. Dilke's amendment, and thus concurred in the opinion expressed by Mr. Lowther on behalf of the Ministry that the question of annexation should be decided by the Government as they might think most desirable. The only new point elicited in debate was a statement by Mr. McArthur that France was about to establish a line of steamers to New Caledonia on the one side and to Tahiti on the other, making Fiji the point of call. He alluded also to the unanimous testimony of all who had visited the Islands, as to their unrivalled facility for the production of sugar and to the significant fact that Major-General Smyth, the Commissioner sent out in 1859, who then reported unfavourably, had since seen good reason to alter his opinion, and had become one of the warmest supporters of annexation. The result of this debate was seen in the definite instructions at once telegraphed to Sir Hercules, and on which he has so promptly acted. The form of Government at first adopted will be that of a Crown Colony of the purest type, and the residents must be content for some years to exercise only a moral influence over the control of affairs. There is no doubt that the majority will gladly acquiesce in this position as the most suitable to their circumstances, and the best calculated to relieve them from the difficulties in dealing with the natives, and with the delicate suffrage question, which they would otherwise have to face. So far as Auckland is concerned, the part which her enterprising people have taken in the settlement of the group will not go unrewarded. The Banking Company, established successfully when no other colony would lend aid to the struggling Government and country, is a monument of their energy, and will, we trust, bring a full reward to all connected with it. The annexation of Fiji, important as the event is in itself, is of the more importance as the sure precursor o£ settlement in other groups of islands throughout these seas—islands now occupied solely by savage tribes, but to which Fiji is a centre whence new life and movement will be derived. In this light it is of more than local importance. It means the establishment throughout the South Pacific of the supremacy and influence of which the foundations have been already deeply laid by Englishmen in Australasia, .and in our own colony or New Zealand.—N.Z. Herald, Oct. 10.

FULLER PARTICULARS. Wf. have a few days' later intelligence from Fiji by the schooner Pearl. Our last date was to the 2nd Octobcr, when a special despatch, sent for us to Kadavvi, enabled us to announce authoritatively tliat the cession of the Islands had been effected, and that the British flag would be hoisted in about a week from that date. The Pearl brings us news to the 6th October, and further details of the cession, of which our correspondent was only able to announce the bare fact in his haste to catch the last steamer at Kadavu. We find that the flag had not yet been formally hoisted, but would be so immediately on the return of the Governor and the Commodore from their visit to the Winward Islands. This would probably be about the 10th, when the deed accepting the cession would be Bigned, the Acting-Governor be

appointed, and a Coniititution promulgated for the future governance of the country.

I cession took place on 30th September, in the Government Buildings, at Nasova, a small harbour about two miles from the town of Levuka ; and the proceedings are described fully in the Fiji J Times, of Cth October. Nasova is the seat of Government, and tho barracks for the soldiers were erected there. The Ministry live there, and the King has his oflicial residence in the Bay. It is, in fact, essentially the Government quarter. To it, on the morning of the 30th September, repaired the Governor of New South Wales, attended by the Commodore, by the Hon. L. Innes, AttorneyGeneral of New South Wales, the British Consul, and the Private Secretary of the Governor. In the Council Hall they met the Hon. Mr. Thurston, Chief Secretary ; the Chief Justice and the Attorney-Gene-ral of Fiji, the Hawaiian Consul, the Finance Minister, Majors Harding and Thurston, and Cakobau's Private Secretary, Ratu Abel (Cakobau's eldest surving son), and others of the native chiefs were present, together with the special correspondents of the Sydney _ilforning Herald and the Melbourne Argus, and the representatives of the local papers. Sir Hercules announced his intention of visiting Maafu and the Windward Island chiefs in the Pearl, and offered Ratu Abel and othor chiefs a passage. Abel doclined, but others accepted ; after which, Mr. Wilkinson (Private Secretary to Cakobau) read the memorandum of cession in the Fijian language and in English. The King then signed the document and handed it to His Excellency, who accepted the cession on behalf of the Queen. He told Cakobau that he had by this act and abdication performed the part of a truly great chief, consulting the best interests of his people and liis country in prefer- | ence to his own. Another long document was then read in Fijian by Mr. Wilkinson, and an English translation presented by the Attorney-General duly engrossed on parchment. This was signed by Cakobau, as Tui Viti and Vu ni Valu (King of Fiji and Commander-in-Chief). It was then sealed by Cakobau with the seal of the Fijian Kingdom, and formally delivei-edasliis voluntary act and deed. Subsequently it was signed with the same formalities by Ratu Abel and the other great chiefs present. Sir Hercules Robinson said he would not sign until after his return from the Windward Islands, when tho documents should be exchanged in duplicate and copies deposited. He requested the King to have the Government in the meantime carried on as heretofore. The King then begged His Excellency to receive his first present to the Queen, and gave him five turtles and a new canoe. The gift was accepted and meant homage, it being the custom of Fijians to recognise a gift in this formal way as a mark of the superiority of the person to whom it is made, and whose goodwill it is intended to procure. In the afternoon of the same day Sir Hercules left in H.M.S. Pearl, with Mr. Layard, the British Consul, on board; and about 5 o'clock the Dido left with the King and his attendants. The object was to pay a visit to Maafu, at his island of Vanua Balavu —a rather small island, about 100 miles from Levuka, and in which Maafu's chief town of Loma Loma is situated.

The cession is of course a fait accompli. Nothing that Maafu and his allies can say or do will in the slightest degree affect it. Nor is it likely they will throw any obstacle in the way, as Maafu has always been a strong advocate for cession. He is a Tonguese chief, one of the Royal family of Tonga, and was banished from that kingdom thirty years ago, for an attempted insurrection. Settling in Fiji, and adopted as a chief among the tribes of the Eastern or "Windward Islands, he found a large number of his Tongan countrymen also settled oil the group. Rallying these around him, his party was soon formidable, and his alliance eagerly sought against Cakobau and his party by the chiefs of the Windward Islands, who had long been in commercial intercourse with Tonga, and many of whom were the sons of Tonguese mothers, with whom their fathers had intermarried. Maafu, being a man of great natural sagacity and energy, and of farliigher education than the Fijimen, soon made his power widely felt, and became a formidable rival to Cakobau. In fact, but for the intervention of the wliite men who had by accident Bettled in Cakobau's part of the group, the dynasty of Bau would have long since passed away and that of Maafu succeeded. The white men, however, held the balance, and they adhered to Cakobau, whom they knew, in preference to the arrogant and conceited Tongans who, if they had become supreme, would have probably been unbearable. The Tongans have always looked with contempt on the Fijiaris, to whom they are in war immensely superior, and are suspected also of hating the wliite men for standing between them and their prey. Maafu's son, Charlie, was educated in Sydney, is English in habits and speech, and a noble specimen of native manhood. During the last few years Maafu has seen the folly of shutting up his islands against settlement, and has sought to induce white men to plant upon them. For this purpose he has granted leases of land but has always refused to sell or to allow his chiefs to do so. When the Fijian Government was formed, ho saw liimseif forced to acquiesce after it had secured the support of the settlers, and he then acknowledged its supremacy on condition that he was made Viceroy of the Windward Islands. In that capacity he has preserved semi-independence and when the coup d'etat took place which stopped the election of a new Assombly ho seceded, and, declining to pay any mere taxes to the Government, collected and kept them for himself. With the funds so accumulated it was well understood that he intended to purchase arms and to seize the Fijian crown, and it was equally certain that, unless the white men interfered, he would be successful in the attempt. The knowledge of this probably had no small share in inducing Cakobau to agree so readily to the cession which has just been happily accomplished. It is to see Maafu that Sir Hercules Robinson has gone to Loma Lonia. That chief is too shrewd to throw any obstacle in the way, and even if disposed to :lo so, he has no rights of sovereignty in the group and no claim to aught beyond the enjoyment in peace and security of the lands of himself and people—rights which will be readily acknowledged with him, as they have been with Cakobau and all other chiefs in the group. The chiefs of tbe big north island (Yanua Levu) are all more or less under Maafu's influence, and before the late Government was established they formed the , Lau Confederation and elected Maafu as chief. It was as Tui Lau (or King of Lau) that he submitted to the Government formed in Cakobau's name when surrendering to it all claim to sovereignty in any part of the group.