FIJIAN NATIVE LANDS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18577, 8 December 1923, Page 13

FIJIAN NATIVE LANDS.

GOVERNOR AND THE CHIEFS.

[from our own correspondent.] SUVA. Nov. 26. The one great drawback to settlement and development in Fiji is the obsolete nature of the land laws of the colony. There lias for some timo been considerable agitation by the public to have the lands all brought under some common factor, so that one law should govern it all. At present some land is owned by whites some is owned by the Government, but most is still owned by the natives. The Government want to bring all land under Government control. At the Council of Chiefs the Governor made the following statement: — " At the last meeting of the council a resolution was passed to the effect that all native lands should be handed over to the Crown for purposes of British settlement. My reply, which was that the matter would receive the consideration of the Government, seems to have regarded in some quarters as a merely perfunctory one and as indicating very little interest ?n the subject. Although in securing the abolition of the compulsory auctioning of native leases I was acclaimed as having, even if I did nothing more to advance the land question, performed a lasting public service, it will become apparent in _ due course that in regard to the larger issue also I have not been altogether idle. " I have lost no opportunity of encouraging the Fijians in the various provinces to surrender their unused lands and so enable the Government, when inquiries for land arc received, to point definitely to areas where land may be acquired by direct negotiation with the Lands Depart ment without the necessity of bargaining with the native owners, obtaining the approval of District Councils and so forth. But those who imagine that, on land being offered by the Council of Chiefs wr by a provincial council, the Government has merely to step in and assume it, betray ■d surprising ignorance of the system of native tenure. " It may be that resolutions, such as that above quoted, represent the genuine and general desire of the Fijians in several provinces. What is required, however, in addition to the general wish of the province is the • willingness of individual owners, from whom transfers must be obtained, and this can best be done after the Lands Commission has decided who the owners are, and survey has been completed. I have little doubt that in pursuance of the resolution referred to and of oii'er similar resolution from provincial councils which have since reached me, the Government will in due course have available considerable additional areas of land suitable for settlement, to the great advantage of the Fijians themselves and of the colony as a whole. " The largest area of'native holding surveyed in any year since the inception of Iho commission was made last year, when there was surveyed an area of 1,'57,000 acres. It has, however, been reported to rae that the investigations of the commission would proceed more rapidly if native owners would bestir themselves and see that the representatives they put forward to give evidence as to the status of mataqali and the ownership of land are well prepared with the necessary information."