KING CAKOBAU'S CLUB

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21277, 2 September 1932, Page 8

KING CAKOBAU'S CLUB

RETURNED TO FIJI INTERESTING RELIC [from our own correspondent] SUVA, Aug. 24 An interesiing Telic of the annexation of Fiji by Great Britain in the form of King Cakobau's club has been returned from England. This club was handed by Cakobap to the Governor, Sir Hercules Robinson (afterwards Lord Rosmead), with the request that it 'ue forwarded to Queen Victoria as a token of his submission to Her 'Majesty's ruling. The present King recently gave instructions that the club should be returned to Fiji, where it is proposed that it shall be used as a ceremonial mace for the Fiji Legislative Council. At the meeting on October 10, 1874, when Cakobau ceded Fiji to England, the late Sir J. B- Thurston (then Mr. Thurston) handed the club to the Governor, stating on Cakobau's behalf thai he desired to send to the Queen the only thing he possessed which he thought might inteiest her. The King had said that m abandoning the club law ~ and adopting the forms and principals of civilised societies he laid aside his old weapon. Under the old law many of his people—whole tribes—had passed away and disappeared, but hundreds of thousands still remained to learn and enjoy the better order of things. "With this war club," continued Mr. Thurston, "tho King also sends his love and respects to the Queen of England and says that he "fully depends on Her Majesty and her" children who, succeeding her, shall become Kings of Fiji, to exercise a watchful control over the welfare of his children and people, who having survived the era of barbaric law, are now submitting themselves, under Her Majesty's ruling, to civilisation." "Tr