New Zealand Times. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 29, 1874.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4246, 29 October 1874, Page 2

New Zealand Times. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 29, 1874.

Our telegraphic news yesterday furnished us with later intelligence from Fiji.. "The " cession took place on the 30th Septem-. '' ber, at Nasora, situated two miles from '' Levuka. The. British flag was to' be ."hoisted on the ibth of October." This is so far satisfactory, and it is a practical interpretation of Earl Carnabvon's remarkable speech .on the Fiji question in the House of Lords, on July 17th. . The Secretary of State for the. Colonies said that such, a state of things had arisen in Fiji, that " it was simply impossible! to " leave the islands to themselves under " present circumstances." Annexation was forced upon the Imperial Government through.the complications arising out of the colonising energy of British subjects. Undoubtedly it would have been much better if the Imperial authorities had, a dozen years ago, added the Fiji archipelago to the Colonial Empire of England. The Royal: Commissioner, Colonel Smythe, reported strongly in favor of annexation about that time, and his admirable report, which was disregarded by Downing Street, gives the first faint outline of the South Sea Island scheme, which Mr. Vogel submitted to Parliament last session. Since then, when an American man-of-war levied tribute! on Cakabou, the British Cabinet declined to have anything to do with the islands. Thirty thousand dollars would have purchased the native title to the soil, so far as Cakabou, the recognised chief paramount of the group, could alienate it; and if the American claim had been met, and the cession accepted, British guns would have made good the title. But it was not to be. The policy of England then was to snub the colonies. The outlying dependencies of the Empire were only a source of weakness and expense to the mother country, and political charlatans of the Goldwin Smith type, and political hucksters of the John Bright type, preached the economical doctrine of colonial independence. "The war in " New Zealand is paid for by the British '' taxpayer. It represents Id. in the pound " on the income tax," they declared, "wherefore let New Zealand take care of " itself, and practise the Anglo-Saxon " virtue of self-reliance " And in pursuance of this policy, the troops were withdrawn from New Zealand, and the colonists were forced to settle, at their own charge, and single-handed, an Imperial quarrel. As a consequence of the self-same policy, Fiji was not annexed to the Crown, but its irregular colonisation was winked at. The Government was not responsible, and Manchester sold '■ its goods. This, was the realisation of the pet policy of the Man-chester-school. It put money into the pursts of manufacturers and traders, and must of necessity be right. By-and-bye, however, the Christian world became scandalised by the way in which the labor requirements of the Fiji colonists were'supplied. Man stealing and slavery were reduced to a system,, and quite a fleet of vessels was engaged iii the nefarious traffic,,which culminated in the Carl tragedy, and the lionising of the prime ruffian of the gang, Dr. Murray, as a repentant sinner, by a section of the Exeter Hall pharisees. '_ The British Government thereupon interfered, and incurred a very heavy expenditure by sending cruisers to suppress the labor traffic, and building and commissioning a fleet of gunboats to supplement the efforts of the ships of war on the Australian station. AU this expenditure might have been avoided, however, if the colonial.policy of England had not been made subservient to its domestic politics. Furthermore, the crime and atrocities which indelibly disgrace the British name, through the misdeeds of British subjects in the South Seas, would have been avoided. If the Fiji Group had been regularly colonised under the authority of the Crown there would have been no slavery, and no slave trade; there would have been no kidnapping and slaughter of naked savages ; no retaliatory massacre of defenceless mariners, nor would the crown of martyrdom have fallen to the lot of Bishop Patteson. But domestic politics controlled the Colonial Office, and so long as '.' the commer- " cial nation" made money, and the slave scandal did not become intolerable, nothing could be done. . . Meanwhile, one section of the British residents in Fiji established a regular form of government, and another section —those who throve by the labor trafficrebelled against the authority of King Cakabou. The Imperial Government, however, while declining to do anything to establish law and order in the group, by its cruisers and through its consular agont, thwarted tho men who had devoted themselves to the cause of order. It was simply impossible for the_Government of Cakabou to succeed, interfered with as it was by tho captains of British war ships, in obedience to orders from homo. Anarchy soon supplanted ordor. The planters were in open rebellion;, so also were the Hill tribes ferocious cannibals, whose subjugation was undertaken by Mr, Woods and his colleagues. This latter task was accomplished; the planters, however, succeeded in their de»ign of forcing annexation. In

sheer desperation, Sir Hercules Robinson was sent to Fiji, and King Cakabou reluctantly consented to do what ho had voluntarily offered to do many years ago, at a time when the colonisation of the group might have been effected without crime or public disorder of any kind. There is still Maafu, the telegram tells us, to be dealt with. "Maafu stands " next to the King." In fact, he stands somewhat above the titular King of Fiji. Maafu is the chief paramount of the Windward Islands, but he is not a Fijian. He is a Samoan, who was expelled from his,own country, with his followers, on account of his turbulent and ambitious spirit. Maafu aided Cakabou to establish his authority, while laying the foundation of his own, and it was notorious that he contemplated usurping the supreme power in the group at no distant date. How he may receive Sir Hercules Robinson remains to be seen ; but he is sagacious enough to know that resistance would be vain. The British Government has done tardily what it should have clone a dozenjyears ago at least, but having taken this decided step, it will not draw back. The future of Fiji is assured ; but how different its past might have been, if English politicians could only rise above the ignorant clamour of a purse-proud electorate, —misnamed Public Opinion. _____________