AFFAIRS IN FIJI.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 4384, 15 June 1901, Page 2

AFFAIRS IN FIJI.

BARBARISM, BLUNDERING AND DISCONTENT. BY A VISITOR FROM LONDON. Special to the “Times.” No. 1. Taking the round trip from Sydney to Auckland, I thought I would make an over-stay in Suva. It was not altogether an enjoyable passage. The boat was an ancient deputiser for a more youthful vessel that had to be laid up on the hospital stocks, and the deputise! - was over-crowded, the accommodation very inadequate, some of the saloon passengers being relegated to the steerage. The ancient one proved to be a roller, the trade winds were very much in evidence, and mostly burdened with the effluvia of a deck cargo of pigs; consequently, nearly the whole of the passengers during the voyage were conspicuous by their absence, until we entered the harbour cf Suva; when in festive, airy garments, they mounted to the deck, and together we looked around upon the calm cerulean blue waters, dotted witn native canoes and trading vessels of all sizes and from many lands, and upon the floating islands and thq green and purple mountains, with picturesque houses nestling amidsfc a wealth of tropical foliage, and the town broken up and beautified with resplendent shading trees and flowering shrubs, all revelling under a noon-day and tropical sun. The crowd cn the wharf was composed chiefly of Fijians and a few white people. The former, a picturesque gathering, with their bristly hair, like clipped yellow mops, many-coloured aulus and erect carriage. The latter in white suits and cork helmets. As I strolled into the town, I was startled by a loud, resonant rub-a-dub-dub Under a knot cf trees facing the post office rested a hollowed-out log, 6ft long by 3ft across. It was the lati-lati, once tho Fijian war-drum. A native policeman stood by playing a preliminary rub-a-dub upon it with two beaters, his eye on the post office clock. When th e minute hand reached th e centre, he beat cut the hour with a sonorous boom that could be heard all over the town. So the war-drum that once aroused the Fijians to slaughter is now converted into a town clock. There is an , attractive triangular little pleasaunco on the left, as you turn from the post office into tho main street, where tho feathery plumes of the cocoanut trees wave above yellow and scarlet hybiscus, blossoming gardenia, frangipani, with its waxy, white scalloped cups, lined -with pale amber, exhaling a grateful perfume. A fountain spouts in the midst, cooling flower and bush with rainbow sprays. Near by, on th e right, is now a modest na- . tivo market, where yams, taro kumeras, green oranges, pines and bananas are offered for sale, but there is no soliciting; each owner squats by his goods. If you would purchase, you make your bargains. Facing the market is a grand old ivy (cevy) Tahitian chestnut, with its trunk like an ancient Grecian column, its small white, sweetsmelling flower, its spreading branches and thick oblong leaves, affording § rateful shade to the loungers seated cneath. I hail a passing fly, and driv e round, the drivei; acting as guide. The shops are very English in appearance, and fairly - numerous. There are some extensive and commodious stores and several hotels. The roads are admirable, and cyclists must have a good time. The principal promenade, the Victoria Parade, facing the bay, is fringed with symmetrical rain trees, (white cedar) and other native growths. We pass Government House,and mount a higher road, where the white people reside in pretty villas, nestling amidst lovely gardens, cooled • with 'cocoa palms, luxurious bread-fruit trees, and mummy apple; and all aglow with poin. settias, double hybiscus, gorgeous crotons, annas in many resplendent shades, making a beautiful display cf colour. A wandering Alamanda, a kind of gianti yellow convolulus, climbing high into a karaka that over-hangs the road, and making fHends with a wandering crimson bougainvillea, they have dropped themselves down together, and, intermingling their crimson and golden flowers, covering wall and bank and hdfige, in endless cascades and waving garlands. We pass a cool-looking club and tile Government Buildings; these, together with the Supreme Courthouse, have quite a dignity of their own. A new Roman Catholic Cathedral is being built with stone brought from Sydney. But although I was CHARMED WITH THE PLACE, I missed all the joyous hilarity I expected to encounter here. The natives wer e not disporting themselves about the town. I saw no “young gallants with flower-decked tocks, or the plump and pretty, native girls, garlanded with gardenia and outhie, knotted with ribbons of the vau.” Tho natives I met seem a hard-worked, gloomy and apprehensive crowd, and always seemingly in a hurry to get out of the place. The white people, too, seemed generally taciturn and suspicious. Laughter and merriment seemed dead. I thought some how of a mournful crow sitting brooding upon a fence. In a few days I found the chief topics of interest were the unpopularity of the Governor—the perverse and unjust treatment of the natives and federation. Presently, becoming acquainted with most of the principal officials and residents of the town, every opportunity was afforded mo to thoroughly acquaint myself with the state of affairs prevailing in Suva, and of the feelings of the' people with regard to the same. Governor (Sir George Michael O’Brien) —salary per annum £2OOO as Governor of Fiji, £3OO as High Commissioner, £270 as Consul-General. Total salary, £2574 per annum. Besides this, he has a |iouse free of rent, and “immunity from payment of Customs duties on goods imported,” which might bring his income to about £3500 per annum. In other colonies the Governor is not only the official head, but he is also supposed to represent his Majesty as the social head. 'NVith the exception of the day after his arrival, five years ago, when the townspeople attended at Government House, his Excellency has never held a single levee, nor have the ladies of the colony ever been asked to any social function within the Government House grounds. Sir George O’Brien is practically unknown to many residents of the colony, for he rarely appears at any public function. “If he walked on the parade to-day,” said a prominent member of the Town Board, “he might be noticed as a stranger, but not as the Governor. How is he to understand the people he is here to govern? His knowledge of Fiji and its people he gets second hand,” from his councillors and advisers.” Sir George O’Brien’s unpopularity commenced from his stoppage of the Canadian mail service. The steamers calling here dated the . commencement of a new era for Fiji—it meant enlarged prosperity, the opening out of trade with new, countries. For this the people paid, and paid willingly, £ISOO per annum. "The colony affirmed Sir George, could not afford it —it was deeply indebted to the Imperial treasury. If the colony could afford to subsidise steam communication it could also

afford to pay off a further portion of the Imperial loan. A few days after, however, a notice appeared in the local newsnnper to the effect that the colony of Fiji had contributed £IOOO to the .Patriotic Fund, tho vote being passed by his Excellency in Council. So while liis Excellency is unable to sanctioiy the renewal of a subsidy to a mail sei'vice which contributes to the general welfare of the colony more than th e amount of the subsidy, by a vote passed through a Council—which cannot oppose him—he absolutely takes £IOOO ot the people’s money without consulting their wishes, and hands it over to' the war fund. Yet there was at this very time a Patriotic Fund in Fiji, and one which was most generously contributed to by great and small. So Fiji lost the mail service, which had promised so much for it, and left it crippled and , bitter. It is customary for the Governor of a BRITISH COLONY to show his loyalty and respect for the Crown by holding a reception on the birthday of the reigning monarch, and by tho exchange of greetings and congratulations marking the people’s respect and loyalty to the Crown. There has never been this public show of layalty and respect, it seems, since the date of Sir George O’Brien’s Governorship. But tho discourtesy and want of tact has not been confined to the towns, people. It has been extended even to distinguished strangers. Mr Reid, Premier of New South Wales, called at Sura on his way home from the Jubilee. He presented himself at Government House, and was kept waiting in the hall. His Excellency’s private secretary appeared, and intimated that the Governor was at breakfast and could not see Mr Reid. That gentleman’s after remarks were loud and expressive; they were something akin to those attributed by Sir H. Parkes to a colleague, “as fluent as that of a waterspout after a rainstorm.” When the French man-of-war, the Protet, arrived in the bay, the Commodore, M. Germinel, paid the respectful and customary call upon his Excellency. His Excellency sent his secretary to return tho call. The irate Commodore refused to see the substitute. “I paid my respects to the representative of the English flag in person; I shall expect his Excellency to return ray call in person —and in uniform”—and his Excellency did so. I arrived at Suva soon after the demise of our late revered Queen, and while some latent traces of a recent grief and indignation prevailed in tho colony. The “Times” explained this. When the nows of her Majesty’s death arrived, the grief of the people here was deep and sincere. The cry of sorrow from the natives was almost a wail of despair—so much had been hoped for in their present trouble, from “our great white mother.” At the memorial service a mighty sorrowful crowd filled tho church' and covered its precincts. The native constabulary were drawn up, the crowd waited, wondering at the delay of tho Governor’s attendance. An urgent message was sent to his Excellency by the Rev Mr Plate. The message was NOT EVEN ANSWERED, and the memorial service proceeded without the presence of the Crown’s representative. “The white people here are a most conservative little crowd,” said the Warden of Suva, commenting on this. “Many of them are of old English families, loyal to their heart’s core, and they are quick to resent any affront.to old English traditions. His Excellency’s conduct in this matter they look upon as unpardonable disloyalty. Can you wonder that we desire federation and something better for £3500 a year than this one-man government?” I was told also that I should find many more reasons why a change of government was desired in the colony if 1 stayed long enough.