FIJI AND FEDERATION.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXIV, Issue 4880, 4 February 1903, Page 4

FIJI AND FEDERATION.

Tlio question of Fiji is once more being discussed in the Australian newspapers — the occasion being certain conferences and interviews in which the leading personages are officers of the Government of Fiji. The Hon. ,W. I*. Allardyce, Assistant Colonial Secretary, is credited with uttering the veriest nonsense on the subject. Ho is reported to have said that “New Zealand recently endeavoured to annex Fiji, but the Fijian natives and Fijian Europeans both objected.” This is absolutely and grotesquely untrue, and we can only assume that some junior reporter has misunderstood what Mr Allardyce said. New Zealand at no time attempted to annex Fiji, nor ever contemplated making the slightest advance in that direction. New Zealand has no wish to bo burdened with the grave responsibility of administering the affairs of Fiji; and the people of this country would 'not sanction the idea, even though some ambitions statesman were to entextain designs of the kind stated. As a matter of fact, no New Zealand statesman has suggested annexation. When Mr Seddon visited Fiji some two years ago, he found widespread disaffection among the natives; and a movement was set on foot by some European residents, and was warmly supported by these natives, for the annexation of the islands to New 1

Zealand. When. Mr Seddon was appealed to. he took the strictly constitutional courso of tolling the leaders of the movement that ho could not interfere, and that they must “work out their own .salvation.” Since then, tho agitation for change of government has continued, hut it has now taken the form of a request of self-governing powers or for such other alteration as will remove the people’s grievances. Mr Allardycc* cannot bo ignorant of these facts, nor can lie fail to know that the most tyrannical and .oppressive methods were pursued with a view to terrorising the natives and stamping out the discontent that prevailed. Yet, apparently, ho lias tho effrontery to tell a Brisbane interviewer that both Fijian natives and European residents objected to Mew Zealand's attempt to annex the islands. At Sydney, ho amplified his statement by saying that, tho Fijians wore “happy and contented,” and only wanted to bo let alone. Tho Hon. George Moore, Commissioner of Lands in Fiji, who is now also in Sydney, made a similar statement, though his language was more guarded. Both these gentlemen aro well aware that there is no question of “annexation” now before the people >cip Fiji. They have, therefore, been engaging in the old amusement of setting up a straw dummy for the purpose of knocking it down. What is wanted' by Fiji colonists ami natives is o. change in the system of government that will give them reasonable liberty and immunity from a most obnoxious form of bureaucratic tyranny. They want, for cno thing, to give tho natives liberty of speech and action. At present, if a Fijian says “annexation” or “reform” ho is liable to summary arrest and banishment. The natives, as a whole, have no power to live where they aro treated like serfs. The only Fijians who are “happy 1 " and contented” under this regime aro the official class, lyaropcans and native—tho latter embracing most of tho chiefs, who aro employed as magistrates or police officers by tho Government. They have all the power, pay ant] patronage, while European planters and merchants, apd t!«bulk of tho natives, aro badgered and harassed and taxed beyond endurance. Tho “true inwardness” of tho movement in Fiji is well stated by t\tr Humphrey Berkeley, who is now in London representing the malcontents, as an agitation against “official tyranny and crushing taxation,” thougn our evening contemporary is so ill-informed or perverse as to say it is for tho annexation of Fiji to New Zealand. It is to ho Imped that tho commission of inquiry for which Mr Berkeley asks will ho granted by tho Imperial Government, and that prompt stops will he taken for tho removal of tno undoubted evils connected with tho Crown Colony Government of Fiji.