FIJI.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 7223, 11 April 1885, Page 2 (Supplement)

FIJI.

(tfitOfi OCB OWN 00BBB8P0NDENT.)

March 18.

News baa reached here from Tonga of a secession from the Mission Church there, promoted by the Hon. and Rav. Shirley Waldemar Baker. That personage wha at one time chairman of fcho Weslßyan Mission. His political acts and certain things iu his management of church affairs caußed dissatisfaction in the Mission Board in Sydn«y, and a deputation was sent down therefrom, which did not relieve the dissatisfaction. It eventuatod in the chairmanship being given to another, and culminated at Cmforence in Mr Baker being vequeated'to resign bis position as a Wealeyau minister. King George, who is represented by those who know as being very old »nd very much under tutelage, requested that Tonga should cease to be a mission church controlled by the mission board, and become a district under the Sydney Conference. This waa granted. Before long Mr Baker had reasou w> become very much dissatisfied with the Sydney Conference, which did not hold him in that high estimation that he, who knows himaelf better than anyone else can know him, considered th»t he should be held in ; and so a proposal came again from King George—this time to the General Conference which lately sat at Christchurch—that Tonga Bhould have nothing more to do with the bydney Conference, but with that of New Zealand. It is generally understood that Mr Baker had succeeded in more favourably impressing the Wesleyan ministers of New Zsalaud than in tna case of other Colonies The General Conference appointed a deputation to visit Tonga, and deferred action until that daputatiou had reported. This waa not exactly what could have been wished by the hon, and rev. gentleman aforetaid, and now we hear that Tonga, which parted from the Board ot Missions when Mat Board became obtuse, and wbicb desired a transfer from the control of New South Walaa to that of New Zealand when the Sydney Conference became infected with the same dullness, now purposes to have nothing more to do with the General Oonferencd either—that body having also become mysteriously and unreaßihably defectivo in intelligence. I use the word Tonga, but therein I ftel that I am incorrect for only a certain section, including of course the venerable king (who dances as his Premier pipes) baa formed as yet into that political echißin, with a grand sounding name, "The National Church." According to trust worthy inlorrnation, which I have direct from Tonga, very vigorous means are being usod to promote the accession of numbers to the National Church. Public officers are dismissed on their refusal to abandon the Church in which they were born, and, by a very peculiar culo existing in the Civil Sjrvico of Tonga, they lose on dismissal all arrears of pay. Tenure of land hr»o baen threatened, and it is said thut only one village had gone over en masse to the new movement, and that was because the inhabitants had been threatened with expulsion. One man, a local preacher, declining to join, waa arraigned by the Civil, Arm lor having said that " the land belongs to Jehovah aa well as the King"; a most indiscreet admission for a Tongan to make, For his dangerous and reprehensible views on polity, this " injudicious hooker" waa condemned to two yeaia' labour and banishment. Caleb Valu, a judge, when asked to join the new National Church inconsistently said that he loved hia King, and prized his office and name, but could not give up the Church of his father. He waa at once ver^ properly dismissed. One chief and his ' tail were informed that they would be " salted and fried " if they did not turn, a threat which, it is said by Friendly Island scholars, makes a Tongan'o heart to quail with the most craven fear, though it is hard to Bay why. Ono chief said, in preposterous words, that will nevertheless gain sympathy from many an Engii-h heart, "My father died of exposure cud wounds in sailing about to establish this Cburcb, and lam not going to forßake it now." Had the now break off originated in any other than a political movement, and baen furthered by legitimate means, the title " National Church might have secured fur it outside respect. At our latest dates the movement had not attained unto "national proportions," "JTtio TSan^fthe^Xfia^ouyf^^We great majority cf the people of Tonßatabu are still steadfast to the Established Church, including most of the King's own family. A goodly number still stand in Haabai. A revival has broken out ainoDg the wild young men, and the congregations last Sunday were larger than over they have been known to bo all over the country." A number of Tongans have come over to Ban aa guests of Ritu Timothy, and among them is one charged with the mission of Btirring up what few Tongans still remain in Fiji on their National Ecclesia business. He is sweetly recognised by the Press here as the notorious Semeai Fifita, who in the early days of Fiji acted aa Maaf ue's lieutenant, and is recorded in Pritchard's " Polynesian R'jmiuiscenes " as having in a Christian church at the Yasawas pnnefd out the pyeß of a numbar of Fjjianss and then chopped their heads off.

His Honor the Administrator has been making very close personal inspection of the native villages in such of tho districts bb he baa been able aB yat to reach, and he gave a very practical turn to his viceregal progress by administering salutary hints to the chiefs, and even rendering personal medical assistance to cases where he saw it was urgently required. As a medical man he has not his equal in tho the coun'ry. In a quiet and genial way he haR also aimed at drawing the colonists into more easy personal relations with tha Government, and baa shrewdly mingled business and informal hospitality together. The last occasion waa on the calling together of some leading citizons to discuss the sending of exhibits Home' to tbe Colonial and Indian Exhibition to be held in London next yfiar, Committees were formed, and various exhibits were promised at once, and it it is to be hopad that the Colony will be properly represented at that display of tho wealth of England's many possessions,

Some amusement is excited in Fijian circles by the very diverse cublic utterances of our Governor and of our Colonial Secretary on the subject of our annexation to your contiguous ColoDy. Sir William Des Vceux spoke at Wellington very decidedly on the imprudence of your taking over Fiji, so difficult to manage, so expensive an appendage, and with such a probable burden of German compensations, And ha exhorted the Now Zealundera to confine their attentions to their own self development and to leave the Polynesian Inlands alone in a vf^y that must have charmed the heart of your Sir Julius Vogel. Now, by the latest telegrams we aoe that tbe Hon. J. B. Thurston, Colonial Secretary, at present in London, has lectured before the Colonial Institute on the advisability of the attachment of Fiji to, New Zealand. This movement is a very now_ one for Mr Thurston, and iB suggestive of a willingness in the Colonial Office to shift our troubles, liabilities, and ponding thunder-clouda of German land claims with heavy compensations to your plucky little Government. I also aee by the telegrams that the proposal to erent Fiji iDto a bithoprio has fallen through. Why it was seriously entertained is to some minda surprising, as there are. not, I imagine, 800 Episcopalians among the Europeans, only a portion of the imported labour (auch aa come from the islands vested by the Melanesian Mission), only two congregations and one church in the whole group, and two clergy—a priest and a deacon. And aa the immediate future doea not promise much increase in the white population (now altogether about 2000) it does not seem what room there, is for an energetic bishop, who would either have to 'vert the Roman Catholics or proselytiso tbe Wexleyans, or feel as miserable as a hen in a ooop.

Some statistics published by the Government do not give a very pleasing account of the rate of increase of the native race. It has been grown lees, and a positive decrease h»B, I learn, set in since the last statistics were publisbnd. The birth-rati is is shown to be as large as in some Kuropean countries, but the death-rate is high, and chiefly obtains amongst the young children and infants. The subject in being strong]v pressed upon the attention of the chiefs. Were more care exercised by the natives themselves in the conservation of the lives that come into the Fijian world, there is no reason why the people should not multiply in number. But the most fatal ravages to which they are exposed are those of foreign epidemics, which, when they do get through the careful barriers of the State's vigilant quarantine, make sad havoo amongst the Fijiaus, whose vital power doeß not seem to be markedly great. Some interesting meteorological returns have been published, showing a great diversity in rainfall and other conditions amongst the multitudinous islands of the group A great native gathering will shortly take place at Bau; an immense crowd of Fijians are preparing to there assemble to engage in public ceremonies connected with the formal putting off of mourning for the late King Thakombau.

Some very interesting notes are published here, furnished by the United States Consul at Samoa, Dr Canisino. They give information aa to the commerce of Samoa, in which the American firms are said to be running the Germans hard; and the Consul believes that there is a fine future for the Navigators Group in connection with the Panama Canal. He hold* that those islands will be right in the world's highway, and more convenient for touchirjg lit than our reef girdled Fiji; and he urges that more communication by steam with San Francisco bs carefully cultivated. Provisions are obtained at present in large quantities from Svdney which should be brought from the Pacific Slope instead, and the tine products of Samoa shipped to the American markets.

The weather here is vory hot, though the thermometer does not rarjge high, but the moist air is very oppressive People walk about very hot.and exudatory. Ho sign as yet of a hurricane, ag,d uslbss cms bmatn upou us thib weak wo ore not likely to huvo oco at all.