THE FIJI SITUATION.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XXIII, Issue 185, 14 August 1901, Page 2

THE FIJI SITUATION.

R ■'V. MR SLADB'o VliiWß. PER PRE -S ASSOCIATION. Wellington, August 13. The Rev. Mr. Slad.>, Ohairar.n of the Weslaya M : s-<io» iu Fji, his s<>n< <t let'er t'> tlis Pieaiior, oxpress'r.g afci-Zacuion at thu suspi:;s : on by Mr. Ohambrrlaif) of the las', oi-di. a'ics nassad by r-he Governor of F ji, an i hoping Mr. Sdd n's eff r v s would p, o cure its c incellution. Mr. Shde claims that tho miasionai i s lciow the na'ivr-s better than the Government offiwrs, *nd th.t Sir George o'Brie a knows nothing at all of tho ratives. He justifi d his sp ech nt Wair.ibobu i by nying that tho Fiderition pany in Suva had sont emissaries to pursuad.* the natives not to piy tixes. At that moment the Mission Synod was sitting, and particular enquiries w< re made as to whether they had hoard of these emissaries. None had done fo. Sir George O'Brien's allegation of probable trouble, in Mr. Slade'd opinion, is just as groundlass. Discontent there is, caused by the irksome system of government, under which a man has to ask official permission to sell a basket of yams. Had Sir George O'Brien eat less on his dignity, and moved more freely about the colony, he might htva leirned b> m*what of what natives really are, and t een less likely to be influenced by recklessly inaccurate reports of his own officers. T hat the condition of Fiji cil's for an ordinance so un English as the oi_e just suspended is as gross a libel on the Islands as the Wainibokußi apt ech was on Newi Zea'and. Mr. Slade regrets, in conclusion, that, he is unable to visit Wellington and confer personally and at length with the Premier on Fijian matters.