■3, Sess. 1,

A.—3

Sess. IL—lBB4. NEW ZEALAND.

CONFEDERATION AND ANNEXATION PAPERS RESPECTING THE FIJIAN AND SAMOAN GROUPS, AND PROPOSALS FOR THEIR UNION WITH NEW ZEALAND.

Presented to both Houses of the General Assembly by Command of His Excellency.

I. FIJ I. No. 1. Petition presented, in Sydney, to the Peemieb of New Zealand. To the Honourable the Peemieb of the Goveenment of New Zealand. The Petition of the European portion of the inhabitants of Fiji showeth— 1. That your petitioners are greatly dissatisfied at the political disabilities they now labour under, consequent on the form of government existing in Fiji. 2. That your petitioners are taxed at the rate of about £30 per head, and yet have no voice whatever in the expenditure of the public revenue. 3. That your petitioners have been deprived of the right of trial by jury in mixed cases, and have practically no appeal, there being only one Judge, and the appeal lying to him from himself. 4. That your petitioners have no representation of any kind whatever, all the members of the Legislative Council being either officials or nominees of the Crown. 5. That your petitioners have been for the most part colonists, previously, of either Australia or New Zealand ; that not less than £1,700,000 of Australasian capital is already invested in Fiji; and your petitioners therefore desire a more intimate political, as they already have a social, connection with one or other of the Australasian Colonies. 6. That the Colony of Fiji is self-supporting, and has this year a small surplus. 7. That by the resolutions passed in the late Colonial Convention, as well as by the permission given by the Secretary of State for the Colonies, that she should send a delegate to such Convention, Fiji is fully recognized as one of the group of Australasian Colonies. 8. That your petitioners have lately transmitted a petition to Her Most Gracious Majesty the See A.Queen, a copy of which is hereto attached, praying—First, " For the inclusion of Fiji as an integral p. 30.* portion of federated Australasia." Secondly, "In the event of such federation not being immediately accomplished, for incorporation with one or other of the Australasian Colonies," without naming any particular colony. 9. That the incomplete and partial federation accomplished by the Convention, does not immediately affect Fiji, in the manner or to the extent wished for. 10. That your petitioners believe that were New Zealand and Fiji united under one government, great good to both would eventuate, as well politically as commercially. 11. Your petitioners therefore now designate New Zealand as the colony with which they wish to be incorporated, in accordance with the second prayer to the Queen's Most Excellent Majesty ; and pray that you will take such immediate steps as to your wisdom may seem appropriate, by supporting the petition to Her Most Gracious Majesty, and otherwise initiating such measures as will tend to the complete union of the two groups of islands most interested in the trade of the Pacific, and only one thousand miles apart. And the delegates appointed by the white inhabitants of Fiji, in public meeting assembled, to represent them at the Colonial Conference, and negotiate for annexation to one of the Australasian Colonies, hereto subscribe themselves. Esßeckwith Leefe, M.L.C. Fiji. Chables B. Chalmees. Geoege MoEvoy, M.L.C. Fiji. Edwabd W. Knox'. J. C. Smith.

* Other correspondence re Fiji will be found in tho same paper, commencing at p. 27. I—A. 3.