A.—3h

1900. NEW ZEALAND.

THE FEDERATION OF FIJI WITH NEW ZEALAND.

Presented to both Houses of the General Assembly by Leave.

PETITION PRESENTED, IN SYDNEY, TO THE PREMIER OP NEW ZEALAND DURING SITTING OP INTERCOLONIAL CONVENTION HELD IN SYDNEY, 1883. To the Honourable the Premier of the Government 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 recognised as one of the group of the Australasian Colonies. 8. That your petitioners have lately transmitted a petition to Her Most Gracious Majesty the Queen, a copy of which is hereto attached, praying—First, " For the inclusion of Fiji as an integral 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. E. Beckwith Leefb, M.L.C., Fiji. Chables B. Chalmers. Geoege McEvoy, M.L.C., Fiji. Edwaed W. Knox. J. C. Smith.

INTERCOLONIAL CONVENTION, 1883, HELD IN SYDNEY (EXTRACT PROM PROCEEDINGS). To Her Most Gracious Majesty Victoria, Queen of Great Britain and Ireland, Empress of India, &c, &c, &c. This, the humble petition of the undersigned, your Majesty's British subjects resident in the Colony of Fiji, respectfully showeth, — 1. That your petitioners are colonists of Fiji, and are largely interested, commercially and otherwise, in the present and future prosperity of the colony. 2. That Fiji has been a British colony since the lOth day of October, 1874. 3. That the present population of the colony consists, it is estimated, of 110,000 native-born Fijians, and of 2,500 European and other foreign residents, exclusive of labourers introduced from other of the Pacific Islands and from India. 4. That the Government of the colony is now administered by the Governor, with the advice of the Executive Council.