Fiji in the 1870s

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>Fiji Times July 26
>
>Day of national protest
>
>By Devika Narayan
>
>EMPLOYERS and unions will decide tomorrow on a date for a national protest.
>
>This was decided at a joint committee meeting of the Fiji Trades Union
>Congress, Fiji Employers Federation, Fiji Chamber of Commerce and
>non-governmental organisations yesterday.

This newspaper was around in 1871 when King Cakobau formed a government on
June 5. He announced that "to preserve the perfect harmony which should
exist between the two races, to facilitate the increasing European
commerce, to establish Foreign Relations, a properly constituted Government
has become an absolute necessity..."

The Fiji Times advised its readers to keep a cool head and not cause
trouble for the new government, since:

"In all other respects the Europeans will rule: the power of education and
civilisation must come to the front, and if the prominent figure be a
native, whether in the form of a king or a president, it is only a puppet,
the strings of which are pulled by a white man." (Fiji Times, July 29, 1871)

Although an enlightened monarch, Cakobou eventually was forces beyond his
control. Plantation owners coveting land owned by indigenous people grew
weary of the government interceding on behalf of the unruly savages. A
group of them, led by one General Wolsey, issued a statement:

"Their [Cakobau's government] line of policy has been a systematic attempt
to demonstrate the possibility of placing the superior race in a state of
utter subserviency to the inferior one; but we being men of Anglo-Saxon
descent, are unwilling and determined to not be a medium for the solution
of such a problem."

The British authorities in Fiji, growing alarmed at the tension between
whites and colored peoples, came down four-square on behalf of the
Caucasians. It ordered the Cakobau goverment to throw out its 1871
Constitution and enact one more appropriate to a plural society. As you can
see, Europeans have always been sensitive to the needs of a pluralistic
society in the South Pacific.

Fijian and European members must sit by side in all government bodies.
Europeans would have seats reserved for them, just to make sure everything
was on the up-and-up, even though as the Fiji Times put it in the same
editorial quoted above, "we are not more than a fiftieth of what they are."

Riots broke out in Fiji over British bullying. A delegation from the newly
formed White Residents' Political Association burst into Cakobau's offices
and demanded that he dismiss his cabinet at once. When they returned on a
second occasion, they announced themselves with 60 shots from revolvers.
Cakobau the savage got the message from the civilized race and altered his
Constitution to please the Brits.

The new Constitution was to be vetted by a commissioner assigned by London,
one J.G. Goodenough who had once seen service enforcing the opium
concessions on China. He believed that annexation was the only solution to
Fiji's problems. This would allow his countrymen to employ their capital
unhindered, as was their god-given right.

For some odd reason, the Fijians told the Crown that they preferred
independence:

"We have discussed today the matter laid before the Council whether we
shall cede Viti (Fiji) to Great Britain and it is our desire one and all
that we should retain, in connection with our King, the Government of our
Country Viti, and that we do not give it up to any Foreign Nation." (March
6, 1874)

Eventually they figured out that they were no match against the British
navy and surrendered all claims to sovereignty in September of that year.
In a parting commentary on Fiji's fate, Cakobau wrote on September 25,
"Viti will become like a piece of driftwood on the sea, and picked up by
the first passer-by."

(Fiji: A Short History, Deryck Scarr, Institute for Polynesian Studies, 1984)

Louis Proyect

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