Government, on account of the good sense and practical capacity for affairs therein displayed.

There is no doubt that we should have been spared many bloody colonial wars if we had always followed the course which was adopted after mature consideration by Sir Arthur Gordon, on the advice of those who knew Fiji and the Fijians best, of encouraging the retention by the natives of their original political economy. Mr. Carew, the indefatigable Commissioner of Viti Levu, strongly urged this policy on the Government in October, 1875, and a summary of his letter to Sir Arthur Gordon will give a very clear insight into the feelings of the natives themselves in this matter, and also some of their social characteristics. He says in effect: English law is quite inapplicable to the exigencies of the native community, except to a certain extent in capital offences. The natives have a perfect dread of English law; they know nothing of it. We have no right whatever to tear down the whole system of native policy based on centuries of experience, and which they all understand, without being able to substitute anything comprehensible in its place. The natives insist on punishment for adultery. If unpunished, murder is generally the result. A native's wife is his cook, his gardener, his horse and cart, his water-carrier, his fish-provider, and the bearer of children to him to hand his name down to posterity. A native without at least one child is an object of pity to his tribe. If his wife leaves him to go with another man, he is totally undone. He is heart-broken, and regards himself on a level with a pig. His house is uncared-for-his food uncooked -his garden overgrown with weeds; he has to rely on the assistance of his friends; the elders of his own and the neighbouring tribes will cease to visit his house or to consult with

and a garden overseer. An uncertain number of villagessometimes few, sometimes many-are grouped together under the buli of the district, who once a month assembles all his town chiefs, and discusses with them, in the Bose ni Tikina, or district council, the affairs of his own district. These district councils nominate the chiefs of towns, whom they may also suspend from office. They discuss and regulate all local matters, such as the cleansing and scavenging of villages, the management of animals belonging to the different communities, as distinguished from individual property, the keeping open and maintenance of roads and bridges, the control of public bathing-places. The council also superintends the payment, out of local rates, of the village constables. similar manner the buli districts are grouped under the headship of a greater chief, the Roko Tui, each of whom twice a year assembles the bulis of his province in the Bose vaka Yasana, or provincial council, where the local affairs of the province are discussed and settled, by which local rates are imposed, and to which each buli makes a detailed report of the condition of his own district.

In a

This organisation is purely native, and of spontaneous growth. To it has now been added a meeting annually of the Roko Tuis and the Governor. This Bose vaka Turanga, or Great Council, is also attended by the native stipendiary magistrates, and by two bulis from each province, chosen by the Bose vaka Yasana. At it each Roko Tui in turn makes a detailed report of the state of his province, and suggestions are offered as to executive and legislative measures which it is thought desirable by those assembled that the Government should adopt. The suggestions made by the Bose vaka Turanga have received, and I think merited, the warm commendation of Her Majesty's

Government, on account of the good sense and practical capacity for affairs therein displayed.

There is no doubt that we should have been spared many bloody colonial wars if we had always followed the course which was adopted after mature consideration by Sir Arthur Gordon, on the advice of those who knew Fiji and the Fijians best, of encouraging the retention by the natives of their original political economy. Mr. Carew, the indefatigable Commissioner of Viti Levu, strongly urged this policy on the Government in October, 1875, and a summary of his letter to Sir Arthur Gordon will give a very clear insight into the feelings of the natives themselves in this matter, and also some of their social characteristics. He says in effect: English law is quite inapplicable to the exigencies of the native community, except to a certain extent in capital offences. The natives have a perfect dread of English law; they know nothing of it. We have no right whatever to tear down the whole system of native policy based on centuries of experience, and which they all understand, without being able to substitute anything comprehensible in its place. The natives insist on punishment for adultery. If unpunished, murder is generally the result. A native's wife is his cook, his gardener, his horse and cart, his water-carrier, his fish-provider, and the bearer of children to him to hand his name down to posterity. A native without at least one child is an object of pity to his tribe. If his wife leaves him to go with another man, he is totally undone. He is heart-broken, and regards himself on a level with a pig. His house is uncared-for-his food uncooked -his garden overgrown with weeds; he has to rely on the assistance of his friends; the elders of his own and the neighbouring tribes will cease to visit his house or to consult with

him; he is a miserable creature: he is guca, or going downhill.

Since Fiji has been annexed, the people have been ostensibly governed according to the principles of British law alone, but such has not been the case except in the law-courts of Levuka. In the provinces, so great was the Fijians' dread of the delays of British law, that not unfrequently they took the law into their own hands and executed summary justice. For instance, a particularly brutal murder was committed by a native. His chief said: 'Let us not send him to court to be tried in the white man's incomprehensible fashion, and then allowed to escape punishment; let us kill him at once,' and they did so. This district has been Christian for several years. The chief was a Government servant receiving Government pay. This chief came to an English gentleman a week after the execution and confessed the whole affair, but the papalagi wisely kept his counsel till it had blown over. There has been no crime since in that large district.

The dual system has worked well. For capital and very serious offences a native is tried before the supreme court; minor matters are settled by his chief, or if any difficulty occurs with that authority, by the local British magistrate. Some of the native laws are exceedingly severe, and in some places working on Sunday is an offence.

CHAPTER XIII.

MORE ABOUT THE FIJIAN OF TO-DAY.

WHEN Commodore Wilkes of the United States Navy visited the Fiji Group some years back, he landed a party of his blue

jackets, and put them through some light infantry drill. Inquiring of one of the chiefs present what he thought of the performance, the Fijian replied with that irony which is one of their marked characteristics when they care to assume it, 'The men might be very good warriors, but they waddled like ducks.'

The natives of Fiji are a fine race, of dark olive complexion, good physique, and fairly intelligent cast of countenance. The men perhaps average 5 feet 8 inches in height, while the rokos and some of the bulis exceed this standard. The women have sometimes pretty faces and undeniable figures when young, but their natural grace early disappears; for being simple Fijians, and ignorant of women's rights, they labour too much for their dusky lords, and the claims of Venus are merged in the demands for fish to fill the husband's larder. In youth both sexes have a superb carriage, and walk with the importance of a life-guardsman with his sweetheart.

No wonder therefore that the roko was struck with the rolling gait of the American sailors: a slouching Fijian would, I fancy, be soon sent to Coventry by his friends. The military class sometimes affect a ludicrously warlike adornment in the way of red ochre and black patches on the cheeks, reminding one forcibly of the very fierce-looking devils on the Chinese war-standards. But this piece of eccentricity is not so common as formerly. The civilians, in many cases, affect blue cheeks.

The natives of Fiji are emphatically agriculturists. Notwithstanding that some are called fishing tribes and others carpenter or building, yet even these cultivate more or less. extensively. No greater mistake can be made than to suppose that they are not as a people very industrious cultivators of the soil. The idea of a race of lotus-eaters residing 'in summer isles of Eden set in purple spheres of sea,' is certainly not