The Franchise In Fiji
pp. 55-56 · Read in the full issue
Rapid Growth of Indian Population Creates a Problem
From Our Oxon Correspondent
SUVA, July 3.
DURING the May session of the Legislative Council, an ordinance was passed altering the system of municipal government in Suva.
As previously explained in these columns, the civic affairs of Suva are administered now by a mayor and council of nine, elected by the ratepayers. The Legislative Council has decided that from the beginning of next year the elective principle is to be abolished and that in future the municipality is to be administered by a municipal commission of thirteen.
The chamman and six members will be nominated by the Governor of Fiji from amongst the government officials, whilst two Europeans, two Fijians, and two-Indians will be selected—by the Governor— from amongst the ratepayers of Suva.
The ordinance passed the Council with only a small minority of dissent, as it was clear that the change in the constitution of the municipal council was a method of gratifying the aspirations of the Indians to political equality and preserving the rights of the two communities who are likely to find themselves much in the minority before long—the Europeans and Fijians.
It was therefore expected that the question of political equality in the Fiji Legislative Council should be raised once more.
The precedent of the Suva Municipal
Council seemed worth following in the case of the superior body (the Legislative Council) and the principle of each community having an equal number of representatives nominated by the Governor ap peared a rational means of burying the old bogey of the common roll.
The Hon. K. B. Singh introduced a motion expressing a desire to revert to the principle of nomination in the case of the non-official members of the Legislative Council, each community to have its own representation. The resolution was supported by Sir Maynard Hedstrom and Sir Henry Scott, amongst others, but op posed by Hon. Alport Barker and two others. It read as follows: “That, in the opinion of this Council, it would be in the best interests of the colony and the various races resident therein if the European and Indian mem bers as well as the Fijian members , were nominated and not elected—an equal num ber of seats to be reserved for each of the three communities.”
The motion was agreed to by five votes to three, neither the officials nor the Fijians voting.
Subsequently, a public meeting was called in the Suva Town Hall where Hon.
Alport Barker and others spoke in con demnation of the motion.
Sir Henry Scott and Sir Maynard Hed strom spoke in favour of making this rather unpalatable change. Both their arguments and their presence carried
more weight than their opponents with the somewhat motley assemblage.
The vote taken was distinctly farcical, it being alleged that 65 voted for the Bar ker views, and that 35 opposed.
As the European electors of the south ern division number over seven hundred, it will be appreciated that the community is not really stirred over the prospective loss of the franchise.
Fiji has received three valuable gifts in recent months. Lord Nuffield gave £5000 sterling towards erecting an Anglican Cathedral in Suva. The Rockefeller Foun dation granted £2200 towards building a pathological laboratory at the Central Medical School for the training of native medical practitioners, and the New York Academy of Medicine has presented a very large complement of up-to-date medical books to the same medical school.