Fijian Magistrate
p. 75 · Read in the full issue
Signs of the Times:
Was Not Impressed
Suva, Nov. 22.
Ratu Penaia Ganilau, Who Re
turned to Fiji in April after com pleting a course in administration in England, was on the Bench at the Labasa Magistrate’s Court when Mr. H. B. Gib son, a Labasa solicitor and a former member of the Legislative Council, was charged with driving an unlicensed jeep.
The defendant said that he had over looked the matter of the licence because of pressure of work, and he added that the police should have notified him that payment of the fee was due. The police, however, flatly disclaimed any responsi bility.
The defendant then claimed privilege, because part of his time was given to public work.
The Fijian magistrate ruled that the law applied to all alike, and said that there were no grounds for any claim of privilege. The defendant was fined £1 Ratu Penaia is not the only Fijian official to occupy a magisterial bench. In former years the present Secretary for Fijian Affairs (Ratu Sir Lala Sukuna) on occasion occupied a similar position and there may have been others. Fijian magistrates under the Fijian Administra tion deal only with Fijians in cases in volving breaches of the Fijian Regula tions.
Pastor O. Thiele, executive secretary of the Lutheran Foreign Missions, left Vic toria for New Guinea recently to confer with the Rev. O. H. Schmidt of the USA Lutheran Church.