Equality

Sukuna’s Call for Equality Of Sacrifice

NO section of the community should be permitted to take more than its just share of the available resources and therefore the Indians of Fiji must, as their sacrifice for the common good, watch their birthrate.

These admonitions were part of the speech of Ratu Sir Lala Sukuna, at Levuka on October 10, on the 80th anniversary of the signing oT the Deed of Cession.

On this occasion, Sir Lala took the place of the Governor, Sir Ronald Garvey, who was attending the 13th session of the South Pacific Commission, in Noumea.

In his speech Sir Lala recalled the doubts of many of the Chiefs before and at the time of Cession. He compared the Deed of Cession with the Treaty of Waitangi in New

Zealand, which was followed by the tragic Maori war.

“After 1875”, he said, “we were saved from a similar situation by the wise policy of Sir Arthur Gordon, the then Governor, when the Government of the Colony handed back to the native owners the half-million acres of land that were being claimed by speculators.

Npthing that has been done before or since has served more firmly to establish the Queen’s Government in the hearts of the Fijian people than this one act of high generosity and princely goodwill”.

For many years the Fijian popu lation was on the wane while the Indian population was increasing, and at the same time the Fijian was well behind in the Colony’s economic march. It was only in recent years that Fijians had been given the advice and help necessary to the production of cash crops.

But by giving areas of their land for settlement, the Fijians had made appreciable contributions to the common welfare of all races in Fiji —and now it was not too much to ask that other races should make theirs also.

Private Samuela Vakaruru and Private Apenisa Waqamatia of the Fiji Miliary Forces in Malaya were killed, and two other men injured in a freak accident on October 2 A heavy tree limb fell onto the “D” Company base in the jungle, without warning.

Sir Lala Sukuna giving an address during the Cession Day ceremonies at Nasova, Levuka. The plaque and stone commemorating the occasion is in the centre of the photograph. —Photo: Fiji Public Relations Office.