[?]Nvestigation Into
p. 75 · Read in the full issue
Commission in Fiji
Police
[?]Ethods In Colony
UR JOHN VERITY, formerly I Chief Justice of Nigeria, has been appointed chairman of a immission of Inquiry into the ethods of investigation of crime by ,e Fiji Police Force.
The other members are Mr. A. A. mean, CMS, formerly Chief Com issioner of Police, Victoria, Aus alia, and Mr. R. N. Caldwell, HG, MC, formerly District Com issioner and Deputy Secretary for jian Affairs in Fiji.
The Commission was scheduled to irt its investigations in the middle April.
For some years members of the jal profession in Fiji have ex essed dissatisfaction with the jthod sometimes employed in ting statements, claiming that netimes, through racial and iguage differences, questions are t properly understood, or answers ; taken down incorrectly.
Former police officers have also imed that statements were in tied to be used as an easy way of ining evidence and that if cases re properly prepared, with full in
vestigation, statements would not be necessary.
In a recent case at Ba a retrial was ordered on the grounds that statements were improperly taken, and much conflicting evidence on the point was given in court.
The Commission’s terms of refer ence are:To inquire into the method of investigation of crime by the Fiji Police Force, with particular reference to (a) taking of state ments by police officers from per sons suspected of, or charged with criminal offences, and (b) the in vestigation by the Fiji Police Force into the recent murder of Gopal Reddy.
The commission is also to make recommendations on the above matters, and in particular it is to make recommendations on the fol lowing:—(a) The advisability of the admission in evidence against accused persons of statements taken from them by police officers, and (b) on what safeguards, if any,
in addition to the Judge’s Rules may be desirable as a condition of the admissibility of such statements. t Pastor Salerua, of the New Hebrides, has been touring Australia under the auspices of the Australian Presbyterian Board of Missions to tell congregations of the progress of the native Presbyterian Church in the Islands.
The New Hebrides Church, which came into existence in 1948, has 23 New Hebridean pastors as well as 35 Australian and 15 New Zealand missionaries. The educational side of mission work is stressed as there are no Government schools.
If Semesa Sikivou, a master at Queen Victoria School, has become the first Fijian to graduate Master of Arts in the University of New Zealand. Ratu K. K. T. Mara is an MA of Oxford University, and several Fijians have gained BA degrees in New Zealand and at Oxford.