It Seeks A New
pp. 19-150 · Read in the full issue
Burns Commission
Arriving
It Seeks A New Plan For Fiji
• The official inquiry into the re sources and future development of Fiji, in relation to its growing population, will commence this month in Suva.
THE chairman, Sir Alan Burns, who is accompanied by Lady Burns, is due in Sydney by Orient liner Oronsay on June 19, and tie probably will meet some of the tieads of the big Australian cor porations with interests in Fiji be fore he and Lady Burns continue ;heir journey to Suva.
The other members of the Com nission are proceeding independ ently to Fiji. The Commission’s iecretary, Mr. R. C. G. Strick, has )een at work in Suva for several veeks, arranging sittings and organ sing the in-flow of evidence that vill be submitted.
It is expected that the recom nendations of the Burns Com nission will be of major importance n the history of Fiji.
(Continued on page 150)
The three outstanding facts among Fiji conditions, which now provide the Government with its major problems are (1) the rapidly growing Indian population in Fiji; (2) the Fijians’ land ownership rights, as recognised in the Cession of the archipelago by the Chiefs to Britain in 1874; and (3) the re luctance of the Fijians to change their social order (which is based on village communal life, controlled and directed by the chiefs) to meet entirely new conditions created by industrial development and the growth of the Indian population.
The members of the Commission are: