Crime Major

[?]rease In Crime Major Fiji Problem

From a Correspondent e increase in crime in Fiji

f.her disturbing.

LING the last two or three lonths there have been cases of r, thuggery, assault, arson, ng, forgery, theft and house ng, with cases of rape thrown Tie whole calendar of crime to have found its way into the reports. re has been an increase in i of violence against the person, ;he Police Commissioner has d people not to fall for the old of offering a light when asked at night. s type of thuggery has been pre in Suva lately and cases have reported of people being as i and robbed. Victims have i from young Indians to oldish cans. the juvenile courts there have red youngsters of 13 or 14 who been charged and convicted of s of all kinds. trying to get an answer to the problem, I have interviewed of the solicitors and barristers, officers and even some of the :ted persons. ire are many theories but there i to be a common factor in most :m: Unemployment, great many of those convicted no work. A significant pro m of the criminals are repeat lers. These have, mostly, never id. sily the biggest proportion are is who have either never been j villages or have left village life ' years ago. ey owe no allegiance, or at least, it give any, to their chiefs. is drift of Fijians towards urban ; has worried the Fijian Ad oration for a long time, for it mdermined many of the precepts ijian customs. here a Fijian leaves village life has found a job—and there are sands who do—no serious harm me. This type of Fijian invari honours his koro obligations, mgs of drifting hooligans, with obligations, have infested the ts of Suva to such an extent in last two years that locals will go alone after dark in some iities for fear of an assault.

The fact that the police have not been able to clean up the gangs is not due to any lack of interest by the police. It is out of the question for police to patrol all the streets all the time.

The crime question does not apply only to Fijians of course. Nor is the increase in crime a local phenomenon —it is world wide.

But Fiji has special problems which have to be overcome, and this problem of urbanisation is one of the biggest. When the people are attracted from the country districts to the bright lights of the towns, where do they live?

A report in May PIM pointed out there is far less chance of rearing good citizens in slum conditions. And the fact is that a very big percentage of the Fijians and Indians responsible

for the increase in crime have come from unappetising surroundings— often plain squalor, And in the towns they have been camping in dismally depressing rooms or huts. Cheap, improved housing— better living conditions generally— are urgent.

But there are people who say there are other ways of overcoming the problem—and one is by rounding up the men who have never worked and getting them out of the towns into un employment gangs. This, though, is a desperate measure, temporary at best, and surely it could be used only as a last resort, The problem is ahead and it is one for the Central Government and the Fiji administration. Energy, de termination and initiative are ob viously required for its solution.