More Pleas For Action
pp. 50-51 · Read in the full issue
Action On Rotuma
If PIM were to award a prize for its most persistent corres pondents over the past few months, the prize would un doubtedly go to a small band of Rotumans who want the Fiji
Government, or somebody, to
give the people of Rotuma a better deal.
THE Rotumans have maintained a steady barrage of correspondence ever since PIM published an article in November last year headed: “Rotu mans Want A Say In Fiji’s Govern ment, Too”.
The chief burden of their letters is that Rotumans need help to develop their island and that, although Rotuma is included in the Crown Colony of Fiji, the people of Rotuma have no representation on Fiji’s Legislative Council.
One recent letter writer, Mrs. S. C.
Antonio, of Wellington, New Zea land, agrees with an earlier corres pondent, “Rotuman Patriot”, that Rotuma needs a loan to further its development. But she thinks that a loan of £lO million, as suggested by him (PIM, April, p. 61), is “probably too much to expect”.
Water Supply
“Money is needed to help the Rotu mans help themselves,” Mrs. Antonio says. “Rotuma needs its water supply extended and modernised, and an electricity supply. But above all, Rotuma needs a ship to transport its produce, which grows abundantly, to overseas markets.
“Like Rarotonga, its oranges could be processed for export. And the building of an airstrip, wharf and hotel would surely encourage tourists, who would provide an added income.
Rotuma is considered to have ex tremely beautiful scenery even in comparison with the larger and better known islands in the Pacific.”
Mrs. Antonio says the nature-lov ing Rotumans would probably not ap preciate the idea of commercialising their “hidden paradise”, but if they accepted a loan they would have to consider every possibility of obtaining extra revenue to pay it back.
She goes on: “Many Rotumans
consider their island’s progress is be ing hampered by the fact that the District Commissioner of the Eastern Administration (of Fiji) visits the island very infrequently. Secondly, Rotuma is a distant, separate part of the Colony and has a rapidly in creasing population. Therefore, it should have its own Resident Com missioner to participate fully in its administration.”
Threat of Communism Mrs. Antonio also makes these points: • Australia, New Zealand and the US should aid the progress of all the islands in the Pacific to save them from the threat of Communism. (“An Indonesian school teacher, whom I met recently in France,” she says, “has reminded me of their claim that Rotuma Island, and many other islands of the Western Pacific, were originally settled by Indonesians.”) • Some of Rotuma’s professional people living abroad should return home to assist in developing the island. • More Rotumans should be sent to conferences dealing with the pro gress of Islands people so they could extend their knowledge of practical ways of bettering themselves.
Mrs. Antonio adds: “ ‘Rotuman Patriot’s’ letter may be illogical in parts, but at least it has brought these matters into public view. It shows that Rotumans are concerned with the future of their island, which has been forgotten long enough.”
Another correspondent, Tieri Sisilo, of Wellington, NZ, who, in a letter to PIM in June (p, 70), asked why a Rotuman did not represent Rotuma in Fiji’s Legislative Council, says he has now received a reply on the sub ject from the office of the Fiji Colonial Secretary.
Main Racial Groups The reply said that the reason for the non-representation of Rotuma was that “present and past constitutions provide for representation only of the three main racial groups in Fiji— Fijian, Indian and European” and that “the size of the Rotuman popula tion in Fiji is not such as to require separate representation”.
Tieri Sisilo takes a dim view of this explanation.
“One fact that is continually over looked in this matter,” he says, “is that the Rotumans are actually part of the indigenous population of the Colony. Therefore, they should be more entitled to expect a constitution that permits them to be represented by one of their own people than the
races which have migrated to the , lien says that as the customs, language and outlook of the Rotumans are entirely different from any others m the Colony, it is not realistic to expect our Fijian friends to be able to understand and represent our interests completely .
He adds: “If the number of Legislative Council representatives is determmed on a population basis, surely the 5,000 Rotumans in the Colony could have at least one MFC to represent the island’s Council of Chiefs a «T, tliemse * ves * iwenty years ago, the Rotumans
may not have been capable of repre senting themselves, but today as most of them are as well educated as any other Pacific Islander, I see no rea son why they should not be granted an opportunity to participate in the Colony’s Legislative Council.” • See also article on Rotuma in aagaztne section.
Mr. Rodney Hodgson, Australian Consul in Noumea between 1958-60, will leave Canberra soon with his wife and three children for Rio de Janeiro, where Mr. Hodgson has been appointed First Secretary to the Aus tralian Embassy.