Legislative Council

Australia Not So

Popular With Fiji

From a Suva correspondent If would-be investors in Fiji, who might be worried about the country’s stability in the storm whipped up by the winds of change, had had a look in at the

Fijian Legislative Council’s

three-day session in the week

preceding Easter they would

have invested their cash in the colony there and then. fTTHE whole council, all 40 of them —there wasn’t a single absentee —breathed an aura of brotherliness and goodwill which persisted throughout.

One of the more pleasant of the council’s jobs was to pass a resolu tion agreeing to the establishment of the new University of the South Pacific (see p. 13).

There was not similar unanimity when the Government proposed in creasing the Customs duty on imported poultry meat and game to protect the local poultry industry.

The Government explained that dur ing the six months’ ban on poultry from Australia, where there had been an outbreak of Newcastle disease, local poultry farmers had extended their flocks to keep pace with local demand.

Now the ban had been lifted the Australian farmers were plucking the local market bald with bigger birds at a cheaper price, and the local men needed protection.

The Opposition, the Federation Party, surprised the Government by opposing the motion—because it said it didn’t go far enough. The tariff increases should have gone on eggs too, as the Australian farmers would try to dump them on Fiji to make up for their losses on the birds.

The Opposition withdrew only after the Government said it would examine the position should Aus tralians try to dump cheap eggs. The tariff increase went through.

No Australian loan

Australia came in for some criticism again later when the Opposition moved that: “This House records its deep disappointment that the Government of Australia has seen fit to reject an application for

a loan made by the Government of Fiji in the sum of £3,650,000”.

But the motion was rejected by the Government, which forced its own amendment through after a three-hour debate.

The amendment said virtually the same thing, but went on to “wel come the assurance of the Australian Government that it was studying other possible ways and means of providing assistance”.

Wait and see!

Some of the Federation Party members felt the Government ought to wait and see what the Australian Government’s assurances were worth before welcoming them.

Mr. A. D. Patel said he worried about Fiji’s development plan and the effect on it because the loan was not forthcoming.

“This motion was timed,” he admitted, “to precede the joint visit of the Prime Ministers of Australia and New Zealand, as announced in the Press, to let them know what we feel, and of the difficulties we are in, so that they might consider in what way they can help us.”

Ratu K. K. T. Mara, Leader of Government Business, said he had faith in the assurances from the Aus tralian Government.

“We believe this is a genuine desire to help because they have appointed a committee to look into it,” he said.

Plight of farmers

That the new Government side was rapidly learning parliamentary tactics was evident when the House came to debate another Opposition motion calling for an independent inquiry into the economic conditions of Fiji farmers.

After Mr. M. T. Khan had moved the motion and outlined the parlous state Fiji farmers found themselves in through the drop in sugar prices and copra production, and the depredations of two hurricanes and a drought, the Government produced a hamstringer.

The Parliamentary Secretary for Natural Resources, farmer Doug Brown, described how he and others in the Government had toured the farms and were looking into the problem.

Then he produced an amendment which expressed appreciation “of the Government’s continuing concern for an investigation of the problems farmers were facing” and for initiating further measures to assist them.

(Continued on p. 159)

Federation man, Mr. R. D. Patel, brother of Mr. A. D. Patel, appealed in vain to Speaker, Mr. Ron Kermode, to rule the amendment out of order, because it was a sub stitution, not an amendent.

There was loud laughter from both sides of the House after the Speaker pointed out that an amendment could not be ruled out of order if it con tained one or more words of the original motion, and in this case “the mover has been careful to leave in one word of the original motion, the word ‘that’

The Member without Portfolio, Mr. John Falvey, told the House; “This Government is here to govern and will govern for the next four and a half years, and will not be pushed into having an inquiry or committee to take over the job it has been given to do by the people of this country”.

After that, a diatribe by Mr, Koya about the Government ignor ing national issues, and calling on them to resign, had as much effect as a snowflake on a hotplate.

UN 'not wanted'

The meeting ended brightly with Ratu Mara firing a rocket at the United Nations, meant to burst over the General Assembly with a shower of sparks.

Replying to a comment from Peni Naqasima, of the Alliance, that his constituents were concerned about the United Nations’ proposal for a fact-finding mission to Fiji, Ratu Mara said such a mission would not be welcome in Fiji.

He said they agreed with the view expressed by Mr. Herbert Bowden, the Secretary of State for Common wealth Affairs, that he doubted whether the British Government would be able to see the value of such a mission.

Furthermore, “from information received of the debates that take place in the General Assembly it is quite obvious such a mission would come with preconceived ideas”.