§ DR. O'LEARYasked the Secretary of State for the Colonies, Whether a Fijian native is to be deemed a British subject; whether, as such, he is entitled to engage himself as a labourer on a plantation owned by Englishmen or other owners of property in Fiji; and, whether the Governor of Fiji has been invested with such extraordinary powers as would enable him to forbid such natives to leave their native towns, on their being willing, after their term of service had expired, to re-engage themselves under their present employer for a new term of service under conditions most advantageous to their employers and agreeable to their own wishes and interests?
§ SIR MICHAEL HICKS-BEACH,in reply, said, that a Fijian Native was a British subject, and was entitled to engage himself as a labourer, subject to the regulations which had been made for the protection of the Native population of the Islands. He did not know what was referred to by the third paragraph of the hon. Member's Question; but certainly no information of any such action having been taken by the Governor of Fiji had reached him.