CO885-(11-13) — Page 274

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

CO.

Reference :-

885

MY LORD,

No. 54.

(FIJI.)

LAW OFFICERS to COLONIAL OFFICE.

Lincoln's Inn, 10th April 1875. We are honoured with your Lordship's commands, signified in Sir Julian Pauncefote's letter of the 30th ultimo, stating that he was directed by your Lordship to acquaint us that Her Majesty's Government had it in contemplation to appoint the Governor of Fiji to be Her Majesty's High Commissioner for a considerable number of Islands in the Pacific Ocean, not included within the new Colony of Fiji, nor within the jurisdiction of any civilised power, and to confer upon such High Commissioner and his Court a civil and criminal jurisdiction similar to that exercised under the Order in Council of the 12th December 1873, "for regulating Consular jurisdiction in the dominions of the Sublime Ottoman Porte," of which Sir Julian Pauncefote was to enclose a copy.

2. That it was desired to invest the High Commissioner with the largest possible powers of dealing with British subjects in the Pacific, in order that the outrages and other lawless acts now extensively committed by them might be effectively repressed, and the provisions of the Pacific Islanders Protection Bill then before Parliament, and the Act, of which that Bill was an amendment, carried out; and that your Lord- ship would be obliged by our considering and advising you how that power might best be conferred.

3. That your Lordship apprehended that it might be questioned whether the present case fell within the operation of the Foreign Jurisdiction Act, 6 & 7 Vict. c. 94., inasmuch as that Act appeared to contemplate the existence of a civilised Foreign Power with which a treaty could be made sanctioning the exercise of jurisdiction over British subjects within its dominions, or which would, at least, be capable of consenting by acquiescence or sufferance to such exercise of jurisdiction, whereas, in the Pacific Islands, not only were the natives, generally speaking, not competent to comprehend or capable of being bound by the terms of a treaty, but that there were frequently within the same islands numerous rival chiefs, hostile to each other, none of whom was paramount.

4. That it was, however, presumed that Parliament was at least as competent to confer upon the Queen a jurisdiction to be exercised over Her subjects in savage or uncivilised countries as in countries in which the consent of a recognised ruling power had to be obtained; and that although the Act 9 Geo. 4. c. 83., in dealing with offences committed by British subjects in such uncivilised places, confined the juris diction over such offences to the cases of persons who had gone to the islands in British ships, and required them to be tried in British possessions, it was apprehended that the power of Parliament to confer jurisdiction over British subjects was not subject to any such limitation; and that wherever the Queen could provide a com- petent court without interfering with any other power, she could and might properly be empowered to cause Her subjects to be brought to trial, and their civil differences to be settled in such court.

5. That it was further desired to enable the High Commissioner to exercise the statutory powers of a Consular Officer within the islands and places over which he had jurisdiction.

6. That Sir Julian Pauncefote was to enclose for our consideration a draft of a clause which had been prepared for insertion in the Pacific Islanders Protection Bill, in order to effect the object which he had explained to be desired, and that your Lord- ship would be obliged by our reporting to you whether, in our opinion, that clause was such as might properly be enacted, or whether we could suggest any other or better mode in which the necessary powers might be acquired.

That the enactments which had been followed in drafting that clause were noted in the margin of the draft.

7. That as the Bill would be in Committee immediately after the Easter recess, your Lordship would be much obliged by our giving the earliest possible attention to that letter.

▲ 12916.—53. 25.-12/84.

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