August i, 1882.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



141 



operat^oDB, which he did, until the whole of the 

 sulphur, &c., imported into the colony was used; and, a 

 few days before the Government's occupatiou expired, 

 40 casks of Milphur were sent up to .the plantation, 

 and, as there was no lime left to mix with them, they 

 were simply mixed with water and scattered broad- 

 cast over the estate. I bcliive a more wicked waste 

 of Government money has never occurred in any colony. 

 In order the more effecUially to cope with the 

 disease — as Dr. McGregor said— he deemed it necess- 

 ary to draw all the smaller timber into the ravines 

 and burn it there ; though why the larger trees were 

 left is not very clear. Mr, Stephens wrote nn> on the 

 6th March 1880 to say that a very large quantity of 

 the finest manure I could have for cofl'ee, viz., 

 the ash, would be lost unless I sent men to collect 

 it, and that it would be a thousand pities if it were 

 wasted. He said he had no houses to put any men 

 in that I sent, although he said they would 

 be put in quarantine ; and, as I could not 

 spare a hand from my adjoining sugar planta- 

 tion, he, althout:h the Government could have 

 obtained a thousand men merely for asking for them, 

 burnt the timber and neglected to apply or store 

 the ash. The immense increase of surface wash which 

 this suicidal act, before any drains were cut, has 

 caused would alone have irretrievaldy damaged tlie 

 property, as a large amount of the original surface eoil 

 has been swept by rain into the ravines. 



The reports which I obtained about my plantation 

 in October ISSOfrom practical men were that it could 

 not be further profitably cultivated, as, since its 

 management was undertaken by the Gove'nment, the 

 cofl'ee had sufl'ered so l.imentably that it was then 

 without any value as a coffee plantation ; and as soon 

 as the twelve months had expired 1 tried my utmost 

 to induce the Government to go to arbitration accord- 

 ing to agreement, but I was unable to succeed. The 

 Colonial Secretary (Mr. Thurston) would only consent 

 to a gentleman acting ns arbitrator for the Govern- 

 ment of whose opinions he was well accfuainted before- 

 hand. He first proposed one and then another who 

 had reported on my estate for the Government, evid- 

 ently not wishing to remember that an arbitrator 

 must come into a case with a thoroughly unbiassed 

 mind. Kveutually Mr. J. R. Hedges (a late member 

 of your firm of Lee, Hedges & Co.) was agreed to by 

 both sidee, but he left the country very abruptly 

 without acting. A Mr. Mason, whose limited coft'ee 

 e.^perience was obtained in Fiji, was next proposed, 

 and all but agreed to by me ; but I luckily discovered 

 that he had reported against my estate and that Mr. 

 Thurston had seen a copy of his report. You see how 

 careful one has to be in order not to be caught by 

 the trickery that is practised by Government officials 

 in Fiji, although I told His Excellency in .January 

 1881 that, if the Government would admit their liability 

 to pay me compensation for my estate, I would wait 

 until ft loan was raised, so as not to harnijer t* is 

 impoveri.'-hed colony, or I would have taken my claim 

 out in laud ; but I received a reply from Mi-. Thurs- 

 ton that "it was doubtful whether I was not in- 

 debted to the Government over the business, and not 

 the Government indebted to me." With such 

 an astute diplomatist working against me, wliat 

 can X do? .After Mr. Mason had been rejected 

 Mr. Thurston said there was no one in the 

 c lory ciipable of acting as arbitrator for the 

 Government, and that I must wait until Mr. 

 Hedges returned. As there was no help tor 

 it 1 did so, but, .IS Mr. Hedges was a friend of Mr. 

 Thurston s, 1 reg.arded this dictum with a good Oeal 

 of suspicion ; and, when he came about three months 

 Liter, he, after an interview with Mr. Thureton, in- 

 sisted on an umpire being appointed from Ceylon. I 

 ought to mentiou that thera was no objection raised 



by the G ivernment to my arbitrator, who was not 

 a friend of mine, but I asked him to act because 

 1 believed he would give a conscientious award. So 

 in July last year, nine months after the estate was 

 abandoned, r.ither than be del.iyed any longer to 

 please Mr. Hedge?, I relaxed my etTorts to get to 

 arbitration, and issued a writ in the Supreme Court, 

 which, as it turns out, was the worst step 1 could 

 have taken. I now bitterly regret that I did not 

 allow the umpire to be appointed from Ceylon, but, 

 after waiting so long for the money which I felt I 

 was justly entitled to, my patience was exhausted. 



At our quarterly Supreme Court sittings in October 

 1 was quite prepared for trial. My witnesses were 

 summoned from different parts of the group at great 

 trouble and expense, and I hoped at last there would 

 be an end of my troubles ; but on the last day of the 

 aittings the judge assumed that we were not ready, 

 and, contrary to my urgent request to my counsel, 

 as the judge wanted to remove to Suva on the next 

 day with his wife and family, he adjourned the case 

 until the following sittings in January. The case 

 was then heard, and, if I had had a jury, my applic- 

 ation for one having been refused, my counsel put 

 such a strong case before tiie Court that I should 

 have been certain of gettiug £20,000 damages. The 

 judge, however, insisted upon trying the case himself, 

 and, although he admits he is perfectly ignorant of 

 coffee-planting, of chemistry, of practical agriculture, 

 and the value, of soils, yet he was not afraid to 

 accept the responsibility of preventing a jury from 

 giving just damages against the Government, and 

 deciding on cpiestions of fact himself. All my wit- 

 nesses were gentlemen who saw the estate before the 

 Government took charge, but I believe not one of 

 the Goverumeiit witnesses saw it until many month.s 

 after the date of the hurricane. I have all along 

 insisted that a view of the plantation was necess- 

 ary before a just decision could be arrived at 

 respecting it, and the judge a few weeks before 

 he gave his judgment expressed his intention of 

 going to inspect it ; but he did not do so. 'His 

 decision was not given until the 15th of last month 

 (3 months after the evidence was itaken), and, as 

 an instance of his unpractical knowledge, he allows me 

 £2,000 for wnnt oj stahnij {\) ; £1,01)0 for want of 

 draining, £425 for not supplying, and £250 for crop 

 of coffee ; but he says I mu-t pay oue half the expenses, 

 notwithstandiug tb.-it, when I agreed to do this, I only 

 thought, and so did Mr. Stephens, that Morris's lime- 

 and sulphur treatment would be tried — which amounts 

 to about £1,600, -mA only leaves me upwards of £2,000 

 clear. He therefore admits that I have proved niy 

 most material claims for damages. Hut gives an amount 

 totally inadecjuate to recoup my loss. If the Govern- 

 ment had burnt oif my plantation and paid me the £Q 

 an aero compensation, as provided by the Oidinc^nce of 

 August 1879, I should, taking interest on borrowed 

 money at 10 per cent into accouut, bo nearly £1,000 

 richer now than thi-' verdict will leave me ! ! ! I pro- 

 duced accounts shewing that I was £10,000 at least 

 out of pocket, nd deducting the £2 000 I am therefore 

 a loser of £S,000, besides wasting 5 years of my life. 

 This if my only reward for acting in a patriotic manner 

 and handing my estate over to the Government, so that 

 he whole colony might benefit by the experiment to 

 be carried out upon it. 



Having issued my writ, my solicitor wished to retai» 

 eoui .-el, and the following fact will shew you how I 

 was prevented from obtaining fair play, and what 

 notion Mr. J- H. Garr ik, formerly Aitornev-Getcral 

 fo'- the colony, entertained of professional etiquette. 

 Before the Government idinquished charge of my 

 plantation a cate was au'.mitted to Mr. Garrick for 

 bis opinion on the wording of the agreement and other 

 m.itters (for which he charged more than 7 guineas), 



