Note 31 — Chapter XVI

At a great meeting of chiefs at Bau in January 1880, on the return of Sir Arthur Gordon from England, the menu included 104 pigs and a large shark, cooked whole; I suppose the latter is the modern substitute for the bokola of old days, without which a feast would have been thought poor indeed. The speech made by the Vuni Valu on this occasion is worthy of note. At the conclusion he said, addressing the still powerful chiefs: “Now you have plenty of money, the native officials receive their salaries regularly, the people are flourishing and have plenty of goods. You chiefs are at rest mentally, not as of old. Need I ask you, Is it a good thing to be under Great Britain? Would any one like to change again, I ask? Let any one who will, speak, lest it should be said we have been deceived or robbed. It is not so. We still hold our positions. The chiefs still are chiefs, whilst the people are better off than they ever were before. If we had not given ourselves to Great Britain, we should probably have been at war among ourselves long ago. Let no man say we have given away our rights. No; we have secured them.”