The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1893-07-22
Anti-Scandal Law in Fiji.

That is very questionable law
that has been proposed in FIJI, a
law which is generally enforced
must, as the FIJI papers say, hamper
lively conversation and make life
dull. 1t is to become actionable to
say of person that she is not so
virtuous as she should be. These
are not the exact words, but they
are as near as we care to go. Can
society be so very much worse in
Fiji than elsewhere that such law
should be necessary, or is fasti-
dious Government attempting the
impossible? 1t is not altogether safe
to write freely about Sir John Thurs
ton. When handled too vigorously
he suspects malice, sees unscrupul-
BUSINESS, and express himself at
length in dispatches to the home
Government. So it is awkward to
have to choose between misjudging
the Governor and supposing that
FIJI society requires bringing up
with a round turn. They do talk, Of
course, even where there are no
grounds. "Be thou chaste as ice,"
says the play 800 years old, "thou
shalt not escape calumny." To decide
whether law against scandal is
wanted in Fiji one requires to know
whether the talking is in excess of
the facts or corresponds with them;
but, whichever be the case, the
remedy lies rather in the direction
of setting good example (such as
not wanting to hear the very latest
gossip than in creating new causes
of action. In the first place, juries
are human; in the second place, the
publicity of the courts is infinitely
worse than the whisper of the draw
ing-room; and in the third, the
most injured people will never in
woke the law. Miscellaneous CONVEX
sation is hardly to be put down by
any other means than doing away
with the desire to hear entertaining
news at the expense of our friends
and acquaintances. Nothing is SO
much enjoyed by the public as read
ing about crimes or by private cir
cles as hearing about sin. Which
does the average citizen prefer as a
topic of conversation-the claims of
the Children's Hospital to the
support of the charitable or
the very latest theory about
those promissory notes? The
world, as we have had occasion
to say before, would be very prosaic
but for the evil-doing that goes on
in it and gets written about in news
papers, novels, and histories. 1t is
when someone goes sadly wrong that
we find the newspapers truly enter
tanning; and who knows but when
the great account comes to be made
up, it may be found that the sinners
were SHINING to save people of leisure
from ennui, damning themselves for
our good, and therefore entitled to
the benefit of an insolvency act. The
oldest and best recipe for scandal
was not to go to the lawyer or pub
lish contradictions, but to live SO
that the world would not believe it.
And the world does not really be-
lieve tenth part of what it hears.
Society discusses the frailties of the
men and women it knows-says that
their behavior is shocking, and yet
goes on asking them to dinner, or
dances with them at Government
house. The condemnation is largely
theoretical. There is no offence 10
take notice of till it appears in print,
and Fiji society would be likely to be
more cruel to injured people who
complained in court of having been
libelled than to know sinners who
had the craft to avoid exposure. If
scandal-mongering is universal in
civilised Polynesia Cthe native popu-
lation does not call everyday topics
scandaD, the juries will be composed
of men as much to be pitied as the
plaintiff, and as given to evil-speak-
ing as the defendant. How it would
to have feminine juries-juries of
experts? Scandal is largely ques-
ton of atmosphere. If the writings
of Rudyard Kipling are true de-
scription of life in India, scandal is
the one compensation Europeans
get for dwelling in country with
such an awful climate. Where the
temperature is most languorous
scandal is the most active. Only the
busy and the active escape, and you
can be neither within the tropics.
The remedy, therefore, in Fiji is
some means of artifcially cooling
the air, or make it penal offence to
be idle, unless the object the Gov
eminent has in view is to find out
what people are talking about, and
make the law reports lively reading,
Tile AusfrdiaSidn.