Suva, with its colonial history, has streets named after varying governors, administrators, mayors and other figures prominent during the British colonial days.
One of those roads is Des Voeux Rd, where the Alliance Française de Suva and Kshatriya Hall, are located.
The road was named after Sir George William Des Voeux, the third governor of Fiji between 1880 and 1886.
He was once a barrister and solicitor in Canada and held various positions in Trinidad, British Guinea, St Lucia, Newfoundland and Hong Kong.
Part of this information is within the shelves of the National Archives in Fiji in a book titled Suva, History and Guide written by Albert J Schutz.
According to the book, he ‘antagonised’ planters by his regulations for his supervision of Polynesians and prohibited the intermigration of Fijians.
But a more full and detailed account of his life is in his autobiography titled ‘My colonial service in British Guiana, St. Lucia, Trinidad, Fiji, Australia, Newfoundland, and Hong Kong, with interludes’ published in 1903. Des Voeux was born in 1834.
He was the son of a well-established Anglican clergyman of Huguenot descent and was educated at Charterhouse in London and Balliol College in Oxford.
He wrote that during his third year at university, his father gave him an option to either finish his degree or to depart to the colonies to seek his fortune.
Des Voeux travelled to Canada in 1856 and there he undertook a bachelor’s degree at the University of Toronto for two years and was called to the bar in 1861.
In his autobiography he described how he greatly disliked the routine legal work and through a friend’s influence was able to gain a position as a stipendiary magistrate in British Guiana.
This started off his 30-year career in the colonial service. On October 1863, he left Canada and spent six years in British Guiana, which permanently affected his health and after being involved in a series of disputes.
He welcomed his appointment to St Lucia as the administrator and colonial secretary.
In 1878, he left St Lucia and acted as the governor of Fiji during the absence of leave of Sir Arthur Gordon and in 1880 he returned to Fiji as the actual governor and as the high commissioner of the Western Pacific.
He served as governor for six years, receiving a knighthood in 1883. He described his first journey to Fiji as a trying one for his wife who had been in a very delicate health with their twenty months old child.
“She, however, with her usual courage insisted that she was willing and desirous to take the risk and so I accepted,” he wrote.
As they arrived in Levuka, Gordon’s private secretary greeted them and took them ashore in a fine boat manned by 16 indigenous Fijians.
The Nasova government house was their home for 18 months and for a further year and half when he returned as the Governor.
“Sir Arthur Gordon had determined before my arrival to remain a month in the colony afterwards, in order to post me up in his policy and to make me acquainted with the unprecedented conditions under which government had to be conducted,” he wrote in his autobiography.
“Before the Gordons left there was a meeting of native chiefs, who came expressly from all parts of the colony for the purpose of taking leave of the Governor and of installing me as their new head chief.”
He shared how his encounter with Cakobau was one with high respect and described him as a valued friend for whom he mourned for when he died during his second administration of the colony.
“He (Cakobau), as well as most of the other high chiefs, was frequently at our table, where his behaviour was unexceptionable.”
On February 1879, Des Voeux’s son was born at the Government House but he only got to live for a few weeks. The infant was buried on the hill that divided the valleys of Nasova and Draiba.
During his time in Fiji, the governor had received communication from the head chief of the island of Rotuma who expressed his desire hat Rotuma be annexed under the Government of Fiji.
“He was requesting me to send him advice in view of the fact that war was about to break out.”
“I had disagreed with Sir Arthur Gordon in the opinion that a solitary island (Rotuma), distant some 200 miles from the nearest portion of Fiji , and inhabited by a people totally distinct from the Fijians in race, language, and social organisation, was naturally a part of the Fiji group.
“I differed with him also in the opinion that its annexation would be in any way an advantage to Fiji, foreseeing that, at least for some years, its administration, coupled with the expenses of communication, would cost more than could be possibly raised in revenue.”
During their departure from Fiji to Sydney, among the many that saw them off was Maafu who cried as he wished the Des Voeux family goodbye.
His second return to Fiji was when Sir Arthur Gordon had accepted the government of New Zealand with supervision of native affairs in Fiji.
Lord Kimberley, the new secretary of state had gone to the House of Lords and felt that Des Voeux was to have the first offer of becoming his successor.
“In view, however, of the terms under which Sir Arthur had accepted his new appointment, his successor would not be Governor but Lieutenant- Governor, subordinate to the Governor of New Zealand.
“I should very much prefer, if the choice were offered to me, to go to the Bahamas rather than accept the appointment in Fiji on the terms offered.
“I said that I did not at all like the responsibility of governing Fiji under command from New Zealand.”
However after sharing his grievances, he was offered full powers and title of Governor with an increased salary but continued to receive advice on matters by Sir Arthur Gordon.
“When Sir Arthur left Australasia in 1882, his responsibility in connection with Fiji came to an end ; and I leave the subject with an expression of sincere regret that circumstances should have placed me in temporary antagonism with one to whom I owe much, and who I shall always regard as the best Crown Governor of my time.”
Des Voeux said during 1881 and 1882 a considerable amount of time was spent on the removal of the seat of government from Levuka to Suva.
“I fully recognised that Suva, with its fine harbour and the abundant space available for building, was naturally a better site for the capital than Levuka, and that it might someday become necessary to remove thither,” he said.
During his final year in Fiji, he had a painful disease that compelled him to eat and write while lying down along with other matters. He reluctantly asked for leave to go to England with his family.
“This being obtained, we had intended leaving by the Sydney steamer in February; but when the date of departure arrived, my wife was too ill to be moved, and so we actually left Fiji, for the last time as it proved.”
Des Voeux retired in 1891 and died in London on December 15, 1909. So the next time you are on Des Voeux Road, spare a thought for the man behind the road -Sir George William Des Voeux.
