Apparently the Fijian natives who were brought to Sydney in the 1840s as ships’ crew and so on made a nuisance of themselves once they were left to their own devices. This article shows the difference in the cultures of the Fijians and Europeans.
THE FEEJEE SAVAGES
THESE fiendish looking cannibals have become a complete nuisance in the city. They enter without ceremony at everyopen door, and demand food, clothing, andmoney in a tone and manner at once impudent and threatening. Surely somemeans of subsistence and place of shelter ought to be furnished these unfortunate wretches by their importers, or is it the intention of these gentlemen that Government shall be at the expense of re-shipping them for the Islands? Why do not thepolice interfere to prevent their intrusion into the residences of the citizens? When our christian paupers are interdicted from the solicitation of public charity, is that privilege to be accorded to a horde of anthropophagi, who have been introduced into the country at the instance of a private individual? Or is it because the object for which they were seduced from their native wilds has failed, that they are now mercilessly left to their fate by their self-created masters, and that the citizens are subjected to insult and outragefrom a mob of starving, and consequently, desperate intruders?Bell’s Life in Sydney and Sporting Reviewer, Saturday 20 November 1847, page 1.
The Bell’s Life in Sydney and Sporting Reviewer was publishedfrom 1845 to 1860, and was not afraid to make the opinion of its editors’ known.