Josefa Celua

Ratu Josefa Celua (circa 1855 – 1886) was a Fijian chief from the island of Bau. In reporting official occasions he was referred to by Australian newspapers as Prince Joseph Celua of Fiji.

He was the youngest son of Ratu Seru Epenisa Cakobau (often spelt phonetically as Thakambau), the King of Bau, and his first wife, Adi Litia Samanunu, daughter of the Roko Tui Bau. His date of birth is unknown but he is said to be 17 in 1872, and 19 in 1874, suggesting a 1855 birth date. At the time of his death in 1886 he is said to be 26 which suggests an 1860 birth. Celua had four older siblings and three younger half-siblings from his father's second marriage. His brother one above him, Ratu Timoci Tavanavanua (Timothy) was born in 1847. His father had unified all the tribes of Fiji under his reign in the mid-1800s and subsequently ceded the islands to the United Kingdom in 1874.

In 1872 Celua came to Australia and was in the care of the Rev Francis Tate until he was enrolled at Newington College under the Presidency of the Rev Joseph Horner Fletcher. Newington had already become a school for students from Fiji as a son, and two grandsons, of Alexander Salmon and the brother, and two nephews, of Queen Marau had been educated there from 1869 until 1871. At the time the college was still at Newington House and Celua arrived with "two native servants and a huge outrigger canoe, which became for the boys a source of great fun" on the Parramatta River. "Almost as much of a sensation [was] the concertina which he played at request at any hour of the night – hymn tunes being his speciality."

In the April of his first year in Australia he attended a picnic to farewell Charles St Julian, who had been appointed Chief Justice of Fiji. In responding to a toast, the 17-year-old Celua said in Fijian: "I thank you for so heartily drinking this toast. Speechmaking is a new thing to me, you must therefore please excuse my words being few. I come from a once dark land – a land of cannibal cruelty – but Christianity has raised us from the lowest degradation, and now we are a Christian people. We are now trying to establish law and order in our land, and I ask you to help us. We most earnestly desire the establishment of law, and if you will help us it can be done. We want to govern Fiji in every respect as this land is governed. I have come to white man's land to be trained at Newington College. I am anxious to be taught. You were born in the light, I in the darkness. You were born in a Christian land, I in a heathen country. I wish to be trained here that I may be of service in the government of my own country. Again I thank you for so heartily drinking prosperity to Fiji."

...
Wikipedia