Fiji is a peace-loving place, so even when in 1958 a Fiji man was sentenced to hang for killing his nine-month-old son with sulphuric acid, vociferous protests against the death sentence broke out. But the colonial government swept aside the protests, pointing out that the murder rate had doubled, from five to 10 in 1957, and in July 1958 there had already been 15.
Caught up in these statistics, the luckless father, Edward Singh, was hanged on Thursday, August 7th, 1958, at the Central Prison in the capital Suva.