Sir Hercules Robinson, Fiji's first governor, is replaced in June 1875 by Sir Arthur Gordon, who is named the first High Commissioner for the Western Pacific.

Rather than establish direct rule in all spheres, Gordon grants autonomy over local affairs to Fiji's chiefs, though they are now forbidden to engage in tribal warfare.

The colony is divided into four regions, each under the control of a Roko; these regions are further subdivided into twelve districts, each ruled by a traditional chief.

An epidemic of measles has killed over forty thousand Fijians, about one-third of the Fijian population, in 1875–76, following Britain's annexation of Fiji as colony in 1874.

The British bring to Fiji four hundred and sixty-three Indian contract laborers to work on the sugar plantations as the first governor of Fiji, Arthur Charles Hamilton-Gordon, adopts a policy disallowing the use of native labor and no interference in their culture and way of life.

These indentured Indians are the first of some sixty thousand to come over the next thirty-seven years.

Fiji’s first large sugar mill is built at Nausori in 1881; Rotuma Island is annexed to Fiji in the same year.

Levuka had remained the Fijian the capital until 1877, when the administration had been moved to Suva, prompted by concerns that the six hundred-meter high cliffs surrounding Levuka give it no room for expansion.

The move is made official in 1882.