The Savage South Seas. E. Way Elkington

      BY REEF AND PALM

      Following this ship, in 1846, came H.M.S. Rattlesnake, and good work was the result of her stay. Captain Moresby visited the island in 1871, and thoroughly explored many parts of it which were {7} unknown before his time. He landed at the harbour now known as Port Moresby, and gave such glowing accounts of the island that it was visited by many eminent naturalists immediately afterwards; and then the work of the pioneer missionaries, who had been busy there for some time, began to be talked about, and considerable interest in these islands was aroused.

      Queensland, acting under the advice of Mr. Chester, a prominent man well up in the value of New Guinea, sent out Sir Thomas M‘Ilwraith to take possession of it in the name of the Queen. But the British Government refused to acknowledge this act, and thereby aroused the indignation of the Australians. A conference was held in Sydney and the British Government communicated with, with the result stated, that they saw their mistake and Sir Peter Scratchley was sent to New Guinea to act as High Commissioner.

      His term of office was short, as he contracted malaria in 1885 and died. The man who took his place was a Queenslander, the Hon. John Douglas, who understood the position, and did valuable service to his country by making a study of the natives and the possibilities of the country.

      In 1888 Sir William MacGregor, M.D., {8} K.C.M.G., was finally appointed Governor, and during his ten years of office showed that he was the right man in the right place. He was succeeded by George Ruthven Le Hunte, Esq., C.M.G.

      To-day the affairs of British New Guinea are on an excellent basis. An Administrator is appointed by the Crown, whose duty it is to consult with the Governor of Queensland and report to that Government on all matters of importance. The Administrator is supported by two State Councils, the Executive and the Legislative, the first being composed of the Administrator, the Chief Judicial Officer, the Government Secretary, and a Resident Magistrate. The second is composed of the Executive Council, together with any officers they may appoint.

      Petty Sessions Courts are also established and presided over by a Resident Magistrate, who has the same powers as a Police Magistrate in the Colonies. Europeans and natives have equal rights in the courts, and an appeal is allowed under certain circumstances. Native police preserve order in the towns. An amusing thing about them is that they are chiefly ex-convicts, and are given the appointment as a reward for good behaviour whilst in gaol. {9}

      The discovery of the Solomon Islands is credited to Don Alvaro Mendana de Meyer, who went out there in the hope of discovering from whence King Solomon’s wealth came—the supposition was that the islands of the Pacific supplied much of it. That supposition no longer exists.

      On sighting the Solomon Islands, and believing them to be the islands he was seeking, he named them Islas de Salomon. This was in the year 1567. After this he thoroughly explored many of them and gave them the names they now bear—Guadalcanar, San Christoval, and Isabel. Whilst thus engaged he decided to found a colony, and with that end in view he returned home and gathered together a number of men anxious to make their fortunes. He returned with them, landed at a place he thought was part of the Solomon Islands, and called it Santa Cruz. The colony was not a success, as most of the immigrants, including the discoverer, died, and the survivors returned to South America.

      One of these survivors was De Quiros, who subsequently discovered the New Hebrides.

      Bougainville and others, many years afterwards, again came across these islands, and later they were identified as those Mendana de Meyer had {10} discovered and thought were part of the Solomon Islands.

      In 1873 the Solomon Islands came into notice through the labour traffic. There was at this time a demand in Queensland for black labour, and traders who visited the islands found that they could kidnap strong, sturdy natives and sell them for good prices to the Queensland and Fiji planters, with the result that, unknown to the Powers, a big and scandalous trade was carried on.

      The group consists of seven large islands and no end of small ones, which are dotted about over some 600 miles of sea at a distance of about 400 miles south-east of New Guinea.

      Great Britain and Germany shared the islands nearly equally until England ceded Samoa to Germany in exchange for territory in the Solomons. Now Great Britain owns the whole group with the exception of Bougainville and Buka.

      The story of the discovery of the New Hebrides is also interesting. It was first sighted by Spanish explorers, De Quiros and Luis Vaez de Torres, who set sail from Peru in two ships to seek the Great Southern Continent, which tradition told them was somewhere in the South Pacific. De Quiros, as before stated, came across the New Hebrides group, {11} striking first one of the largest islands in the northern part of it. This he named Tierra Australis del Espiritu Santo, thinking possibly it was an enormous tract of land instead of a small island. Fired with ambition and the example of his late confrère, Mendana de Meyer, he also attempted to found a colony there, but, like de Meyer, he had to return with his few survivors and write “failure” across his enterprise.

      Luis de Torres left De Quiros at the New Hebrides, and it was then that he sailed through the Torres Straits, which he named and reported on in 1606.

      For over a hundred years after the departure of De Quiros from Santo nothing more was heard of the New Hebrides.

      De Bougainville then came across them, and opened the way for the ubiquitous Captain Cook, who sighted, made charts of, and named the principal islands and headlands. The Spaniards, though the first to settle there, never laid claim to them, and they are now conjointly owned by Great Britain and France.

      Owing to their proximity to Australia they have received more attention than the other islands, and the Commonwealth of Australia has shown {12} considerable interest in them and inaugurated an emigration scheme to endeavour to wrest from them some of their enormous mineral and vegetable wealth. The results of the past few years show great promise of future prosperity. In fact, in these islands, in particular, there are resources which will repay the labour and capital of any enterprising men, and, according to those who are most fitted to judge and advise, the New Hebrides is a veritable Eldorado. But, until the natives are more civilised and certain taxes are altered, men prefer to give them a wide berth and seek their fortunes in lands less dangerous.

      Another trouble that has lately arisen, is that France, seeing the great possibilities in this new colony, has inaugurated a preferential tariff for French subjects. Had the same been done in England and Australia no bother would have arisen, but it was not, and, in order to compete successfully with the French traders, the English and Americans applied for naturalisation papers which were granted, and though the Englishmen by birth far exceed the Frenchmen, by naturalisation the French, if not now, will soon be in greater force.

      This is a matter of vital importance, and should have the earnest attention of those who are interested in the welfare of British subjects in our Colonies.