Chiefly historical—Concerning certain discoverers, their aims and ambitions—The story of New Guinea, the Solomons, and New Hebrides, and some things that might be altered.
In these days when distance hardly counts, when the cry is heard that new outlets are wanted for capital, when there are thousands of unemployed crowded in London, and people are anxious to find adventure, eager to see new things, to conquer new lands, exploit new industries and gain more knowledge, it is worth while turning our attention to the South Sea Islands.
It is strange that so little is known of them, and that so few people have bothered themselves to visit them. A few missionaries, explorers, and adventurers have written about and spent a few months on them, but what is this when there are miles and miles of the most beautiful country crying out for people; there is wealth, both mineral and vegetable, waiting for the industry and enterprise {4} of good men to reap, and, above all, there is a delightful climate and a race of savages who in themselves repay the inconveniences of the journey.
The chief island is New Guinea, which is the largest in the world and contains some 340,700 square miles, much of which has never been trodden by white men. There are no sandy, dried-up districts in New Guinea or the Solomon Islands, and no long droughts; but rather a full fall of rain which makes the ground bring forth its produce in abundance.
There is land out there which some day will surprise people, and when one considers the difficulty Australia had to persuade the British Government to annex it, one cannot help laughing at the ignorance and short-sightedness of the men of those times. It was not until 1884 that the Government sent Commodore Erskine to the south-eastern portion of New Guinea to proclaim a protectorate over it, and then only after receiving a guarantee from the Queensland Government that they would undertake to find ￡15,000 per annum towards the cost of its administration.
The Queensland Government had, a year before this, already annexed it. They knew its value, and had it not been for their prompt action these {5} valuable islands would now all have been in the possession of the Dutch and Germans.
Accounts of the islands date back to 1512, but many things go to suggest that both the Malays and Chinese knew of their existence and had visited them long before that date. The first Europeans we hear of who sighted them were the Spanish sailor, Alvaro de Sacedra, and a Portuguese whose name is not known.
Prior to the arrival of Captain Cook, in 1770, there were numerous adventurers who gave accounts of these islands. Luis Vaez de Torres, after whom the Torres Straits were named, passed them in 1660 and sent to the world a full account of his voyage, but little notice was taken of it. We next hear of De Bougainville, the French navigator who arrived there in 1768; then came Captain Cook, and after him many others sighted the shores of New Guinea.
It was, however, the Dutch who first made any movements to attempt to find out its geographic and scientific value. They began in a neat business-like way by annexing that section west of the 141st meridian of east longitude, and despatching the Dourga, commanded by Lieutenant Kolff, to examine and report on it. He was a zealous man and, like many other enthusiastic sailors who have visited {6} new lands, found many things there which no one else has been able to find, and which have since been proved never to have existed. But some excuse for him can be found, owing to the disadvantages he was under and the savageness of the natives. He probably thought that no one in his time, if they followed him, would live to tell the tale, so he wrote what he thought “might have been.” Then came the Postillion Expedition in 1853, followed by the Trinton Expedition and the Scientific Expedition of Van der Crab in 1871. Dr. Meyers followed in 1873, and many other Dutch enthusiasts came after him during the next few years.
During this time, however, England was not quite asleep. In 1842 H.M.S. Fly was sent on a survey expedition and remained there till 1846, attention being devoted to that part of the island now known as British New Guinea. The Expedition also discovered and named the rivers Fly and Aird, in districts where later on many brave and good men lost their lives at the hands of the natives.
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 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.