

GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 



281 



and cacao; Rodrigues, with a population of 2,870; 

 Cargados Islands, the Eagle and (Josmoledo groups, 

 and the Chagos Islands, the largest of which is 

 Diego Garcia, which exports 4,813 hectolitres of 

 cocoanut oil. The sugar crop of Mauritius has 

 been increased by the transfer of small holdings 

 1o the Indian population, and the yield of sugar 

 lias been improved by the use of modern machin- 

 ery. The imposition of countervailing duties on 

 bounty-fed sugar by the United States, India, and 

 Canada has benefited the export trade, and this 

 has reacted on the revenue, which exceeded 

 9,000,000 rupees in 1899, a part of the increase 

 being due to higher taxation. The imports ex- 

 ceeded 20,000,000 rupees in 1899 and the exports 

 24,730,000 rupees. The plague was introduced 

 from Madagascar early in 1899, and spread 

 through the island in spite of vigorous measures 

 of disinfection, the destruction of rats, and gen- 

 eral sanitation. 



The Cook Islands, in the Pacific, were formally 

 annexed on Oct. 10, 1900. Among their popu- 

 lation are 2,300 Maoris and 70 Europeans. The 

 volcanic soil is exceedingly fertile, producing cof- 

 fee, cacao, cotton, cocoanuts, oranges, limes, and 

 all tropical fruits with little cultivation. A Brit- 

 ish protectorate was declared in 1888, and since 

 1892 the New Zealand Government, to which they 

 are now subordinated, has supported a Resident. 

 This group of small islands, of which Raratonga, 

 Mangoia, and Atui are the chief ones, contain 

 with the Hervey Islands 8,400 inhabitants on the 

 space of 142 square miles. Pitcairn Island has 

 120 inhabitants. The Manihiki Islands, 12 square 

 iles in extent, have a population of 1,000. The 

 Tokclait Islands, with 7 square miles of area, 

 cmtain 1,050 people. The Phoenix Islands, 16 

 uare miles in area, have 59. The EUicc Islands 

 ave 2,400 on an area of 14 square miles. The 

 ilbcrt Islands, on an area of 166 square miles, 

 ave a population of 35,200. The British part of 

 lie Solomon Islands, over which a protectorate 

 was proclaimed in 1897, had an area of 8,357 

 square miles. Choiseul and Isabel, with neighbor- 

 ing groups and islets, were transferred by Ger- 

 many to Great Britain by the Samoan agreement 

 (if 1899. They produce copra, tortoise shell, and- 

 ivory nuts, and coffee plantations have been 

 started. The natives are often engaged for a term 

 of years to work on other islands. 



Uhristmas Island has an area of 234 square 

 iles and 100 inhabitants. Maiden Island, with 

 n area of 35 square miles, has 168. Jarvis Island, 

 ss than 2 square miles in extent, has 30. Fan- 

 inn Island, with an area of 15 square miles, has 

 1">0. Other coral or guano islands and groups 

 annexed by Great Britain are the Santa Cruz 

 and Duff groups, Starbuck and Washington 

 fxliinds, Palmyra, Snvaroff Islands, Dudoza, 

 Kincrald island, Campbell Island, Macquarie 

 Inland, and the Antipodes and Bounty Islands. 

 Cocoanut trees are abundant on most of them. 

 The High Commissioner for the Western Pacific, 

 Sir G. T. M. O'Brien, has jurisdiction over all 

 of them and over any others that are not under 

 the dominion of a civilized power for the purpose 

 of adjudicating disputes between British subjects 

 and of protecting the natives from being carried 

 off by force to work on plantations or from other 

 oppression. Tonga, which was declared neutral 

 by the Berlin declaration of April G, 1886, was 

 relinquished to British control by the Anglo- 

 German Samoan agreement of Nov. 14, 1899, sub- 

 sequently accepted by the United States. The 

 Tonga, Haapai, and Vavau groups, formerly 

 known as the Friendly Islands, lying east of Fiji, 

 form a native kingdom, whose sovereign is George 



II, born June 18, 1874. There is a Legislative 

 Assembly, half of hereditary nobles, removable for 

 cause, and half of elected representatives of the 

 people. The area of the kingdom is 374 square 

 miles; the population in 1893 was 17,500, includ- 

 ing 250 foreigners, most of them British. The 

 revenue, obtained mainly from customs duties, a 

 poll tax, and leases of land, is about $125,000 a 

 year, the expenditure a little less. The imports 

 in 1898 were valued at 35,176, exports at 39,- 

 464, of which 29,610 represent copra and 3,264 

 fruit. The tonnage entered in 1898 was 81,100, 

 of which 74,388 tons were British, 5,177 tons Nor- 

 wegian, 931 tons German, and 604 tons Danish. 

 A British protectorate was proclaimed over Tonga 

 on May 19, 1900. Sites for a coaling station and 

 a fortified harbor were selected at Vavau. The 

 King would not agree to a protectorate except 

 against foreign powers, and insisted that the sov- 

 ereignty should be guaranteed to himself and his 

 successors. Basil Thomson, who was sent out as 

 British Commissioner to the Tonga Islands, could 

 offer no guarantee, but decided that the accept- 

 ance of British help in case of difficulty with 

 foreign powers constituted a protectorate, and con- 

 cluded a treaty by which the King agreed to make 

 no treaties with other powers without the consent 

 of the British Government, and to apply for British 

 assistance only in any trouble. He was supported 

 by the House of Nobles in his refusal to accept 

 a more complete form of protectorate. Jurisdic- 

 tion over Europeans, however, was conceded to the 

 British court of law, and the two naval harbors 

 were granted. The Tongans have retained the 

 ownership of the land, none of which is occupied 

 by Europeans except under lease, and they are 

 proud of the independence which they alone of the 

 races of the Pacific who were taught civilized 

 methods of government by the missionaries have 

 succeeded in preserving. 



Ascension is an island in the Atlantic used as 

 a coaling and victualing station for the British 

 squadron on the west coast of Africa. 



St. Helena, formerly important as a port of call 

 on the Cape route, is a coaling station for naval 

 vessels on the Cape and West African stations. 

 The revenue in 1898 was 9,152; expenditure, 

 12,349. 



Tristan da Cunha, a group of islands in the 

 south Atlantic, is inhabited by the families of 

 shipwrecked sailors, who got their wives from St. 

 Helena. They numbered only 64 persons in 1897. 



The Falkland Islands, east of the Straits of 

 Magellan, have in proportion to their population 

 a large trade in wool. They are a Crown colony, 

 having a land surface of 6,500 square miles, with 

 2,050 inhabitants. The revenue in 1898 was 

 13,039; expenditure, 14,278. The imports were 

 72,987 in value; exports, 106,984. Of the total 

 trade 94 per cent, is with Great Britain. There 

 are 2,325,154 acres of pasturage, on which 732,010 

 sheep were kept in 1898, with 2,758 horses and 

 7,343 cattle. Live animals were exported to Eng- 

 land in 1898, but the enterprise was abandoned 

 or interrupted. 



The Bermudas, 580 miles from Cape Hatteras, 

 are a group of small islands having a total area 

 of 20 square miles, one third of it under cultiva- 

 tion. The population was 16.219 in 1898, of whom 

 6,239 were whites. The number of marriages dur- 

 ing the year was 143; of births, 613; of deaths, 

 378. The Governor in 1900 was Lieut. -Gen. G. 

 Digby Barker. There is a Legislative Assembly 

 of 36 members. The trade is with the United 

 States and Canada, whence provisions and bread- 

 stuffs are brought to feed the people and whither 

 are shipped in winter and spring potatoes, onions, 





