NEW CALEDONIA 401 



curious feature is the use of the phiral hy the chiefs in 

 speaking to the people, and by the people in addressing 

 them. 



About the middle of this century the population of 

 N^ew Caledonia was estimated at 60,00 0. It is now known 

 to be 22,000, and there is no doubt that the Kanakas, 

 as the natives are called, are disappearing no less rapidly 

 than the natives of other islands of the Pacific wherever 

 they have come into either friendly or hostile contact with 

 the white man. Internecine warfare, intemperance, and 

 domestic and foreign vices have combined to accelerate 

 the process. Abortion is ]3ractised, and the female births 

 are far less numerous than the male, and by many 

 authorities the entire extinction of the people is regarded 

 as near at hand. " Eeserves " are apportioned to them in 

 the same way as to the Indians in America, in which no 

 land is permitted to be alienated to whites. Missionaries 

 labour among them, and the pacification of the island is 

 the ann and object of the " Administrateurs." Yet the 

 relations between the Kanakas and their masters is not 

 entirely satisfactory, and probably never will be, for each 

 is mutually suspicious of the other. 



Agriculture in New Caledonia is more successful in 

 the hands of the small native farmer than the white 

 colonist, who is much hampered by lack of labour, to 

 remedy which natives from the New Hebrides were 

 largely introduced, as well as a few coolies and Chinese. 

 Maize and taro are the staple native products ; rice was 

 until lately hardly at all cultivated, so that as much as 

 £10,000 worth had to be annually imported, but it is 

 now being grown in considerable quantity. Sugar-cane 

 is much grown, and there are several sugar-mills in the 

 colony, but no sugar is exported, and the cane is to a 

 great extent used for the manufacture of the " tafia " 



