, 2 i8 AUSTRALASIA ILLUSTRATED. 



flat round the base of the large mountains. The Vanapa River drains the whole of the 

 south side of the Owen Stanley Range. 



On the 3rd of April, 1883, Mr. H. M. Chester, Police Magistrate resident at 

 Thursday Island, arrived at Port Moresby in the Government schooner Pearl to proclaim 

 the annexation to the British Empire of the half of the Island unclaimed by the 

 Dutch. He had been sent by Sir Thomas McIKvraith, the Premier of Queensland, on 

 behalf of his Government. On the following day a proclamation was read taking posses- 

 sion of " that portion of New Guinea, and the islands and islets adjacent thereto, lying 

 between the one hundred and forty-first and the one hundred and fifty-fifth meridians of 

 east longitude, in the name and behalf of Her Most Gracious Majesty Queen Victoria, 

 her heirs, and successors." The British flag was then hoisted and saluted by the two 

 small guns on the Pearl. This annexation not being accepted or recognized by the 

 Imperial Government did not take effect, and so became void. It led, however, to a 

 strong expression of public opinion in Australia on behalf of annexation. 



On the 2nd of November, 1884, Commodore Erskine, A.D.C., arrived at Port 

 Moresby in H.M.S. Nelson. Most of the squadron of the Australian station was already 

 there, and others followed. On the 6th of November an imposing function was held on 

 shore, when the Commodore proclaimed, in the name and with the authority of Her 

 Majesty the Queen, a Protectorate over " all that portion of the southern shores of 

 New Guinea commencing from the boundary of that portion of the country claimed by 

 the Government of the Netherlands on the one hundred and forty-first meridian of east 

 longitude to East Cape, with all islands adjacent thereto south of East Cape to 

 Kqsmann Island inclusive, together with the islands in Goschen Straits, and also the 

 D'Entrecasteaux Group and smaller islands adjacent." 



In December the area of the Protectorate was extended by H.M.S. Raven and 

 H.M.S. Dart visiting the north-east coast as far as Huon Gulf, and hoisting the 

 British flag. Captain Ross of the Raven, and Captain Bridge in the Dart, proclaiming 

 an extension of the Protectorate from East Cape to Huon Gulf. The Islands of Rook 

 and Long were also included in the protected territory. After all these functions had 

 taken place, and the ceremony of hoisting the flag at so many places had been completed, 

 it was with surprise that the announcement was received in the Press that the German 

 Government laid claim to an area nearly equal in extent to that claimed by Great 

 Britain. By an arrangement made by the British and German Imperial Governments, 

 the territory on the north-east coast, lying between Mitre Rock on the eighth parallel 

 of latitude to the Dutch boundary, was proclaimed a German Possession. The boundary 

 inland is from where the one hundred and forty-seventh degree of east longitude cuts 

 the eighth parallel of south latitude, thence in a straight north-westerly line to the 

 intersection of the sixth parallel of latitude and the one hundred and forty-fourth degree 

 of east longitude, thence to the point where the fifth parallel cuts the Dutch boundary 

 on the one hundred and forty-first meridian of east longitude. By this division British 

 New Guinea has an area of eighty-six thousand three hundred and eighty-two square 

 miles, and German New Guinea one of sixty-eight thousand eight hundred and three 

 square miles, leaving about fifteen thousand square miles for Dutch New Guinea. 



Soon after the proclamation of the Protectorate, Sir Peter Scratchley, R.E., K.C.M.G., 



