1250 



A USTRALASIA ILL USTRA TED. 



missionaries, and schools arc in operation under t\vo hundred native teachers. Transla- 

 tions of the Holy Scriptures, in whole or in part, have been made, and printed in ten 

 languages. The Mission is Presbyterian, and now has nearly twenty resident missionaries 

 in the Islands. The Melanesian Mission of the Anglican Church, which pioneered the 

 work on the northern islands, still operates on Aoba, Aragha and Maiwo on the north 

 coast, and Bishop Selwyn has had several young men from these Islands in his institu- 

 tion at Norfolk Island. Recently Roman Catholic missionaries have settled at Mallicollo and 



other Islands in the 

 north-west of the 

 Group. They insist 

 on the natives learn- 

 ing French. The 

 other missionaries 

 do not, as a rule, 

 teach English, but 

 use the native 

 languages. 



Trade first began 

 in sandal-wood. 

 The labour traffic 

 then swept the 

 Islands for recruits 

 for the sugar plan- 

 tations in Fiji and Queensland. Settlers in some Islands attempted to introduce trade 

 among the Islanders, but till missionary work prospered they did not want clothes, 

 and only exchanged their produce for tobacco, guns and ammunition, fish-hooks, knives 

 and beads. The French New Hebrides Company has recently acquired extensive 

 tracts of land near convenient harbours, and has promoted a brisk trade in copra, 

 b&che-de-mer and other things. The Company bought out most of the English 

 settlers. The colonists in New Caledonia then began to desire the annexation of the 

 Group by the French Government and the employment of convicts there. A mili- 

 tary post was actually set up near Havannah Harbour, under the excuse that the 

 French subjects who had settled there stood in need of protection. The natives, 

 however, did not like this, and Australian colonists, who had already objected to the 

 further sending of recidivistes to New Caledonia, many of whom escaped to the main- 

 land, strongly protested against the military occupation of Havannah Harbour as a step 

 towards the eventual establishment of a permanent settlement on the part of the French. 

 Those interested also feared for the safety of the British Missions, and disapproved of 

 the violation of the existing agreement, by which the English Government and France 

 both agreed to abstain from establishing a dominion in these Islands. After long and 

 anxious diplomacy, the French and British Governments agreed to appoint a mixed 

 commission of naval officers to jointly administer justice and protect European interests, 

 and the French troops were in consequence withdrawn. 



An Australasian New Hebrides Company has been recently formed for the purpose 



IN THE HOLD OF A SOUTH SKA LABOUR VESSEL. 



