AUSTRALIA AND POLYNESIA. 



31 



machine-guns. Queensland ordered two gun- 

 boats identical with the smaller Victorian ves- 

 sel. Victoria will have three torpedo-boats, 

 New Zealand four, Queensland two, and Tas- 

 mania one. One of the Victorian boats is the 

 largest yet constructed, except one built for 

 the Russian Government, being 113 feet long, 

 with a displacement of 58 tons. It was 

 launched in 1883, and is armed with four large 

 Whitehead torpedoes and two Hodgkiss ma- 

 chine-guns. The smaller boats will be armed 

 with McEvoy spar torpedoes, or Whitehead 

 projectile torpedoes. 



Annexation Schemes. The impulse to colonial 

 extension observed in European Continental 

 nations, the result chiefly of their protection- 

 ist policy, and excessive expansion of indus- 

 trial activity, diverted the movement for Aus- 

 tralian confederation from its original purpose 

 in 1833. The prospect of a further ''division 

 of the world " became more imminent after 

 the British occupation of Egypt. France be- 

 gan the movement by casting about among the 

 unclaimed regions of the earth for compensa- 

 tion. The Australian colonists, who at this 

 time started embryonic military and naval es- 

 tablishments, and began to form a conception 

 of the power of union, determined to take a 

 stand against the establishment of any foreign 

 colonies in Australasia, and to claim for Austra- 

 lia pre-emptive rights to all the islands of the 

 Pacific. In the absence of a federal union, the 

 colonies began individually to agitate for the an- 

 nexation of the more important islands. Euro- 

 pean nations have for years debated over the 

 question of establishing colonial plantations in 

 Australasia. The party in Germany in favor of 

 colonizing has directed attention by turns to 

 every unoccupied group in Australasia, and near- 

 ly every other uncivilized region in the world. 

 German commerce has been extending in the 

 neutral markets, and the Government has given 

 some tentative aid and protection in Polynesia; 

 but the German Government is more cautious 

 in this respect than any other, and has resisted 

 every temptation to establish a dominion over 

 uncivilized races. Italy has discussed various 

 fields for colonizing, and claims a sort of pri- 

 ority in New Guinea, by virtue of the explora- 

 tions of Beccari ani D'Albertis. France, as 

 the only active colonizing power, was the most 

 dreaded by the Australians, and is the most 

 firmly seated in Australasia, possessing New 

 Caledonia, and having interests in the New 

 Hebrides. In 1878 France and Great Britain 

 entered into reciprocal engagements not to an- 

 nex the New Hebrides. Since then a private 

 company, composed of colonists of New Cale- 

 donia, has obtained trading concessions on 

 those islands, and acquired some of the smaller 

 ones by purchase. The colonists of New South 

 Wales urged the home Government to acquire 

 possession of the Solomon Islands and the New 

 Hebrides, in order to prevent them from be- 

 coming French penal colonies. In New Zea- 

 land the old agitation for the annexation of 



the Friendly and Navigator groups was re- 

 newed. But the oligarchy of Queensland, who, 

 enriched by colored labor, consider it their 

 vocation to rule over native races, showed the 

 most impatient and aggressive spirit. They 

 conceived the ambitious design of annexing to 

 their little colony the great island of Papua, 

 with its vast population and inexhaustible 

 natural wealth. To establish a dominion over 

 Papua, and derive any material benefit from 

 the possession, would not only necessitate cruel 

 oppression, which the mother- country would 

 not permit, but would cost a long struggle, 

 which would require considerable military re- 

 sources. The Papuans are a brave and vigor- 

 ous race, who live in large villages, cultivate 

 the soil, and hold the land by fixed proprie- 

 tary titles. 



In May the British Foreign Office received a 

 dispatch from the Governor of Queensland, 

 saying that the Queensland Government, in 

 order to prevent other powers from occupying 

 Papua, had taken formal possession of that 

 island in the name of the Queen. The home 

 authorities, who had had knowledge of this 

 purpose since February, would not allow their 

 hand to be forced by the Queenslanders. They 

 repudiated the proceeding of the Governor, 

 which could only be consummated by the 

 power of Great Britain. Yet Lord Derby as- 

 serted the pre-emptive claim of England to 

 Papua, by declaring that they should " not view 

 it as a friendly act if any other country at- 

 tempted to make a settlement on that coast." 

 They obtained assurances that the French Gov- 

 ernment had no designs on the island. The 

 British Government would go no further than 

 to extend its jurisdiction over the southern 

 coast of New Guinea, between which and Aus- 

 tralia a considerable trade had sprung up, by 

 giving the High Commissioner of Feejee power 

 to enforce discipline over British subjects. 



The western half of Papua was claimed by 

 Holland, by virtue of a cession from the Sultan 

 of Tidore, in the Moluccas, a title like that of 

 Portugal to the Congo Basin, which Great 

 Britain might acknowledge, if expedient, and 

 yet at any future time set aside. On the east- 

 ern end Lieut. Yule had raised the British flag 

 in 1848, as did Capt. Moresby on the islands 

 off the east coast in 1873. 



The annexation of Papua by Great Britain 

 had been mooted about five years before, when 

 gold was discovered at Port Moresby on the 

 south coast. There was a rush of- gold-diggers 

 to the spot, but the new field was not as pro- 

 ductive as was supposed, and the hostility of 

 the natives made it dangerous for the miners 

 to remain and explore further. The Torres 

 Strait, which separates Papua from the north- 

 ern point of Queensland, is only 80 miles wide; 

 but Brisbane, the capital of the colony, is 1,000 

 miles from the coast of Papua. The island, 

 which Sir Thomas Moll wraith, the head of the 

 Queensland Government, and Sir Arthur Ken- 

 nedy, the Governor, attempted to add to the 



