124. REPORT—1868. 
author, Dr. Neumayer, a resident of Australia, and intimately connected with most 
of its scientific intitutions ; but on a question of such dimensions no Society can do 
more than give its sympathy: it is a problem for the united governments of 
Australia to solve, and it is to be hoped that when undertaken it will be with 
such adequate means, organization, and cooperation, both afloat and on shore, 
as will render failure impossible. 
There is yet another terra incognita almost within view of the northern coast of 
Australia, in the great island of New Guinea, whose shores even have scarcely been 
correctly traced on the map. It has been visited, however, by navigators of dif- 
ferent countries, and there is little doubt but that, like the smaller islands in its 
neighbourhood occupied by the Dutch, it is rich in all the choicest products of the 
earth. 
It is to be feared, however, that the time is distant when this interesting country 
will be opened up to commerce and civilization ; its great extent, and the hostility 
of the natives, among other causes, place it far beyond the reach of any individual ~ 
efforts, and none of the maritime nations seem yet prepared or disposed to set their 
mark upon it. 
I am unwilling to leave these southern regions without a few passing words on 
that latest acquisition, and perhaps most flourishing dependency of the British 
Empire, New Zealand: as an instance of the rapidity and success of exploration 
and colonization almost coincident with each other, it is probably the most remark- 
able in the annals of the world’s history ; undoubtedly it possesses in a high de- 
gree almost all the conditions favourable to such a result—an extent of country 
equal to Great Britain, of a form and distribution the most favourable for develop- 
ment by nautical exploration, with a climate admirably suited to EKuropeans—it 
seemed indeed to invite civilization, 
Scarcely thirty years ago almost its sole white occupants were a few English 
missionaries, who, indeed, have generally been the pioneers of civilization in these 
distant regions; ten years later, when colonization was first seriously undertaken on 
a great scale, the sagacious nobleman then at the head of the navy, Lord Auckland, 
foresaw that the shortest and most certain road to success was a complete nautical 
survey of its coasts, which, under his auspices, was at once commenced, and com- 
pleted within seven years. During this interval colonization progressed with rapid 
strides; and at the present time, despite the drawback of years of native wars, New 
Zealand, or, as it has well been called, the Great Britain of the south, is peopled 
throughout its length and breadth by Englishmen, in the possession of the luxuries, 
wealth, and prosperity of an old and long settled country. 
There is one incident in the history of New Zealand which is not generally 
known or remembered, and it is an instance of what momentous results to a whole 
nation may sometimes arise from apparently trifling or accidental causes, The in- 
cident is this :—that but for the fortuitous presence of a little brig of war there in, 
I think, the year 1839 or 1840, commanded by the late Captain Owen Stanley, a 
name that will be familiar to many in this old city, that flourishing country, or at 
any rate the largest and fairest portion of it, would now haye been under the flag of 
another nation, and there would have been the singular coincidence of a second 
English Channel at the Antipodes, with our opposite neighbours looking at us 
across what is now known as Goa Straits. 
T now turn to Africa, fruitful, if in no other respect hitherto, yet certainly in geo- 
evaphical adventure and daring; and if we do not approach the subject without 
hope as to its future, I think we must do so with feelings of misgiving and doubt. 
It is a mighty subject, full of the weightiest interests to millions of the human 
race—too weighty, indeed, to be more than touched upon here ; and the few words 
I shall say will have reference chiefly to the great object of interest to English- 
men at the present time—the fate of the great traveller whose life has been so in- 
timately associated with Africa, and who for the last two years and a half has been 
wandering almost single-handed over that great continent, in pursuit of the objects 
to which that life has been mainly devoted. Tor all we know of the interior of 
Africa we are indebted almost entirely to our own adventurous countrymen, and 
let us inquire briefly what do we know. We know that a vast chain of lakes 
exist, reaching nearly from the Zambezi on the south to the head waters of the — 
