FEENCH MELANESIA. 347 



thousand, of whom the majority are employed on the public works ; as many as 

 twelve hundred have been handed over to mining or industrial companies, and 

 some six hundred enjoy a relative measure of freedom in the agricultural peniten- 

 tiaries, where they cultivate their own "concessions." The convicts thus gradually 

 merge in the class of the free citizens, who, though still far inferior in numbers to 

 the criminals and their keepers, cannot fail ultimately to predominate, being 

 continually recruited by the descendants of convicts restored to their civil rights. 

 But most of these families must die out, because very few women are transported 

 to New Caledonia ; at present they number scarcely one hundred and fifty in the 

 whole island. Nevertheless, some families are perpetuated, and, as happened in 

 Australia, the offspring of these convicts have already begun to protest against a 

 further importation of the criminal classes from Europe. 



Free immigration is but slightly developed, and the " colony " still possesses 

 fewer colonists than officials. Doubtless the government offers to all immigrant 

 labourers a free grant of ten acres of arable land and fifty of pasturage, on the 

 condition of residing a few years on the estate and bringing it under cultivation. 

 But the essays at colonisation have hitherto been so disastrous that the unfortunate 

 squatters have had to be restored from time to time to their native land. The 

 competition of penitentiary labour deprives the small holders of all hope of success. 



The most numerous and flourishing settlers are the Australians, some hundreds 

 of whom have settled in the agricultural districts, where they devote themselves 

 chiefly to stock-breeding. With their knowledge of the climate, of the natives and 

 the local economic conditions, they are able to face the difficulties of colonisation in 

 its initial stages with more confidence than the ignorant peasantry imported from 

 France. 



Large estates have already been created, and so early as 1880 one speculator 

 owned as many as 42,000 acres in a single holding. Yet stock-breeding, the only 

 industry of thèse extensive landowners, possesses but a slight relative importance. 

 In the whole of New Caledonia there are less than 100,000 head of cattle, scarcely 

 20,000 sheep, and but a few hundred horses introduced from Norfolk Island. A total 

 area of 50,000 acres is reserved by the state for all the agricultural penitentiaries. 



Topography. 



Noumea, or Port-de-Frcoice, as it was called during the first years of the 

 occupation, is the capital, and the only town in New Caledonia and its depen- 

 dencies. It has a population of four thousand, or about one-half of all the resident 

 civil and military Europeans. Founded in 1854 after the submission of the 

 Nguea, or Numea tribe, it occupies a favourable commercial position towards the 

 southern extremity of the island on the side facing Australia. Here a wide 

 opening in the outer barrier reef communicates with several roadsteads, all 

 perfectly sheltered by the neighbouring hilly peninsula and adjacent islands. 

 The largest expanse, opening in the north-west between the islet of Nou and the 

 Duces peninsula, is spacious enough to receive a whole fleet. The whole trade of 



