74 Transactions. —Miscellaneous. 
of convicts, with a party of marines, were sent there from Australia. It 
was finally abandoned in 1855, and is now the head-quarters of the Mela- 
nesian Mission, and the residence of the Pitcairn islanders. Norfolk Island 
is included in the commission of the Governor of New South Wales. 
In 1864 the inhabitants of Rarotonga, the principal island of the Hervey 
or Cook’s Group, petitioned Her Majesty, through the Governor of New 
Zealand, for protection, but the prayer was not granted. 
On October 10, 1874, Fiji was unconditionally ceded to the British 
Crown. Want of space forbids my referring to the history of this cession. 
A few private individuals, British subjects, claim certain islands by 
right of purchase or occupation. For example, Messrs. Houlder Brothers, 
of London, own three small guano islands in Eastern Polynesia; Mr. 
Brander, of Tahiti, Palmerston Island, in Central Polynesia; one Eli 
Jennings owns and lives upon Quiros Island ; and Messrs. Godefroy and Co. 
claim and own many others. There are hundreds of similar uninhabited 
islands in the Pacific, which may thus be acquired. In what manner the 
title to such acquisitions will be treated by the Great Powers is a question 
for the purchaser or occupier to consider. 
At the present time, therefore, Spain actually possesses and occupies the 
Ladrone and Bonin groups, together with a few islands in the Pelew and 
Caroline Groups; France, Tahiti and a few of the Georgian Islands, the 
Paumotas, Marquesas, Toubouai, and New Caledonia Groups; England, the 
Fiji Group, Pitcairn, and Norfolk Islands ; and America has, or has not, a 
certain claim upon the Navigator Group, according to the decision of the 
United States Government. 
Native Governments. 
The other islands are under the rule of their native chiefs. Three of 
the principal groups aim at possessing certain forms of constitutional 
government—the Sandwich, Navigator, and Friendly Islands. This move- 
ment has been brought about by the influence of the resident whites, 
principally Englishmen. Many other islands have also certain forms of 
monarchial government, such as Rarotonga and Huahine, vico with 
fair eodes of laws framed by the missionaries. 
In 1863 the reigning chief of the Sandwich Islands, King Kamehamha 
V., granted his subjects a new constitution (the first constitution of 1840 
was granted by Kamehamha IIL), based upon the English model—King, 
Lords, and Commons. 
I may be allowed to make a slight digression in order to explain the 
position of America with regard to the Sandwich Islands and Samoa. The 
United States, it appears, eannot protect foreign lands without altering 
certain clauses of the Republiean Constitution which are antagonistie to the 
