18 "Transactions.— Miscellaneous. 
groups. In most of these islands the missionary clergyman alone repre- 
sents the bright side of modern civilization, and tempers the savage habits 
of the chiefs. In Western Polynesia, however, it is hardly yet safe for 
a missionary to land, or a trader to leave his vessel. New Guinea is a 
terra incognita, and its inhabitants are but little known. New Britain and 
New Ireland, the Admiralty and the Louisade Islands are almost in a 
similar position. 
From some of these islands the principal portion of the labour employed 
in Queensland and the Pacific was, and still is, obtained. Possessing no 
government, nor any power which the whites could respect, the simple 
inhabitants were at the mercy of those who resorted to their shores. Luckily, 
our cruisers will now be some protection to them. 
Labour Trade. 
Placing upon one side the painful incidents connected with kidnapping, 
I am inclined to believe that the employment of native labour by cotton- 
planters and others has been beneficial, especially the employment of labour 
foreign to any particular locality. The mere fact of seeing other islands, 
other tribes, and a higher civilization, has led thousands of natives to 
reconsider and abolish their barbarous customs, and to listen more readily 
to missionary teaching. Anyone who has seen a large number of natives 
collected from perhaps ten different islands of Western Polynesia, -or those 
near the equator, upon a well-ordered plantation, would hardly doubt that 
the lesson those natives received during their three or five years’ residence 
upon that plantation tended to make them better members of the human 
family on returning to their respective homes. Official papers concerning 
the annexation of Fiji testify that Polynesian labourers upon Fijian planta- 
tions are far better off, as far as regards food, clothing, and house accom- 
modation, than when upon their native islands. 
On the other hand, the Melanesian Mission Report for 1878 totally dis- 
agrees with this opinion. The report states, with reference to the New 
Hebrides and Banks Islands, ** that the labour trade is depopulating them, 
and that the returned labourer does not convey back the knowledge of any 
useful art, or even anything of civilization. It is therefore the business of 
those who carry on the mission to do all they can to prevent and oppose a 
traffic, the effects of which they see to be pernicious." In this I think that 
the mission is decidedly in the wrong. Bishop Patteson himself never 
demanded the entire suppression of the traffic; he only demanded its 
proper regulation. Neither do I think that the trade, except in one or two 
minor instances, is depopulating the islands. It may lessen the population 
of any particular spot, but only for a time. When the report above referred 
to was written, there were many hundreds of New Hebridean and Banks 
