New Guinea. 45 



In short, had we, the Britons of the nineteenth century, 

 possessed the same facilities for plantino; colonies beyond seas 

 as were enjoyed and exercised so ably and so successfully by the 

 ancient Greeks, I am confident that not only New Gruinea, but 

 all the important group of islands in the Western Pacific would 

 have been colonized long ago ; neither should we have lost Tahiti, 

 or New Caledonia. Unfortunately, however, like the dog in the 

 manger, Grreat Britain will neither undertake the great work of 

 colonization herself, nor permit it to be undertaken even by her 

 own people. The ancient city of Miletus, a seaport town on the 

 coast of Asia Minor, in all probability no larger than Sydney, 

 had planted not fewer than from eighty to a hundred colonies on 

 the seas that were then travered by the ships of the ancient 

 world. And if we had only the same colonizing power as Miletus, 

 I am confident that we should be equally successful in that heroic 

 work. But we are uniformly stopped at the very first by that 

 law and provision of our constitution that prohibits any British 

 subject from planting a colony in any vacant territory on the face 

 of the earth without the express consent of the Crown. And 

 this, we are all doubtless aware, it is not easy to obtain. 



I addressed a letter on this very important subject by the 

 August Mail, to Mr. Cowper, the Agent G-eneral of the Colony 

 in London, of which I shall take the liberty to quote the following 

 passage :— 



" I am not quite aware what your duties are or will be, in 

 England ; but there is one which I conceive you might discharge 

 efi"ectually, not only for the benefit of all these Australian 

 colonies, but for the promotion of the interests of civilization and 

 Christianity throughout the vast Pacific Ocean." 



Then, after referring to the case of Fiji, and the G-overnment that 

 has recently been formed in that group of Islands, as a matter of 

 necessity in the first instance, but with such promising results, I 

 proceed as follows : — 



" It is discreditable in the highest degree, as well as absolutely 

 suicidal, for Grreat Britain, the mistress of the sea and the 

 soidisant nursing mother and promoter of colonization, to 

 permit the present state of things to subsist any longer 

 in the Pacific. It was simply and solely the expenditure of 

 British money in the founding of this colony that has rendered 

 it practicable for any other Power in the world to plant colonies 

 in the Pacific. And why should we permit any such foreign 

 Power to enter upon our labours, as the French have been per- 

 mitted to do both in Tahiti and New Caledonia, and virtually to 

 reap where they never sowed. Had we in this colony possessed 

 the requisite power to anticipate their movements, does any 

 person suppose that they would ever have been allowed to set 

 foot in either of these islands?" 



