46 New Guijiea. 



"We have always a large floating population in all these colo- 

 nies, who are ready for anything in the way of colonization ; and 

 it would be the easiest thing in the world to raise the requisite 

 funds for any feasible scheme of that nature, to be carried out 

 either in New Gruinea or in any of the groups of islands farther 

 south. All that is requisite is to give us power to set up a Grovern- 

 ment of some kind, and to establish our Colonial land laws. 

 From the first I was one of the Provisional Directors of a pro- 

 posed Company, to form a colony in New Guinea, during the 

 regime of your predecessors, Martin and Parkes. There was no 

 lack at the time of adventurers ready to embark at once, — many 

 of them at their own charges — but on finding that a Government 

 could not be formed for such a community, nor the thing be per- 

 mitted at all under British law, the proposal fell to the ground. 



Could it not be provided, then, either by an Act of the 

 Imperial Parliament, or by the sanction of Her Majesty's Govern- 

 ment in any other way, that in the event of any number of British 

 subjects — say not less than one, two, or even three thousand — 

 agreeing to go forth for the settlement of any island, or group of 

 islands, in the "Western Pacific ; under such terms as might be 

 mutually agreed on beforehand, and approved of by the Govern- 

 ment of any British colony, (especially on the condition of their 

 establishing such laws, in regard to the acquisition and proprietor- 

 ship of land, as are in actual operation in the British colonies) it 

 should be lawful for such a community to set up a government for 

 themselves, either with the consent and co-operation of the 

 native authority, if any such exist, or for themselves solely, if not. 

 "We do not require annexation for such a purpose. Let the 

 people govern themselves when they can. If you could only 

 effect such an arrangement as this, it would give a wonderful im- 

 pulse to colonization in the Southern Pacific, and would greatly 

 benefit this colony." 



Mr. John Archibald Campbell, a surgeon well known in Sydney 

 about thirty years since, has, it seems, been proposing to form a 

 Company in London for the colonization of New Guinea, direct 

 from England. This, I conceive, would be a hopeless undertaking ; 

 but if any feasible scheme for the colonization of the south-east 

 coast of iS^ew Guinea — the portion of the coast being subtended 

 by the Owen Stanley Eange of mountains — were proposed in this 

 city, and an assurance given that the adventurers should be per- 

 mitted by the Imperial authorities to form a government for 

 themselves, there would be no lack either of capital or of men for 

 the carrying of it out in all these Colonies, with every prospect 

 of success. In the earlier days of British colonization, a scheme 

 of this kind was actually carried out in New England in America, 

 for, a Company having been chartered in Plymouth for the plant- 



