NEW CALEDONIA 
455 
from his natural surroundings and placing him under 
totally new conditions and in the midst of a civilisa¬ 
tion utterly beyond his comprehension. 
The ownership of the archipelago was for a long time 
a vexata qucestio. Owing to various disturbances, for the 
most part the outcome of the raids of “ black-birding ” 
schooners, detachments of French marines were sent 
from New Caledonia to Mallicolo and Sandwich in 1886. 
This brought about the Anglo-French treaty of the 24th 
October, 1887, by which the two powers agree conjointly 
to safeguard the interests of colonists. Many of the 
latter are French, the “ Societe Caledonienne des 
Nouvelles Hebrides” now being landowners to the 
extent of 1,750,000 acres. It is this connection with 
New Caledonia which has given the islands the advantage 
of steam communication with the outside world, French 
vessels running from Noumea and calling at the chief 
ports at regular intervals. An inter-insular steam 
service was also established in 1890. 
4. New Caledonia and the Loyalty Islands. 
New Caledonia is the most southerly of the Mela¬ 
nesian islands. It lies in a north-west and south-east « 
direction just within the Tropic, and is distant about 
700 miles from the nearest point of Australia. It is 
250 miles long, and lies in an almost perfect straight 
line, having a very uniform average breadth of 35 miles. 
Its area is estimated to be about 6500 square miles, and 
it is almost entirely surrounded with coral reefs, which, 
being situated at a distance of from 5 to 18 miles from 
the shore, afford ample protection except in very heavy 
weather. The north-eastern coast is almost straight, 
but on the opposite side of the island the shore is pene- 
