THE LOYALTY ISLANDS 
465 
the north coast by way of Paita, Tomo, and Nakety. 
Much of the island service is carried on by steamers, and 
various lines afford regular communication with France, 
Australia, Fiji, and New Zealand. 
Noumea, the capital, is the only town of any size in the 
colony. It has a population of about 7000, and is beauti¬ 
fully situated. The harbour, formed by Non Island and 
the Ducos peninsula, both of which are the sites of 
penitentiaries, is both safe and roomy. The entire popu¬ 
lation of the island is probably about 44,000, of whom 
about 22,000 are natives, 10,000 convicts, 6000 officials 
and soldiers, 2000 imported labourers, and the rest 
settlers. 
The Isle of Pines, which lies 30 miles from the 
southern extremity of New Caledonia, is a raised coral 
island about 8 miles across, which has long been 
used as a penitentiary by the French. At one period 
over 3000 Communists were there imprisoned. It is 
now used for native convicts and the reUgvAs or those 
condemned to life transportation. 
The Loyalty Islands, 
a natural dependence of New Caledonia, form a small 
chain parallel to it at a distance of about 70 miles. 
They are all upheaved masses of coralline rock, and 
comparatively sterile, but at one time abounded in sandal¬ 
wood, which is now becoming extinct. They consist of 
three principal islands, Uea to the north, Lifu, and Mare. 
The population a few years ago was estimated at 19,000, 
but is said to have diminished. The natives closely 
resemble those of the New Hebrides, and thirty years 
ago were a race of savage cannibals. ' Now they are, 
especially in Mare, the most civilised of any Melanesians, 
