NEW HEBRIDES

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 221, 17 September 1924, Page 5

NEW HEBRIDES

FUTILE CONDOMINIUM. .PERIODICA!, COMPLAINTS. FRESRTTERIAN PROTESTS. (By Cable-Press Assoclation.-Copyrtght.) (Received 11.30 a m.) - SYDNEY, this day. TJ-t\-. he T>^ rGsbyterian Assembly, "the «!..«_. '• P * tton > tue Xew Hebrides misSKi his oft-reneated condemnation of the Condominium system of control under wluch both Britain and trance are responsible. He declared that the joint control authorities have no power to enforce their decisions. This consequently led to all sorts of abuses. '-tr _f a3Se - mDl y resolved to ask Mr. S. -v. Bruce, Prime Minister, to make representations to the Imperial Government for full and complete control of the Condominium, failing that an arrangement with France whereby the islands shall come under British control, instructing the Board of Missions to bring persistent pressure to bear on the authorities until the intolerable state of affairs is remedied. A New Zealand officer, who was for a long period in charge of the police in the New Hebrides, agreed that the conditions under the Condominium were as bad as need be, and that no possible advance could be made either. in administration on behalf of the natives themselves, who are hired out to plantation i owners, or in the way of improvement lin production. The administration of justice is evidently Tather Gilbertian for administrative officials are always doubled, and the native usually "dunno where 'c are." The New Hebrides native is an exceedingly simple, primitive person, enormously frightened of most things, including the white man, and his mind is full of ghosts. The allegations of British residents is that tbe French are the culprits in maladministration and in the debasement of the natives, 'enslavement, and so forth, but the French put their side, too. A New Hebrides native who came to Auckland as a servant was palpably scared all the time, and went about in a sort of frozen, silence. Whether the Condominium had frozen him or whether he was just naturally struck dumb at the marvels of the metropolis, is not known, but he never spoke -unless he was spoken to. (A. and. N.Z. Cable.)