A BACKGROUND TO THE NEWS

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 241, 8 July 1938, Page 9

A BACKGROUND TO THE NEWS

Otago’s Centenary Otago Is planning a special court at the Dominion Centennial Exhibition to celebrate the Otago provincial centennial. i It was in 1543 that the first steps for the settlement of Otago and Canterbury were taken. The settlement in Otago was projected by an association of lay members of the Free Ohureb of Scotland, the land to be purchased from the New Zealand Company, and the settlement to be called New Edinburgh. On December 10,1544, Governor Fitzroy was able to report to Lord Stanley that ’‘the Otakou purchase” had been made. This was the harbour and country now known as Otago. The name '“Otakou” was applied vaguely to the southern portion of the East Coast of the Middle, or South Island. Captain Cargill, who possessed the confidence of the association, and in whose favour it had passed a resolution on May IC, 1545, was appointed by the New Zealand Company to l>e its resident agent in the settlement. Many troubles in the colony itself prevented the Otago Association from colonising the settlement at once. In 1847 an influential meeting was held at Glasgow to give publicity to the principles on which the settlement was founded. It was announced at the meeting that the proposed settlement was to comprise 144,000 acres of land, divided into 2400 properties. Each property was to consist of 60J acres, to be divided into three allotments, namely, a town allotment of a quarter of an acre, a suburban allotment of 10 acres, and a rural allotment of 50 acres. The price was fixed at £2 an acre, or £l2O 10/- for a property. The money realised was to be appropriated in the proportion of threeeighths for emigration, two-eighths for roads, one-eighth for religious and educational purposes, and two-eighths to the New Zealand Company for land. Progress in the early years was disappointing. but with the status of provincialship under the Constitution Act. Otago developed rapidly, accelerated enormously by the discovery of rieh goldfields in its interior in IS6I. Royal Naval Volunteers

A photograph in “The Dominion” yesterday showed Sir lan Hamilton, Mr. Winston Churchill, and Sir Roger Keyes, who were attending a reunion of the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve. This body of volunteers was raised by the British Admiralty in the Great War. Each battalion was named after a famous admiral —Anson, Drake, Hawke. Hood. The headquarters were at the Crystal Palace, London, where the men were trained. Popularly known as the R.N.D., a detachment was sent to Antwerp in October, 1914, and being cut off during the retreat, considerable numbers were driven into Holland and interned.

'Part of the force fought in Gallipoli in 1915. and later in France, where the division was ultimately disbanded and distributed among other units. As the Royal Naval Division it captured Beauconrt, November 13-14,1916, in the battle of Ancre. Viscount Rotbermere provided funds to erect a monument there to the officers and men who lost their lives in that action, in which his son, Lieutenant the Hon. Vere S. T. Harmsworth. of the Hawke battalion, was killed. Tlie main memorial is in London.

New Zealand has a close association with the Royal Naval Division, as General Bernard Cyril Freyberg, who was educated at Wellington College, was a member of it when he won the D.S.O. in April, 1915, at Gallipoli, and the Victoria Cross for brilliant leading on the Ancre, France, in November, 1916, where he’ organised the attack on Beaucourt. He was also at the siege of Antwerp in October, 1914. He was a Brigadier-General of the 29th Division that became so famous by its landing on Galilpoli Peninsula. Kwangehow Wan

France is reported to be creating a military aerodrome at Kwangehow ■Wan, on the mainland of China, north of Hainau Island, to offset the Japanese threat to Hainan.

Kwangehow Wan is a French concession on the coast of Kwangtung province. It comprises the bay of Kwangehow, with the islands of Amphitrite (Tunghai), Aigrettes (La Rigaudiere), and Nanchau, and a strip-of territory on the mainland. The total area of about 200 square miles contains 809 villages, with a population of. about 200,000 Chinese. The territory was leased to France for 99 years, effective occupation dating from April 22; 1898. The bay affords good anchorage, but the approach is difficult owing to sandbanks.

Kwangtung is the southernmost province of China, having an area of 100 000 square miles and an estimated population of 28.000,000. The island of Hainan is included in the administrative area.

The province has six open ports, Canton, ’B“.’atow, Kiungchow (Hoihow), Pakhoi, Samshui and Kongmoon. To it belong also the ceded and leased territories < f Hong Kong, Macao and Kwangclb .w Wan. At the ports, Kongmoon, Hong Kong, Canton and Swatow. railways start for varying distances inland. The trouble between France and Japan is brought about by Japan’s anger at the large quantities of munitions entering China through French Indo-China.

Overseas Settlement During the Great War migration from the United Kingdom to . British possessions came to a standstill. To make good that cheek, as well as on general grounds of Empire policy, the British Government once again took a definite interest in Empire migration. Free passages to Empire destinations were given to over 80,000 approved exservicemen and their families. The Overseas Settlement Office was created under the chairmanship of Mr. L. S. Amery, and the Empire Settlement Act was passed in 1922, under which £3,000,000 a year was made available for assistance to Empire migration and settlement. A condition of this assistance was that it was to be matched by assistance of an equal amount from the Dominion which received the migrants. In the 10 years 1922 to 1931 over 400.000 persons were assisted to settle in various parts of the Empire under the Act at a total cost of £0,000,000 to the United Kingdom Government. The total migration, assisted and unassisted. to Empire destinations in the 13 years 1919-1931, inclusive, was about 2,250.000, or at the rate of over 170.000 a year. Thus the assisted migration amounted to not much more than a fifth of the total. For the four years 1931-1934 there was an actual excess of migrants returning to the United Kingdom of over 80.000. . The experience showed that, tn the main, the more indirect and less obvious the assistance to the migrant, the more likely he is to succeed.