Evening Post. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 1885. THE POSITION OF THE PACIFIC ISLANDS.

Evening Post, Volume XXX, Issue 58, 5 September 1885, Page 2

Evening Post. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 1885. THE POSITION OF THE PACIFIC ISLANDS.

It waa scarcely worth while to have appointed a Select Committee in order to arrive at the lame and impotent conclusion reported yesterday by what is known as the Pacific Islands Committee. After sitting for several weeks, and, we presume, taking a lot of evidence, documentary and otherwise, the Committee have arrived at the series of resolutions which will be found in our Parliamentary columns. It did not need the wisdom of a Committee to arrive at such very self-evident conclusions, and we cannot suppose that the report will present any new view of the case I to any of the statesmen or Governors to whom it is to be sent. The Committee have simply affirmed truisms. They have not in any way indicated how the objects, admitted on all hands to be desirable, are to be either advanced or accomplished. They do not show how the friendly concurrence of Germany and the United States is to be obtained in practically annexing' Fiji and Samoa to New Zealand, or how France can be induced to forego the claims it has most foolishly been allowed to establish on Bapa. Neither is there any possible suggestion offered as to how, if Germany and the States could be induced to assent to Samoa being brought into closer relations with New Zealand, and Fiji is to be annexed, this colony could possibly avoid serious pecuniary responsibility, we confess that we are seriously disappointed with the result of this Committee's work, as we had hoped that some practical suggestions would have been offered as to how more intimate trade, as well as political, relations could best be established between New Zealand and the islands. We believe that there is a germ of usefulness in Sir Julius Vooel's suggestions for the formation of a trading company under State guarantee, and that it is quite possible, without incurring any serious pecuniary responsibility, and at a very moderate cost, to attract and centre most of the island trade in New Zealand. The importance of doing this — the ultimate profit sure to be derived from any judicious expenditure in this direction— can scarcely be overrated. We regret that the Committee does not seem to have considered this branch of the subject, or has been unable to formulate any proposals iv that direction.