Ten Years of Empire.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume I, Issue 7, 25 June 1887, Page 2

Ten Years of Empire.

A bulky volume might be complied, says the Melbourne Age, on the subject of the S’ bject of the unknown possessions of England. It is always with a certain amount of shamefacedness tha. each successive Government—whatever party may be in power—is brought to confess that new territory has been annexed, or has hod protection extended over it. There are always extensive areas in a state of trans* ition, going through the process of con* version from a state of anarchy or semibarbarism to that of more peaceful organization as a constituent part or appanage of the British Empire, and information respecting such lands is not to be found in any of the statistical comp’lations issued by authority. If we turn to the abstract of the colonies and other possessions we find 1 that the list is precisely the same as it was ten years ago. and yet the Empire has grown enormously during that time. Without going so far back, it will be found that since 1880 the British North 1 Borneo charter has been issued; the 1 villayet of Sheik Othman in the neighbourhood of Aden purchased ; British Sherbro extended inland; the coast line between Sierra Leone and Liberia annexed j the New Guinea protectorate proclaimed i Quetta and Fishin declared to be possessions of the Crown; the Zohb valley conquered and brought under Indian control 1 Berber*, opposite to Aden, occupied, and the whole of the Somali coast, on the Gulf of Aden, round , Guardafui to Bas Hafoun, protected and S laced under the management of the Indian overnment | a protectorate over the town of Warn, and the riven of Forcudos, Esokdos, and Ramos established) this protectorate afterwards extended to the eastward over the two Calabars to the Bio del Bey and northward to the Bonny; Port Dunford and St. Lucia Bay annexed, and a protectorate over Pondoland declared; a large additional tract of Bruni ceded by the Sultan to the North Borneo Company 1 Port Hamilton purchased | Bechuanaland proclaimed • Crown colony, and a protectorate established over the territory on its northern boundary; the Maharajah of Johore created Sultan ana mediatized, being thus brought within ths rde of the native princes of India | the sne tion of all Burmah proclaimed 1 tbs jier> dec Islands annexed; a oharter granted to . . National African Company, conferring Sov-rcign rights over the whole ooum of the Niger and Bonny, the company at the same time receiving from the Sultan of Sookatoo * trading monopoly ; an agreement made with the Boon of the new republic for the partition ol Zululand ; Xesibeland ? annexed to Cape Colony and, last of all, the island of Socotra annexed. This is rather a lengthy list of transactions during the brief period of five years. The area of the territories named ii not far short of 1,000,000 square miles, and the population is about 20,000,000. Nor do these items exhaust the list that might be made. The Kingdom of Ashanti has been broken up, the stool at Kumasi having been vacant for two years, and the several chiefs having declared their independence, They will not again acknowledge a central authority unless the English take charge. No formal protectorate has been declared, exoep as far as the Prah, but circumstances are ripening for an extension of British authority towards the interior. It is not requisite to do anything, the influence now operation being sufficient to bring about the event, The coast of Africa to the south of Morocco is in the hands of a Britsh North African Company, who may reasonably expect a oharter in the course of time. An opening into Thibet has been effected through Sikkim, and a mission would have gone thither had it not been superseded by a treaty with China, providing for co-operation. .As Lassa is nearer Darjeeling than Pekin the preponderance of Indian influence w-Il follow as a matter of course, A mission has been located at Chitral, in Korfiristan, to the west of Kashmir, and the frontier of India may be expected to reacu toe I nir, or Roof of >e World. The fade. p‘ v nee of Nepaul and Lootan is merely norr The countries in tuis secor I list are, however, only inchoate possessions—chickens in toe s-? I—and must not j.-. ba counted.