THE SOUTHERN ARCHIPELAGO.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XIX, Issue 6422, 17 June 1882, Page 7

THE SOUTHERN ARCHIPELAGO.

The island-studded ocean on. the opposite side of the globe (observes the Tall Mull Gazette) is attracting more attention just now than it has done at any time since the days of Captain Cook. Colonists are diligently engaged in looking for the best method of tl developing the natural resources" of this vast and intricate archipelago. The opening of new lines of oceanic communication lias made mueli of it accessible to the luxurious and self-regard-ing traveller, who, oppressed with too much leisure, can 101 l at ease beneath the awnings of o commodious mail steamer, and jot down remarks for a forthcoming volume amid scenes which still recall vivid remembrances of early navigators. But the fertility and beauty of the islands have had, perhaps, of late rather more than their due share of attention. Their capabilities as fields for absorbing the superabundant energies of enterprising settlers, ami as links in tho cliain of communication which is to bind us more closely to the Antipodes, have bt?en eularged upon, if not sufficiently, at all events extensively. What they are to become has been foretold with some insistence. What is to become of tho3e who have hitherto dwelt in them has been more vaguely outlined. These are, it stated ill a general, indefinite way, to be civilised and converted ; but the result of civilisation and conversion ia not very distinctly put by those who propose to extand the blessings of both to all Polynesia and Melanesia. There are, however, materials available from which may be composed a picture that will display this result distinctly enough. Captain Moresby, in his book on New Guinea, tells us that "a flood of philanthropy lies ready in England and Australia to be poured out on these islands, 1 ' lying on the north and north-east Australian shores. The epithet flood," at first sight seemingly an iiuhappy, is an eminently correct one. The recipients of the philanthropic deluge, if there be any truth in statistics and recent history, will inevitably be swamped by it. With unconscious irony the gallant explorer of New Guinea gives us a few specimens of what such an outpouring as ho evidently desires lias already effected. 11 No single aboriginal inhabitant of Van Dieman's Land is alive today,"he observes ; " the natives of Australia are perishing fast, and will soon be extinct."