THE NEW HEBRIDES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIII, Issue 7659, 9 June 1886, Page 5

THE NEW HEBRIDES.

TELEGRAM FROM LORD CARRIEGTON. [by telegraph.—own correspondent.] Wellington, Tuesday. The Premier laid further papers respecting the New Hebrides on the table of the House this afternoon, but first he read a cablegram from Lord Carrington, Governor of New South Wales, as follows :—" 7th June. On receipt of the Comul's letter from New Caledonia I sent the Secretary of State for the Colonies the following telegram : —' The Consul at New Caledonia writes that the French man-of-war Dives left for New Hebrides on the 30th May, taking on board troops and provisions for three months, and put into fighting order. Supposed that their intention is to hoist the French national flag ; the senior officer of the Ordnance Department to prooeed to New Hebrides on the day after, with timber and corrugated iron for barracks. Entranoe to New Caledonia reported watched.' " EARL GRANVILLE'S POLICY. The papers contain communications from the Secretary of State for the Colonies to the Governor, and setting ont the cat* as put by the French Government as follows : —M. Waddington, the French Minister says (1) : New Caledonia has need of labour. The recidivistes can furnish a certain quantity. If this resource is cut off, the New Hebrides can only supply labour in sufficient quantity. (2) Tho Australians have no need of new territory, while they desire a guarantee against the infusion among them of foreign criminals. (3) For a great Power it is always a serious thing to divest itself of any portion of its sovereign rights, however small, and in consenting to this sacrifice, we make a great ooncesiion with a view of preserving and developing good relations between the Australians and our own(H'rench) colonies in the Pacific.

Upon this, Earl Gran villa remarks that the French must have a further supply of labour for their islands in the West Pacific, and for this purpose they must send out convicts, unless they can secure the necessary labour by acquirins tho New Hebrides. If the cession to France wore agreed to, France would not only abstain from sending forward convicts, but they would ceaie at once, and permanently, from sending conviots to the Western Pacific, a result of the highest importance to the colonists, and he adds this significant sentence :—" You will no doubt readily understand that in the event of Her Majesty's Government rejecting, at the in* stance of the Australian Governments, this offer, especially if the offer should be accompanied by tbe cession of Rapa, as desired by the New Zealand and New South Wales Governments, the position of Her Majesty's Government hereafter in pressing the objections of the colonies to the transportation of convicts would be much weakened. :> SIR F. WHITAKER'S PROPOSAL. In tho Legislative Council this afternoon Sir F. Whitaker gave notice of the following motion : " That it is time that the Australian States came to an understanding as to their interests in the Pacific; that their relations to the New Hebrides should be determined by treaty betweea France and Great Britain, with the following conditions: — That the New Hebrides should be ceded to France, the rights of religious denominations, especially those of the Presbyterian Church, to be protected, perfect freedom of trade and commerce, the rights of British subjects to protection equally with those of France, and that the island of Rapa should be ceded by France to Great Britain."