NEWS FROM NEW CALEDONIA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 9494, 25 April 1894, Page 5

NEWS FROM NEW CALEDONIA.

The Messageries steamer Australien arrived at Sydney from Noumea on the 17th inst., and brought the following items of news :— The proposed steamship line to connect New Caledonia with the San Francisco service, via Tahiti and Samoa, has not taken any definite shape yet in Noumea. A visit is expected of the chief inspector of the Messagories line, which will probably have an important bearing upon the outcome of the proposals that have been submitted. That both New Caledonia, Tahiti, and the Marquesas will combine to establish a steam service connecting with the present American route via Samoa, or that via Fiji, seems to be sure.

Speaking of the support that is now being accorded French undertakings in the Pacific, a report came to hand by the mail steamer Australien that a new company guaranteed by the French Government has been formed in Paris to provide funds to work the nickel mines in New Caledonia upon a scale hitherto unapproached. The ore is to be smelted in the colony instead of being shipped to Europe, and already retorts and furnaces are on their way out. This alone will give an enormous impetus to business in the colony. A new company takes takes over the entire French New Hebrides business, and is also tacitly accorded Government assistance. Coffee, copra, and bananas are to be cultivated on an extensive scale. Bona-fide emigrants will be introduced, and, as if the French had settled upon annexing the coveted little group that lies so close to their penal colony and adjacent islands now within the sphere of French influence, a subsidy will be granted to a New Caledonia-New Hebrides mail service. An item of news of interest outside of the immediate town of Noumea came by the Australien, namely, that the municipal government has arranged at home for funds wherewith to pay all outstanding claims against the municipality. The strong representations made to France to discontinue the transportation system have not led to any mitigation of the evil. Another shipload of 600 criminals was due at Noumea when the Australien sailed for Sydney on the 14th instant.