PACIFIC ISLANDS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13926, 7 December 1908, Page 5

PACIFIC ISLANDS.

QUESTION OF OWNERSHIP. By Telegraph.— Association.—

Paris, December 4. A discussion has arisen in France regarding an official report that the British Consul at Tahiti (Mr. Simons) had granted an English company concessions to exploit Elizabeth or Henderson Island, and Ducie and Oneo Islands.

It is stated that Oneo, according to one map, is French, and according to another is a British possession.

The islands mentioned in the cable are all British possessions, the Union Jack having been hoisted on them about four years ago, by tho British Consul at Tahiti. They are mere atolls, uninhabited, and of little or no value to anyone unless they happen to contain phosphate deposits, which is no doubt what the concessionaires are after. The concession was secured by Mr. Banks and Mr. Watts, behind whom, it is believed, is a syndicate of English capitalists. Mr. Banks left Tahiti in a schooner a month or two ago, for Henderson and the other islands. There was,. at the time, some mystery as to the expedition, but from.what has since transpired there is very little doubt that its object is to ascertain whether or not phosphate deposits exist there, as has, on more than one occasion, been asserted.

Ducie Island lies about 850 miles west of Easter Island; Elizabeth, or Henderson Island, about 2i miles in width, is 190 miles west from Ducie Island; and Oneo Island is 65 miles north-west by north from Pitcairn.