NEW CALEDONIA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 13969, 27 January 1909, Page 7

NEW CALEDONIA.

LOCAL SELF-GOVERNMENT. By Telegraph—Press Association.—Copyright. Sydney, January 26. News from Noumea states that a large meeting of residents resolved to demand local self-government. Political opinion aims at the abolition of the tariff and the opening up of trade with Australia.

While the cessation of transportation to New Caledonia was a very gratifying fact to Australia and New Zealand, it has been the means of getting that island into troublous times. There has been a corresponding diminution of expenditure, and that has reacted upon industries and commerce. The colonists have accordingly been stirred up to 'consider the whole question of the island's future. They naturally think that at all events, if France will not ensure the prosperity of the place by expenditure upon which much of its . prosperity has hitherto been based, the people themselves ought to be allowed to bring about a more naturally economic state of affairs. There 4 is retrenchment all round, but what is wanted is a new policy of general development, by which the capacity of the island would be mad© use of to the utmost. To do that, however, the people must have a freer political method. New Caledonia is stepping out of the convict period, in fact, and is in the economic crisis that such a change brings with it.