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New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4161, 22 July 1874, Page 2

Papers relating to Polynesia, the publication of which has been anxiously awaited by the public, were placed on the Parliamentary table yesterday, and will be perused with interest by persona having access to theia. The fact will be gathered from them that the present Ministry has endeavored to give effect to a policy that has long been a favorite one in this Colony, of directing the South Sea trade to our ports. What may bo the result of this is as yet totally uncertain. Memoranda have been furnished to His Excellency the Governor, and by him forwarded to the Secretary of State for the Colonies, whose reply has to be received. Parliament, also, will wish to express an opinion upon so very important a subject ; and this will, we presume, be telegraphed to England, and have due weight with the Homo Government in the reply that has yet to be made. Whichever way we view the subject, it does seem of the very greatest importance. The issues involved in its settlement are not merely confined to the present time. We must look forward to a period in which, as the Premier remarked when making his Financial Statement yesterday, New Zealand shall be the home of many millions of men. If it be an agricultural country, as is calculated in the facilities afforded to immigrants to become freeholders, there must be a market looked for in which produce may be disposed of. Nothing is more certain than the fact that we cannot look to a profitable export of wheat to England, where usually the price is not greater than it is at present in this Colony. We must search nearer for an outlet. Nor is it only in respect to the natural produce of tho fields that this is to be said. Fay-seeing persons are ambitions that this Colony, which has sunh marvellous resources, should be converted into a great manufacturing centre. They think, and justly, that the products of New Zealand looms, factories, and workshops, should be exported to Polynesia, and that the return cargo of vessels engaged in the carrying trade should be raw materials brought from the islands which are so particularly adapted to the growth of them. Also it is desirable that these "roups of islands, of which their name may almost be said to be legion, should not bo under the control of any foreign power. It is a mission of the AngloSaxon race to colonize, and the material upon which to work is almost at the doors of New Zealand.

As far back as 1871 the subject had attracted the attention of the responsible Ministers of the Crown in this Colony. Then Mr. Fox, contemplating the California!! Mail Service, saw that it was important that the Navigator Group, and perhaps others, should, be placed under a British protectorate. In 1872 Mr. Vogel pointed out that there was a close alliance between chiefs of the Samoan Group and of the Fiji and the Hawaian Islands. In 1873 he was still more pronounced upon the policy of colonising and civilising Polynesia. There was, he submitted, much to be said in favor of leaving this work to the Australasian Colonies, more particularly to New Zealand, which aimed to be the Great Britain of the South, and possessed great experience in dealing with the Government of a mixed race. The form of Government likely to succeed in the extension of British Sovereignity in the Pacific, he did not, for obvious reasons, then indicate ; but he demonstrated the facilities possessed in this Colony for the attainment of so desirable an object. The matter was not allowed to rest, for in . March, 1874, we find several memoranda, carefully prepared by the Premier, elaborating a scheme that had been discussed in Council. In these Mr. Vogel was careful to intimate that he preferred to think of New Zealand as forming part of an empire on which the sun should never set, and which should own a navy that should be irresistible, in case of war in which the mother country might bo unhappily involved. Here we trace the statesman. The theory has been so often broached that in the event of general hostilities the Colonial dependencies would bo a source of weakness to England. The enemy might swoop upon some of the principal towns in Australasia, and either levy contributions that might be simply ruinous, or reduce them to ashes. This Colony possesses eminent facilities for shipbuilding. As has been recently statad, Auckland-built vessels are classed in the German Lloyd's. That the Colony is maritime almost follows tho incidence of its population, and its sea-girt condition. If independent, its policy would be, as Mr. Vogelj states, that of attaching in peaceful connection the islands of the Pacific. The British policy has been that of not assuming further responsibility in respect to the annexation of such islands ; but New Zealand is in a position to do much in this respoct, and thus advance interests that are Imperial quite as much as they may be local. By tho Colony following this course Mr. Vogel thought much benefit would accrue not only to itself, but to the British Empire. Whilst the Premier urged grand ideas, to which it would appear he had made so practical a man as His Excellency the Governor a convert, he was not careless of details. Sir James Fergusson wrote on April 13th of tho present year, that ho saw no considerable difficulty in the way of the Imperial Government undertaking the sovereignty or protectorate of Fiji, "the Lieutenant-Governor, Agent, or Resident, being under tho government-in-chief of the Governor of New Zealand." Mr. Vogel's idea of a political and commercial supremacy in the South Seas was that, a company should be formed after the manner of the old East India Company, New Zealand giving a guarantee of 5 per cent, interest for forty years upon one million sterling of capital. The objects of the company should bo to carry island produce to Now Zealand, and vice versa, royaltios to be paid ; tho establishment of factories in New Zealand, to utilize this produce ; afford encouragoment to the shipment of New Zealand manufactures, and productions ; and tho establishment of steam communication between tho ports of this Colony and tho Islands. This would prevent tho settlomorit of lawloss communities on tho islands ; dovclope the solf-govorning aptitude of the islanders ; encourage them to labor ; and gradually introduce an uniform Government organisation. Tho company would, as it matter of course, act as a land agent between the Natives and intending settlers. Much stress was placed in tho Ministerial memoranda, on tho bolicf that tho Maoris of this Colony are descondod from South Soa Islanders, and that thoy, as educated in tho many schools in tho Colony, would bo oxcellont intermediate agonts with tho South Sea Islanders. Tho trade winds between many of tho islands and this Colony are fair for botlrtho outward and homeward voyage And Auckland has long wantod a speciality, which tho South

Sea trade would give to her. No doubt, as a Prorince, she has had exceptional disadvantages to labor under. These would be removed, to a very great measure, if a South Soa trade were opened up. But it is for Parliament to decide upon the whole question. The second portion of the papers comprises some valuable reports upon the South Sea trade, to which we may refer at a subsequent period.