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New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4166, 28 July 1874, Page 2

The assumption by the British Government of a formal protectorate over the Navigator Islands and the Tonga Archipelago, or the annexation of these with a view to their being dependencies upon New Zealand, would not be attended with the difficulties that beset the first settlements in either Australia or this Colony, traces of which still remain. New Zealand was colonised in the face of an opposition that it was known would be strenuous on the part of some tribes, and that would almost certainly culminate in bloodshed. The blacks in Australia were understood to be both savage and treacherous. The Natives of both the Navigator and Friendly isles would welcome British rule, and receive colonists with the utmost friendliness and hospitality. There need as to them be no apprehensions indulged of aNative war or difficulty. This is more than can be said of Fiji. Notwithstanding the fact that Europeans have traded so largely with that island, and have lived upon it for many years, the Mountaineers are a savage, cannibal, race. The isolated settler has to barricade his house every night, and sleep with fire-arms ready to his hand. And in taking over the Government of that island, the British Government will have to become responsible for the large debt contracted by the late Ministers of the King. But by the latest intelligence we are given to understand that it is still a matter of doubt whether the Imperial Government will trouble itself about Fiji. If annexation be desirable in respect to Fiji, it certainly seems even more so in the case of the two groups we have been alluding to. The Imperial Government would have everything to get by such an arrangement and nothing to lose. The people of the islands call themselves Maoris, and the New Zealand Government, which proposes to take the risk of dealing with them, has long been accustomed to deal with Maori questions. The most satisfactory way we have been able to find has been to open up the country by means of railways and roads, to cultivate it, and to show the Natives that their best policy is to borrow our peaceful implements and imitate our civilisation. We should only have to continue this policy in tho Navigator and Friendly Group; and we should do so under infinitely more favorable terms. There, land may bo readily acquired at a slight cost. The difficulty that besets a man here when ho takes a block of land on credit, is, how he should live till his first crop comes in ; but it is avoided there. The Natives are heard to say, “ we are not in want; why should wo work!” Their palm, breadfruit, and coooanut trees, which are always fruiting, find them with abundance of vegetable food, and the shores teem with fish that are easily caught. Of course, there is a tacit understanding that if the Navigator and Friendly groups should be placed under British protection, it is but an initial step towards the formation of a Polynesian Dominion. Although many of the islands are nominally under the protection of foreign powers, there are reasons for believing that this formal suzerainty would be readily abandoned. The publication in Sydney of the papers of Messrs. Seed and Sterndale would go far towards elucidating what has long been a mystery to many Australians. It has been remarked that the masters of a few schooners, who traded no one knew exactly where, nor in what, did become very wealthy men in a surprisingly short space of time. A pearl recently purchased for Her Majesty the Queen, at a price of about £6OOO, is believed to have come from an island in one of those groups. Mr. Sterndale bought one on behalf of a passenger, for a plug of tobacco, and a Sydney jeweller afterwards offered £25 for it. Another, that cost four fathoms of calico, was valued at £250. The agents of Messrs. Goddefroy shipped, in one parcel, pearls of tho value of 20,000 dollars, the produce of a few months’ collection in one island. From another island, which is now nearly depopulated in consequence of the visits of Peruvian slavers, there have been shipped on an average 200 tons of pearl shells annually during the past twelve years. But it is not pearl fishing that would bo the chief cause of attraction to these islands. Mr. Sterndale, who speaks from experience, estimates that a man working four or five days per week, would easily dry twent3 r -fivo tons of cobra in the year, which would be worth £2OO on the islands. This he considers handsome wages for a man who would want no capital to start with save an axe or two, a few biscuits, and pigs and poultry. His house he would readily construct of wood, and roof it with palm leaves. But it the islands were under British protection, and it is understood that tho Messrs. Goddefroy who experienced commercial reverses during the late war would favor this, mills for expressing the oil from the cobra might be built on the spot, and tho raw material might become more valuable, if it were nearer to a market. Also the cocoa nut groves would be properly planted and cultivated. Messrs. Goddefroy would find some competition in their business, but they would receive advantages that would compensate for this. At present the islands are tho resort of numerous men of a lawless character, who reside upon them because food is so easily obtained-, and they can live with their passions unrestrained. Possibly they are not always mischievous, but sometimes they are not desirable neighbors. Between the missionaries and the Messrs. Goddefroy there has been a standing feud. The agents of tho firm are instructed to use all their influence against tho missionaries. Tho reason for this is that these latter teach the people to demand payment for their goods in coin, and they objected to a depreciated currency introduced by the firm, which they did not care to accept in payment of their salaries. Because this base coin would only bo taken by the agents to tho firm, they monopolised tho sale of goods to tho simple islanders, and, of course, charged enormous profits. Tho firm, we presume, is quite acute enough to know that such a state of things could not long endure. If, as proposed, a company should bo formed with somewhat tho same objects as tho East India Company had at one stage of its history, there does not seem room for doubt that it would prove a very groat commercial success. Till coffee, tobacco, cotton, and sugar plantations, could bo worked on an extensive scale, there are tho cobra, becho-do-mer, and pearl fishing trades, in all of which there is scope for unlimited expansion. Be-

sides these there are the guano and timber trades to be developed. The company would acquire with facility very large estates at a very trifling rate. Also, at first, it would purchase produce for a nominal sum. Mr. Sterndale tells of the King of one Island giving 30,000 dried cocoanuts, worth on the Island £6O, for an old fourpound gun eaten through with rust, that had been put on the ship for ballast, and was worthless but as old iron. His Majesty also bought a quantity of gunpowder at the rate of five dollars per pound. Captain Hayes sold to the Huahine Islanders a nine-pound gun for 1000 dollars’ worth of cocoanuts and oranges ; and also swords, which had been purchased in Melbourne for half-a-crown each, at twenty dollars. Some Islands, fertile and beautiful, would be taken possession of, as they are now deserted, whilst, if under British protection, tho land on them would soon be worth 20s. per acre. There appears to be little difficulty experienced in getting abundance of labor at a mere trifling cost. Parties, under various leaders, are willing to hire themselves out beche-de-mer fishing, pearlfishing, and for other employments. They are found to carry out their agreements in the most honorable manner. Looking at these facts, the very great prosperity of a company would seem to be assured. But, after all, this is only a secondary consideration* in the project we have been discussing. Of course it should be viewed commercially as well as politi cally ■; but in the latter consists its importance. It aims to make New Zealand mistress of the trade in tho Southern ocean, and her ports the depots of the untold wealth that there is to' be extracted from the Islands of Polynesia, which possess such rich and varied natural resources, that are so easy of procuration. No country yet became rich and powerful by remaining simply bucolical. The cobra of the Islands should, to a considerable extent, be brought here and treated ; Sea Island cotton, grown in the South Seas, ought to be worked up in New* Zealand looms and factories, dyed, and returned to the islanders in calicoes and dress pieces of those gaudy colors they so highly esteem. Wo constantly hear it said that New Zealand is to be a great country, and here is the opportunity to urge on that greatness. The simple reiteration of a probable fact will do nothing towards its accomplishment. If this is to be an important country, the future must be anticipated, and steps taken to provide openings for the energies not only of the young people of this generation, but of the next. In their own simple way, these Islanders, conscious that they ought to be different to what they are, knowing that their fertile countries should be turned to better account, and sensible of the contrast between their own civilisation and that of Europeans, are saying “Come over and help us.” An influential chief told Mr. Seed, ‘ 1 There is no country we should like to take over Samoa equal to England. We know the English are just—an English protectorate would bo sweet.” Plainly, we have a duty to perform to these people ; and tho guarantee on the part of New Zealand to a company bringing six steamer's into the field, to trade directly between the Islands and this Colony, would be like backing the bill of a wealthy capitalist, who has a prospect before him of doing a business second to none in the world in lucrativeness. Of course there will bo opponents to the scheme, but, on what they can base their opposition we cannot see, unless it be tho greatness of the idea. As •we have pointed out, His Excellency the Governor considers it feasible, and surely he is an authority on such matters.