THE NEW GUINEA GRAB.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXVII, Issue 3437, 19 May 1898, Page 3

THE NEW GUINEA GRAB.

By Telegraph.—Press Association.—Copyright Brisbanh, May 18. Mr Byrne*, Premier of Queensland, strongly opposes the concessions granted to the New Guinea Syndicate. Under the New Guinea Act the Imperial authorities should have consulted the Queensland Executive in the matter, but it did not. VIOLENT DENUNCIATION. “ A PREPOSTE .;OU 5- GRAB.” Received May 18 7 p.m. Melbourne, May 18. The Age, in referring to what it characterises as the monopoly proposed to be created in New Guinea for a British land booming syndicate, says it is outrageous that the fate of Australia may be involved in what on the face of it appears to be merely a smart business deal. The paper strongly animadverts on the action of Sir 'William McGregor (Lieu-tenant-Governor of New Guinea) in refusing tho previous applications of Mr Theodore Bevan, the New Guinea explorer, on behalf of the Australis Development Syndicate. Then referring to the policy in favour of the mysterious British syndicate, the Ago severely condemns Mr Duncan Gillies (a Victorian ex-Premier) for joining the directorate of a company which proposes to exploit Australian territory, and accuses him of wanting to imitate Mr Cecil Eh odea in the Jameson raid. The paper urges the Premier (Sir George Turner) to lose no time in taking steps to have this preposterous grab defeated, or withdraw Victoria’s New Guinea subsidy.