THE POLYNESIAN PROJECT.

Otago Witness, Issue 1242, 18 September 1875, Page 18

THE POLYNESIAN PROJECT.

The LytteUon Times condemns the Polynesian project as "one of the maddest schemes of the day >, " but it would seem to be considered so, not becausa there la any doubt that it would be of great benefit to New Zealand by making her the centre of a vast Polynesian trade and group of Colonies, but because it proposes that she should undertake a great work, from which she would un-' cloubtedly derive bencat, instead of leaving it to be done by the Mother-oountry iv no other sense can the project o annexing these ialanda, if effected by means or any well-contrived system, be condemned in such sweeping terms The writer m our New Zealand contemporary can have profited little by his colonial experience, if he does not know that the past history of colonisation ' assures us that the settlement of these rich Pacino islands would be a great success ; that they would afford extensive openings for commerce in those seas, of the advantages of which New Zealand Would richly partake; and that they would offer homes to a very large number of British people. The annexation of Fiji must be con- -? mn / d - f " mad * f that of the other islands is to be so considered ' ' Oflpoiitfw to ft, y^

visional policy, upon which je did not in our previous article, nor-shall we in this, attempt to express an .opinion, seems to be at the bottom of the attack which onr* contemporary makes on us for speaking ' with favour of this particular item in his policy. — The Colonies.