FANNING ISLAND.

Otago Witness, Issue 2809, 15 January 1908, Page 19

FANNING ISLAND.

LONDON, January b. . Confii-mation has been received of th« statement that Father Rongier, head o( the Marist Missions at Suva, purchase* f Fanning Island. j The Pacific Cable Board considers tha( it would be advantageous if Father Rongiej could send settlers to the island. • Our Wellington correspondent telec graphed yesterday: — I Mr Humphrey Berkeley, well known ia j connection with Fiji affaire, is in Welling^ j ton to-day. He lias come on bushiest connected with his estate on Fanning Isand. The sale of this island to Fathe? Rongier, he says, was only one. as agent< Some people read -into the sale an astute political move by France to secure poss, session of a place of some strategical im< portance, but nothing could be further, from fact than that bejief. The true position was that there had been litigation over thW island', and when the courts had ascertained the respective interests of the parties an(| given its judgment, Mr Berkeley put tha island up for sale. As he could not very) well be buyer and seller too he got Father; Rongier (an .intimate friend of his) to makrf the bid which secured the island for Mr Berkeley. There are large deposits ot phosphates of lime on Fanning Island, and! Mr Berkeley's visit to Wellington is partly? due to a -desire to establish contracts iw New ' Zealand for the supply -of ' the article} to wholesale houses here. He will leave; Wellington again in a few days, and after a short, stay at Sydney and Fanning Island he will go to England for a pr<*», longed stay.