THE NEW HEBRIDES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2818, 18 March 1908, Page 16

THE NEW HEBRIDES.

PROTECTION OF BRITISH INTERESTS. INFLUENCE OF THE FRENCH. A vi6itor from the New Hebrides in the 1 person of Dr Bowie, a missionary of the 1 Presbyterian Church, who is in charge of ! the hospital on Ambrim Island, was quee- ' tione<l by a Daily Times reporter on the 6th concerning the convention which was signed on December 2. 1907, between the authorities of England and France respecting the trade of the group. This is what Dr Bowie said, in reply to a number , of questions: — J "The High Commissioner of Fiji told ' me early in December last that he had no ' doubt the future of the islands would be I commercially good. He intended, he said, j to do his utmost to get a line of steamers : to run between Fiji and the New Hebrides. 1 Fiji could take a. good doal of produce : from the islands, and vice versa. The new British Commissioner (Mr King) is very energetic, and a thorough business man, and immediately on his appointment to the New Hebrides took steps to prot«ct the natives from alcoholic liquors. He also took steps to regulate the labour traffic, so that British planters could be helped in opening up new plantations and in conducting their business in a rational way. A plantei may now recruit natives for himself in hie own vessel without signing a bond of £5, as was the case up to the 2nd of December last. When natives are recruited, in order to prevent the slightest trouble the planter must have them passed at the Residency. The native is there asked if he is working of his own free will, and if he has agreed to work for the specified time the trader mentions his name is put in the Residency books, and that native is cared for for the next threo voars or whatever the time may be. •V (ho cnA of the time the Resident, or hifc ')ft"ioinK. will «cc that thf native is naid. Thp French have agreed to carry

out the same regulations, bo that in future the Englishman will have as good a chance of getting labour as the French— a very different thing from what it was in former days. The future of the islands, if New Zealand and Australia be aggressive, ought to be good. The French are at the present time very much more aggressive than we are, and unless this country becomes alive to the serious position the New Hebrides is in the group will pass entirely over to France. But even to-day it is not too late to make an effort, and if it is carried out with vigour and with the ordinary British instinct there is no doubt there is a good future for British subjects in the New Hebrides. Copra, at the present time, is paying well. The planters are able to break out the forest with native help, and have to wait for seven years to get their first crop. In the meantime, however, they must depend on their produce to keep the pot boiling, and maize is the best thing, 6O far as they know, to make things pay and to keep the land in good condition for the j'oung trees. If we had a line of steamers to New Zealand they could supply a large amount of maize to this country. They could also supply copra for your soapworks, as well as coffee, and, by-and-bye, rubber. There is a kind of rubber indigenous to the group, and those who have now had rubber in for several years find that the plants are exceedingly healthy, with the prospect of a large product. " The New Zealand Government has asked for tenders for a line of steamers to visit the islands, but evidently the subsidy is so small that no company will undertake the work. At first it probably would not pay. But. with the prospect like that of the New Hebrides, why 6hould not this Governmnet subsidise a line of steamers? for, in the future, it is absolutely certain it would pay, and pay well. Santo would provide splendid sugar plantations, and at the present time there are quite a number of white men who have cocoanut plantations there and who are growing large quantities of corn and doing exceedingly well. The French residents, of course, are more aggressive than we are, and they believe that soon the E»roup will pass over to France. As British subjects, we are almost forced to the conclusion that it would be a calamity to Britain to give over the New Hebrides to the French, for not only is it a strategic point in a position near to Fiji and near to Queensland, but there is the value of the islands themselves. They are tropical islands that wi)4 grow anything that can possibly be- grown anywhere eke in the tropical belt. At present the French get a rebate of half duty pn their produce, besides getting cheap freights both to Noumea and to France. British subjects, on the other hand, only aret a rebate of duty up to £500. divided among all the settle^ which ia so little as to be not worth speaking about. If this Dominion would give a rebate of duty the British nlantations would go ahead and the British population would increase very fast, and even now the tide would turn in favour of Britain in the New Hebrides." WOLFE'S SCHNAPPS restores mental and physical vigour.