South Canterbury Times. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 18,1884.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 3495, 18 June 1884, Page 2

South Canterbury Times. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 18,1884.

The letter of the Agents-General of the Australian colonies to the Secretary of State for' the colonies, Earl Derby, under date July 21, 1883, which was laid before the intercolonial Convention in Sydney at the end of last year, is a very notable document. It is at once a comprehensive historical sketch, and a masterly review of the position of the situation, and of the triple relationship of the colonies, the Pacific Islands, and the Imperial Government. From time to time the various Colonial Governments have suggested the expediency of the Imperial Government bringing the Eastern Pacific Islands under its protection. Their growing importance, their resources, and the probability of a profitable trade being opened up with the islands, not to speak of the obligation that seemed to rest upon a community professing Christianity to throw the xgis of its protection over these remote places, and to guard the simple savages from the incursions of the kidnapper—all these considerations weighed with the colonists in making their suggestions. Very little heed was paid to these individual representations, however, and it was not until the letter of July last reached Downing street, bearing the signatures of all the Agents-General, that the Imperial Government was given to understand that the ideas of the colonists were distinct and their wishes well-defined and strong, and that more vigorous action must be taken. It must not be supposed, however, that the Home authorities had been altogether idle or neglectful in this matter. The constant repetition of outrages in the Pacific had led to frequent interference, and to the employment of a number of smart warvessels among the islands, and, in 1875, to the creation of the office of High Commissioner of the Western Pacific, its centre of jurisdiction being fixed at Fiji. The protectorate thus assumed by the British Government was in no sense one of proprietorship ; the idea of sovereignty was carefully guarded against. But somehow or other the High Commissioner was unable to bring about that peacefulness which it was his special mission to restore. The fault lay in the limitation of his jurisdiction. He had no control over any but British subjects. Both natives and foreigners were altogether outside his control. The consequence was that the kidnapping of the islanders for labor purposes by foreigners went on uninterruptedly, with this serious consequence, that the natives in nearly all the islands, conceived an indiscriminate aversion to white men, and to this indiscriminate fury many excellent Englishmen fell victims. The continuance of this state of things is thus described by the Agents-General:—

“In November, 1880, Commander Bower, E.N., of H.M.S. Sandfly, with a boat’s crew, was put to death on a small island of the Solomon group under circumstances of much barbarity. The Governor of New South Wales reported to the Colonial Office that “ the atrocious murders lately committed by the South Sea Islanders has caused and were causing a very deep feeling of pain and indignation,” The newspapers teemed with accounts of these outrages: it was said that “ no week passed without the announcement of another massacre in the Islands.” The exasperation predicted by Sir Arthur Gordon as certain to occur, was becoming greater every day. Early in 1881, Lord Kimberley in a despatch to the High Commissioner deplored the “unusual number of outrages by natives upon white men which had recently been reported to the Colonial Office.” In the meanwhile stern reprisals had been resorted to. When the outrage took place at the island of Api in revenge for what had been done by the crow of a French vessel, the Commander had gone down in H.M.S. Wolverine and landed a party of 100 seamen and marines, who destroyed four of the villages implicated, and cut down the fruit plantations in their vicinity. And now, after the Sandfly outrage, the Commodore found it his duty to take oven severer measures. In December, 1880, he sent down Capt. Maxwell, E.N., in H.M.S. Emerald, to inflict punishment not only for the Sandfly murders, but for others that had been committed on crews of the vessels Hippie, Esporauza, Borealis, and Annie Brooks. The punishment was very severe. From bay to bay, from island to island,the villages were set in flames, the cocoa-nut and other fruit trees cut down, and the canoes destroyed. “ There was no more to bo done,” said Captain Maxwell, “in the way of hunting those wretched people. . . . . They have been hunted and worried till it will bo long before they settle again I regret that my whole voyage in these islands has'

been one of apparently ruthless destruction, but no other course has been possible.” Nor was this enough. A few months afterwards a still stronger stop was taken. Commodore Bruce, of H.M.S, Cormorant, was sent to the Florida Isles by the Commodore to bring the perpetrators of the Sandfly murders to justice. There ho issued a declaration that “ In consequence of an English officer and boat’s crew being murdered by Florida men, the Queen of England declared war with the whole tribes of Florida?, unless the actual murderers are given up in fourteen days”; adding that “in case of any other white man being killed in the Florida Isles, the whole of the chiefs would be held responsible, and the Florida Islands be considered to be at war with the Queen of England.” Bishop Selwyn, being then on the spot, humanely did all he could to save life. Writing to Commodore Bruce, he says: —“ I have acted as I have done, because you, sir, as the representative of tier Majesty, have declared war against all the people of these islands unless the murderers are given up. It appears to me to bo my duty to save the people from such a calamity, by using what influence I possess to induce them to comply with Her Majesty’s demands.” The Commodore “folly approved of the Cormorant’s action at the Floridas.” Thus it seemed that a naval officer, in reprisals for an outrage, might issue a “ declaration of war” against entire tribes in the Western Pacific, and that what he required must be considered as “ Her Majesty’s demands. Surely it was not this which could ever have been looked for as the outcome of the scheme of 1875 for the government of the Western Pacific.”

All sorts of remedies were suggested—among others, one by the High Commissioner himself, Sir Arthur Gordon, viz., a Commission representing England, France, Germany and the United States, which would be able to deal equally with kidnappers of every nationality, and thus remove from the natives all cause of complaint. The letter then goes on to point out the wealth and resources of the islands and the importance to the colonies of their being at once acquired by Great Britain, before other European powers obtained too firm a footing in the Pacific. This matter was of the more pressing importance in view of the legislation then contemplated by France, by which that power was seeking to rid herself of the convict element of her population in a wholesale manner by transporting them to the Pacific islands. And in addition to this it was evident that Germany contemplated colonising some of the islands. The Agents-General point out, in conclusion, that the only way of meeting the difficulties now daily arising, and of guarding against those which appear on the horizon, is for the Imperial Government to at once assume the protective sovereignty of the islands. We have given prominence to this interesting letter because it is worthy of perusal by everyone, it reflects the highest credit upon the writers, and it furnishes a very interesting page of the history of the present century.