PACIFIC ISLES.

Timaru Herald, Volume CI, Issue 15444, 5 September 1914, Page 15

PACIFIC ISLES.

CONSIDERING THEIR FUTURE. AX AUTHORITY'S OPINION. Press Association—By Tel.—Copyn^bK SIDNEY, Sopt. 4. Sir Everard im Thurn, formerly Governor of Fiji and High Commissioner' of the est cm Pacific, interviewed, said ho considered the confederation oi' certain British Islands 'in the Pacific having some relation to Australia or New Zealand, or both, must ccnie some day. It was becoming evident- that the islands lvere more easily managed from this part-of t-h e -- world than from Downing Street. London. Therefore they should bo allowed very largely to manage their own affairs under Australian or New Zea- I land control. It was certain that the islands that compose the cuter belt of Now Zealand territory could best bu controlled by New Zealand. The others geographically and eommercially wero appendages of Australia. He believed the time had arrived for a definite annexation of Tonga, espec.iaUv in v.cw of the taking of Samoa. The federation of Fiji, Samoa, and Tonga, with Australia or New Zealand suzer. j flinty, however, would be a better solnI t:on, and if the Imperial authorities came to this conclusion the responsibility of looking after the islands should be taken over by the Commonwealth and the Dominion combined, or each having control of separate spheres, the Commonwealth berng responsible- for, say, the islands of the Western Pacific and the Dominion those of the Eastern Pacific.