THE NEW HEBRIDES.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXVIII, Issue 8103, 24 March 1906, Page 3

THE NEW HEBRIDES.

The subject of the New Hebrides was referred to by the Premier in the course of his speech at Levin. They found, he said, the British Government urging a protectorate as between France and Great Britain over thuse islands. At one time those islands were actually included in the colony of New Zealand, according to the latitude and longitude given, but speedily they corrected that and put the islands out of New Zealand's boundaries. He wished they had allowed them to remain. They were valuable islands, he believed, and within a very short distance of the colony. The agreement was almost completed, and he did not very well see bow the Government could recede fiom the positon. There were communications now between the self-govern ing colonies and the British Government ou the subject. He could not divulge what had transpired, but tnis he could say, that a long time ago a depsatch was sent from this country to the British Government. The New Zealand Government plainly and distinctly laid down what it believed to be the proper course for the British Government to follow. He said it would be better for them to concede some other islands to France, which should concede whatever rights she had in the New Hebrides, and allow them to be British, The New Zealand Government said that' if the British Gocernmenfc could not do that it would be better to let some of the islands be British and some French, rather than have friction between the two nations, with the prospect of Britain ultimately receding and handing over the whole of the islands to France.