35

A.—4

Thus these two islands have come to be regarded by the few traders who did formerly resort to them as places where nothing is to be got. The natives, they say, " have become indolent, and won't work like they used to." This is a mistake. These two islands, poor as they may be at present from the traders' point of view, would constitute a veritable mine of wealth to any merchant of enterprise who would establish a settlement upon either of them. Thus, a European, acquainted with the language and habits of the natives, buys from them one of their detached islets; the trees upon it may produce, perhaps, 20 or 30 tons of kobra in the year. Whatever the quantity may be, he sells it ostensibly to the ship which is sent to visit him, at the price it is desired the natives shall adopt as their standard. They say, "It pays the white man, and so we should be satisfied; let us do the same as the white man." I have seen this plan tried elsewhere repeatedly, and never knew it to fail in the remote coral islands. A European domesticated among the natives, and exhibiting before them persistently an example which they perceive to be in any degree to their advantage, never fails to bring them round to his way of acting; and by such means, combined with the judicious exercise of a little liberality, the 800 or 900 inhabitants of Manihiki and Rakahanga could within a year be rendered, in fact, if not in appearance, the willing workmen of the merchants who purchased their produce, who in reality would exercise as much power as though they, and not the aborigines, were the veritable lords of the soil. This is what, in the nature of things, must inevitably come to pass upon all the productive islands of the coral seas, seeing that the utilization of their products is to the profit of Europeans. It follows, as an inevitable sequence, that, either by the decay of the indigenes, or by conquest or cajolery, these islands must sooner or later pass into the possession of Europeans. Into the consideration of this question there enters one very significant element. The islanders I am describing, together with the whole branch of the great copper-coloured Polynesian family, to which they belong, closely resemble, in every respect but ferocity and cannibalism, what the natives of New Zealand were. Their language is so far identical that they readily understand one another without the intervention of an interpreter. ' Their social customs are analogous; their traditions and habits of thinking are the same. They have but one ancient name whereby they distinguish themselves from the rest of humanity —Maori. Does it not, therefore, seem as though Providence had intended such at least of the islands of the Pacific as are inhabited by this race to be ultimately colonized by the British occupants of New Zealand, who enjoy in their adopted country such great facilities for familiarizing themselves with the habits and characteristics of this Maori race ? Certainly, it is a race the members of which, in spite of all the evil with which heathen ignorance and many ages of separation from the rest of mankind have clouded their nature, possess many qualities amiable" and worthy of preservation, and many of the elements of true usefulness. There are yet other reasons which ought to operate as an inducement to our countrymen to - take the initiative in systematically extending their commercial civilization, and what must accompany it as an indispensable necessity, the protection of their flag, to a very great number of the islands of the South Sea. Throughout such of them as are inhabited by the copper-coloured races, the name of Englishman (or Beretani, as they call it) is generally associated with friendship, enlightenment, and protection. It has happened, without doubt, that, in many places and in various manners, Englishmen, far removed from the restraint of law and not having the fear of God before their eyes, have set these islanders an evil example or inflicted upon them shameful injuries; but these instances have been very rare indeed when compared with the innumerable benefits which the natives have received at the hands of British merchants, missionaries, and naval officers. Consequently a feeling of gratitude and good-will towards us has become so general among them that the occasional evil deeds of a few lawless and unprincipled ruffians have not operated to dimmish it. The name of Englishman (which, of course, includes Americans) is associated in their minds with a feeling of familiarity and friendship; that of Frenchman (Tangata Napoleon) is to most of them a word of fear; and that of Spaniard is a word of intense hatred. This is so partly on account of the dangerous temper and disregard for human life displayed by seamen of Spanish race or extraction, of which the Islanders have ha"d repeated evidence, but it is more so on account of the treachery and violence of Peruvian shipmasters engaged in the labour traffic, the story of whose misdeeds has been carried from island to island; so that over the whole face of the Pacific, wherever the natives are sufficiently enlightened to distinguish by name one nationality of white men from another, the word Paniora (Spaniard) conveys a meaning which might be interpreted fiend, while Callao might be interpreted hell. Equally true it is that, when threatened with injury to their persons or property at the hands of civilized man, among at least nine tribes out of ten of the copper-coloured peoples of the South Pacific, the drift of their thought is that the Queen of England will in some way help or avenge them. There are some solitary islands in this vicinity, not upon the charts or otherwise wrongly placed, as Peregrino, about eighty miles south-east of Manihiki. It is in the form of a horse-shoe, presenting safe anchorage to the west. It is about nine miles in circuit, and has no inhabitants, but is covered with valuable timber. Roggewein Island, still further to the east, is small, appearing not more than four miles in circumference, but it may be very valuable, forasmuch as it seems to be covered with guano. It has the aspect of a great mound of sand, inhabited by immense flocks of sea birds. North-east of Manihiki 400 miles is Fararauga, or Penrhyn Island. It is about thirty-five miles in circuit, and contains a lagoon twelve miles long by eight miles broad. There are but few inhabitants now, the place having been almost entirely depopulated by Peruvian slavers, who carried away not less than 1,000 persons'«(probably more); the present inhabitants number about 150. It is one of the most famous pearl islands of the Pacific. There have been taken from it annually, for the last twelve years, certainly not less than 200 tons of pearl shell. It belongs to no one but the remnant of its aborigines, who must soon be extinct. Beche-de-mer is in vast abundance.

I.—The Islands generally: Mr. Sterndale.