THE PACIFIC ITS PAST ©FUTURE »UY H. SGHOLEFIELO Ujornell Uttiuetsitij ffitbrary Sthata. JJero ^orfe BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME OF THE SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND THE GIFT OF HENRY W. SAGE 1891 Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924028638637 THE PACIFIC ITS PAST AND FUTURE THE PACIFIC ITS PAST AND FUTURE AND THE POLICY OF THE GREAT POWERS FROM THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY BY GUY H. SCHOLEFIELD B.Sc. (ECON.), LONDON BOWEN AND MACMILLAN BROWN PRIZEMAN, UNIVERSITY OF NEW ZEALAND ; AUTHOR OF " NEW ZEALAND IN EVOLUTION " WITH MAPS NEW YORK CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 597-599 FIFTH AVENUE I9I9- ,s TO MY WIFE CONTENTS INTRODUCTION . xi I. The Entry from Europe . . i II. Tahiti, the Missionary Kingdom . 5 III. Hawaii .... 32 IV. The Labour Traffic ... 5° V. The Story of Fiji ... -73 VI. Germany in the Pacific . 97 VII. The First New Guinea Incident . 108 VIII. The Partition of New Guinea . . .126 IX. Samoa to 1885 . . . 148 X. Samoa since 1885 ...... 162 XI. Spain and America . . 179 XII. The Canadian Outlook ... 187 XIII. The Protectorate of Tonga ... 197 XIV. New Zealand and its Dependencies . . 204 XV. Ocean Outposts . . . . . .211 XVI. The Pacific Cable . . . . .222 XVII. British Dominions and the Far East . .228 XVIII. The Labour Problem . 240 XIX. The New Hebrides . . 244 XX. The Recidiviste Question and the Condominium 255 XXI. A Review of Policy . . . .274 XXII. Suggestions for the Future . . . -304 Treaties and Conventions ... 313 Chronology . 329 Index ... 335 LIST OF MAPS Tahiti .... PAQE 5 Hawaii ..... 32 Fiji . . 73 Samoa .... 99 The Western Pacific to face 124 The Pacific Ocean , at end ABBREVIATIONS P.P. . . . f Parliamentary Papers. N.Z. . . . New Zealand. Aust. . . . Australia (Commonwealth). N.S.W. . . . New South Wales. Sen. Docs. . Senate Documents, United States of America. C. and Cd. . . Command Papers presented to the British Parliament. P.R.O. Public Record Office. INTRODUCTION This volume was intended to be a short history of British policy in the Padific, a policy which has been very little understood and very much misunderstood. But British policy is so much interwoven with that of the other great powers that the scope of the book was necessarily widened to embrace the whole subject. That the atmosphere of a great war is not the best for the historical treatment of questions in which more than one of the belligerents is involved, is evident from the common disposition on the part of recent writers to interpret the past policy of Germany in the light of what she has done since. It must be confessed, however, that German diplomacy in 1884 and in 1914 exhibits the same general character. Another -temptation which the author has endeavoured to resist is that of digressing into certain of the more interesting aspects of the subject in greater detail than the limits of the volume will permit. He can only hope that such engrossing economic problems as Asiatic emigration and the relationship of the two Far Eastern powers with Europe will be treated historically by some future student. As regards authorities, it is unfortunate that in the vast mass of interesting, and often able, material on the Pacific, that which comes from the heroic missionaries — Protestants and others — whose labours in the Pacific inspire so much admiration, has in many cases to be accepted with the caution due to partisan sources. Only selected works of this nature have been consulted. The Blue Books of Great Britain and the Colonies have been a most valuable source of information. As a general rule such sources are unimpeachable and conclusive, and on that account one cannot but regret the somewhat frequent occurrence, especially in the contentious period 1882-7, of the legend xii INTRODUCTION " Not Printed," indicating that certain despatches are with- held from publication. In these days it is customary to condemn secret diplomacy. But it is hard to avoid the suspicion that in the eighties of last century a certain measure of secret diplomacy was actually practised towards the colonies. It is scarcely possible to believe that the Blue Books of the time disclose to the colonies all that passed between tne Foreign Office and the Colonial Office. It is difficult to believe that two members of a Cabinet could have worked so utterly at cross purposes as Granville and Derby in 1884-5. And it is an interesting conjecture whether there is in existence to-day the machinery which will absolutely prevent a recurrence of transactions so prejudicial to the good relations of the Empire amongst its own parts. It only remains to express one's constant indebtedness to the classical work of Mr H. E. Egerton, Beit Professor of Colonial History at Oxford, and of Dr A. Berriedale Keith, of Edinburgh University (formerly of the Colonial Office), whose commentaries and documents on colonial history are invaluable. GUY H. SCHOLEFIELD. THE PACIFIC ITS PAST AND FUTURE CHAPTER I THE ENTRY FROM EUROPE Navigators by Cape Horn. — The gateway by which the European navigators came into the Pacific was for the most part the stormy one of Cape Horn. A few of them in the seventeenth century came from the west — Hartog, Pelsart and Tastnan from the Dutch Indies — but the great majority of the Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, French, and English seafarers who followed each other in successive waves came by the eastern gate past the sentry-post of the Falkland Islands. At the beginning of the eighteenth century the only European colonies actually in the Pacific were the Spanish possessions in the Philippines and the Carolines — colonies outplanted with splendid adventure over so many leagues of ocean by the Catholic viceroys of Mexico and Peru. We shall see later how little influence they exercised on Pacific policy in our time. The early policy of the European powers in the Pacific was conditioned more by the routes of the Christian missionaries than by anything else. When the London Missionary Society sent forth its apostles in the pioneer ship Duff in 1796, it chose the route at once the most direct and, from the writings of Cook, the most familiar. The great navigator's picttire of the Society Islands and other Polynesian groups appealed to the missionary spirit of the time, and the Duff made straight for these simple and attractive peoples and their benevolent climes. The settle- ment of these missionaries in Tahiti profoundly affected for fifty years to come the Pacific policy of Great Britain and France. With Christianity civilisation and order were 2 THE ENTRY FROM EUROPE introduced, so that in a few decades there were in Polynesia several quasi-civilised kingdoms — Tahiti, Hawaii, and Tonga — enjoying a measure of international recognition, and manag- ing their own affairs with a good deal of success. They were strong centres of English influence, but they remained outside the British Empire, partly because the missionaries desired to perpetuate a regime under which they were the virtual rulers, and partly because England declined to accept the proffered sovereignty over them. Geographical Spheres. — The eastern half of the Pacific, to a distance of about 5000 miles from the coast of America, is practically devoid of islands. Almost the whole of the islands and the native population are to the westward of the 140th meridian of west longitude and most are to the southward of the equator. What are known as the Line Islands are of minor importance, and the groups to the northward — the Carolines, Marshalls, and Marianne Islands — have not played a very prominent part The vast majority of the islands which figure in the history of European colonisation in the Pacific are within 2000 miles of the coasts of Australia and New Zealand. The more easterly of these, between the equator and 30 deg. S. lat. and between 135 deg. and 180 deg. W. long, constitute the Polynesian Archipelago, and are inhabited by the pleasant-mannered but naturally warlike race of whom the Maori of New Zealand, the Hawaiians, the Tahitians, the Tongans, and the Samoans are the best known branches. In Fiji the Polynesians blend with the more savage Melanesians, whose zone extends westward through all the islands to the Australian coast, and northwards of the equator. The northern part of Melanesia is sometimes called Micronesia. The whalers and traders coming into the Pacific in the early days frequented particularly the eastern groups, whose economic significance otherwise was limited. They were outposts which were to come into prominence at a later stage of history — Hawaii when Japan rose to power and the United States developed interests in Asia ; Tahiti and Tonga when the Panama Canal laid new steam lanes across the Pacific from the Atlantic to Australia, New Zealand, and the East During the first half of the nineteenth century the Pacific slope of North America was unsettled, and had neither population nor trade. The American missionaries who civilised Hawaii actually came to those islands from the eastern states by way of Cape Horn. But it was in one of these eastern groups, Tahiti, that a native regime under ORIENTATION TO THE WEST 3 the influence of English Protestants, by opposing the intrusion of Roman Catholic priests, produced for England her first Pacific complication — with France. Settlement in the Western Pacific. — While these interesting experiments in civilisation and native polity were working themselves out in the comparative isolation of the eastern zone, the inexorable processes of economy were busy in the western. In founding a penal settlement at Botany Bay in 1788 England had no intention whatever of colonising the continent of Australia. Her object was merely to establish a prison for incorrigibles as far from Europe as possible. The last two Georges and King William politely declined the picturesque offers of sovereignty which were made to them by chiefs all over the Pacific. They heard with unfeigned annoyance of the colonising activities of the French, by which they were compelled to enter, now here and now there, the caveat of their own British sovereignty. With overt impatience they witnessed the colonising impulses of their own people, who demanded homes and lands and ordered government in the wide ranges and temperate airs of Australia and New Zealand. But the free settlers insisted. White communities grew up and expanded all round the coasts of Australia and on the beaches of New Zealand. The authority of the British Navy was constantly invoked to protect or to control. The only actuating motive which the Government would admit was that of police ; the only negative motive, jealousy of France. So it was that in spite of the British Government, real settlement flourished in Australia and New Zealand, and reluctantly British sovereignty had to be made complete over both countries. A Western Orientation. — The scarcity of labour in Australia and Fiji soon led to the invasion of the neighbouring archipelagos in search of coolies {kanakas) ; and from this resulted an entirely new orientation of policy in the Pacific. The importance of the eastern zone and its problems waned, while those of the western grew and became more engrossing. Having entered the field as a mere expedient, Great Britain now, under missionary motives, first assumed the protector- ship of the natives and the police of the seas, and eventually was compelled to provide her whole jurisdiction. Long before the missionary spirit had lost its driving power, the constructive prescience of the Australians and New Zealanders, filled with anxiety for their own social welfare, made new problems for England, with Germany in New 4 THE ENTRY FROM EUROPE Guinea and Samoa, and with France in the New Hebrides. Yet historically the eastern Pacific takes precedence of the western. Towards the middle of the century there was a strong belief in official circles that the commerce between Australia and the Far East would soon attain considerable proportions, and in view of this steps were taken by the Admiralty and by several Australian governments, first to survey and afterwards to defend the passages of Torres Straits. The expectation grew out of the circumstance that sailing ships taking cargoes and passengers from England to Australia were in the habit of proceeding thence to China and the East Indies for home cargoes. At the same time the vessels of the East India Company were constantly under- taking exploring voyages through the Moluccas, and out into the Pacific. But the promise of a close intercourse from north to south was not fulfilled, and even to-day the channels of the East Indian archipelago are not the most frequented routes of the Pacific. CHAPTER II TAHITI, THE MISSIONARY KINGDOM Discovery and Missionary Settlement. — Tahiti is one of the most interesting studies in government in the Pacific. In its earlier stage it was a shining example of successful missionary government ; in its later a deplorable illustration of British reluctance towards colonisation, involving the / '■ 'fsiBoraborcu jtaiateas ISO I Miles 50 .TdkUuroa,- TubuuiMuiuv MoartaSO 152* W. of Greenwich £■£< ■yrt&r \"J-' /W abandonment not merely of material interests, but also of a healthy seat of British influence and culture. Tahiti was discovered by H.M.S. Dolphin in 1767, when Captain Wallis hoisted the flag and took possession in the name of King George III. According to Wallis's account Queen Beria ceded her kingdom to England and he hoisted the flag at Matavai Bay on 23rd June, naming the island " King George the Third's Island." A few years later it was selected by the Royal Society as the point from which Cook should observe the transit of Venus. The great navigator visited the group on each of his three voyages. B 6 TAHITI, THE MISSIONARY KINGDOM He called the fertile and hospitable islands after the Royal Society, and his descriptions did much to capture the imagination of English people at the end of the eighteenth century. The effect was heightened by the appearance in England of his protege, the young Tahitian chief, Omai. Tyerman and Bennet tell us in their journals 1 that Roman Catholic missionaries came to Tahiti from Peru before 1797, but after several years' persevering labour despaired of the native character and abandoned the field. The London Missionary Society was founded in 1795, and it was on the recommendation of Dr Haweis (rector of All Saints', Aldwinkle, and chaplain to the Countess of Huntingdon), that it decided to commence its work in the South Seas. On 10th August 1796 the ship Duff hoisted the mission flag — three white doves with olive branches on a purple field — and sailed from Blackwall. 2 She reached the South Seas early in 1797, and planted missions at Tahiti, the Friendly Islands, and the Marquesas. The missionaries were well received by the old king, Pomare, and his wife Idia ; and by their own virtues and the influence which the crafts of their skilled artisans gained for them amongst the natives, they were soon firmly established. In 1809, however, as the result of civil war, they retired from the group, with the exception of two missionaries. In 1812 the directors had almost decided to retire altogether, when the new Pomare, the old king's son, came voluntarily to Moorea and asked to be baptised. The same year the rebels in Tahiti invited him to return to his kingdom; and in 1815 the native idols on Moorea were spontaneously destroyed by their own people. Raiatea followed in the same year; and thenceforward English civilisation and Christianity spread rapidly through this and neighbour- ing groups, for it was the avowed object of the Society to spread civilised arts and crafts as a medium of promoting Christianity. Government by Missionaries. — In his Missionary Enterprise in the South Seas, John Williams discusses in an interesting fashion the ethics of missionary interference with the civil life of native races. At the time when he wrote (1837) they had already been charged with assuming almost regal authority in Tahiti. This he stoutly 1 Journals and Travels of the Rev. D. Tyerman and Mr G. Bennet 1831. . ' 8 The Story of the L.M.S., by the Rev. C. Silvester Home, 1895- 1819] BENEVOLENT MISSIONARY RULE 7 denies, while admitting frankly that a missionary who brings civilisation with him as the English Protestants did to the South Seas, cannot fail to be an adviser. " There are circumstances," he writes, "where he must step out of his ordinary course and appear more prominent than he would wish, for frequently a word from the missionary, rightly timed, will do more towards settling a dispute, healing a breach, burying an animosity or carrying a useful plan into execution than a whole year's cajoling of the natives them- selves would have effected." Commodore Wilkes, of the United States Navy, who visited Tahiti in 1839, says the missionaries then undoubtedly had great influence over the natives. " But I am satisfied," he adds, "that they are justly entitled to it. Indeed, I cannot but consider it as part of their duty, nay, the great object of their mission, to acquire and exercise a salutary control over their converts, both of high and low degree. My own observations satisfied me that this control is exerted solely for the purpose of fulfilling the laudable object for which they were sent. . . . We may, perhaps, lament their intolerance towards other sects, but no one can visit the island without perceiving on every side the most positive evidence of the great benefits they have already bestowed and are daily bestowing upon the inhabitants." 1 Darwin reached the Pacific in 1835 under the influence of a rumour that the Tahitians had become a gloomy race, living in fear of the missionaries. 2 But of the truth of this he found no sign. On the contrary the Tahitians were un- ashamed of their Christianity, merry and happy. The wars which had been chronic during the heathen regime were a memory of the past. The Code of 1819. — Having adopted Christianity, the Tahitians naturally looked to their teachers for advice in instituting civil government on European models. "The missionaries invariably told them," says Mr Ellis, "that it was no part of their original design to attempt any change in their political and civil institutions as such ; that these matters belonged to the chiefs and governors of the people, and not to the teachers of the religion of Jesus Christ." 3 However, they eventually promised to give the chiefs such assistance as they could in the preparation of a code of laws 1 Narrative of the U.S. Exploring Expedition, by Charles Wilkes, 1841;. * Journal of a Voyage Round the World, by Charles Darwin, 1845. 3 Polynesian Researches, by William Ellis, 1859. 8 TAHITI, THE MISSIONARY KINGDOM and constitution of government, "but were exceedingly- anxious that it should be the production of the king and chiefs, and not of themselves." The first code of laws in the islands was that enacted in Tahiti in 1819 and promulgated in May at the opening of the Royal Mission Chapel. Owing to the king's rather autocratic manner and his jealousy of the chiefs, this code of eighteen articles was not quite what the missionaries desired, especially in regard to the limitations of a constitutional sovereign. But for the times and the people it was an excellent beginning. A year later, in May 1820, the neighbouring island of Raiatea adopted a code — an improve- ment on that of Tahiti — and this was adopted also for Tahaa, Borabora, and Maupiti. It included, at the instigation of the missionaries, the English system of trial by jury. Within another year Huahine had adopted the principles of the Raiatea laws as a basis for its own code, and here again the missionaries were asked to draft the laws. This code was promulgated in 1822 ; the Tahitian code was revised in 1824 and that of Huahine in 1826. Ellis leaves no room for doubt that all the codes were of missionary origin, and further that their promulgation greatly enhanced the influence of the missionaries. The first act of policy by Great Britain towards Tahiti was possibly the concession of George IV. in 1821, when he remitted the customs duties on a cargo of South Sea produce contributed by Christian natives for the benefit of the funds of the London Missionary Society. 1 Law and Society. — By 1822 the missionaries had really affected a considerable social improvement amongst the Tahitians. In May of that year the captain of the French corvette La Coquille appeared much surprised and delighted with the state of things, as compared with what he had expected from the writings of Cook, Bougainville, and other early visitors. Only a week earlier the annual missionary meeting was held at Huahine, and on the following day the missionaries presided when "the revised code of laws, , corresponding in most respects with those adopted in the adjacent islands, was read and adopted after due discussion." The deputation of the London Missionary Society gives a picture of the gathering of the, chiefs and delegates at Matavai on 23rd February 1824, in a forma] parliament of the Windward Isles to discuss and settle the laws. " The 1 Narrative of Missionary Enterprises in the South Seas, by John Williams. 18J4] THE BIRTH OF CONSTITUTIONS 9 constitution of the islands," they write, " provided that the parliament shall consist of one house, wherein each person shall have one vote. The members were adult male branches of the royal family and of the principal chiefs — these being hereditary legislators; to which as popular representatives were added two of their own body out of the adult male inhabitants of each mataaina, or district, appointed by themselves." 1 The code contained about forty articles dealing with social order, public welfare, and rights of property. Trial by a jury of six peers followed the principle of British justice, and punishments for Sabbath-breaking illustrated the missionary influence of the parliament. For the same reason there was no punishment by death, and banishment was the expiation for murder. A quite separate source of South Sea Island law was the harbour regulations proposed from time to time by the captains of British and American warships. The primary object was to facilitate victualling and refitting, to provide pilotage, and to check desertion. The regulations for Huahine, proposed by H.M.S. Satellite in 1829, are especially interesting, inasmuch as they record the presentation of a flag — three horizontal bars, red, white, and red — to the Georgian and Society Islands. This was another measure of recognition by Great Britain. 2 On 21st April 1824, King Pomare III. was duly crowned at Papaoa. Only four years of age, the young sovereign was robed for the ceremony in the house of a missionary. Missionaries with judges walked at the head of the procession carrying a large Bible. The ceremony was conducted by a missionary, who handed the code of laws to the young king, explaining " the importance and advantage of being governed by just laws." 8 In 1823 the Russian frigate the Cruiser, which had already visited Tahiti in 1820, again made her appearance. In enter- taining the queen the commander hoisted a Tahitian flag and persuaded the natives to return the compliment by raising the Russian flag ashore. But they were shrewd enough, with their missionary advisers, not to do so. Early the following year the intrepid Kotzebue visited the group, and incidentally discussed with the leading missionaries the relations between Tahiti and England. Pomare seeks British Protection. — In 1825 Queen Pomare petitioned England for protection, for already the 1 Tyerman and Bennet, vol. ii. i Ellis Researches, vol. iii. ' Report of the Windward Division of the Tahitian Mission, 1 824. 20 TAHITI, THE MISSIONARY KINGDOM first faint menaces of European invaders began to be felt. " We wish you to be our friend," she wrote, in a letter which the missionary Henry Nott handed personally to the Foreign Office, "and for you to protect us. Let not our land be molested by British subjects now or' at any future time ; and should we be invaded by any others do you then defend us. Should it be agreeable to you to grant this petition we then wish to use the English flag. If we hoist the British flag we are in fear, and if we hoist our own flag we are also in fear lest we should be invaded from some other country. Another petition also is that you will never abandon us but regard us with kindness for ever." Fully occupied with European affairs and reluctant to add to his responsibilities elsewhere, Canning replied that while King George " feels every disposition to comply with your wish as far as he can do so with propriety, he regrets that consistently with the usages established among the nations of Europe it would be improper to grant the per- mission you solicit to use the British flag." His Majesty would, however, be glad to extend to the queen and her people "all such protection as His Majesty can grant to a friendly power at so remote a distance from his own kingdoms." King George congratulated the queen on the great moral and social advancement of her realm consequent on the introduction of Christianity. 1 The Incident of the Catholic Missionaries. — In November 1836 the schooner William Hamilton arrived at Tahiti with two Catholic priests, Laval and Carret, and a carpenter of the same faith. They were the harbingers of the new Vicar-Apostolic of Oceania, and had been residing for some time in the Gambier Islands, with the object of mastering the Polynesian language, as the first step towards the spiritual conquest of the Pacific. According to a port regulation, passengers could not be landed without per- mission having first been obtained. In this case permission' was not applied for, but a few days after landing the priests, with the American consul, waited in person on the queen and tendered the amount of the fine incurred. The money was refused and the offenders were informed they could not remain in the island. They were determined to remain until the arrival of a French man-of-war, but as there were signs of a disaffected party forming about them, they were jplaced on board a ship by Tahitian constables and compelled to depart 1 P.P. 1843, Ixi., Tahiti. ieee] APPEAL TO ENGLAND 11 On the arrival of H M.S. Actaeon a few weeks later, the incident was reported to Captain Lord Edward Russell, who was understood to have approved the queen's action. Shortly afterwards Laval and another priest made a fresh attempt to land from an American vessel, applying for permission in the regular manner. But in view of what had previously happened permission was refused, and constables prevented the priests from landing. 1 De Thierry, the French adventurer, visited Tahiti in July 1835, en route from Panama to New Zealand with his wife and family, a military retinue, arms and ammunition. 2 An Appeal to Palmerston. — Foreseeing trouble from the rejection of the French missionaries, the English consul- missionary Pritchard wrote to Lord Palmerston (19th November 1836) a letter which throws a flood of light on the difficulties which were already confronting the little kingdom. ''Her Majesty is anxrous to know," he asked, "whether the British or any other government can compel Her Majesty to receive any body of foreigners that may be disposed to settle in her dominions. Tahiti is acknowledged by the British Government as an independent nation, hence she hoists her own flag. If she be considered as an independent nation, has she any power to enact laws for her own government so long as those do not interfere with, nor are contrary to, the laws of nations? . . . At present there are several Frenchmen who are determined to land and reside on this island as Roman Catholic missionaries." 3 This was the beginning of a long and fierce controversy which only ended with the annexation of Tahiti by France. That it was dictated, from the Tahitian point of view, by the missionary interest, is even more obvious from the diction of the letter from Queen Pomare V., uhich the consul enclosed. The Roman Catholics, as stated, had claimed to have the sanction of the British Government for entering Tahiti, and the queen asked : " Is it suitable that they should come here and disturb the peace of my government? It is by no means agreeable to us to receive these Roman Catholic missionaries. We have a sufficient quantity of teachers in our land. We agree well with them ; they do not trouble us. We conceive these Roman Catholic missionaries have nothing to do with our island, and hence we are determined not to receive them." 1 Polynesian Reminiscences, by W. T. Pritchard. 3 Memoirs of the Life and Gospel Labours of Daniel Wheeler, 1843, 1 P.P. 1843, lxi., No. 473. 12 TAHITI, THE MISSIONARY KINGDOM Lord Palmerston replied that so far from haying sanctioned the invasion of the Roman Catholic missionaries, the British Government had no knowledge of them whatever. " Neither would the Government of this country have any right to give or to withhold their sanction to the residence of the subjects of any other nation in territories which do not appertain to Great Britain. Of course every govern- ment has a right to refuse any foreigners permission to reside within its dominions if the presence of such foreigners is considered hurtful to the state ; but if no such reason exists for requiring foreigners to depart, it is contrary to the usual rules of international hospitality to force them to leave a country in which they may wish to take up their abode, provided they do not infringe the laws of the land." 1 Intervention of French Warships. — While Palmerston was thus teaching ethics at a distance, events were moving fast in the South Seas. The opposition shown to Roman Catholics in more than one group had come to the notice of the royal government, and Louis Philippe saw in it an excellent means of gaining popularity with a section of his people. The visible hand of the English missionaries in the agitation gave an added zest to his action, for France had fully recovered her pride from the degradation imposed by the Holy Alliance, and was again a vigorous rival to her great maritime neighbour. Henceforth, under Louis's orders, the French naval commanders in the Pacific showed an aggressive zeal in defence of the Catholic missions. In Hawaii, in Tahiti, in New Zealand, wherever the field was already occupied by Protestants, incidents were precipitated which gave rise to a deal of uneasiness in missionary and political circles in England. Bishop Pompallier, the first Vicar- Apostolic of Western Oceania, states that though the Catholic priests had been expelled from Tahiti in 1836 he did not hesitate on arriving there in September of the following year to wait upon the queen, and " all the royal family and the ministers, excepting the queen herself, came on board to visit me. They were well received and returned content." The bishop was given permission to walk ashore, and he celebrated Mass and held a christening. In entering upon his episcopate he decided not to settle missionaries on islands where Protestants were already established, owing to the obvious advantages possessed by those who knew the language and customs of 1 P.P. 1843, Ixi-, No. 473- 1838] DEMANDS OF THE FRENCH IS the Islanders. 1 But in a few years, as we shall see, the claims of the Catholics to toleration even in wholly Protestant islands were enforced by the guns of the French Navy. Dr Karl Scherzer, of the Austrian frigate Novara, candidly admits that Christianity had been established in Tahiti for thirty-nine years with excellent results before the first Roman Catholic appeared. The Association of Picpus was founded in Paris in 1S14, and in 1833 one of its priests, Etienne Rouchouse, was appointed Vicar-Apostolic of Eastern Oceania, with the title of Bishop of Nelopolis in partibus. That same year five priests left for Valparaiso, hoping to forestall the Protestants in many of the islands, and finally " that all whom heresy has led astray and brought under its iron yoke may be freely brought under the mild and gentle yoke of the Catholic doctrine." 2 The Ultimatum of Dupetit Thouars. — On 30th August 1838 the French frigate Venus, Commodore Dupetit Thouars, came to anchor at Tahiti, and on the following day a letter in the form of an ultimatum was addressed to Queen Pomare. According to the narrative of the consul, the frigate assumed a hostile appearance and the natives were much alarmed. The queen wrote begging for time to comply with the commodore's demands and to make an explanation. But it was made clear to Mr Pritchard, who acted as mediator, that " the only alternative to devastation and death was to comply with the demands." The chiefs could not possibly assemble in time to come to a decision, and it was clear Dupetit Thouars in- tended to carry out his threat. Consequently Mr Pritchard (the missionary-consul) and two or three other Englishmen subscribed the amount demanded and paid it "into the hands of the cashier of the frigate on behalf of Queen Pomare." Meanwhile the corvettes Astrolabe and Zelee had arrived and the Heroine was expected, and under the influence of this great show of force the queen and her chiefs agreed to a treaty with the French. What Dupetit Thouars actually demanded on behalf of the King of the French was an apology in French and Tahitian within twenty-four hours, an indemnity of 2000 Spanish dollars for "the bad and cruel treatment which some of his priests who had come to Otaheite had suffered," 1 Early History of the Catholic Church in Oceania, by Bishop Pompallier, i.-SS. 2 Annates de la Propagation de la Foi, No. xlL, p. 31. 14 TAHITI, THE MISSIONARY KINGDOM and a salute of twenty-one guns to the French flag at Motu-uta. Tahiti having neither guns nor powder, the gallant commodore lent both to the British consul, and by this vicarious arrangement the French flag was duly saluted on ist September. On the 5th M. Moerenhout, who was a Belgian by birth and as United States consul had become rather obnoxious to the queen and her chiefs, was presented by M. Dupetit Thouars as consul for France. Pomare objected, but the appointment was persisted in and was finally accepted. The Franco-Tahitian Treaty of 1838. — The next step was to demand of the queen the conclusion of a treaty of friendship and reciprocal freedom for nationals. Pomare objected that as her people were all Protestants she did not desire the Roman Catholic doctrines to be taught at all. To this Dupetit Thouars replied that as Frenchmen all priests must receive full protection under the Tahitian Government, but that at the same time it was " competent to Her Majesty to enact a law forbidding the teaching of the doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church in her dominions." In the event Dupetit Thouars concluded a formal treaty, to which the only objection that could be urged was that it was signed under duress. " II y aura paix perpetuelle et amitid entre les Francais et les habitans d'Otaiti. Les Francais, quelle que soit leur profession, pourront aller et venir librement, s'etablir et commercer dans toutes les lies qui composent le gouvernement d'Otaiti : ils y seront regus et proteges comme les Strangers les plus favorisds. Les sujets de la Reine d'Otaiti pourront £galement venir en France : ils y seront re£us et proteges comme les Strangers les plus favoris^s. Fait et arrets au Palais de la Reine d'Otaiti a Papeiti, le 4 Septembre 1838 (5 September style Otaitien)." These formalities having been carried through, Dupetit Thouars proffered sundry courtesies before sailing away, but the only gift the queen accepted personally was a barrel organ. For family reasons she could not dine aboard the frigate, and this invitation the English consul accepted in her stead. A fair and impartial criticism of the whole dispute is contained in Commodore Wilkes's narrative : — " It is difficult to say which was most in the wrong. The Protestant religion was established by law upon the island to the 1838] TREATY WITH FRANCE 15 exclusion of all others, and this the priests well knew ; nor can any but zealots excuse their intrusion upon a missionary ground already fully and successfully occupied. On the other hand their precipitate expulsion, under circumstances of great hardship, exhibited an. unchristian spirit, for which the resident missionaries may justly be held responsible, as they unquestionably had it in their power to prevent any positive ill-treatment on the part of the natives." As for the action of the French naval authorities, Wilkes did not hesitate to express his opinion freely. It was " high- handed and hardly admits of justification. The French commander appears in thus bullying a defenceless people into payment of an exorbitant indemnity and into a relinquishment of the right of admitting or excluding foreigners and strange religious creeds by municipal regula- tion in a light far from advantageous." 1 An Appeal to England. — The perilous state of Tahitian independence being now apparent, the queen and her chiefs drew up a petition to Queen Victoria (8th November 1838) praying her to make good the veiled promises of protection previously received from the British Crown : — "Accustomed from childhood," the petition stated, "to cherish the English name, we are following the impulse of our own hearts. Since the first Englishman neared our shores in one of your vessels we have praised you as the only nation which showed us a Christian heart. And now may you lend us a Christian hand. The blessings of your religion, which through your pious exertions you taught us to follow, opened to us two new entrances to two new worlds unknown heretofore to our people. With the assistance of Jesus Christ and the paternal care of the missionaries we may hope to secure one of these worlds; but the other into which civilisation leads us now begins to embitter our lives, and will ultimately deprive us even of the dominion of the graves of our ancestors if we are left to our own resources." The petition added that having passed laws to improve their condition, the Tahitians found themselves unable to carry them out and even threatened " in what we have dearest to our hearts — the Protestant faith and our nationality. Do not let these good seeds perish. Do not leave undone what you began and what is so happily progressing. Lend us your powerful hand. Take us under your protection. Let your flag cover us and your lion defend us. Determine the form through which we could shelter ourselves lawfully under 1 Narrative of the U.S. Exploring Expedition, by Commodore Charles Wilkes. 16 TAHITI, THE MISSIONARY KINGDOM your wings. Cause our children to bless you and to chertsh your Christian feelings as we do." 1 On the same day the Tahitian Parliament passed a law on the lines suggested by Dupetit Thouars, declaring Protestantism to be the only lawful religion : — " Let Tahiti and all the islands of the kingdom of Pomare Vahine the First stand unique in that gospel which the missionaries from Britain have propagated ever since the year 1797." Any person coming to Tahiti to disturb that gospel or to teach any other was to be deported, and any native Tahitian propagating gospels inconsistent with the gospel of truth taught by the British missionaries was similarly liable to be banished from the realm. 2 If regarded as a civilised and sovereign state, Tahiti was well within her rights in passing such a law, but it was so clearly ad hoc and inspired by the Protestant missionaries that France could scarcely ignore the challenge. Palmerston's Non-committal Answer. — Nor does Pomare seem to have had a very eager champion in Great Britain. Palmerston in 1839 gave practically the same vague and airy answer that Canning gave twelve years earlier. He expressed his deep concern at the difficulties with which the queen found herself surrounded, but instructed the consul to inform her that "considering the great extent of the present dominions of the British Crown in the Southern Ocean, and the difficulty of adequately providing for the defence of the persons living in allegiance to Her Majesty in a quarter of the globe so distant from Great Britain, Her Majesty feels that it would be impossible for her to fulfil with proper punctuality any defensive obligations which Her Majesty might contract towards the government and inhabitants of Tahiti. And therefore, however strong the interest may be which Her Majesty takes in the prosperity of the Society Islands and in the happiness and welfare of Queen Pomare, Her Majesty is bound in good faith to decline to enter into a specific engagement of the kind which has been suggested. But you will assure Queen Pomare that Her Majesty will at all times be ready to attend to any representations that 'Queen Pomare may wish to make, and will always be glad to give the protection of her good offices in any differences which may arise between Queen Pomare and any other power." It must have been quite evident to the missionary * P.P. 1843, No. 473, proceedings of the French at Tahiti. Ibid. 1839] THE LA PLACE TREATY 17 advisers of the queen that England was a brbken reed so far as Tahiti was concerned, and that a statesman who could write in such terms could not be expected to give much real assistance in the more difficult times to come. England had, in fact, abdicated the protection of the English missions in Tahiti. Anti-Catholic Law Repealed. — No sooner had the anti- Catholic law come into force than Captain La Place, in the frigate L'Artemise, arrived at Tahiti in distress. He spent some weeks refitting and observing the course of affairs in the little kingdom, and as soon as his vessel was ready for sea again he anchored off the capital and demanded the repeal of the law. In vain Pomare and her advisers, still hoping for a favourable reply from England, pleaded that the law was passed at the suggestion of Dupetit Thouars. La Place would accept no excuses, and under the old threat of guns the law was repealed. The next demand, says Mr W. T. Pritchard, was for a piece of land at Papeete as a site for a Roman Catholic church. This was conceded. Then followed a requisition that in every town or village where there was a Protestant chapel there should be built gratuitously a Roman Catholic place of worship. This, too, was promised. Finally, in June 1839, La Place presented a document in which the queen promised that no Frenchman should be molested in his religious duties, and that the free exercise of the Roman Catholic religion, should be permitted in Tahiti and its dependencies. Though the narrative from which the story of these negotiations is derived must be regarded as a partisan source, 1 it is quite clear from corroborative testimony that the Protestant missionaries, as the advisers of the queen, constituted a direct opposition to French interests in Tahiti, and it is equally clear that as soon as Palmerston's decision to withhold active protection became known the French demands must be conceded and must lead to further encroachments. Having obtained full tolerance, the Roman Catholics established themselves firmly in the group, and the prestige which they gained from the intervention of the French warships greatly increased their influence. Their progress was jealously resisted and the inevitable climax came in 1842. A New Ultimatum. — Early in the year Admiral Buglet 1 Polynesian Reminiscences, by W. T. Pritchard, son of G. Pritchard, and afterwards himself consul at Fiji. 18 TAHITI, THE MISSIONARY KINGDOM commanding-in-chief the French naval forces in the Pacific, wrote to the queen from Valparaiso assuring her that France had no designs on her independence. In August Captain Du Bouze, of the frigate L'Aube, wrote to the same effect. But a month later Dupetit Thouars again put in an appearance in the La Reine Blanche. Pritchard was in England on. leave and the queen was in the Leeward Islands of the group. After consultation with the French consul Dupetit Thouars complained to the regent that the flag of the French priests had been insulted, and that there was not a single Frenchman in the kingdom who had not some complaint to make of the iniquities and overbearing conduct of the Government. Contrary to law, their domiciles had been entered, and they had been beaten, thrown into prison and executed as villains, without being able to obtain a hearing. And all this in spite of the most-favoured nation treatment guaranteed by the treaty. " Ill-advised, submitting to all things fatal to her true interests, the queen will learn a second time that the faith and loyalty of a power such as France is not with immunity to be trifled with." Dupetit Thouars refused any longer to receive the missionaries as interpreters or intermediaries, and there was a long conference on board the frigate with the regent himself. It extended well into the night, and when day dawned it was announced that the chiefs had signed a document asking the King of the French for his protection for Tahiti. Dupetit Thouars had demanded a new indemnity of 10,000 dollars as security for good behaviour, and threatened that in default of receiving it he would occupy with French troops the queen's forts and the establishments on Motu-uta. Request for French Protection. — No succour being forthcoming from outside, the queen and the high chiefs, recognising their inability to govern so as to preserve a good understanding with foreign governments without the risk of losing their islands, their authority and their liberty, petitioned the French commander (9th September 1842) to solicit French protection on the following conditions : — 1. The sovereignty of the queen and the authority of the queen and high chiefs over their people to be guaranteed. 2. All. laws and regulations to be issued in the queen's name and signed by her. 3. The possession of lands belonging to the queen and to the people to be secured to them, and all disputes as to ownership of land or property to be decided by the tribunals of the country. 1842] THE FRENCH PROTECTORATE 19 4. Everyone to be free in the exercise of his form of worship or religion. 5. The churches at present established to continue to exist, and the English missionaries to continue their labours without molestation. The same to apply to every other form of religion, and nobody to be molested or constrained in his belief. On these conditions the queen and the chiefs were prepared to resign to the King of the French "all foreign policy," and Dupetit Thouars accepted the offer subject to the king's approval. He remarked that "a decision so honourable to his government removed every symptom of dissatisfaction to which the harsh measures towards his countrymen had given rise," and gave hopeful promise of a strengthening of the bonds of unity and friendship between Tahiti and France. French Protection and Provisional Government. — A protectorate government was set up consisting of three members nominated by the admiral, viz., a commissioner royal (who was the French consul); a military governor; and the captain of the port of Papeete. The two last named were lieutenants of the La Reine Blanche. The function of the provisional government was stated to be to regulate all the affairs of foreigners. The acting British consul (Mr Charles B. Wilson) reported to the Foreign Office that the Tahitian flag had been changed, that it was now the original flag with the French colours in the upper part next to the staff, and that it had been saluted on the La Reine Blanche on 26th September. Parts of Tahiti, he said, remained " free," and parts were subject to the same regulations as before pending the pleasure of the King of the French being known. Another Bid for Independence. — The position was now an extremely delicate one for the British naval commanders. Unable to recognise the new regime, pending instructions from the admiral, they continued to pay the customary royal courtesies to the queen. In January 1843 when H.M.S. Talbol (Captain Sir Thomas Thompson) arrived, the queen rowed across to the vessel in the state barge flying the old Tahitian flag (red, white and red bars lengthwise). The Talbot hoisted the same standard and fired a royal salute. The provisional government was furious, and passed a resolution protesting against the British captain's "want of regard for the treaty made with a foreign nation," and against his entering into relations with a queen who had ceded to the 20 TAHITI, THE MISSIONARY KINGDOM French " all her rights relative to the exterior relations of her estates." Sir Thomas Thompson made full inquiry into the circum- stances under which the protectorate had been set up, and remained in Tahiti in a watching capacity until the end of February. He was relieved by the Vindictive, which by a strange irony chanced to be bringing to Pomare gifts of royal favour from Queen Victoria and from the Governor of New South Wales — a carriage and a set of drawing-room furniture. In the flush of this incident the prestige of the unhappy queen was momentarily restored. The Tahitian flag flew once more over the royal residence and was saluted with full honours, and the queen, on the suggestion of Commodore Toup Nicolas, ordered a crown to be put in the white part of her flag as a symbol of royalty. The provisional government immediately demanded its removal as insulting to France, but the Vindictive was protecting the queen for the time being, and the demand failed. Despite the presence of a French frigate the Tahitian code was again put into force, the legislative assembly convened, and various local improvements were made. Incidentally the white residents of Papeete appealed to the British warship to protect the provisional government against a threatened rising of the natives. The Vindictive stayed for about six months. For six months, under her guns, the old glories of Tahiti flourished again. But during those six months the fate of Tahiti was being decided irrevocably between Whitehall and the Quai d'Orsay. With the departure of the Vindictive disappeared the last semblance of Tahitian independence. On 5th November Dupetit Thouars returned with the announcement that Louis Philippe had accepted the proffered protectorate, and three days later Captain Bruat was installed as commissioner to Queen Pomare and the great chiefs. France was triumphant. The Protestant missionaries could not now reasonably hope for British intervention on their behalf, and they signed a memorial expressing ^heir loyal acceptance of the position. .Negotiations in Europe. — It requires a digression to trace the negotiations in Europe which led up to this change. In March 1843 Lord Cowley, the British Minister in Paris, in a conversation with M. Guizot, was informed that the suzerainty of Tahiti had been offered to France and pro- visionally accepted by Admiral Dupetit Thouars. M. Guizot added : — 1843] ANGLO-FRENCH CONVERSATIONS 21 " ' We have nothing to conceal with respect to our proceedings in the Pacific. We should gladly avail ourselves of any means of strengthening or improving our possession of the Marquesas, but beyond this we have no views of conquest or appropriation of any kind. With respect to the Sandwich Islands, for instance, we aie quite ready to acknowledge their independence.' This he repeated several times. He afterwards observed that there were some grounds for apprehending that the tranquillity of the islands in the Pacific might be disturbed by dissensions on account of the differences of the religious tenets of the Roman Catholic and Protestant missionaries. He did not, however, say that any disturbance had yet taken place" (Lord Cowley to Lord Aberdeen, 20th March 1843). A few days after this despatch Guizot said in the Chamber of Peers that " no impediment would be thrown in the way of the dissemination of the Christian religion, and that equal protection would be given to Protestant and to Catholic missionaries." Lord Aberdeen cordially acknowledged this assurance, as seeming, in conjunction with the article of the convention, to guarantee " that none of those estimable teachers of Christianity will be disturbed in the free exercise of their religious functions" (Lord Aberdeen to Lord Cowley, 28th March 1843). 1 A day or two later Cowley was informed that special instructions had been sent to the French naval authorities in the Pacific to protect the Protestant missionaries. The missionary interest was dominant in British colonial policy in those days, and there was genuine and widespread alarm for the welfare of the Protestant missionaries, now at the mercy of a Catholic power. To appease it Aberdeen again pressed for specific assurances, and Guizot on 7th April handed Cowley the following note : — " I appreciate as I ought the interest which leads you to ask me in a spirit of amicable confidence and conciliation, to affirm all these assurances, and I have no hesitation in repeating to you that the government of the king, in the system which it proposes to apply to the Marquesas and Society Islands, will remain faithful to three great principles which it has never departed from — the liberty of religious worship ; protection to the subjects of a friendly power; and finally, the no less sacred duty of assisting in the labours taken to spread the benefits of Christianity." French. Naval Designs. — These assurances were as much as could be demanded with propriety, and they were put 1 P.P. 1844, li., No. 529. C 22 TAHITI, THE MISSIONARY KINGDOM forward by Aberdeen as amply sufficient to calm the fears of the Protestants. The British Government was, in fact, troubled by quite another aspect of the acquisition, namely, the statement made by the French Minister of Marine in asking for an extraordinary credit of 5,987,000 francs for the naval establishments in the Pacific. In presenting the vote he said : — " La France n'avait dans l'ocean Pacifique aucun e'tablissement oh ses batiments de guerre et ses navires de commerce puissent trouver un asile toujours ouvert et une protection moins mobile que celle d'une station navale. Cependant la ou des interets Francais commencent a se developper il importe de creer un centre autour duquel ils puissent se groupper et prosperer a l'abri du pavilion national." 1 Not only was Polynesia a promising field for commercial expansion and the furtherance of civilisation, but the minister emphasised the advantages which would accrue from these new settlements " if a plan which now fixes the attention of all maritime powers should be carried into execution." When the Panama Canal was completed the Marquesas and Society Islands would be most important resorts for the shipping of all nations, and an entrep6t for the trade of Peru, Chili, and Mexico. The acquisition of the fertile Tahiti would render self-supporting the previously annexed Marquesas, and as the occupation, according to the minister, " rested mainly upon military force," he asked for a garrison of 1200 men for these two groups. It was proposed, he said, to restrict the trade in arms and ammuni- tion in the South Seas. Guizot, who knew well the powerful influences pressing Peel, says in his Memoirs of Sir Robert Peel that from the beginning France had no other object in her acquisitions : — "We wished to acquire in the Pacific Ocean," he says, "a point which would serve at once as a healthy and safe penal settlement and a station to which our mercantile navy might resort for supplies or for refuge." Dupetit Thouars had been told to take possession of the Marquesas, but there was no intention at all as regards Tahiti. When the Government was informed some months later that he had been led to establish a protectorate there, it realised " not without regret that some difficulties might result from this proceeding in regard to our relations with England f 1 Moniteur Universe!, 25th April 1843. 1843] ENGLAND RECOGNISES PROTECTORATE 23 but we ratified the act unhesitatingly.'' The only impelling reason Guizot could recall was that the French flag had just been hoisted in the Pacific, and " we could not consent that at the very moment of its appearance it should be withdrawn." In the Chamber of Deputies Guizot said more than once that it would be " an insensate enterprise " for a government to undertake to carry on a religious propagandism and to impose a religion by force even on pagans. He adds : — " The English missionaries in Tahiti were real moral magistrates, possessed of great power over both the population and chiefs : revered preachers and reformers, enjoying at once the success of their teaching and the pleasures of domination. The establishment of the French protectorate was naturally unpleasant to them; it involved a danger to their faith, the downfall of their preponderance, and a check on the reputation of their country in the Pacific Ocean." 1 British Renunciation in Tahiti— Though Aberdeen had evidently decided not to oppose the French occupation, it was some months before he could face the public with a definite announcement of abdication. We find him in July informing the Admiralty that "while H.M. Government have not acknowledged the right of France to assume and exercise a protectorship, they have nevertheless done nothing to call that right in question." The cession he considered was brought about partly by intrigue and partly by intimida- tion ; nevertheless it was made " voluntarily and completed in due form." Therefore, however much the British Govern- ment regretted to see Tahiti subjected to a foreign power, there did not seem to be sufficient ground on the score of illegality to dispute the cession. Consequently the Foreign Office advised that British naval commanders should make no difficulty about saluting the flag which the French admiral had introduced, and should not enter into any disputes as to the right of the French to exercise authority in conjunction with Queen Pomare. Taking the hint, perhaps, from the ubiquitous activity of the French corvettes, Aberdeen said he considered it indispensable "in the present state of affairs that more frequent visits than heretofore should be made by H.M. ships of war to the Society Islands, in order to keep alive in the minds of the rulers and natives the feeling of respect which they have always been well disposed to pay to the 1 Memoirs of Sir Robert Peel, by M. Guizot, 1847. 24 TAHITI, THE MISSIONARY KINGDOM British flag, and to support by constant personal communica- tion the influence which the British name and character have acquired for themselves in that part of the world " (Mr Addington to Sir John Barrow, nth July 1843). 1 It was not till the end of August that Cowley was instructed to inform the French Government that Britain would offer no opposition to the French protectorate. Nevertheless, Aberdeen wrote (25th August 1843), the British Government considered themselves " fully authorised by the ancient and friendly connection which has subsisted between Great Britain and the Society Islands since the very first discovery by a British navigator, by the promise of good offices made to these people on different occasions by the British Government, and by the fact of the islands * having been converted and civilised by British missionaries, to intercede with the French Government for the purpose of securing to the unfortunate queen of those islands all the liberty compatible with the restrictions she has imposed upon herself, and especially to obtain for her protection from the harsh treatment to which she has been subjected " (Lord Aberdeen to Lord Cowley). 1 He further insisted that in spite of the misconduct of one of their number, the body of Protestant missionaries who had signed an address of loyalty to the new regime, should receive due protection. " H.M. Government consider themselves bound by every consideration of national honour and justice to support the British missionaries in the Society Islands, and they cannot allow that the recent change which has taken place in any way alters or weakens that obligation." l The Missionary-Consul Rebuked. — It was an unpleasant duty for the British Government, having disappointed those who had so honourably pioneered and civilised this savage group, to have to curb the patriotism of the missionaries, and adjure them to hope no more but to conform to the French rule. Pritchard had been much more optimistic than the previous history of the affaire Tahiti justified, and in March he had informed the Foreign Office that he was endeavouring, with Commodore Toup Nicolas, to "act in accordance with the repeated promises of assistance and protection made by the British Government to Queen Pomare." His first hint that things were not as he believed was conveyed in a letter dated 14th June, covering a copy of the instructions to British naval commanders, and urging him to " adapt his conduct and language in exact conformity 1 P.P. 1844, li., No. 529, proceedings of the French at Tahiti. 1843] ANNEXATION BY FRANCE 25 with the tenor and spirit of the policy therein expressed." A month later he was instructed to "watch closely the proceedings of the French authorities with regard to the Protestant missionaries and to the liberty of religious worship." In September Aberdeen had to administer a severe rebuke to the consul's enthusiasm. It was quite obvious from the despatches of Canning and Palmerston, he wrote (25th September 1843), that the British Government was not prepared to interpose actively though "they willingly proffered such protection and good offices as without improper interference they could afford. But it is not to be supposed that at the very moment that they were declining to take the islands under the protection of the British Crown, Her Majesty's Government could have intended to engage themselves to interpose their good offices on behalf of the sovereign in such a manner as to incur the almost certainty of collision with a foreign power.'' He repeated that there were no grounds for opposing the assumption of authority by the French, but that they would " firmly maintain the right of the British Protestant mission- aries to enjoy entire and unrestricted freedom in the exercise of their religious functions, including the full power of upholding in the pulpit the truth of the Protestant doctrines against any persons who may impugn them." As to the future, Pritchard was warned to observe the utmost caution and courtesy in his demeanour towards the French authorities, " and to abstain from every act or word which might be construed into an intention to give offence. Above all things you will be careful to use no expression in your intercourse with the queen or her chiefs which could encourage them to expect at any time active assistance^ from H.M. Government against the French." French Annexation. — But before this letter could have reached its destination the state of affairs had completely changed, and Pritchard had delivered himself into the hands of the authorities. Only a few days after announcing the acceptance of the protectorate by Louis Philippe, Dupetit Thouars demanded an audience of the queen. This was granted, with the suggestion that it should take place in the British consulate. It was hardly to be expected that Dupetit Thouars would accept such a condition. Nor did he. Instead, he informed Pritchard officially that " in consequence of actions 26 TAHITI, THE MISSIONARY KINGDOM alike hostile and offensive to the dignity of the King of France, he found himself under the necessity no longer to recognise Queen Pomare as the sovereign of the lands and people of the Society Islands, and that to-morrow, in the name of the King and of France he would take official possession of the islands." 1 On 7th November, accordingly, he ordered the queen's personal standard to be struck under threat of armed force. Still reluctant to acknowledge the loss of her authority, Pomare appealed to her people to rely " on the justice and the clemency of the King of the French and the other sovereigns of Europe." At midday a strong force was landed from the frigate, a square was formed about the queen's flagstaff, the flag was lowered, and Dupetit Thouars took formal possession. " And covered with smoke," says Pritchard, " the gallant officer who stepped forward and put his foot on the crown in Pomare's flag, exclaimed in broken English : ' Here goes the crown of England once more in the dirt ! ' and three cheers more echoed the exclamation." The keys of the queen's house were taken, and the queen herself repaired to H.M.S. Dublin for protection. The British commander formally protested against the proceedings, and Pritchard addressed a letter to the French admiral (7th November 1843), informing him that his appointment was as consul to the French protectorate, and that his function as consul must now cease. " I have accordingly struck my flag, not having been accredited by the British Government as consul to a French colony." The rest of the letter was a warm protest against "the taking of the dominions of an independent sovereign who for nearly half a century has enjoyed the friendly protection of Great Britain." On the following day M. Bruat took up his quarters in the queen's house and assumed office as governor of the French possessions in Oceania. Two months later H.M.S. Dublin arrived again at Papeete instructed by the admiral to acknowledge the French protectorate. As the protectorate was no longer in existence, Captain Tucker wrote to the' governor saying that while he would hasten to salute the French protectorate "were it now in existence, he must decline saluting the French flag on Tahiti until further instructed." The propriety of the reservation Bruat acknowledged with acid politeness, remarking that until he was instructed 1 Polynesian Reminiscences., by W. T- Pritchard. 1844] MISSIONARY-CONSUL ARRESTED 27 from France he could not accept the proposed temporary reappointment as consul of Pritchard " dont la conduite a ete par trop hostile au gouvernement Francais." The captain was not aware that the consul's conduct had been objection- able, and persisted in the nomination, which the governor firmly declined to accept ( 1 2th January 1 844), remarking : " Son opposition au gouvernement du protectorat est assez connue qu'il soit inutile de motiver davantage mon refus, fonde principalement." Arrest of Mr Pritchard. — Shortly after this the Protestant missionaries approached Bruat on behalf of the outlawed natives who had declined to acknowledge the French authority and were assembled in hostile array under Paofai, on the east side of the island. Bruat received them in a conciliatory spirit, but insisted that the first step towards a pardon must be a frank submission by the missionaries themselves as the spiritual leaders of the people. Thereafter he promised that such chiefs as came into Papeete would not be imprisoned or exiled. But the chiefs were not disposed to submit, and the French were seriously threatened by the concentration in the mountains, For this Bruat plainly held the missionaries — and particularly Pritchard — to be responsible. H.M.S. Basilisk had relieved the Dublin, and Bruat, feeling that the continued presence of British warships in Tahitian waters encouraged the disaffection of the natives, declared martial law as a measure of security. In February H.M.S. Cormorant relieved the Basilisk. Bruat was absent from Papeete on a tour of duty, and in his absence the captain of the corvette Meurthe impulsively ordered the arrest of Pritchard as he was about to go on board the Cormorant. He was thrown into a blockhouse with some indignity. Captain Gordon, of the Cormorant, demanded the immediate release of the missionary, and this was complied with as soon as Bruat returned to Papeete. The governor requested, however, that the Cormorant, having no further business in Tahiti, would take her departure and would give Pritchard a passage from the islands. The request was acceded to, and a few weeks later Pritchard joined H.M.S. Vindictive at Valparaiso and went in her to England. 1 Excitement in England The narrative of the missionary-consul when he reached England threw the country into a ferment of excitement, and relations with France instantly became strained. Peel at first took the 1 See appendices to Guizot's Memoirs of Peel. 28 TAHITI, THE MISSIONARY KINGDOM same view as the public accepted, namely, that an insult had been offered to the person of a British consul : and he demanded satisfaction accordingly. The missionary interest was furious at the overthrow of Protestantism in a field so honourably developed by British missionaries. There were six principal societies, and their revenue in 1846 amounted to £533,000, an emphatic evidence of the strength of the movement. In Parliament it had a score of champions who would not allow the matter to rest, and it was only the mutual goodwill of Peel and Guizot which enabled the difficulty to be weathered without a serious rupture. Guizot contended that after his letter to Dupetit Thouars of 7th November the French authorities could no longer consider Pritchard as a consul. He was, in fact, merely a foreign resident and an English missionary. The protectorate officials had power to deport persons who were guilty of opposing or endeavouring to subvert the existing regime ; and Guizot claimed that by his acts and speeches and by his advice to Queen Pomare Pritchard had been actively and incessantly hostile to the French authority. At the same time he freely admitted that his detention was illegal and the manner of" it deserving of blame. For this he was ready to apologise and pay due compensation. Thenceforward the matter yielded readily to compromise, and the French Government softened the feeling of irritation in England by withholding its approval from Dupetit Thouars's act of annexation. 1 And so the affaire Pritchard was composed between the two countries. In a despatch to Admiral de Mackau, Bruat acknowledged that he could not approve the manner in which Pritchard had been treated in his absence, though he considered his arrest a necessary measure. He was immediately on Bruat's orders removed to the corvette Meurthe, where he was received as a guest at the commander's table. And he was deported on Bruat's initiative, " considerant que M. Pritchard n'^tait pas plus qu'un simple resident Anglais, dont l'influence sur l'ex-reine Pomare et le parti, revoke etait devenue dangereuse pour la tranquillite de Tile." The Declaration of 1847. — The French dominion did not for another half century attain the definitive character to which Dupetit Thouars's act had aspired. In 1847 the British Government made representations in favour of the natives who were still in revolt against the French regime, and as a result those who wished to leave the islands were permitted 1 P.P. 1845, Hi., No. 603. 1847] THE RAIATEA DECLARATION 29 to do so, taking their movable property with them. On 19th June 1847 a declaration was signed at London with the object of removing a cause of discussion between the two governments. Under this they both acknowledged the independence of the Leeward Islands of Huahine, Raiatea, and Borabora, with the smaller islands adjacent. They engaged reciprocally never to take possession of any of them either absolutely or by way of a protectorate or in any other form, and never to recognise that a chief reigning in Tahiti could also reign in any of the other islands, and vice versa ; thus establishing what was termed the " reciprocal independ- ence " of the islands in question. 1 On assuming the protectorate of Tahiti the French applied their navigation laws discriminately against Great Britain in common with other powers. In 1856 it was pointed out by the consul that ocean-going ships could only anchor at the ports of Papeete, Tamoa, and Pa'patoai, while the coastal trade was reserved exclusively for vessels carrying the French or the protectorate flag. In practice the coastal trade was chiefly in the hands of British residents at Tahiti who registered their vessels there and flew the Tahitian flag. Owing to the scarcity and dearness of supplies, the visits of whalers to the group had fallen off very greatly. 2 The Raiatea Question. — The position of Raiatea under the Declaration of 1847 remained for forty years a constant cause of soreness to France. England steadfastly declined throughout that time to waive her rights and permit France to bring the island within her dominions. In 1858 the United States consul took steps on his own responsibility to annex it, but the prior rights of France were an effective bar and the act was disavowed. Twenty years later Germany essayed the conclusion of a treaty of commerce similar to those she had just made with Samoa and Tonga ; but again France objected, on the ground that one article of the treaty tended to restrict the sovereignty in Germany's favour. In 1877, after reigning nominally for fifty years, Queen Pomare of Tahiti died. By consent of her successor the protectorate over that island was converted into a possession by annexation in June 1880. At the same time the French commissioner at Raiatea, in response to a request from the chiefs, declared a provisional protectorate over that island. Britain at once protested under the Declaration, while on the 1 P.P. 1847, lxx., No. 841. Hertslefs Treaties, vol. viii., pp. 998-9. See treaties and conventions, p. 315. 5 P.P. 1857-8, lv., report of consul for the Georgian Islands. 30 TAHITI, THE MISSIONARY KINGDOM spot the captain of H.M.S. Turquoise ordered a French lieu- tenant to lower the flag. In its place the Raiatean flag was hoisted and accorded a royal salute. Negotiations followed. The French Government at once disavowed the act of the commissioner, but asked that the Declaration be abrogated. No basis of compensation could be agreed on at the moment, and the French flag was per- mitted to be rehoisted provisionally on 25th May 1881, for periods of six / months, the discussion being renewed from time to time. In the event the provisional arrangement continued until 1887, when the matter was provided for in the Anglo - French Convention. The abrogation of the Declaration was finally signed in May 1888, leaving France free to extend her sovereignty over the whole group. 1 The Outlying Islands. — In November 1853, the year in which the French flag was raised in New Caledonia, H.M.S. Dido found the French in possession of Gambier Islands, a small group in the same archipelago as Tahiti. There were a few French families living ashore, and some Roman Catholic priests "holding the king and natives in the most perfect subjection, both temporal and spiritual." The captain was not at the time aware that the French claimed a protectorate. 2 The Gambiers, where the Roman Catholic Vicar-Apostolic first established his nucleus and seminary for the Oceanic mission, are unimportant outliers of the archi- pelago towards the south-east. The importance of Tahiti has become apparent since the opening of the Panama Canal, justifying the forecasts of French ministers at the time and the steps taken by the Australian colonies to secure ports of call in the eastern Pacific. Papeete is the nearest good harbour in Polynesia to Panama, and lies on the route of the Australian and New Zealand steamers. As long ago as 1846, when the canal project was first seriously mooted, the Legislative Council of New South Wales asked Captain Phillip King, R.N., for a report on the sea routes to Panama. He furnished a detailed criticism of the route by Tahiti and the Galapagos Islands, but felt that the lack of a wharf at the latter place and the necessity for special freighting of coal to either constituted a difficulty almost insurmountable. 3 Twelve years later the necessity for a midway port of call 1 Hansard Debates, House of Commons, 16th March 1885 : M. de Lanessan's Dexpansion Coloniale de la France. 2 Pitcairn, by the Rev. T. B. Murray, pp. 181-3. 3 P.P. 1846, xxxv. 1861] ACQUISITION OF RAPA 31 in the Pacific was one of the principal reasons urged in favour of the annexation of Fiji. Colonel Smythe dismissed it as far as Fiji itself was concerned, and he suggested the acquisition of Oparo, or Rapa, at the southerly extremity of the Tahiti archipelago: lat. 29 deg. 38 min. S.,long. 144 deg. 15 min. W. Possessing a good harbour and anchorage and few inhabi- tants, it seemed to him most suitable, and the Admiralty agreed to obtain a survey and report as early as possible (Colonial Office to Admiralty, 9th December 1861). 1 The excellent situation of Rapa, midway between Australia and Panama, was equally evident to the prescient French navi- gators, and the British intention was forestalled by them, a piece of good fortune over which M. de Lanessan audibly chuckles. It would be a perfect Gibraltar, he says, both as a shelter and as a victualling depot, and " would bar the route of all traders crossing Oceania." In her possession of Tahiti and Rapa France is undoubtedly very strongly equipped for the improbable event of a war actually fought in the Pacific. The clash of interests between France and Britain in the eastern Pacific has gradually died away since the abrogation of the Declaration. In modern times British ships and British traders have shared generously in the trade of the possession, which in 1908 was valued at £279,000. Of this nearly half was done with the United States, only I2§ per cent, with France, and 12 per cent, with Great Britain. 2 1 P.P. 1862, xxxvi., No. 2995. 2 Cd. 3727. CHAPTER III HAWAII Island Kingdom to Territory. — Hawaii is a most instruc- tive study in connection with the problem of the future of the Polynesian race, for it was here, far from intercourse with or interference by other branches of the race, that a native kingdom illustrated in the most favourable light the capacity of the race for civilisation and self-government. The experi- ment covered almost a century. It closed definitely with the annexation of the islands by the United States in 1898, though it had practically failed a decade or two earlier than that. The Hawaii or Sandwich Islands have their centre about 21 deg. N., 156 deg. W. They occupy roughly a half-way position between the Pacific coast of North America and the Fiji system to the south-west or the Marshall system to the W.S.W. As a port of call on the sea route to the Philippines Hawaii is a link between America and Asia. 1555-1816] EARLY INTERCOURSE 33 Discovery and Cession to England. — It seems that the first Europeans to Visit Hawaii were the Spanish navigators under Juan Gaetano in 1555. Quiros probably landed there about 1606. Cook visited the islands first in 1778 and La Perouse in 1786. The unhappy fate of the English navigator left a bad impression in England, so that until quite recently Hawaii was generally known in this country as par excellence " the cannibal islands." This impression was, however, to a large extent corrected by the intercourse of Vancouver, who in 1792-4 found Kamehameha such an interesting and pro- gressive personality that he interceded with King George to send him some tokens of friendship. On Vancouver's last visit, in February 1794, a grand council of chiefs decided to place Hawaii undfer British protection, and Lieutenant Puget hoisted the flag and took possession on 25th February. The cession was never ratified by the British Government ; but the good offices of Vancouver bore fruit thirty years later. In 1822 King George IV. presented a schooner to Kamehameha II. in token of the rapprochement between their fathers. Intercourse ■with Russia. — Early in the nineteenth century the closest European connection with Hawaii was with Russia. The discovery ship Neva, under Captain Lisiansky, arrived in 1804, and ten years later a long-lived association commenced with the wreck at Waimea, on the island of Kauai, of a vessel belonging to M. Baranoff, the governor of the North American station of Sitka. In the following year Baranoff sent his doctor (Scheffer) to claim the salvage, and later another ship from Sitka brought a party of Indians to Waimea, where they formed a Russian settlement. A blockhouse was erected under Scheffer's orders, and the island was badly ravaged in the succeeding years in the efforts of the Russian commander to subdue it to the trading purposes of the Russian posts on the American mainland. Scheffer's activities were purely personal, but it only became clear that Russia gave no official support when Kotzebue arrived in the corvette Rurik in 18 16. She was the first foreign state vessel to enter the port of Honolulu. Kotzebue set up flags ashore for the purpose of surveying the harbour, and at first the Hawaiians, with the experience of Scheffer fresh in their minds, were thoroughly suspicious of his intentions. A year or two earlier Hawaii had adopted a national flag of her own. The alternate jealousies of British and American 34 HAWAII whalers, who were now visiting the group in considerable strength, were pandered to in the design, which consisted of "the English union and seven alternated red, white, and blue stripes, emblematic of the principal islands." 1 The national flag of Hawaii was first seen in a foreign port at Canton. In 1821 two more Russian ships of war were in Honolulu, and on this occasion they exchanged salutes with the Hawaiian flagship, the Pride of Hawaii. Wheeler says that early in the thirties some of the chiefs agreed to place themselves under the protection of Russia, and ceded half the island, on which a Russian fort was erected. But the Czar disclaimed the act. The fort remained, and in 1835 Wheeler found it, with guns of several makes, including British, still in the embrasures. 2 Kamehameha I., who conquered and consolidated the kingdom, died in 1819. How Christianity came from America. — Kamehameha's successor Rihoriho, who came to the throne as Kamehameha II., overthrew the old idolatry of Hawaii. At the time there were at various universities in the United States Hawaiian youths who had been taken thither in whaling and trading ships, and when the conversion became known the American Board of Missions forthwith decided to increase its efforts in that promising field. At the moment of the overthrow of the idols it had a party of missionaries on the water bound round the Horn for Hawaii. The Prime Minister (Kalaimoku) had been baptised in the Roman Catholic faith by a priest from the French corvette L'Uranie in 18 19, but the American missionaries, who landed in 1820, were the first Christian teachers to settle in Hawaii. They were received with great sympathy by Kamehameha II., and after a delay of a fortnight to consider their case, they were permitted to establish them- selves and commence their mission. This friendly reception was in fact the result of the great benefits the first Kamehameha had received from having in his service two seamen, John Young (an Englishman) and Isaac Davis (an American), the survivors of an American fur trader which was captured by the Hawaiians in 1790. When the deputation from the London Missionary Society reached Hawaii in 1822, they found the American missionaries so well established and so successful that they dismissed all thought of themselves entering the Hawaiian 1 History of Hawaii, by J. J. Jarves, 1843. 1 Memoirs of Daniel Wheeler. BRITISH SOVEREIGNTY INVITED 35 field. Nevertheless, England was in high favour with the islanders. " The English Government," says Jarves, "uniformly manifested a courtesy towards the islanders that was highly honourable. Without asserting a claim to the island they recognised their nationality by numerous acts of courtesy and encouragement towards civilisation." One of these acts occurred at the moment of the visit, for the deputation arrived with Captain Kent when he brought to Honolulu from Port Jackson the schooner presented by King George IV. to Kamehameha II. The king was delighted and desired forthwith to place his kingdom under the protection of England. A New Offer of Cession. — When Captain Kent proposed to haul down the English colours under which the schooner had crossed the Pacific, the king protested. " No, no," he exclaimed, " I shall always hoist the English flag." "I assure your Majesty," he wrote to King George (21st August 1822), "it is my sincere wish to be as worthy your attention as my father had the happiness to be. The whole of these islands having been conquered by my father, I have succeeded to the government of them, and beg leave to place them all under the protection of your most excellent Majesty, wishing to observe peace with all nations, and to be thought worthy the confidence I place in your Majesty's wisdom and judgment. The former idolatrous system has been abolished in these islands, as we wish the Protestant religion of your Majesty's dominions to be practised here." At this time, 1822, the United States already had a consul resident at Honolulu, and a sufficient number of nationals to hold an annual reunion on Independence Day. In 1826 Captain Jones, of the United States Navy, concluded a treaty of peace and reciprocal treatment. The king and queen and their suite left for England by the merchant ship L'Aigle, and landed at Portsmouth in May 1824. After only a few weeks of sightseeing and gaiety, t|ie whole party were stricken by measles and the king and queen died, without having achieved their prime object of seeing King George IV. His Majesty, however, saw the survivors, and promised Hawaii his protection should any other power threaten its independence. He also ordered that the remains of the dead sovereigns should be embalmed and taken back to the Pacific in H.M.S. Blonde, commanded by Lord Byron. During the boyhood of the new king the regency had great difficulties with the rowdy whites and ship captains \ 36 HAWAII who frequented the ports. The laws for the regulation of shipping and the suppression of vice were strenuously resisted, and for some years the recalcitrant classes made war on the missionaries, whom they regarded as the cause of the restrictions. The native government passed through an anxious time. Early in 1825 England took a further step in developing intercourse by the appointment of Richard Charlton as consul for Hawaii and the Society Islands. His wife and sister were the first European ladies to reside in the group. The selection was, however, an unhappy one. Expelling the Catholic Missionaries. — It was not long before the new consul appeared before the natives in the unenviable role of a political partisan, and British prestige suffered very gravely as a consequence. In July 1826 John Alexius Bachelot was appointed by Pope Leo XII. Apostolic Prefect of the Sandwich Islands, and he reached his destination early in the following year, accompanied by a small group of priests and mechanics. This incursion of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary marked the beginning of a semi-political contest in which the British consul was throughout the champion of the Catholics against the Protestant mission- aries. By their rules the American missions were debarred from taking any part in political affairs; and this prohibition they reaffirmed themselves in a series of resolutions passed in 1838. They then decided that the Hawaiian nation should be built up apart from all foreign entanglements, and that the duty >of the missionaries was merely to " teach the doctrine that rulers should be just, ruling in the fear of God, | and seeking the best good of the nation." 1 Their influence with the chiefs whom they had civilised was paramount, and it is scarcely necessary to remark that it was exerted, like that of the English Protestants at Tahiti, in opposition to the admission of the rival sect. For some few years the priests were allowed to carry on without interference, but in 183 1 they were banished to California. In 1829 the chiefs enacted a new criminal code, which was vigorously opposed by the foreign element, but opportunely the United States sloop Vincennes arrived specially charged by the President to encourage and support the local govern- ment. A few years later the chiefs asked for the loan of a legal adviser to assist in drawing up a code of laws, but the 1 History of Hawaii, by J. J. Jarves. 1835-9] CATHOLIC TOLERATION 37 republic was not sufficiently interested to comply with the request. Return of the Catholic Priests. — Hawaii was genuinely anxious to place its policy on a settled European basis, for it was becoming more and more enmeshed in its foreign relations. In 1835 the Pope sent a brief to the deported missionaries urging them to persevere in their demand for toleration, and he reinforced them by the addition of an Irish priest, Robert Walsh. He, too, was not suffered to remain, but through the offices of Captain Vaillant, of the French corvette Bonite, and the British consul, he was granted respite until the arrival of a British man-of-war, provided he did not in the meantime attempt to propagate his doctrines. The matter of the Roman Catholics came to a head in 1837. Once more Father Bachelot attempted to land, and was arrested. At this juncture the French commodore, Dupetit Thouars, put in an appearance, and under the guns of a French and a British warship the priests were landed. Both commanders regarded the Protestant missionaries as the mainspring of the opposition, and took up a strong attitude towards them, refusing even to accept their services as interpreters. It was eventually agreed that the priests should remain only until a favourable opportunity should present itself of taking their departure. A more conciliatory influence appeared with the arrival of H.M.S. Imogene. On the captain's advice the priests left at the end of the year. Dupetit Thouars concluded a treaty guaranteeing most- favoured-nation treatment for the French. What happened in Hawaii was just what was to happen in Tahiti a few years later. In both cases the French Navy insisted on tolerance for the Roman Catholics, and at the same time secured reciprocal treatment for their nationals. The Declaration of Rights. — In June 1839 the king proclaimed a declaration of rights for the benefit of his subjects. All the old feudal privileges were swept away, and full constitutional freedom was granted, with liberty of conscience and a just code of laws. In framing this code Kamehameha III. had the assistance of the missionary Richards, who had relinquished his spiritual duties and assumed the position of counsellor and teacher of political economy. Incidentally this code contained the first steps towards the individualisation of land titles, a most important step for the advancement of native races in the Pacific. Later in the year the French naval commander La Place D 38 HAWAII complained of the treatment of French subjects, and demanded a security of 20,000 dollars for the good behaviour of the islanders. As in other cases the demand had to be conceded, and as in other cases, too, it was the foreign residents — this time the Americans— who came to the rescue and subscribed the money to buy off the anger of the frigate. In spite of the good feeling between Hawaii and England, it was already the fact that American ideas vitalised Hawaiian institutions, and America was the chief benefactor of the infant kingdom. Under the constitution of 1840 the king governed through a parliament consisting of a house of fifteen hereditary nobles and seven representatives, who all sat together. At a very early stage the reins of power fell into the hands of the American residents, or the hal£- castes, already a very important body. Wilkes in 1840 found Kamehameha pining for a new treaty with the United States and a closer understanding, and regretting bitterly that he had ever allowed foreigners such a free hand in his realm. 1 The United States had not yet developed any Pacific policy, but it is interesting to note Wilkes's opinion of the importance of Hawaii. Writing in 1842 he said the want of a good port which could be defended against a strong naval force made Hawaii of little political importance. Its occupation would be so costly that its neutrality was probably on that account secure. This fact the maritime powers had tacitly acknowledged, and Hawaii seemed likely to enjoy for many years the national independence which Kamehameha was busy buttressing by foreign treaties, Wilkes foresaw, however, that the group must eventually become dependent on the power that held Oregon and California, since they could supply these provinces with tropical products. America's only interest in Hawaii was as a, small market for manufactures-and a place of convenience for the American whaling fleet, and these considerations were well secured by Hawaii's neutrality. An International Imbroglio. — In 1842 Hawaii became involved in a tangle of difficulties with France and England, In August a French corvette arrived with evident signs of displeasure. No salutes were exchanged. On the contrary the commander lodged an immediate complaint that the La Place convention was not being observed and that French citizens were being grossly insulted. The king courteously declared that the treaty had been scrupulously 1 Narrative of the U.S. Exploring Expedition, by Charles Wilkes. 1842-3] LORD PAULETS USURPATION 39 carried out, and the corvette sailed away, threatening the terrors of Dupetit Thouars himself as soon as he should be free to leave the affairs of the new protectorate of Tahiti. Meanwhile Charlton, the British consul, made land claims which Kamehameha could not admit, and the troubles of the little kingdom seemed very hopeless. Opportunely at this moment arrived two governors of the Hudson Bay Company, Sir George Simpson and Dr M'Laughlin, interested in the trading connections of the new colony on the Pacific sea-board of Canada. They were so convinced of the injustice which was sought to be imposed upon Hawaii, that they advised the king to send com- missioners to lay his case before the President of the United States and the rulers of Europe. Appointed chief com- missioner himself, Sir George left for Europe by way of Siberia, and at the same moment Charlton left on a counter mission. Some members of the government commission, who went first to Washington, were fortunate enough to receive from the Secretary of State (Daniel Webster) a formal recognition of independence which greatly strengthened their hands : — " The Government of the Sandwich Islands," he wrote, " ought to be respected. No power ought to take possession of the islands .either as an acquisition or for the purposes of colonisation ; and no power ought to seek for any undue control over the existing government or any exclusive privileges or preferences in matters of commerce." ' Recognition of Hawaiian Independence. — Lord Aberdeen in England at first declined to receive the commissioners- as representing an independent state, or to negotiate a treaty, alleging that the king did not govern but was exclusively under the influence of American missionaries to the detriment of British interests. The commissioners were, however, by the introduction of King Leopold of Belgium, received with the greatest kindness in March by JVT. Guizot, who at once engaged on behalf of the French Government to recognise the state of Hawaii. Learning then of the actual state of affairs, Aberdeen promised to remove the consul, and on ist April 1843 he announced that it had been decided to recognise Hawaiian independence. Lord George Paulet's Protectorate. — But while things were going so smoothly in Europe they were developing 1 A Brief History of the Hawaiian People, by W. D. Alexander, 40 HAWAII furiously on the spot. Admiral Thomas, the British Commander-in-Chief in the Pacific, received at Valparaiso an urgent request to intervene in the trouble at Honolulu, and he despatched H.M.S. Carysfort (Captain Lord George Paulet) on the errand. The commander approached the inquiry in an unhappy temper by withholding all salutes, and, accepting the story of the partisans of the absent consul, he delivered a series of point-blank demands for redress. Too weak to resist them, the king complied under protest, appealing to the justice of the British Government. Other demands followed, and in despair Kamehameha threw him- self on the mercy of his extortioner by a temporary cession of his kingdom to Lord George Paulet. It was on the forty-ninth anniversary of the cession by Kamehameha I. to George III. that the British colours were hoisted ashore and saluted by the Carysfort. The commander and his lieutenant were two of the four^ commissioners he himself appointed to administer the' government pending the expected ratification of the cession. Their conduct was high-handed and thorough-going in the extreme. Every Hawaiian flag was destroyed. British registers were given to all Hawaiian ships. The Govern- ment ships were taken as tenders to the Carysfort. Trial by jury was suspended. Extra customs duties were imposed to defray the costs of the commission itself. A native soldiery, "The Queen's Regiment," was embodied and charged to the public account. So the commission raged for five months. One by one its moderate members dropped off. But the naval officers were undaunted. At the end of July a United States commodore insisted on saluting the Hawaiian flag and protested against the proceedings of the commission. A few days later H.M.S. Dublin sailed into the bay flying the pennant of the commander-in-chief. Admiral Thomas at once ordered the restoration of the sovereignty to Kamehameha, and with dignity and courtesy proclaimed the restoration and saluted the Hawaiian flag: — "Her Majesty sincerely desires;" the proclamation read, "that King Kamehameha should be treated as an independent sovereign, leaving the administration of justice in his own hands." At the same time a convention of ten articles, 1 safeguard- ing British interests, was drawn up and signed. There was great rejoicing throughout the unhappy little kingdom. 1 Hertslefs Treaties, vol. vii., p. 961. 1843-9] INDEPENDENCE RECOGNISED 41 On 28th November the governments of England and France made a joint declaration to the following effect : — "Taking into consideration the existence in the Sandwich Islands of a government capable of providing for the regularity of its relations with foreign nations, the Queen of England and the King of the French have thought it right to engage reciprocally to consider the Sandwich Islands as an independent state, and never to take possession either directly or under the title of a protectorate or under any other form, of any part of the territory of which they are composed." x The New Treaties. — Great Britain appointed a new consul-general in- place of the offending official, and the United States sent a special commissioner to represent it at Hawaii for the future. The Legislative Council was again opened by the king in 1846, in the most ceremonious fashion. The restored independence was, in fact, signalised in the fullest possible manner. On 26th March 1846, the British consul-general signed with the Hawaiian Minister of Foreign Affairs at Honolulu a new convention confirming the mutual agreements already existing for reciprocal privileges. By Article III. it was agreed that a British subject accused of any crime should be judged not otherwise than " by a jury composed of native or foreign residents proposed by the British consul and accepted by the Government of the Sandwich Islands." It was further agreed, that British goods imported into the kingdom should not be taxed more than 5 per cent, through the customs. 2 France sent a special commissioner to conclude an identical treaty, and to repay the indemnity of 20,000 dollars which had been exacted by La Place. Towards the end of the same year the independent status of Hawaii was more clearly marked than ever by the conclusion of a treaty with the King of Denmark, which is described by W. D. Alexander as " the first fair and honourable treaty with this country." New French. Demands. — But this happy state of affairs was short-lived. In 1849 the French admiral Tromelin made a new series of demands on the score of non-fulfilment of the treaty. On their being rejected he took possession of the fort, the Government offices, the custom-house, and the king's yacht. Formal protest was of course lodged by the American and British consuls, and the admiral did not proceed further. Next year another French commander arrived to push the demands, but the appearance of the 1 P.P. 1899, cix., C. 9088. 2 P.P. 1847, lxx., No. 841. 42 HAWAII United States warship Vandalia off Honolulu was followed by a moderation of the complaints : and the matter dropped. The reciprocity .treaty made with the United States at the end of 1849 is interesting inasmuch as it provides for free access to Hawaiian ports for steamers carrying American mails on the new ocean routes to the East. 1 From this date Hawaii acquires quite a new significance for America, and it is soon evident that the only possible departure from neutrality and independence is annexation or protection by the United States. The group becomes, in fact, an adjunct to the Pacific states. A new treaty with England was signed in 185 1 opening the ports of Hilo, Kealakekua, and Hanalei to whalers, and granting full access and facilities in Hawaiian ports for British mail steamers. 2 Feebleness of the Native Government. — The failure of the native kingdom was fairly conclusive by the middle of the century. This was not from any failure of its monarchs to march with the times and to breathe the modern spirit of democracy into their institutions. On the contrary, they- made frequent concessions on constitutional lines. The Bill of Rights was amplified in 1852 by the grant of universal suffrage, vote by ballot, payment of members of parliament, and abolition of the property qualification. The social state of the kingdom, too, was most advanced, thanks largely to the influence which the American residents had in the Government. Hawaii had, indeed, achieved a state of civilisation and enlightenment most creditable to the Polynesian race. But the Government was nevertheless too feeble to have any hope of holding its own for long as an independent state. Irregular pressure was constantly being exerted, and in 185 1 it again placed itself under the temporary protection of the United States to ward off the importunities of aggrieved nations. Thenceforward the Government was constantly distracted by threats of filibustering expeditions from the mainland of California, whither the goldfields had attracted a wild and undisciplined population of miners from all parts of the world. Commercial reasons favoured annexation by America, but here again the missionary influence was exerted against absorption by a great power. The real source of weakness was the continued decrease of the native population. Between 1832 and 1866 it fell 1 U.S. Sen. Docs., 61st Congress, 2nd Sess., vol. xlvii., p. 908. 2 P.P. 1852-3, cii., No. 1558 ; Hertslet, vol. ix., p. 6S5. 1851-84] ATTRACTION TO AMERICA 43 from 130,000 to 63,000, and the virility of the Government diminished accordingly. But the ideals of the governors remained high, and having in 1857 despatched a ship to take formal possession of a number of outlying islands, the king in 1861 sent a mission to the three great maritime powers seeking a joint guarantee of his country's independ- ence. But it was impossible to turn back the hands of the clock. Lacking a reciprocity agreement with its only possible protector, the United States, Hawaii languished for want of industrial stimulus, and passed through a series of political changes and experiments. Reciprocity with the United States. — It was not until 1875 that the Reciprocity Treaty with the United States was concluded and finally ratified, 1 ipso facto providing a market for as much coffee, sugar, wool, and hides as the kingdom could produce. The effect was instant. There being no sufficient supply of native labour for the development of these industries, commissioners were sent abroad to all the corners of the earth to find them. In September 1878 the first party of Portuguese labourers arrived from the Azores and Madeira, and thirty years later a further immigration from that quarter brought the number in Hawaii up to 8500. Chinese came in great numbers, and showed such a tendency to intermarry and overrun the country that twice within a few years the immigration was stopped by arrangement between the governments. There was more difficulty in obtaining Japanese labourers, and it was not until 1884 that the agreement was made with the Japanese Government, Then they came in sufficient numbers. Unlike the Chinese, they did not intermarry, and when the Russo-Japanese war opened a new great field for Japanese colonisation the immigration to Hawaii dried up and ceased. Only a few Polynesian kanakas were imported- — from the Gilberts and other Line Islands. And they were not a success. Early in the eighties the kingdom of Hawaii was predominantly an outlander preserve governed by foreigners and the descendants of foreigners. When von Hubner was there in 1884 there was only one native in the ministry. In a Privy Council of thirty-four members only six were natives, and of the whole judiciary only a few district judges in the interior. All the rest were Americans. The American husband of the heiress to the throne was governor of the principal island. 2 1 U.S. Sen. Docs., 61st Congress, 2nd Sess., vol. xlvii., p. 915. 2 Through the British Empire, by Baron von Hubner, 1886. 44 HAWAII In 1900 the population of the whole group was 90,000, of whom only 40,0,00 were Hawaiians and half-castes. Chinese and Japanese numbered 27,000; but the reins of power were in the hands of the 7495 "foreign Hawaiians" and the 1928 Americans. Obviously the country was heading towards a republic or annexation. Whichever it was to be, American influence must predominate. The quasi-native kingdom was allowed to continue until the nineties, though it had not an atom of real power. Republic and Annexation. — The end came dramatically out of a welter of troubles. In 1893 tne American-Hawaiians deposed the queen, whose policy had been reactionary in the extreme, and with the aid of a small American force called in from the steamer Boston by the United States minister, they set up a republic. President Harrison with- drew a treaty of annexation which was before Congress and allowed the matter to drop. When Cleveland came into office he sent a commissioner paramount to investigate the affair, who, finding that the revolution was brought about by the use of an American armed force, demanded the restoration of the queen to her throne. This the republicans declined to agree to, and Congress would not intervene further. The republic was formally proclaimed in May 1894, and the queen the following year took the oath of allegiance. President M'Kinley negotiated a new treaty of annexation in 1897, and the resolution of Congress was passed in July 1898. In the following month the sovereignty was merged in that of the United States, within a few weeks of the Spanish islands farther afield in the Pacific also coming under American dominion. Since the Annexation. — Settled political conditions and an assured market for her products soon restored to Hawaii her historic prosperity. The output of sugar expanded from 13,000 tons in the year of the Reciprocity Treaty (1874) to 555,000 tons in 191 1. The development was all within the orbit of the United States. In 191 1, 81 per cent, of the imports were from the States, and only 6\ per cent, from British countries ; while 98 per cent, of the exports were to the United States. The high protective tariffs of the United States practically ousted the European exporter, 1 and the shipping laws as a general rule excluded foreign vessels even from carrying passengers between Honolulu and Vancouver, a distance of 2100 miles. These laws were only 1 P.P. 1909, xcix., C. 4446. 1863] POLYNESIAN LEADERSHIP 45 relaxed for a few years pending the establishment of American shipping lines on a competitive basis. The sea distances of the Pacific give Hawaii a strategic value — to America — considerably beyond what Wilkes predicted. Honolulu is 3810 miles from Auckland, 4410 from Sydney, 3400 from Yokohama, and 4890 from Manila. It is consequently a valuable outpost towards Asia, and a port of call and refuge for vessels bound both to the Far East and to Australia and New Zealand. The mail steamers to Australasia have used it continuously as a port of call. The United States has spent a great deal of money in improving and fortifying Pearl Harbour. Under the governmental act of April 1900 Hawaii became a territory of the United States, and is governed by a Senate of fifteen members and a House of Repre- sentatives of thirty, meeting twice a year at Honolulu. The Leadership of Polynesia. — The schemes of expansion and hegemony which marked the last decades of Hawaii's quasi-independence came to their full glory and climax in the reign of King Kalakaua (1874-91). They were some- what ambitious and visionary, but something of leadership in the Hawaiians that deserved merit manifested itself many years earlier. The first evidences of this were of a purely missionary and national character. The Protestant Church in the group made such satisfactory progress after the first native evangelist was ordained in 1843, tnat about 1863 the American Board of Missions fejt justified in declaring it self-supporting and capable of managing its own affairs. It had, indeed, all the attributes of a self-governing Christian community, and was already imbued with a robust zeal for foreign missions. The Hawaiian Society for Foreign Missions was formed in 1850, and two years later, reinforced by some new missionaries from Boston, it sent out its first offshoot — to Kusaie, or Strong's Island — in the Carolines, nearly 3000 miles to the westward. The second mission settled at Ponape, also in the Carolines, and later ones in the no less savage Gilbert and Ellice groups, near the equator. But the most noteworthy success of these Polynesian apostles was far to the southward, at the inhospitable Marquesas, from which the London Missionary Society had been quickly expelled in 1797 and the American Mission in 1833. The French authorities looked with less jealousy on the Polynesian missionaries than on the British and American Protestants, and when the Hawaiian evangelists 46 HAWAII went down in 1853 tnev held their ground and made many converts. To the present day traces of these courageous Christians are to be found in remote islands scattered all over the face of the Pacific. Meanwhile the Roman Catholic religion also thrived under the privileges secured for it by the intervention of Dupetit Thouars and La Place. A new diocese was founded in the islands in 1842 under the name of Arathea, borrowed from an extinct bishopric of old, and to the propaganda at Lyons was entrusted its nurture and maintenance. A Pacific Federation. — There was something of this national and missionary spirit in the impulse which prompted the Hawaiian Parliament to take action when in 1879 an aggressive treaty-making movement by England, Germany, and the United States seemed to threaten the independence of more than one Polynesian state. In 1880 the Legislative Assembly adopted a resolution recommending the king to appoint a commissioner to the states and peoples of Polynesia to represent "the enlightened, humane, and hospitable spirit of our Government and people to the kindred states of the Pacific Ocean." It was proposed that instead of permitting these " states " to be annexed, they should be placed under the joint protectorate of England, France, Germany, and the United States "in a similar manner that Samoa is governed." In the light of subsequent events the wording was not very happy. It was quite true that the Hawaiians enjoyed the blessings of peace, ease, and some civilisation, but the kingdom was only a native one in name. It was controlled entirely by whites and white interests, and the native population had decreased in numbers very gravely. To begin with, early in 1883 Hawaii sent two com- missioners to the Gilbert Islands, perhaps the least civilised at that time of all the Polynesian groups. At the same time a formal protest was delivered to Great Britain against the annexation of any territory in Polynesia (Consul Stanley to Lord Granville, 9th September 1883). This protest set forth that annexation would subvert in other groups " the conditions for favourable national development which have been so happily accorded to the Hawaiian nation." The king felt it a duty to offer advice and assistance to his kindred peoples, and for this purpose was sending a com- missioner to advise them in their national affairs. The Minister of Foreign Affairs, who signed this protest, was Walter M. Gibson, who had some time earlier been expelled 1883-6] HAWAII AND SAMOA 47 from the Dutch Indies on charges of filibustering. A .similar protest was sent to the Intercolonial Convention at Sydney in December 1883, through the Hawaiian consul at Hobari.1 The protest, coming as it did during the New Guinea discussions, had no weight or relevance at all, partly because of the extreme distance of New Guinea from Hawaii, and partly because the Papuans are not Polynesians at all. Consequently it could be ignored. Intervention in Samoa. — But the intervention of King Kalakaua in the tangled affairs of Samoa was quite a different matter. They were kindred nations, closely allied and speaking almost the same tongue. In June 1886 the Hawaiian minister in Washington informed the British and German ambassadors that his king proposed sending an envoy to Samoa to endeavour to effect a. reconciliation between the native factions, and he looked for the support of the Great Powers in his philanthropic work (Mr Sackville- West to Lord Rosebery, 24th June 1886). The minister actually visited Great Britain and Germany to enlist sympathy for the mission and "consideration for the Polynesian communities which still remain independent." But it attracted little attention. At the moment the Powers were sending their own commissioners to discuss the affairs of Samoa. Six months later, though, fearing that encouragement from outside might bolster up recalcitrant factions in Samoa, Lord Iddesleigh sharply warned Hawaii not to interfere. But the interference was in active progress. The Hon. John E. Bush, a half-caste Hawaiian, had left for Samoa as " Minister Plenipotentiary to Samoa and Tonga and High Commissioner to the independent chiefs and peoples of Polynesia." He travelled in a Hawaiian warship, the Kaimiloa, with a retinue and much eclat, and his mission was " to try to realise for the inhabitants the blessings of confirmed independence and a reliable administration." Kalakaua disclaimed any intention of interfering, but hoped that the presence of his envoy would conduce to a rational settlement of difficulties. He proposed to approach also Tonga, already guaranteed by the maritime powers, and Other groups which he conceived to be in the position of "mere waifs to be seized upon by the first strong hand that may be stretched out to take them." 2 A Comic Mission. — Mr Bush was received by Malietoa, 1 P.P., C. 3863. 2 P.P., C. 5629. 48 HAWAII the paramount chief of Samoa, with every expression of joy, especially when he expressed his desire that Samoa should be able to maintain " peaceful stability and perfect autonomy " by the help of the friendly advice of Kalakaua. He pro- posed to confer the Grand Cross of the Royal Order of the Star of Oceania on Malietoa, but was unable owing to the insignia having been miscarried in the post. Bush caused an expensive house to be built in a prominent position in Apia, and announced that the Kaimiloa would be stationed in Samoa (Acting-Consul H. F. Symonds to Marquess of Salisbury, 22nd February 1887). An early outcome of the mission was a convention for political federation with Kalakaua. Acting on his recognised kingship and on the advice of his two legislative chambers', Malietoa pledged himself to conform to " whatever measures may hereafter be adopted by His Majesty King Kalakaua and be mutually agreed upon to carry into effect this political federation." Of the three treaty powers interested in Samoa, Germany alone seemed to take the matter seriously. Salisbury would not go further than to say that Malietoa had been ill-advised in making such an alliance without consulting the powers. He suggested a joint intimation to Hawaii that the affair • was likely to produce anarchy and disorder and could not be recognised (Salisbury to Sir L. Sackville-West, 31st May 1887). 1 Bush had in, the meantime been creating something of a stir in Apia. A great saloon was erected near the Embassy, and here the Samoan chiefs were entertained in lavish style, and not altogether temperately. R. L. Stevenson gives a most entertaining account of the whole mission, of which he remarks that " the most obvious fault was that it came too late." The Embassy commenced with a show of extravagance. When Bush entertained " all decency appears to have been forgotten. High chiefs were seen to dance, and day found the house carpeted with slumbering grandees, who must be roused, doctored with coffee, and sent home." Malietoa himself protested against the debauchery, and after a few weeks of bootless intrigue with various factions and parties ''the rough and tumble embassy withdrew on borrowed money." 2 The Kaimiloa passed through a series of accidents and mutinies and vicissitudes and she regained , Honolulu in time to find that there had been a peaceful revolution. The first act of the new government was to 1 P.P., C. 5629. * A Footnote to History, by R. L. Stevenson. 1887] BUSH'S RETURN 49 recall the expensive tourists, and so, apparently, to avoid a rupture between Germany and Hawaii. The only importance this absurd episode has was given to it by Bismarck in his celebrated thunderbolt of ist August 1887, in which he attributes the outbreak of civil strife to "the unwarranted interference of the Hawaiian Government" (Prince Bismarck to Count Hatzfeldt). 1 " So might a fly irritate Caesar," remarks Stevenson. Thus ended the dream of a Polynesian Empire. When his recall arrived Bush was passing between the camps of the opposing parties. Fearing to return to Hawaii he made his abode at Apia. 1 P.P., C. 5629. CHAPTER IV THE LABOUR TRAFFIC Origin of the Demand. — No sooner had the young colonies of Australia begun to make a considerable expan- sion than the lack of a numerous working class, as Gibbon Wakefield had foreseen, made itself felt with particular severity. Even so early it was a matter of great difficulty to induce labourers to remain for long in the lonely " back- blocks " if they had any opportunity of regaining the towns, where the conditions of life were so much more attractive. When the moral sense of the community had already con- demned transportation, the urgent need for labour, pressing periodically on all the colonies in turn, was one of the few arguments for its continuance. Before the middle of the nineteenth century numerous individual natives were brought from the islands to Australian ports by whalers and traders. They were chiefly from the nearer groups — New Guinea, the New Hebrides, and the Solomons — the nearest of which was some 800 miles from Brisbane. They were a strong, able-bodied race and showed a distinct aptitude for pastoral life. When development spread northward from New South Wales into Queensland and assumed there the aspect of planting, the demand for such labour was intensified, and the "trade" in kanakas 1 grew naturally and freely out of these necessities. " Blackbirding." — The trade in native labourers dates at least as far back as 1847. At any rate, in that year the crews of two British traders, the Portania and the Velocity, while "trading for cannibals," came into collision with the natives of Rotuma, an outlying island to the north of Fiji. According to the report of the naval captain who investigated the affair, they were endeavouring, by fair means or foul, to obtain from the New Hebrides, Rotuma, and the Gilberts, 1 Polynesian word for " man ; " Maori, tangata. 50 1847-61] ISLANDERS AS SHEPHERDS 51 natives who would eventually be disposed of as shepherds and herdsmen in Australia. 1 Sir George Grey, then Governor of New Zealand, hearing of the outrage, instructed Captain Maxwell of H.M.S. Dido, to proceed to the spot and make full inquiry. The incident arose, as he supposed, out of attempts to seize natives for importation to New South Wales, where they might be employed as labourers. He accordingly sent the facts to the governor of that colony'and instructed his own officials to do all in their power to detect the miscreants. 2 Earl Grey fully approved of this action. " I need not assure you," he added, " of the most anxious desire of Her Majesty's Government to do all in their power to prevent the ill-treatment of the natives of those islands by British subjects." He had pointed out to the Governor of New South Wales, he said, " that one of the most effectual means of .guarding against such abuses is to exercise a vigilant superintendence over the treatment of any natives who may be brought to New South Wales, in order effectually to prevent them being brought into any relations to their employees which may approach to a condition of slavery. If this precaution is strictly observed I am induced to hope that individuals will not entertain such expectation of advantage from bringing these islanders to New South Wales as to induce them to pursue that object by improper means." 3 The conditions of employment had as yet little resem- blance to slavery. In fact, most of the islanders who came for this purpose were probably better off in Australia than in their native state, for food was plentiful, life secure, and the work not too hard. The labour traffic, or " blackbirding," as it came to be called, cannot be said in its early days to have had any rrtoral sanction, for the mere lack of control gave it a tendency towards the conditions of the old slave trade. And before the intercourse was well established some very distressing tales of cruelty and injustice were told. Australia was on the threshold of an industrial develop- ment, and had already visions of becoming a great sugar and cotton-producing country. But for this a supply of labour was essential — efficient and cheap and preferably non- European. The trade assumed its worst aspects when directed towards the plantations of Queensland and of Fiji. As early as 1861 the Secretary of State, in response to a 1 Life of Bishop Selwyn, by Rev. W. H. Tucker, 1879. ' P.R.O., CO. 209, vol. lix. 3 P.R.O., CO. 406, vol. ix. 52 THE LABOUR TRAFFIC petition, sanctioned the indenturing of coolie labour from Asia for the tropical and subtropical parts of Queensland, provided some such system as obtained in Mauritius and the West Indies were devised for their protection. 1 That this did not go further is undoubtedly due to the new source of supply which had opened up in the islands. Captain Towns's Experiment. — The first appearance of South Sea Island labourers, or kanakas, for work on planta- tions in Australia was in 1863, when Captain Towns, a merchant and shipowner of Sydney and a member of the Legislative Council of New South Wales, brought sixty of them from the islands in one of his own vessels, and indentured them to work on his new cotton plantation near Brisbane. In the agreements, which were dated May 1863, he covenanted to pay each man 10s. per month "in such trade as he may prefer at the end of his agreement, and to return him to his home within twelve months, should he require such." Towns is described by Sir George Bowen, then Governor of Queensland, as "a highly respectable and influential merchant," and there is evidence that he had ordered every kindness to be shown to his kanakas. He had communicated with the missionaries in the islands and announced his intention, if the scheme prospered, " to bring over the wives and families of these poor fellows as a separate race to the ordinary coolie from India." The scheme did prosper, at least for a time, for the yield of cotton had grown in two years from 38,73© lb. to 183,630 lb. 2 But unfortunately all who in the succeeding years entered on the employment of kanakas, or obtained them from the islands, were not actuated by the same humane intentions as Towns. There was no Queen's law in the Pacific. There was for a time no control or regulation in Australia beyond that provided for whites by the Master and Servants Act : and within five years blackbirding had become almost as great a scandal as the slave-trading of a generation or two earlier. The plantations of Queensland and Fiji were at that time almost the only market for black labour, and the outrages of the trade were nearly all traceable to one or the N other of these markets. The British Government soon had reports which caused it grave uneasiness. By 1867 it was demanding explanations of Queensland and calling for reports from its naval commanders in the Pacific. 1 P.P. 1861, No. 2890. - P.P. 1867-8, No. 391. 1867] LAWLESS RECRUITERS 53 A Demand for Control. — In Australia also the Queens- land Government was being taken to task. Replying to local representations early in 1867, it agreed to bring in further legislation if it should be considered that the Master and Servants Act (25 Vict. No. 11) was not sufficient to protect the kanakas and secure the proper enforcement of contracts. The abuses were many-sided. In the first place natives were enticed on board the recruiting ships by offers of presents and then forcibly kidnapped. This practice was well established, and was responsible for many of the later massacres of ships' crews and burning of the ships them- selves. In other cases natives were induced to sign contracts in good faith, the terms and period of which were not understood. The conditions under which they were carried to their destination were in many cases shockingly insanitary and uncomfortable. Finally, many of the natives were cheated as to the length of their indentures, and kept at, work for a year or more beyond the time for which they thought they had contracted. There was, too, a good deal of dishonesty in regard to the " trade " in which they received their payment at the end of the agreement ; and there were many authenticated cases in which they were returned, not to their own homes, but to hostile villages where they were attacked, or where, if they had been paid in arms and' ammunition, they themselves were the aggressors. Captain Luce, of H.M.S. Esk, after an exhaustive investi- gation of "outrages" by natives on trading ships at the islands, came to the conclusion that most of them were committed out of revenge for the carrying off of their able- bodied men. " I know from my own experience," he writes, " that many of these vessels trading to the New Hebrides are manned by rough and very lawless men who, finding themselves beyond the reach of any civilised power, behave towards the natives with injustice. It is to be hoped that vessels of the squadron will be able frequently to visit the islands and to see that the trade is carried on with justice and according to law." The less logical but almost inevitable corollary is recorded by Captain W. H. Blake, of H.M.S. Falcon, who, owing to the hostility of the natives of Hinchinbrook Island, in the New Hebrides, was unable to have any communication with them. " I deemed it the wisest course of action," he writes (to Commodore Lambert, 4th August 1867), "that would have the appearance of exacting reparation for their savage conduct — of which it was afterwards proved there was not the slightest doubt — E 54 THEfLABOUR TRAFFIC and at the same time impress them with the power of a ship of war when she comes to enforce retributive justice for the same." Accordingly he landed a force and burned some villages and canoes. Unfortunately the crime and the punishment followed in a vicious circle, and the best sailors and missionaries deplored the necessity which introduced the British man- of-war to so many islands in a purely punitive capacity. Yet it was a virtual necessity, for the islander, too often aggrieved, could not distinguish between the Queen's ship and the slave-trader, and showed a hostile front to both. The Emigration Commissioners. — The Home Government was harassed by constant questions in the House of Commons and became very restive, urging Queensland to greater activity in repressing abuses. That quaint body, the Emigration Commissioners, to whom the Colonial Office in the sixties turned with almost childish Faith for advice in its difficulties, could see no objection to the employment of kanakas, provided they were carried in licensed ships and were protected by Government regulations. The Commis- sioners shared with the Secretary of State an extraordinary belief in the power of the islanders to understand written contracts : a belief palpably too sanguine, as all the evidence from the islands shows (T. W. C. Murdoch to the Colonial Office, 23rd December 1867). They approached the subject in the preconceived belief that things were no worse than might be expected ; and even when the investigations of the Royal Navy had established the iniquities beyond any possible doubt, the Commissioners were still blithely writing : " Nothing but clear proof of grave abuse would justify the interference of the Government, and as far as our information goes no such abuse has yet been proved " {Ibid., 6th May 1868). As the nearest group to Australia, and thickly populated, the New Hebrides suffered very severely from the depreda- tions of the " blackbirders." A memorial from the Presby- terian missionaries there showed that by September 1867 several small islands had been quite denuded of their male population, many of whom had been taken away by fraud. The removal of the best specimens had greatly reduced the standard of the populations. The men often did not return, and those who were left developed bad and dangerous characters from contact with the traders. The New South Wales Government was appealed to, apparently as that of the mother colony ; but the Parkes 1867-8] PRACTICAL " SLAVERY" 55 Ministry held that the traffic was Queensland's affair and did not constitute a case for legislative interference by New South Wales. It did, however, transmit the memorial to the Home Government for consideration. Degenerating into Slavery. — The Admiralty probably understood the problem better than the Colonial Office, for it had numerous reports from its excellent system of govern- ment by commodore, which contributed so powerfully before the arrival of a proper jurisdiction to rehabilitate the British name in the South Seas and to purge the islands of their worst abuses. And the Admiralty told the Colonial Office plainly (7th December 1867) that the traffic was rapidly degenerating into slave-hunting and slave-trading, and that the system of kidnapping and piracy led by a natural process to the murder of innocent white men visiting the islands for the purposes of lawful trade. Whatever other authorities might think, the Admiralty gave its frank opinion that no proper and efficient control could possibly be exercised over the recruiting of island labourers. Thus in the short space of five years the trade had become slave-hunting pure and simple. This aspect of the business was not mitigated in the least by the fact that most of the employers both in Australia and Fiji treated their labourers with consideration and humanity. In the absence of any jurisdiction, the recruiting conditions were bound to become progressively worse. Possibly the majority of the vessels engaged were British ; but this did not make the task of the British Navy any the easier, for a master against whom abuses were alleged could generally escape punishment by changing the nationality of his vessel. It is questionable, too, whether the bulk of the kanakas were destined for British employers. Fiji was not yet a British colony, and many of them went also to Samoa, where the planters were of various nationalities. Nor did the Colonial Office at all acquiesce in the public opinion of the " beaches," which said that eventually Fiji must be British. The police of the Pacific was a great and a gratuitous task for the British Navy ; but it was a task in conformity with its traditions. France lodges a Complaint. — Early in 1868 the labour traffic assumed an international aspect as the outcome of a complaint from the French governor of New Caledonia (M. Guillain) that British vessels had been taking men by force from the Loyalty Islands, a dependency of his colony. " Ces sont des actes de quasi-piraterie qui privent la colonie des bras qui lui font deja tant defaut." Whitehall replied 56 THE LABOUR TRAFFIC that it was well aware that " lawless and cruel acts had been committed in these seas by Europeans, which had led to savage reprisals on the part of the natives. They found great difficulty in repressing such of these outrages as were chargeable against British subjects," and asked for details of any particular cases to enable them to devise a more effective method, of control. The British Government had not quite accepted the view of the Admiralty that the trade was altogether bad. It informed the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society that there was no evidence that men of good position in Australia were engaged in it, or that any of the islanders in Queens- land had been kidnapped, and it quoted naval reports in support of this statement. 1 An Ocean 'without Jurisdiction. — It was soon clear that whatever Australia might do about the traffic some sort of jurisdiction would have to be set up to cope with the abuses amongst the far-flung and remote islands. The first Act of police for the South Seas was 57 Geo. III., c. 53, passed in 1 817. It provided , that manslaughters and murders committed in New Zealand or Otaheite (Tahiti), or at any place not within the British dominions, or subject to any European state or power, or to the United States of America, by any person sailing in or belonging to a British vessel, or who had sailed in a British vessel and had left it to live ashore, might be tried and punished in any part of the British dominions. In 1824, c. 96 empowered the Supreme Court of New South Wales to take cognisance of offences committed by British subjects in the Pacific, and five years later 9 Geo. IV., c. 43, authorised the courts of New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land to deal with all offences whatever committed by British subjects at sea, in New Zealand, Tahiti, or any place in the Indian or Pacific Ocean not subject to any foreign jurisdiction and where the admiral had jurisdiction. A year or two later, with very good reason, Lord Howick introduced a bill greatly widening the powers of the Govern- ment of New South Wales in respect to the Pacific, but it lapsed with the session. It was one of the main reasons for the foundation of the colony of New Zealand in 1839 that the British Government felt compelled to do something to control the lawless British subjects who had settled there, to the detriment of the natives. These statutes did not at all meet the new position. 1 P.P. 1867, xlviii., No. 391. 1868] A GOVERNOR ADMONISHED 57 There were innumerable hiding places for evil-doers in the remote islands ; there were no consular powers to send suspects for trial to British colonies ; and there were many facilities by which captains against whom anything was alleged could either change their nationality or disappear into the China trade for a few years. Queensland Rebuked. — Granville was always slow to move, but the humanitarian interest in Parliament continually harassed him about the labour trade and stirred him to activity. He took Governor Blackall seriously to task for his apparent failure to appreciate the responsibility resting on him as representative of the Queen in the colony which was being indicted : — " I wish you clearly to remember that the matter is not a mere colonial question. It is a matter affecting foreign though uncivilised countries, and the honour of the British name in connection with them. It is a matter in which H.M. Government feel the deepest interest and in respect to which you, as their officer, are under a most serious responsibility. It is for you to take care that the Home Government is not misled but receives accurate and fullest informa- tion respecting what is going on in Queensland, and to use your utmost influence to secure that the immigrants receive in relation to their employers that special treatment which immigrant labourers receive in other colonies to which coloured immigrants, as they are called, proceed, and without which they must be at the mercy of those about them." The Home Government, he said, wished to be in a position to vindicate the character of Queensland if the abuses did not exist. 1 The Emigration Commissioners reassured Granville with the opinion that Queensland had done all it could by legislation, provided the executive administered the Act with sufficient stringency, but they suggested that Imperial legislation was necessary to deal with Australian vessels outside territorial waters. Mr Thurston's Vigorous Conduct. — Fiji, by its central position amongst the islands, was an important post in dealing with the traffic, and England was fortunate in having as consul here Mr J. B. Thurston, an official already noted for his courage and his unique knowledge of the natives of the Pacific. Lacking the powers of a magistrate, which seemed so essential in the peculiar nature of the trade, largely on his personal responsibility he took the strongest 1 P.P. 1868-9, xliii., No. 408. 58 THE LABOUR TRAFFIC possible stand on the question of the labour traffic. He insisted on British shipowners taking out licenses before carrying natives, and before allowing any indentured kanakas who came to Fiji to proceed to the plantations, he examined them personally at the consulate and satisfied himself that they understood their engagement. As the servant of the British Government he was hampered by no vested interests or local pressure, and he was absolutely fearless. Thurston's candid opinion in September 1868, when the trade had already been condemned by the commodores and the missionaries, was that the abuses were not beyond his own power to control and redress. At the same time he admitted that "no authority exists in Fiji for the due protection of these people should necessity arise, or consular authority be resisted." For that reason he suggested — there being no established government at all in Fiji — that the consul should be armed with magisterial powers to compel British employers at any rate to carry out their contracts. 1 Lord Clarendon takes Action. — The opinion of Com- mander Palmer, R.N., of H.M.S. Rosario, after a thorough cruise of the western islands as far north as the line, was that the labour traffic was " in no way removed from a regular slave trade." 2 It was on this text that Lord Clarendon, prompted by "humanity and public feeling," addressed a circular to all the consuls in the Pacific in the interests of immigrant labourers. Well aware of what Thurston had done, how " necessity and convenience had practically secured to him a certain extent of jurisdiction, more or less recognised by the resident community," he nevertheless felt that "an intolerable responsibility would be thrown upon Her Majesty's Government if the present state of things were allowed to continue " (Circular to Consuls, 7th July 1869). The Queensland Polynesian Labourers Act was assented to in March 1868, yet within twelve months there was a recrudescence of outrages, and Clarendon felt strongly that unless "the cupidity of speculators in human labour" could be checked there must be immediate Imperial legislation (Foreign Office to Colonial Office, 3rd August 1869). He appealed also. to the United States to co-operate, remarking that some of the Fiji planters for whom the kanakas were being obtained were Americans, and that it was hoped to induce an emigration of cotton planters thither from the Southern states. He suggested quaintly that it was to the 1 P.P. 1868-9, xliii., No. 4222. 2 p.p., c. 399. 1872] QUEENSLAND'S INDIFFERENCE 59 interest of the United States Government to assist to control such a community, and "operations which were likely to degenerate into a slave trade, slightly disguised." A similar invitation was held out to the North German confederation, whose subjects had large interests in Fiji. 1 Clarendon even went to the length of dictating to the quasi-independent government of Hawaii the conditions under which, if at all, it should convey labourers to its own plantations; but this trade — with the Gilbert Islands — fell through in 1870 for lack of success. A Case for Imperial Action. — The complaints of the Governor of New Caledonia were investigated by a royal commission set up by the Government of New South Wales on a vague hint from the Imperial Government. The com- missioners jealously defended the Queensland traffic against charges which it suggested could more properly be laid against Fiji, but it emphasised the advisability of more active supervision by the British Government, " in order to prevent evils which would reflect discredit on the British name." Granville admitted the force of the recommendation, but strongly urged Queensland to amend and make more stringent its Act of 1866. At the same time he inquired whether the colonies would be willing to bear a share of the expense of prosecutions under Imperial legislation. Though very jealous of her character, Queensland refused indignantly to bear the expense of a commission appointed at the suggestion of the Imperial Government to satisfy public opinion in England. They were matters affecting Imperial interests, said the Colonial Secretary, and respecting which the Queensland Government had taken every precaution to satisfy itself (Cabinet memo, to Governor of Queensland, 15th April 1872). The governor was equally emphatic. The connection between the abuses of the Fiji trade and the colony of Queensland he " altogether and entirely repudiated," adding : " While I have little doubt that the greatest atrocities are constantly perpetrated against the islanders by Fijian vessels, I have every reason for thinking that the trade, as .carried on by Queensland vessels, is free from those evils which have justly caused so much indignation" (Lord Normanby to the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church of the Lower Provinces of British North America). Bishop Patteson's Death. — Commodore Stirling's report on the trade was that the worst atrocities, including kidnapping 1 P.P.,. C. 496. 60 THE LABOUR TRAFFIC and skull-hunting, occurred when kanakas were being recruited for groups other than Fiji, and at the less frequented islands. He was inclined to absolve Queensland, which had done so much by regulation. Commander Markham con- sidered that "the nefarious system of kidnapping was practised to a most inconceivable extent, and that it actually amounted to downright slavery. Blood was shed in a most wanton manner," and "the diabolical practice of head-hunting was practised." The crux of the problem, it appeared, was that the acts complained of were for the most part committed quite out of any colonial jurisdiction, on the high seas and in savage islands. Moreover, the flags of Tahiti, Fiji, Hawaii, and the French colonies were all available to give protection to the master — British or otherwise — who might find it expedient to shed his own nationality. Feeling in Australia was certainly stirred on the subject. The colony of Victoria felt its honour so deeply involved in a brutal outrage by a Victorian vessel that the Govern- ment agreed to go to any reasonable expenditure to seek out and repatriate the victims. The indignation came to a head with the murder of Bishop Patteson at Nukapu in 1871, an event which forced the Imperial Government to take action, and led directly to the passing of an Imperial Act. Pacific Islanders Protection Act, 1872. — The outcome of the negotiations and of Lord Clarendon's circular was the passing early in 1872 of the Pacific Islanders Protection Act (35 and 36 Vict., c. 19). This measure made it compulsory for every vessel engaging in the labour traffic to possess a license from the governor of one of the Australian colonies, or from a British consular officer, and it gave power to the supreme courts of all the colonies to try and punish British subjects for decoying away natives, or enlisting them against their will. The Act assumed that offenders would be tried in the courts of one of the colonies, and only made provision for obtaining evidence beyond the jurisdiction of the colonies. 1 Thus by slow measures was the necessary jurisdiction provided for. Within the year or two following the passing of this Act there was a crop of more or less important prosecutions in the courts of Australia, and some severe sentences were inflicted. There were still, however, grave difficulties in bringing offenders to the colonial courts, and in dealing with those who engaged in the trade for Fiji and other islands not 1 British Rule and Jurisdiction beyond the Seas, by H. Jenkyns. 1875] HIGH COMMISSIONER CREATED 61 within British jurisdiction. To cope with these the Act was amended in 1875 and greatly strengthened. The High Commission for the Western Pacific. — Under this Act provision was made for the creation of a high commission for the Western Pacific, and the appointment of a high commissioner, to whom in great measure would be entrusted the operation of the Acts against the labour trade. The High Commissioner was granted jurisdiction over British subjects residing outside the British dominions in the Pacific Ocean, in the same manner as if jurisdiction had been acquired by the cession or acquisition of the territory. The Vice- Admiralty Court and the High Court of Admiralty were given special jurisdiction to condemn ships seized. The issuing of licenses now became the function of the High Commissioner alone, and he was to constitute a court having cognisance of all offences committed by British subjects in the islands and full power to deal with them. The regard for native rights was shown in the clauses saving native customs and, in accordance with traditional British policy in the Pacific, negativing any presumption of authority. The recent annexation of the colony of Fiji gave the High Commissioner what was at the time the most convenient headquarters for his duties, and in the first instance the Government determined to entrust the office to the Governor of Fiji for the time being. Sir Arthur Gordon understood this when he left England, but the arrangements for the dual appointment were not made for a long time after his departure. The celebrated Pacific Islands Order-in-Council, an instrument of 321 articles, was not published until August 1877 (Hertslefs Treaties, vol. xiv., pp. 871-912). It gave full powers for the appointment of deputies in convenient groups. Article 25 authorised the High Commissioner to prohibit any person dangerous to peace and good order from living in any part of the Pacific, and the succeeding article gave the power of deportation. Western Pacific Boundaries. — This rather famous charter of Pacific administration made some slight attempt to define the boundaries of what had come to be known by the term "the Western Pacific." Without laying down limits, it specifically extended the operation of the Act to the following groups: Friendly Islands (Tonga), Navigators (Samoa), Union, Phoenix, Ellice, Gilbert, Marshall, Caroline, Solomon, Santa Cruz, Rotuma, New Guinea (east of the 143rd meridian E.), New Britain, New Ireland, Louisiade ; 62 THE LABOUR TRAFFIC and "all other islands in the Western Pacific Ocean not being within the limits of the colonies of Fiji, Queensland, or New South Wales, and not being within the jurisdiction of any civilised power." 1 How the Act Worked.— Sir Arthur Gordon was not long in discovering that there were weaknesses in this elaborate instrument which operated very unfairly on British subjects, while failing to repress similar crimes committed by foreigners, or to punish native outrages when they demanded punish- ment. The British trader and settler, being held strictly accountable to a rather sensitive regime, had no certain redress for injuries inflicted upon himself either by the natives or by his trade rivals who pleaded some other nationality. This condition produced what Gordon described -as "not unnatural irritation and a sense of being treated with injustice." Deputy commissioners were appointed at Tonga and Samoa by direction of the Secretary of State. In 1878 the Queensland Government sought and obtained for its magistrate at Thursday Island, in Torres Straits, a deputy commission for the Darnley and Murray Islands, to hold good until these islands were included within the jurisdiction of the colony. Another deputy was sent to Rotuma in 1879 in the hope of being able to curb the religious wars there. He received from the chiefs a confirmation of a previous petition for annexation, and for the next two years, pending the acceptance of the cession, he administered the island with the assistance of a council of chiefs. In 1881 Rotuma was formally annexed, and the official was sent as Deputy Commissioner to New Britain, New Ireland, and New Guinea. The Arms Traffic. — The mere kidnapping of natives, bad as it was, was not the only evil rampant in the South Seas at the time. There was a good deal of unabashed piracy, thriving on the geographical circumstances of the Pacific. And there was a very discreditable traffic in arms which for many years had the approval of the colonies, at any rate as accessories. The custom grew up at an early stage of permitting kanakas on completion of their indentures to take firearms and ammunition as part of their agreed payment. Their influence on returning to their islands thus accoutred was of the worst possible description. They and their arms rendered much more fatal than formerly the internecine wars 1 P.P., C. 3905, Report of the Commission on the W. P. Orders-in- Council. • 1879] TRAFFIC IN ARMS 63 of the tribes. The demand grew, and natives refused to sign for terms of labour abroad, unless firearms were distinctly promised as part of their "trade" at the end of the engagement. Commissioner Gorrie in 1879 strongly urged the High Commissioner to prohibit the introduction of arms into all islands in his jurisdiction. Gordon favoured the prohibition, but saw obvious possibilities of failure. Naval co-operation between the powers was essential if foreign traders were not to step in and do precisely what British traders were to be forbidden. But here the British Government was in a dilemma, and in this as in other matters the Queensland officials did their colony a grave disservice by stubbornly opposing a necessary reform. It was seriously put forward by the Colonial Secretary that to withhold arms from returning kanakas would be regarded by them as "a repudiation of the agreements under which they were recruited," and would lead to reprisals in the islands. This was conclusive. Kimberley, who was again at the Colonial Office, saw that it was premature to seek the co-operation of other powers in putting down the arms traffic, so long as the islanders were allowed freely to procure arms and ammunition on returning from an Australian colony (Lord Kimberley to Lord Augustus Loftus, 3rd April 1881). Queensland saw the reason of the argument a little later ; but still there was no power for the High Commission to interfere with foreigners. Government by Commodore. — When Gordon reached the Pacific he found the widespread system of police by the British Navy — government by commodore — to be the only jurisdiction outside the limits of the colonies. The practice continued during the lapse of two years until he was appointed to the new post of High Commissioner. Just after his appointment he was kept informed of the doings of the vessels engaged on police duty in the islands. But gradually' the naval authorities dropped the practice of sending him copies of their reports, and in December 1877 he was complaining that although he was nominally respon- sible for all the operations of police throughout the islands of the Western Pacific he was in fact kept in ignorance of what the ships were doing to that end. In one instance a lieutenant of H.M.S. Beagle had gone to the Island of Tanna, in the New Hebrides, and in a more or less irregular manner had hanged a native for his supposed part in an attack on some whites. Gordon com- 64 THE LABOUR TRAFFIC plained bitterly of the commission of such "acts of vengeance " at the request or suggestion of British residents in remote groups without previous reference to himself. He might possibly find himself, he said, travelling as a passenger in a warship which had been ordered by his naval superior to act in a manner which he, as governor of the region, might consider both unjust and injudicious. There was a good deal of correspondence on the subject, but the Government eventually decided that the naval authorities were exclusively responsible for acts of war against native tribes and for determining whether they were requisite; but that where it was practicable without undue delay they should communicate with the High Commissioner before taking action. In practice Gordon was very rarely consulted beforehand, though he almost invariably approved of what was done. 1 Lord Kimberley and Queensland. — In his second term at the Colonial Office (February 1880 to December 1882) Lord Kimberley encountered no more troublesome problem than the police of the Pacific. He was not at all sure that Queensland was whole-hearted in her efforts to check abuses, and Queensland was the only one of the Australian colonies that was actually employing kanaka labour. Nor did he derive much comfort from the despatches of the new governor (Sir A. E. Kennedy), an officer whose experience in combating the slave trade in West Africa and the coolie traffic in China made his opinion most valuable. " I have never concealed my opinion of the traffic in Polynesian savages," Kennedy wrote (March 1881). "I feel assured that scandals exist which do not reach the public and which are inevitable." He had no sympathy with his government on the question, which he was convinced would sooner or later force itself on the attention of the Imperial Government. Kimberley especially complained of the lukewarmness of Queensland towards the traffic in arms, though he admitted that the High Commissioner, while taking the same view as the Home Government, felt that it was only expressing "an impotent wish," since they had no power to deal with foreigners. It is not surprising in view of the repeated explanations and objections of the Colonial Secretary for Queensland (Sir A. H. Palmer) that Kimberley got the impression that Queensland was not very sincere in her desire to clean up the traffic. 2 1 P.P., C. 3641. 2 Ibid. 1881-4] NEED FOR REFORM 65 The state of the islands in 1881 was not a great deal better than in 1871. Outrages continued to be committed by natives and whites in turn, and the vessels of the Australian squadron were constantly employed on punitive duties. On one occasion natives of the Solomon Islands murdered Lieutenant Bower and five men of H.M.S. Sandfly. Commodore J. C. Wilson at once despatched the Emerald with stern orders "to spare neither time, trouble, nor a legitimate amount of risk " in pursuing the offenders even into the interior of the country to inflict on them severe punishment. "This is a case," he wrote, "where the prestige of the Navy is deeply concerned, and one by which, if the murders are not severely chastised, its power for good and as a deterrent to crime amongst the islands will receive a great shock." 1 It is evidence of the state of the islands that there were four other cases to be dealt with after that of the Sandfly. A Survey of the Position. — Before Gordon left the Pacific he was asked to act with Admiral Sir A. H. Hoskins and Admiral J. C. Wilson as a commission to report on the con- trol of the Western Pacific. The report amounted to an account of his stewardship and was published in 1884. 2 The commissioners came to the conclusion that within its limita- tions the High Commission had worked well. That is to say, it checked abuses committed by British subjects, largely by the temporary deputy commissions entrusted to the captains of warships. But the punitive sanctions provided were inadequate. The High Commissioner's Court could not inflict fines of more than £\o or imprisonment for more than three months, and it had no power at all of distraining on vessels. Then the powers of the Navy overlapped. There was a good deal to be said for the old practice under which a captain would carry off an offender to Australia for trial, or ship a troublesome settler away to another island. And in native troubles they inflicted the punishment they thought fit. It was a haphazard sort of justice, but on the whole it was singularly just and singularly successful. The commissioners considered that the office of High Commissioner should be separated from the governorship of Fiji so as to permit the Commissioner to visit all parts of his jurisdiction ; and as it seemed likely that the largest gathering of uncontrolled whites would shortly be in New Guinea, they suggested that he should have his headquarters 1 P.P. 1881, lx., No. 284. 2 P.P., C. 3905. 66 THE LABOUR TRAFFIC in some of the adjacent islands. Forcible kidnapping, the report said, had become rare except in the remote groups to which the trade had passed ; but the purchase of recruits by presents to the chiefs was common, and misrepresentation and cajolery were almost universal. There was, too, a good deal of recruiting of women, often for immoral purposes, and a general and deplorable disregard of native authority. But in spite of all these evils the commissioners, knowing full well that without the commission the old troubles would be worse than ever, and that other powers would eventually have to step in, did not dare to suggest the abandonment of British jurisdiction. On the other hand they urged a strengthening of the High Commission. " The evils of the labour trade are so great," they wrote, " that if we were con- vinced that it would be impossible to prevent them we should recommend its prohibition." Thurston's Courageous Action. — In the year in which this report appeared Thurston was acting as High Commissioner during the absence from Fiji of Sir G. W. Des Voeux. He well knew that his chief shared his views on the traffic in arms. Des Voeux had, indeed, suggested to Queensland in 1882 that they should jointly prohibit the giving of arms to returning kanakas, but at the moment Queensland was not disposed to acquiesce. A new government came to office in Brisbane which took more seriously the colony's responsibility towards the kanakas, and promptly passed the desired regula- tion. Victoria and New South Wales at once promulgated it, and Des Voeux, had he been in Fiji at the time, would undoubtedly have followed suit. Thurston forthwith issued his regulation under the authority of the High Commission, forbidding the traffic in arms and explosives throughout the jurisdiction. 1 In a strongly-worded despatch two months earlier he had urged Lord Derby to take action towards an international agree- ment, the neglect of which was a " discredit and a disgrace to civilisation." The men in charge of the Pacific trading stations, he said, were mostly British, German, French, or American, and they were " demoralising the natives and bringing about their rapid destruction " by the trade in arms and alcohol. What the native leaders thought of the traffic may be judged by the fact that on the eve of a new outbreak of civil war in much-vexed Samoa the paramount chief, Malietoa, appealed to the consuls to assist him in preventing 1 P.P., C. 4273, pp. 30-1 ; C. 5240, pp. n-12. 1884] INTERNATIONAL DISCUSSION 67 the sale of arms. In one small port a search of the stores revealed 600 stand of rifles, 63,000 rounds of ball ammunition, and three tons of gunpowder. Nobody knew the Pacific better than did Thurston, and he felt that the labour trade was so pregnant "with wrongdoing and suffering for all concerned that he doubted whether it could be amended except by complete suppression" (J. B. Thurston to Lord Derby, 27th February 1884). Derby fully concurred and ventured the opinion to the Foreign Office that France and Germany would probably appreciate the recognition of their position and interests in the Pacific which would be involved in inviting them to co- operate (6th June 1884). So it was that the Crown colony of Fiji led the self-governing colonies in an important measure of philanthropy towards the natives of the islands. International Conversations. — As with the slave trade, the representations of Great Britain to other powers, when they came to be made in 1884, gained much in moral force from the fact that England herself had first made the sacrifice involved. For undoubtedly there was a sacrifice. Every measure of restriction applied to British vessels and em- ployers was a handicap to British interests as compared with those of foreigners. Over and over again British captains and traders, as R. L. Stevenson has remarked, were punished by the High Commissioner's Court on the information and evidence of foreign rivals who could do the same thing with impunity. Des Voeux, moreover, knew perfectly well what was likely to be the economic effect of his prohibition. Arms were the most coveted of the emoluments which the returning kanaka brought to his home, and the islander who could not hope to get them from the Queensland or Fiji employer would be the more readily persuaded to engage for foreign planters in other groups. In fact, the prohibition would tend to dry up the supply of imported labour for British planters (Des Voeux to Derby, 5th July 1884). The governments of the United States, France, Germany, Russia, and Austria were all willing enough to participate in conversations. The German Reichstag had as long ago as 1875 debated a bill for the protection of the islanders, and there was at the moment a German commissioner established in the New Britain group. Russia desired the proposed con- vention to extend to the islands (Aleutian, Commander, and St Lawrence) in the Behring straits and to the coasts of Siberia north of Korea, where much mischief was being 68 THE LABOUR TRAFFIC done by arms and alcohol. The fur seals, too, were in danger of extermination from the same cause (Sir E. Thornton to Lord Granville, 9th December 1884). The American Government did not feel disposed to do more than exercise its discretion in permitting the traffic between its own citizens and the islanders. 1 Signs of Improvement. — There was not much tangible result from this correspondence, and for some years the traffic both in arms and alcohol continued in a more or less desultory manner. Improvement came, though, from quite a different quarter. During 1884 and the succeeding years most of the islands of the Pacific came definitely within the sphere of influence of one or other of the European powers. By the Anglo- German agreement of 1885 a hard and sharp delimitation was made of the New Guinea mainland, the adjacent islands and the Line Islands to the northward and north-east. By the Anglo-French agreement the New Hebrides came under joint control. Britain annexed the Solomons in 1893; the Gilbert and Ellice Islands in 1896-7, and in 1897 the right of Spain to prevent the sale of arms and alcohol in the Sulu archipelago was admitted by Great Britain. These acts left practically no part of the Pacific outside of the jurisdiction of one or other of the powers, and with- out exception steps were taken to protect the natives. Decline of the Kanaka Traffic. — Queensland in 1 890 stopped the employment of kanakas on the sugar plantations. The policy was temporarily reversed a year or two later owing to a great scarcity of white labour, but only for a limited term of ten years. Sir Samuel Griffith, who was responsible for the reversal, was formerly a strong opponent of imported labour ; but in face of the impossibility of finding whites to work the sugar plantations, Queensland was threatened with something of an industrial crisis. The kanakas recruited under the old system were gradually leaving the colony, and there seemed no prospect of filling their places by whites. 2 It is evidence of- the purification of the traffic in the previous decade that its renewal, under careful government supervision, actually had the approval of Bishop Selwyn. He considered that, if care was taken not to deplete the 1 P.P. 5240. 2 P.P. 1892, lvi., No. 6686. On 1st January 1892 there were only 8627 kanakas remaining in Queensland ; 464 landed during the year and 315 died there. 1892] THE TRAFFIC REVIVED 69 islands, the traffic would be of actual benefit to the kanakas. Rear-Admiral Lord Charles Scott also approved, and suggested the establishment of state depots. Nevertheless the news caused much uneasiness in England, and the governor (Sir H. W. Norman) was called upon to explain his reasons for assenting to the bill. His explanation was that it merely proposed a resumption, under the old and new safeguards, of the traffic which was suspended in 1890; that he concurred in the proposal; and that the original Act of 1880, which was much more important, was assented to by the governor of the day without reference to the Colonial Office. Knutsford was quite satisfied with the explanation. The new attitude on the kanaka traffic adopted by the Home Government is well illustrated by the reply of Lord Ripon to the complaints lodged by the Anti-Slavery Society. Britain had no power, he said, without annexing the islands or declaring a protectorate, to prevent the natives from going abroad to work. That being so, it was much better that they should go to a British colony where both the govern- ment and public opinion would look after their interests. And he added : — " It should be borne in mind that the difficulty of interfering in such a matter is enhanced by the circumstance that an important self-governing colony is affected, and that a large measure of the responsibility in such a matter had been transferred from the Government and Parliament of this country to Her Majesty's Government and the legislature established by Imperial acts in the colony." x Queensland Safeguards for Islanders. — Meanwhile Queensland had itself gazetted a proclamation forbidding the recruitment of labourers at Santa Cruz, at Tongoa in the New Hebrides, and "at any place or island within the German sphere of influence. 2 Attention had been called in 1888 to the exceptional mortality in Queensland amongst kanakas from the Santa Cruz group, and in consequence an embargo was placed on their recruitment. Tongoa was also closed in 1890 as the result of a petition from the chief complaining that the island was being depopulated. In a few years both these objections seem to have lost their value. Special dieting arrangements were made for the men from Santa Cruz, and as to Tongoa it was found that, being 1 P.P. 1893, C. 7000. Proclamation, Queensland Gazette, nth July 1892. F 70 THE LABOUR TRAFFIC prohibited direct recruitment, the kanakas evaded the prohibition by crossing to other islands and signing on there 1 Under the circumstances Queensland shortly re- opened both islands to the recruiter. A One-sided Arrangement. — The protectorate in the Solomon Islands did not affect the question of recruiting. Rear- Admiral Bowden Smith reported in 1894 that the traffic as carried on there was " the best means of civilising and Christianising the natives." On the other hand, it was not long before the protectorate officials complained of the one-sided arrangement which had been concluded with Germany at the time of the delimitation of spheres, and with France. As a result French and German vessels from New Caledonia and New Britain were actively recruiting kanakas in the British protectorate and trafficking in arms and ammunition, while British vessels were not permitted to recruit in the German or French spheres. 2 Recruiting in the Gilbert Islands for the Fiji plantations was practically killed in 1895 on the recommendation of Sir John Thurston, whose unexampled knowledge of the Pacific islanders was always a sure guide to the Colonial Office. He admitted that the population was redundant, but the idle life these people had led on calcareous islands fore- shadowed a heavy mortality if they were taken to work in Fiji. Recruiting, too, both here and in the Ellice group, seriously militated against the efforts of the British officials to create an efficient administration. On grounds of humanity and expediency alike he opposed the traffic. 3 In face of this strong representation Ripon would only permit a few Gilbert islanders to be taken, for purposes of experiment ; and Chamberlain, coming to office a few months later, stopped the traffic entirely. The White Australia Laws. — That the traffic in kanakas for work in Queensland had by this time lost most of its objectionable features was evident from the fact that, when the Commonwealth Parliament in 1901 passed a law abolishing it, more than 3000 kanakas employed in Queensland peti- tioned that it should be disallowed. Having been domi- ciled in Australia for some years, they looked with misgiving to being returned to the barbarism of their own islands. 1 P.P., C. 7912, Memo, of Queensland Chief Secretary, 12th March 1894. ' Report of Commissioner C. M. Woodford, on the Solomon Islands, i«97, C. 8457. 3 Thurston to Ripon, 23rd February 189; : C. 7912. 1906] LABOUR RESTRICTIONS 71 On the "broad constitutional ground" of allowing a dominion to decide such a matter for itself, Chamberlain refused to advise the disallowance of the bill — it was part of the White Australia policy which he felt himself bound to support — but he was glad of an assurance from the Common- wealth that it would take proper measures to have the repatriated- kanakas returned to their own villages. 1 Policy in the New Hebrides. — Following on the complaints of the officials, the British Government in 1906 declined to restrict recruiting in the New Hebrides to service within the group. The position was that as the French and Germans both recruited here for their distant plantations the British resident settlers were at some disadvantage. The Colonial Office took the attitude that if the natives were not allowed to engage for other groups, the resident settlers would obtain a practical monopoly of their labour, and would be freed of all competition. They could not see that the natives should be denied the oppor- tunity of engaging for abroad if they wished. Elgin's final remark is gratuitously sharp : — " His Majesty's Government feel under no obligation to assist the local planters to secure a supply of labour at rates of wages less than those which may be described as the current rates in the Pacific." 2 A similar proposal to forbid Solomon islanders recruiting for service beyond the group had already been rejected for the same reason. The matter was discussed at the Imperial Conference in the following year, and Elgin was converted to the Australian point of view, but the French Government, continually exercised by the need of labour for the adjacent colony of New Caledonia, would not agree to the restriction. 3 Recruiting for oversea employment amongst the Pacific Islands is now almost a dead letter. The white labour policy of Australia has entirely extinguished the Polynesian kanaka in the Commonwealth and its dependencies; while the plantations of Fiji are worked chiefly by Hindu labour, part of which is imported by indenture and part indigenous, the offspring of earlier immigrants. 1 Chamberlain to Sir H. C. Chermside, 8th August 1002 : P.P., Cd. 1285. s Elgin to Governor-General of Australia, 16th November iqo6 : Cd. 3288. 3 Elgin to High Commissioner for Western Pacific, 7th June 1907 : Cd. 3876. 72 THE LABOUR TRAFFIC Position of the High Commission. — Recent developments have rather diminished than added to the importance of the office of the High Commissioner. Before the extinction of blackbirding and the arms traffic it seemed likely that the post would grow in importance, and Elgin expressed the view as late as 1906 that it would soon have to be separated from the governorship of Fiji. 1 Since then, however, there has been a new orientation in the Western Pacific. The dominions of Australia and New Zealand have been more insistent in their demand to control the adjacent islands ; and they have shown — Australia in Papua, New Zealand in the Cook Islands — that they are to be trusted to administer such offices with efficiency and disinterestedness, and to be faithful stewards of the British responsibility towards black races. Trade connections have also developed considerably. Yet the great war has laid bare the dangers of permitting the Pacific Islands to remain a scattered array of incoherent and heterogeneous units, ruled by half a dozen different authorities, on more than half a dozen constitutions, and unconnected either by steam communications or by wireless. The proposals of the Interstate Commission on Pacific Trade for the future control of our possessions in that region are referred to elsewhere. 1 Elgin to Governor-General of Australia, 16th November 1906 : Cd. 3288. CHAPTER V THE STORY OF FIJI A Western Pacific Centre. — The fact that the early Protestant missionaries entering the Pacific came by way of Cape Horn gave a prior importance to Tahiti as a centre of influence. The signal success of the missions there increased this importance and tended to perpetuate it long after the centre of gravity had shifted westward. 74 THE STORY OF FIJI In point of position, however, the islands of Fiji, centred about 18 deg. S. and 178 deg. E., with their fine harbours and their fertile soil, were the natural axis of Polynesia and also, for some decades at least, of Melanesia. This claim Fiji asserted very soon after the arrival of the Wesleyan missionaries in 1835. When the Australian colonies began to expand, the Fiji Islands were much frequented by whalers and traders, by escaped convicts and by free settlers, and they had become so much a subject of discussion by 1840 that Commodore Wilkes, U.S.N., regarded their proper survey as one of the most important objects of his voyage. Following his visit, too, the United States appointed a vice- consul in the group. How Christianity Came. — The real impetus to Christianity in Fiji came, strangely enough, from the zealous arms of the converted Tongans. Pre-eminent amongst the Polynesians for their warlike qualities, the Tongan immigrants were appealed to by Thakombau to rescue him from his enemies. King George willingly responded, raised the siege, re-established the authority of the so-called "king," and peremptorily urged him to embrace the Christian religion , with a proper enthusiasm. The incursion was quite successful in respect to the propagation of the gospel, which henceforth prospered exceedingly amongst the Fijians. From a purely political point of view it only removed one of Thakombau's dangers to introduce another. Henceforth the overbearing Tongans themselves, under the supreme leadership of Maafu, who ranked as a co-equal chief with Thakombau, were the principal cause of his troubles. Meanwhile, as regards the outside world, the importance of Fiji steadily grew. Traders, whalers, and planters- English, American, and German — settled on its beaches and frequented its nascent towns. Their interests grew and clashed and menaced those of the natives. Before 1850 annexation by Great Britain was already hinted at as the ultimate and only solution of outstanding problems. But British policy held out stubbornly against the most clamant demands for expansion. Mr W. T. Pritchard Appointed Consul. — In 1857 the Foreign Office nominated to the consulate at Fiji one who had been born and brought up in the Pacific, in just such an atmosphere as that of Fiji. W. T. Pritchard was the son of the missionary-consul and erstwhile dictator who had fought it out so stoutly in Tahiti, first against the advent 1858] ENGLAND'S PROTECTION SOUGHT 75 of any European government, and afterwards against the French in favour of the British. What he found in Fiji was rather less primitive than the missionary domination which had ruled so long at Tahiti under the semblance of a native sovereignty. Pritchard had not been long at his new post before he took alarm at the pressure of circumstances which seemed to insist on intervention by some European power. He was so impressed by evidence of aggression by one or another of the great powers that he left his post without permission and went straight to London to instigate the Government to action. In explanation of this step, 1 he said that the measures adopted by several foreign powers required immediate attention, and with a view to eventualities he had armed himself with a document purporting to be a voluntary cession of the islands by the king. Thakombau's title, he contended, was unquestionable, having been acknowledged by the commanders of British, French, and American warships, while the French and American governments had concluded treaties with him. In point of fact Thakombau appears to have been one of several co-equal district chiefs. The com- mander of an American warship, in demanding compensation for injuries suffered by American subjects, had assumed him to be the sovereign, in spite of his earnest disclaimers, and from that time he was regarded in Europe as " King of Fiji." First Offer of Cession, 1858. — Pritchard himself made a very strong case for the annexation of Fiji, placing in the forefront of his argument the fact that it lay on the direct route from Australia to Panama, and in foreign hands would menace very seriously the communications of British commerce. The offer of cession, 2 which was signed by Thakombau as " sovereign chief of Bau and its dependencies, Vunivalu of the armies of Fiji and Tui Viti," etc., set forth that — "Whereas we, being duly, fully and formally recognised in our aforesaid state, rank and sovereignty by Great Britain, France and the United States of America respectively, and having full and exclusive sovereignty and domain in and over the islands and territories constituting, forming, and being included in the group known as Fiji, or Viti, and being desirous to procure for our people and subjects a good and permanent form of government, whereby they shall enjoy and partake of the benefits, the prosperity and 1 Pritchard to Colonial Office, 2nd February 1850 : P.P. No. ->Qqc 2 P.P. 1862, No. 2995. v * 3 " 76 THE STORY OF FIJI the happiness which it is the duty and the right of all sovereigns to seek and to procure for their people and subjects," and being unable to protect them from the violence and oppression and tyranny of foreign powers " do hereby, for and in consideration of certain conditions, terms and engagements make over, transfer, and convey unto Victoria, by the grace of God, Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the full sovereignty and domain in and over our aforesaid islands and territories." * The chief conditions were that Thakombau should retain the title of Tui Viti and should remain at the head of the department of native affairs, though acting always under the guidance and by the advice of the representative of Great Britain : that England should pay the sum of 45,000 dollars in settlement of American claims against Fiji, receiv- ing in return the fee simple of 200,000 acres of land. The cession purported to be made on behalf of the king himself^ the chiefs and the people of Fiji, and was dated 12th October 1858. Thakombau signed with his mark in the presence of John S. Fordham (Wesleyan missionary), John Binnie (Wesleyan trainer), Robert S. Swanston (Hawaiian Consul), and William T. Pritchard (H.B.M. Consul). The document was endorsed as being recorded in the archives of the consulate (register No. 6, folio 14). Arguments for Annexation. — Pritchard was not by any means breaking fresh ground at Downing Street. The annexation had already been urged on the Government, on grounds of state, of humanity, and of law and order. The Admiralty had already expressed the opinion that a calling station between Sydney and Panama was indispensable, and that a port of call at Fiji would only add 320 miles to the direct route from Sydney to Panama and 420 miles to that from Sydney to Vancouver. "I have been much struck," wrote Admiral Washington, the hydrographer, " by the entire want by Great Britain of any advanced position in the Pacific Ocean. The Panama and Sydney mail communication is likely to be established : yet we have no island on which to place a coaling station and where we could ensure fresh supplies. It may hereafter be found very inconvenient that England should be shut out from any station in the Pacific and that an enemy should have possession of Tongatabu, where there is a good harbour within a few hundred miles of the direct track of our homeward-bound gold ships from Sydney and Melbourne. 1 A Mission to Viti, by Berthold Seemann, 1862. 1859] PRESSING THE OFFER 77 Neither force nor batteries would be necessary to hold the ground : a single cruising ship should suffice for all the wants of the islands. Coral reefs and the hearty goodwill of the natives would do the rest." The Colonial Office was anxious to know whether the acquisition of Fiji would give England all the available harbours in that part of the Pacific. As to this there was the statement of Captain Loring, R.N., that the common belief in these seas was that they must soon fall into the hands of one of the great powers. The Foreign Office, for its part, was not aware that acceptance of the cession would violate any rights or claims belonging to other powers. A Mission of Investigation. — From the economic point of view the Manchester Cotton Supply Association favoured the acquisition of the group, on the strength of scientific statements that they were suitable for cotton growing — an opinion which was afterwards well borne out. The Legisla- tive Council of New South Wales passed a resolution in favour of annexation, and to remove the financial obstacle a wealthy Australian landowner offered a cheque for the full amount of Thakombau's indebtedness to America. The Colonial Office, however, was not enamoured of the proposal to extend its responsibilities, and decided to send out a commissioner to investigate the prospects of the country and the liabilities that would be involved in accept- ing its sovereignty. A New Offer of Cession, 1859. — Meanwhile Pritchard returned to his post somewhat rebuffed for his activity, but no less enthusiastic than before. At the end of 1859 there was still no sign of the Commissioner arriving in Fiji when another council of chiefs "representing all the districts of Fiji" was held. The deed of cession drawn up fourteen months earlier was unanimously ratified and renewed, and the chiefs begged Pritchard to urge its acceptance on the Government. Thenceforward the council went very fast and very far, and in a few days had practically nominated Pritchard dictator of Fiji, in the sure and certain belief that eventually the queen would accept the cession. In view of his rather cold reception at the Foreign Office, the consul was courting trouble in the rash attitude he took up. His influence over the chiefs, we learn from later visitors, was certainly not less than that of his father over the chiefs of Tahiti. The nondescript white community of Fiji was seething with 78 THE STORY OF FIJI intrigue. Pritchard did not hesitate to use his whole influence to promote what he thought to be the interests of Fiji and Great Britain ; but he seems to have differed from his official superiors in believing those interests to be identical. On three successive days in that historic council of December 1859 Pritchard (1) had the deed of cession ratified : (2) secured authority to hold consular courts : (3) had himself appointed head of the native government. 1 "The chiefs of Fiji in council assembled," he wrote to the Foreign Office, " have unanimously and urgently requested me to assume the management of their political and com- mercial affairs." He was diffident enough to say, however, that he must first consult the Foreign Office. The " law " appointing the consul to his exalted position provided by Article I. " that all transactions, communications and intercourse of every nature soever between Fiji and all foreign powers shall be conducted solely through and by William Thomas Pritchard, Esquire, H.B.M.'s consul for Fiji." Article II. was even more startling: — " That we hereby delegate, cede and make over to and vest in the said William Thomas Pritchard the full, unreserved entire, and supreme right, authority and power to govern Fiji according to the broad and plain principles of justice and morality, and to make, enact and decree whatever and all laws, regulations and measures he may deem necessary, proper and expedient." The chiefs were to be a mere advisory council under his presidency, and this system was to remain in force until the offer of cession was finally replied to. Consternation in London. — Something akin to consterna- tion took hold of the officials in London when they heard what had been happening. The Governor of New South Wales (Sir William Denison), had taken alarm when he found Pritchard advertising' in the Australian papers to induce settlers to go to Fiji. He feared that if a white population was introduced it must inevitably lead to " a war of races." Like most of the Colonial Office officials, he was greatly impressed by what was then happening in New Zealand, and drew the deduction that as the Fijians were more numerous than the Maori and at the same time more concentrated, the hostilities which he predicted would be by that much the more bloody, and the task of maintaining white supremacy the more difficult. Denison's alarm was quickly communicated to the 1 Pritchard to Foreign Office, 31st December 1859 : P.P. No. 2995. 1860] A COMMISSION OF INQUIRY 79 Colonial Office, where it was feared that Pritchard might do something which could not be undone. " It may not be easy to foretell," wrote Sir F. Rogers (afterwards Lord Blachford), " or to prevent the mischief which might ensue from the unauthorised action of H.M. Consul in such a matter." Pritchard was roundly rebuked for taking steps which " might commit this country to a serious enterprise which he must well know ought to have been sanctioned by his superiors." Colonel Smythe's Investigation. — The wishes of the Colonial Office are not difficult to divine from the tenor of the commission communicated to Colonel W. J. Smythe, R.A. (23rd December 1859): — "Her Majesty's Government must continue to entrust the propagation of the gospel in the distant parts of the world, as their predecessors have entrusted it, to the piety and zeal of individuals. The hope of the conversion of a people to Christianity, however specious, must not be made a reason for increasing the British dominions. The question, therefore, whether or not the Fijis ought to be added to the numerous colonial possessions of this country must be determined by the same methods of ordinary expediency which direct the general national policy." 1 Smythe proceeded to Fiji early in i860. He found there, he said, permanent white settlers to the number of about 200, " composed chiefly of men who have left or run away from vessels visiting the islands. They do nothing to civilise or improve the natives : on the contrary they have in many instances fallen to a lower level. Whenever they can obtain spirits most of them drink to excess." As for its strategic position, Smythe thought that the possession of Fiji in time of war would be an embarrassment rather than an advantage to the British Empire, which had no need of such a post in the Western Pacific. Native Government Suggested. — The Commissioner thought that in view of the excellent progress that Chris- tianity was making in Fiji, and of the experience of Hawaii and Tahiti, " it would seem that the resources of the Pacific islands can be best developed and the welfare of their inhabitants secured, by a native government aided by the counsels of respectable Europeans." It would not be expedient, he thought, for Her Majesty's Government to accept the offered sovereignty, but for the purpose of 1 P.P. 1862, No. 2995. 80 THE STORY OF FIJI improving relations with the natives the consul should be endowed with magisterial powers and jurisdiction over offending British subjects. Reinforced by the argument of the native war in which England was already engaged in New Zealand, the report of Colonel Smythe appeared to the Secretary of State (the Duke of Newcastle) " to establish conclusively the impolicy of appropriating the Fiji Islands. A large immediate expenditure, a possible native war at an early date, and possible disputes with other civilised countries were the deciding factors." x On Smythe's suggestion it was decided to communicate the decision to the Fijians in such a manner as " to remove any painful feelings caused by the offer being declined." Accordingly, acting under instructions from the Governor of the mother colony (New South Wales), H.M.S. Miranda went to Fiji, and on ioth July 1862 Captain R. Jenkins had on board the leading chiefs, and with every mark of considera- tion and courtesy informed them of the decision of the British Government. Thus for the time ended the proposed cession of 1858-60. It was a bitter disappointment to the better whites, amongst whom Commodore Seymour had found a general feeling in favour of annexation. Charters to the Whites. — It was soon abundantly clear that the existing conditions could not last, and that some more efficient polity was required for the mixed community of natives and whites. There were many suggestions for a settled form of government, and in the following decade several attempts were made to set up constitutions suitable to the conditions. In 1865 Thakombau granted a charter to the whites in the island of Ovalau; in 1867 and 1870 to those at Levuka, enabling them to make laws for their own government. Some of his co-equal chiefs did the same — at Bua and Thakandrove. But the most successful of all these experi- ments was that of the Tongan chief Maafu, in the Lomaloma district. By adopting an excellent code of laws drawn up by Mr Swanston, he gave the whites security for life and property, and in return received a yearly revenue from them. The Lau confederation was a distinct triumph of adminis- tration. What sort jof a haphazard community it was that dwelt on the beaches of Fiji is shown by the illuminating reports 1 Colonial Office to Admiralty, 7th September 1861 : P.P. No. 2995. 1870] CHARTERS FOR WHITES 81 of the commander of H.M.S. Rosario in 1869. The British consul, having no means of carrying out English law, had to rely on " the good sense of the European residents," which naturally did not carry him very far when their own interests were at stake. Landgrabbing and blackbirding were rife, and on some of the plantations gross atrocities were practised on the kanakas. In recent years, though, a number of gentlemen had come to the group with the idea of becoming planters, and the better disposed were becoming numerically strong enough " to make their voices heard in behalf of law and order above those of the usual class of lawless rowdies who congregate in these places where no flag is flying and imagine they can do just as they please with the natives." 1 Fiji had become the headquarters of the traffic in kanakas, and month by month the position of the consul became increasingly difficult. He referred in his difficulties almost always to the Governor of New South Wales, as the mother colony, because he had been advised to do so by Lord Clarendon. Yet the Colonial Office scouted the idea that New South Wales had more responsibility in regard to the islands than any of the other colonies. It is probably the fact that being the mother colony, being the colony in most intimate touch with the trade of Fiji, and at the same time having no great interest in the kanaka traffic, New South Wales was regarded in England as the most reliable adviser on the subject 2 The Labour Traffic. — It was the abuses of the kanaka trade that influenced the Colonial Office more than anything in favour of annexing Fiji. Lord Belmore, the Governor of New South Wales, laid stress on the utter impossibility of doing anything to suppress the traffic when the consul at Fiji, the natural centre and rendezvous of the traders, had inadequate powers over British subjects and could not even send offenders for trial in the courts of the nearest colony. There were conflicting interests even in Fiji. While the consul complained of lack of powers of control, the British planters complained that they were not granted recruiting licenses, and their plantations were stagnant for want of labour. They considered it a great hardship that while the British Navy interfered to ruin their prospects purely on account of " a few ruffians," the British Government declined to assume the whole responsibility for the government of 1 P.P. No. 2995. 2 P.P., C. 399. Clarendon to March, 3rd August 1869, p. 2 : Colonial Office to Foreign Office, 20th January 1870, p. 59. 82 THE STORY OF FIJI Fiji. 1 Smarting under this injustice, many of the British planters signed a petition asking the United States to annex the group. The State of Fiji. — The first comprehensive report on Fiji by the new British consul, Edward March, was not nearly so\ depressing a picture as Lord Belmore and Captain Palmer, R.N., had given the British Government. He found that owing to the improvement in the recent class of immi- grants the body of whites bore a good reputation, some having held commissions in the army and navy, some in the colonies as mayor, alderman, magistrates, and railway directors. Planters, tradespeople, squatters, and professional men, "in the absence of any recognised form of government, submit for consular adjudication all the disputes and claims arising amongst themselves. There are a few insolvent absconders and worthless adventurers, but as their ante- cedents are known they exercise but little influence in the community" (March to Clarendon, 17th December 1869). Dr Litton Forbes 2 says that before 1871, when there was no recognised government, money was often advanced without security and a man's word was taken as his bond, and " very seldom indeed was the confidence thus reposed wilfully abused." But the great increase in the number of white settlers made this system impracticable and some form of government was absolutely necessary. Among the new- comers were some of the semi-criminal class escaping from the law in Australia, where "Gone to Fiji" bore the same significance in those days as " Gone to Texas " a few years earlier in America. At the end of 1868 Europeans in Fiji held land computed in area at 235,000 acres ; an additional 100,000 acres had been purchased during the year, and Thakombau had made a further large grant to the Melbourne Polynesian Company. Satisfaction in Downing Street. — There was unfeigned pleasure in Downing Street at the rosy picture painted by March. Clarendon said that the state of things was " more hopeful and satisfactory than he had expected." He had suggested previously to some petitioners that they should themselves frame regulations for the control of the labour traffic and invite the assistance of the consul in enforcing them. And he was only too willing to believe that his advice was bearing fruit. In fact, he was so reassured that 1 Lieutenant R. B. Leefe to Lord Belmore, 17th August 1869 : C 399- 2 Two Years in Fiji, 1875. 1870] DISORDERLY WHITES 83 he eagerly seized the excuse for withholding from March those magisterial powers which all advisers thought he should possess. The recognition extended to him by both white residents and chiefs appeared to be all that was required (Clarendon to March, 30th March 1870). Before many months were over March was bitterly rueing the pleasant impression he had given. The planters com- plained of the hardship of his rules for regulating the labour traffic, and when he had had a year's experience he was sadly disillusioned. Constant threats of naval intervention were necessary to maintain the authority of his office, and these were diluted by the fact that for a whole year after his arrival no British ship of war at all visited Fiji. When the Rosario arrived he had a deplorable list of complaints to make — of acts of violence on the part of the natives, of the flogging of kanakas, of threats, disrespect and insubordination towards himself in his official capacity, of whites taking a hand in the factional disputes of the natives, of "Bully" Hayes, the notorious pirate, contumaciously sailing away out of his observation instead of waiting to be deported to Sydney for trial. In tearful terms March begged Commodore Stirling (14th October 1870) to "check by admonition or otherwise the proceedings of a certain class of British subjects whose interference in native affairs is likely to create troubles and dissensions." 1 Perplexity of the Naval Authorities. — The commodore was not quite sure how far he should go in actively assisting consuls in the Pacific. The condition of things, according to the report of Captain Challis, R.N., was about as bad as it could be. There were now 2700 whites of all classes scattered about the group and coming into conflict with each other and the natives. The commodore was) glad to feel, at any rate, that in the event of native wars the whites were strong enough to look after themselves. The absence of disturbances showed that they were really well disposed and respectable, and if the consul had " proper authority and power " he could settle himself most of the troubles that were referred to the naval captains (Commodore Stirling to the Admiralty, 30th January 1871). Forces for Annexation. — The forces at work in Fiji could not be stayed. By its position it was becoming a nerve centre of the Pacific. It was a constant source of attraction for enterprising — and not always undesirable — , > P.P., C. 399, p. 188. 84 THE STORY OF FIJI young men from Australia, and it was a very strong centre of English influence. The movement in favour of British sovereignty was irre- sistible, but the two departments of state put their heads together to withhold all countenance from it. The Colonial Office proposed to admonish the Australian governors that " schemes of this kind should receive no encouragement or authority from H.M. Government," and the Foreign Office strongly exhorted March to abstain from taking any part in internal dissensions, or encouraging the tendency on the part of the settlers to extend their trade into the interior, and to treat the islands in the light of a colonial possession of the British Crown (Clarendon to March, 19th March 1869). 1 The Polynesian Company was formed at Melbourne in 1868 to take over the unpaid claim of the United States against Fiji, in return, for a grant from Thakombau of 200,000 acres of land as proposed in the offer of cession. Thurston at once protested against such a charter being granted, and Commodore Lambert informed the promoters that he considered it improper for British subjects to propose such an agreement to the ruler of a country without the knowledge or sanction of the British consul. Sir John Manners-Sutton, the Governor of Victoria, interposed that he was not aware that any law had been infringed, and that his Government at any rate had no power "to prevent any commercial enterprise, however wild or illusory, which was not at variance with the law." The legal basis of the commodore's veto is not clear, but the same principle will appear later asserted by a much higher constitutional authority, the High Commissioner for the Western Pacific. Rumoured American Intervention. — While things were in this state of chaos advantage was taken by some of the settlers to present the petition to the American vice-consul begging the United States to declare a protectorate over Fiji. Recovering as it was from the civil war, the republic was not in a state to consider schemes of oversea expan- sion, but the vice-consul received the petition in terms of optimism far beyond his warrant, remarking that he would hail the consummation of the project as the solution most likely to conduce to the moral and material welfare of Fiji. The threat of American intervention did not disturb the Colonial Office in the least. It informed Lord Clarendon that — the United States proposal notwithstanding — it did 1 P.P., C. 4222. 1870] THE LEVUKA CHARTER 85 not think it advisable for Great Britain to undertake the responsibility of governing the islands. Then came the official announcement from America that it had no intention whatever of declaring a protectorate. 1 This was only one of many plans discussed by the white settlers. Another was a republic. The Charter of 1870. — Thakombau's charter to the whites to form a municipal government at Levuka was dated 2ist November 1870, and was signed as " King of the Ban Dominions." It ran : — " Whereas it has been represented to me that in consequence of the large number of European settlers at Levuka, which number is rapidly increasing, for the sake of sanitary and other improvements for the public good it would be advisable to confer some special powers on the European community settled at Levuka," therefore he authorised them " to elect annually seven house or landholders, by ballot or otherwise, to form a body corporate to frame and pass such by-laws, municipal and other regulations as may be deemed necessary and expedient for the public good, and also to pass, levy, sue for and recover such rates, taxes, and other imposts as may be necessary for carrying on such corporation and any improvements by them deemed advisable." It was distinctly provided that no regulations could be lawful that were " antagonistic or contradictory to the spirit of the present constitution or any future amendments." This excited further anxiety in Australia and gave a new impetus to the demand for annexation. Whether such a community could have any international standing was doubtful. Sir James Martin, Attorney-General for New South Wales, advised that its right to enforce obedience could not be maintained. " Foreign nations," he said, " would not admit the coercive power of such a government over their subjects, unless there was that amount of fairness, force, and certainty which generally characterise the administration of affairs in civilised communities." Throughout 1870 Australia was clamouring for annexa- tion, and the historian Dr J. D. Lang led the demand that the colony should take its own measures. The Colonial Office had no difficulty in showing that the definition of boundaries on which he relied had been revoked many years earlier. The Colonial Conference. — In the middle of the year an 1 P.P. 1871, No. 435, p. 20. G 86 THE STORY OF FIJI intercolonial conference was held at Melbourne. It was resolved unanimously that for geographical reasons, for commercial reasons, and because British subjects were establishing themselves in Fiji, the islands should be annexed. The reply of the Colonial Office (Kimberley to Governor of Victoria, 16th March 1871) enunciated clearly the policy which was later restated by both Carnarvon and Derby to the confusion of the colonies : — " It would be impossible for this country to undertake the responsibility of the government of the islands without a sufficient force to support its authority, and Her Majesty's Government are not prepared to station a military force for this purpose in the Fijis. On these grounds Her Majesty's Government cannot depart from their former decision. It is not very clear what is intended by the proposal that Her Majesty should extend her protection over the Fijis, but if by this is meant something short of direct annexa- tion it seems to Her Majesty's Government even more open to objection, as while it would not diminish the responsibility this country would incur, it would weaken and embarrass the exercise of British authority, and would be certain, after a period more or less productive of uncertainty and possible discord, to end in annexa- tion under circumstances less favourable than the present." 1 A Constitutional Argument. — The protest of New South Wales only induced Kimberley to express his views a little more brusquely : — "H.M. Government must decline to admit that because a certain number of British subjects, proceeding for the most part from the Australian colonies, having established themselves in the Fijis, the Imperial Government is called upon to extend British sovereignty to these islands in order to relieve such persons and their property from the risk which they may incur. So long as this newly constituted government exercise actual authority you should deal with it as a de facto government so far as concerns districts which may acknowledge its rule; but H.M. Government are not prepared to give any opinion as to the propriety of formally recognising it without much fuller information as to its character and prospects." Argument on this point lasted for about two years. New South Wales held that as foreign policy was entirely the province of the Imperial Government, a colonial government could not recognise the Government of Fiji until Downing Street had done so (Belmore to Kimberley, with minute of N.S.W. Government, nth January 1872). The Imperial 1 P.P. 1873, No. 124. 1872-3] AN ABORTIVE GOVERNMENT 87 Government insisted on its point, and Alfred Stephens, the Colonial Minister for Lands and Works, remarked rather facetiously of the opposition in Fiji: " It must strike anyone as a strange thing that these gentlemen who were, and are, quite prepared to recognise as valid the surrender to Great Britain by Thakombau and his chiefs of the sovereignty of the Fijian territory, yet deny the capacity or the power of the same king and chiefs to establish a government of their own." Thakombau's Ministry. — According to the commissioners who investigated the matter later, the whites seem not to have known how to go about setting up a government, and they combined with a Mr Woods and a Mr Burt 1 to get Thakombau recognised as king of Fiji, and under his authority to form a ministry consisting of two native chiefs, two principal merchants, Mr Sagar, Mr Woods, and Mr Burt. The foreign residents of Levuka were assembled in Thakombau's presence, and a speech purporting to be from the throne was read announcing the nomination of the ministry and its intention to govern under a constitution. The principle of the constitution was that the chiefs should continue to govern their own people, while the whites should win the confidence of the world by showing that they were capable of governing themselves. A parliament was duly elected and sat in 1872 and 1873. It soon developed strong partisan tendencies and killed itself by the celebrated Act of July 1872, under which natives refusing to pay the poll-tax could be sentenced to hard labour on the plantations of the whites. Mr Layard and Commodore Goodenough were of opinion that this Act and the regulation by which prisoners of war also could be hired out to the planters constituted in practice a system of slavery and a violation of the Imperial Kidnapping Act. Things were somewhat improved when Thurston took office in the Ministry, but Woods remained Prime Minister. The commissioners regretted that the consul was not fitted either " by his knowledge of the islands or by a legitimate influence with the chiefs to direct the course of affairs." A Consul's Dilemma. — March was between the devil and the deep sea. In some cases he recognised the de facto government ; in others, from personal antipathy to its members, he would not. The commodore thought in 1872 1 G. A. Woods was formerly Colonial Surveyor in New Zealand, and was at the time fixing sites for lighthouses in Fiji. S. Burt, formerly of Sydney, was Thakombau's commercial agent. 88 THE STORY OF FIJI that the Government was acting in good faith ; that it was absurd not to recognise it when it exercised so much authority; and still worse to impede it by an obstructive policy. Yet this was the course March adopted. When an ex-postal official claimed against him for salary March declined to plead in a Fijian court, and suffered judgment by default. He was soon complaining of intimidation by planters and night attacks, and had to appeal to the better disposed persons to guard the consulate against the infuriated " owner " of an imported boy who had repaired thither for sanctuary. The Government admitted his right to control the native labour traffic, but when he refused to pass for the plantations some kanakas who had been forcibly kidnapped the Minister for Native Affairs, himself the consignee of the vessel that brought them, passed them in the name of the Fijian Government. When March had committed a supposed blackbirder for trial in Sydney and handed him over to the Government for custody, he was released on his own recognisances and escaped. Refugees were abducted from the consulate premises by Government agents who watched from tree-tops for their chance to pounce. Bit by bit the authority of the consul slipped away from him. Under his nose the Mayor of Levuka "bought" seven natives in direct defiance of the consular regulations which had been sanctioned by Downing Street and by practice. When he detained the schooner Nukulau on suspicion of blackbirding she put him out of court by becoming a Fijian craft in the course of a single night. The sudden assumption of the same nationality by 2000 erstwhile British subjects greatly disconcerted the consul. All these troubles, which are faithfully recorded in March's despatches to Lord Granville and in the letters of the commodore, were looked into by the latter on the spot. Captain Douglas, R.N., secured an apology from the Fijian Government, and, contrary to his personal convictions, obtained for him personal immunity for arrest, " because I deemed it would be eminently prejudicial to British interests and to the respect H.M.'s subjects should entertain for their consul were I to allow him to be arrested." But what was to be expected of March ? He was unduly touchy and sensitive, and had no faculty for co-operation. He told Granville in February 1872 that the members of the Government were men of no account, and were actuated by personal motives rather than the public good, that " its authority has no solid foundation and will most probably 1872]; WHITE CHARTER FAILS 89 end in social dislocation and turbulence." It was a great shock to him to hear that Granville had decided to acknowledge the de facto government, and he never con- formed to the change. Elements of Disruption. — The planters of Fiji have had many champions and detractors. The evidence goes to show that on the whole they treated their kanakas well and humanely, and the regulations for their protection were largely prompted by the planters themselves. To speak of them as slave owners, says Dr Litton Forbes, is a cruel injustice. " On the opening day of the first parliament the Constitution Act was read aloud. One paragraph in it enacted that no man could be a slave on Fijian soil. Anyone who heard the ringing cheer with which the house, composed mostly of planters, greeted this statement will not readily believe that such men are either slave dealers or slave owners." 1 Nevertheless the constitution inaugurated by Thakombau in June 1871 went too far. And it contained two elements of failure. In the first place it arrogated for Thakombau, who was only one of several equal territorial chiefs, the title of " king " and the prerogative of legislating for the whole group. Secondly, it proposed to govern whites as well as natives, which was palpably impossible except by consent of the whites. The fact that Thakombau was a mere figurehead, and that his government was composed almost entirely of whites, did not rob the proposal of any of its impropriety. Resistance by Whites. — As early as March 1872, long before the obnoxious Poll-tax Act was passed, the British Subjects Mutual Protection Society and the Volunteer Corps were in existence at Levuka as a direct counterblast to the de facto government. At this time Captain J. Moresby, R.N., and Lord Normanby, the Governor of New South Wales, were referring to " the friendly government " of Fiji, and the sheriff of the Fijian courts was "courteously complying" with the demand of a British captain to surrender the person of a blackbirder who had been arrested by the "friendly government." In March 1873, when the Government sent troops to punish a native murderer of a white family in the Ba district, H.M.S. Dido sailed to the spot to prevent a rupture between the troops and the white planters. Thakombau's charter clearly did not provide the requisite sanction for 1 Two Years in Fiji, by Dr L. Forbes, 1875. 90 THE STORY OF FIJI governing the country. The Cabinet was soon governing independent of Parliament, and in August 1873, foreseeing the inevitable collapse of the experiment, Kimberley com- missioned Commodore J. Goodenough, R.N., and Mr Edgar L. Layard, the new consul for Fiji and Tonga, to make a report on the position. The Goodenough Commission. — The report of the commissioners, 1 signed on H.M.S. Pearl at Levuka in April 1874, showed that four courses were open to the British Government. It might follow the advice it had received over and over again and confer magisterial powers on the consul. It might recognise the existing government. It might establish a British protectorate. It might assume complete sovereignty. The Colonial Office itself had expressed a preference for a protectorate, but this the commissioners dismissed at once owing to the strong objections of the British residents. A native government which would be tolerable to natives and whites alike was impossible, since there was no para- mount chief as in Tonga or Hawaii. The aggrandisement of the consul's office, although possible, would really amount to a protectorate of an undefined and inconvenient character. Believing that they had seen responsible government at work, neither whites nor natives wanted it, and the commissioners had no hesitation in saying that what the majority did want was Colonial Office government as a Crown colony. This would defend the interests of the natives against pressure by the whites, and would get over the difficulty arising from the disinclination of the busy planters to devote their time to parliamentary work. Finally it was suggested — and here we have the genesis of the High Commission of the Western Pacific — that the Governor of Fiji should have jurisdiction over the persons and acts of British subjects in the New Hebrides and the Solomon Islands, or all the Western Pacific islands not under French sovereignty, and should control the labour traffic. "We beg to assure your Lordship," the report ended, "that we can see no prospect for these islands should Her Majesty's Government decline to accept the offer of cession but ruin to the English planters and confusion in the native government. As a Crown colony we think Fiji would certainly become a prosperous settlement." If Thakombau should die there would be a struggle for 1 P.P., C. ion. 1874] FIJI ANNEXED 91 power, the commissioners thought, which the whites could not bring to a peaceful issue without the intervention of a man-of-war. Privately Commodore Goodenough said he looked upon annexation as a positive duty. England had interfered so much in Fijian affairs that the natives looked to her for support, and if it were withheld there would be a collapse of government, repudiation of debt, and ruin to many industrious people. From the political point of view Fiji would be a most valuable central station in Polynesia — undoubtedly the best position that could be found. 1 The Sovereignty Accepted. — To the report was attached a new offer of cession drawn up on the advice of Thurston, and dated 2 1st March 1874. The unequivocal nature of the recommendations did not at all commend itself to Carnarvon, but within three months of the day on which it was signed the Government had decided to act on it. Carnarvon makes it clear that he would have welcomed some loophole of escape, and the Government very properly held it right to decline accepting on the conditions which were attached to Thakombau's offer. But he recommended the Queen to accept the sovereignty without conditions, the chiefs trusting to the generosity and justice of the British Government. 2 Carnarvon complained that the commissioners had gone " beyond what had been expected of them in expressing themselves strongly in favour of annexation," and for that reason the Government desired to place any further action in the hands of the Governor of New South Wales, " as not being committed to any view and so able to act firmly and independently." He was ordered to proceed to Fiji with sole authority to act (Carnarvon to Sir H. M. Robinson, 15th July 1874). 2 The Sovereignty Proclaimed. — In the event the British flag was hoisted in Fiji within six months of the day on which the report was signed on H.M.S. Pearl. For two days Thakombau and his chiefs considered in council at Levuka what Sir Hercules Robinson had to say, and on 28th September they informed him that they had decided "to give Fiji unreservedly to the Queen of Britain that she may rule us justly and affectionately, and that we may live in peace and prosperity." Two days later the deed of cession was signed at Nasova. Recognising that Thakombau was only one of several chiefs and not a sovereign, Sir Hercules interviewed the others in their respective districts, and 1 Memoir of Commodore J. G. Goodenough, R.N., 1878. 2 P.P., C. 1 1 14. 92 THE STORY OF FIJI finally, when all had signified their adhesion to the deed, British sovereignty was proclaimed on ioth October 1874. Robinson assumed the provisional governorship and appointed Layard vice-president of his executive council. A few days later he issued a proclamation adopting the Queensland Act, 31 Vict, No. 47, as the law of Fiji on Polynesian labour. The limits of the proclamation of the colony were 15 deg. S. to 22 deg. S., and 177 deg. W. to 175 deg. E., thus including the whole of the Fiji group proper, with the Turtle Islands, Simonoff, Mikhailoff, and Ono to the south-east. The Crown Colony. — Sir Arthur Gordon (afterwards Ldrd Stanmore) was appointed first Governor of Fiji, and his administration, particularly of native affairs, was distinctly successful. Adopting the spirit of the offer of cession, he deferred to the opinion of Thakombau in native affairs and as far as possible governed through the existing tribal machinery. The Colonial Office was not at all pleased with the understanding Robinson arrived at with the ' king" as regards his civil list, and Carnarvon asked Gordon to consider seriously whether the proposed allowances could not be reduced. Gordon took the very proper view that the subject could not be reopened " without a most distinct moral breach of faith, if not a formal and technical one." This was not the last of Carnarvon's endeavours to save money on the establishments of the new colony. Shortly afterwards he withdrew the mail subsidy, and Gordon found himself cut off altogether from the outside world — another graceless act which shojved how grudgingly the sovereignty had been assumed. There was an unedifying correspondence before the calling of the mail steamers from the American ports to Australia and New Zealand was resumed. Gordon's success was so marked that when it was pro- posed to transfer him as governor to the more important post in New Zealand, the Colonial Office intended to retain him to administer the native affairs of Fiji and also as High Commissioner. His successor (Sir G. W. Des Vceux) strongly objected to a step which would make him merely a lieutenant-governor, subject to the veto of a senior stationed 2000 miles distant, and eventually he was appointed full governor and deputy to the High Commissioner. The Search for Labour. — The labour difficulties which had troubled the planters before the annexation were even more intense under the new regime. The supply from the 1879] INDENTURING HINDU LABOUR 93 islands of the Western Pacific had fallen off, partly owing to the rapid diminution of the population, and partly to delays in returning time-expired kanakas ; and Gordon demanded that Fiji should be permitted to follow the example of Mauritius and the West Indies and introduce coolies from India. Carnarvon readily approved, and the system was inaugurated in May 1879 which has continued almost with- out interruption since. Native Fijians being very much averse to labour, the sugar industry must have perished but for the importation of Hindu coolies, who have formed a new and most important element in the economy of the colony. The following table is expressive : — Fijians Hindus 114,748 588 87,096 40,286 1881 1911 Though the climate is healthy for the tropics, the European population has increased very slowly. The Hindus are the only element of the population that has made a robust expansion. At the date of the annexation the chief items of export were copra, cotton, and maize. Cotton fell away from 1 882 and to-day is practically unknown amongst the exports, but the export of sugar, copra, and fruit has increased enormously. Fiji is one of the most prosperous of the Crown colonies. The regular demand in Australia and New Zealand for the cane sugar of the group, and its position on the steam lanes between America and Australasia brought an excellent service of steamers in all directions, and the Pacific cable, with more recent wireless stations, has supplemented the communications. The System of Government. — Fiji is the single example in the Pacific of semi-representative Crown colony govern- ment. The executive consist of six official and two unofficial members : and the Legislative Council often official members and six elected members, as well as two natives. Education is free and is encouraged, but like other Pacific Islands Fiji shows a baneful example of an idle native race. An agitation for fuller representation on behalf of both whites and natives came to a head in 1900. The Fiji Federal League, the main organ of the agitation, demanded confederation with New Zealand. The movement was always of rather doubtful origin, but it undoubtedly had some inspiration in the jealousies of Australia and New 94 THE STORY OF FIJI Zealand regarding the Pacific Islands. The grievances of the whites were precisely the same as were represented to the Intercolonial Convention at Sydney fifteen years earlier. 1 Proposals to absorb certain of the groups were being widely discussed in New Zealand, and they were referred to before the Royal Commission on Federation in that colony, which reported in May igoi? In the session of 1900 the New Zealand House of Representatives passed a formal resolution for submission to the Crown, praying that Fiji be relieved of the disabilities of a Crown colony and incorporated with New Zealand. For some months a battle royal was waged across the waters of the Pacific. The Governor of Fiji (Sir G. T. M. O'Brien) stepped down into the arena in defence of existing conditions, and incurred a severe rap over the knuckles from Chamberlain for his criticisms of native policy in New Zealand. 3 In June 1901 he adopted the unhappy expedient, to quash the agitation at the Fiji end, of passing a " peace and good order " ordinance, threatening with imprisonment any person who should attempt to induce any Fijian to try to subvert the existing form of government. Again he fell foul of the Colonial Office and was ordered to revoke the ordinance. Soon afterwards O'Brien was recalled. After his departure the question died down, and it seems almost to have been forgotten by the time the Colonial Conference met in 1902. When he was on the point of leaving London Seddon wrote to Chamberlain drawing his attention to the fact that the resolutions of the New Zealand Parliament had not been replied to. The matter of giving better representations to Europeans was then referred to the new governor (Sir H. Jackson), 4 and a concession was made to the whites a few months later. Fiji To-day. — The islands to the eastward and south- eastward of Fiji having been absorbed into other systems — into French possessions or the enlarged boundaries of New Zealand — Fiji no longer occupies the central position she 1 P.P. N.Z. 1900, A 3 A 2 ibid., 1901, A4. 3 Speaking at the opening of the Wainibokasi Hospital, the governor said to a gathering largely composed of natives : " It has always been the same in every country under the kind of government that there is in New Zealand — the white men have always taken the land from the coloured owners. It has been so in New Zealand, where the land once all belonged to the coloured people. Who owns that land now ? The white people have got nearly the whole of it." P.P. N.Z. iqoi K%a 4 P.P. N.Z. 1903, Ai, A2. 1881] ROTUMA ANNEXED 95 formerly held as regards the Western Pacific. The centre of gravity has moved westward. Consequently it is unlikely that the headquarters of the High Commissioner, who nominally governs the British Line Islands and the Solomons, and is head of the British side of the New Hebrides condominium, will remain there. The commercial position of Fiji is, however, well assured. A Quaint Outlier. — Rotuma (12 deg. 30' S., 177 deg. 10' E.) is a strange example of a savage offshoot from the Polynesian navigators of old. The Rotumans are Poly- nesians with marked Japanese characteristics. Having given hospitality to the apostles of two religions, they were periodically afflicted by religious wars. The opposing sides, says Romilly, were always on guard against each other : all amusements had been stopped. The place was so dull that all the young men were leaving. 1 There was no hope for these remote islanders until Queen Victoria, after more than a year's consideration, agreed to annex the place. The annexation took place in 1881, and Rotuma became an appendage of Fiji. But owing to its distance it was given a separate government under a commissioner, whose court takes the place of the supreme court of Fiji. Rotuma has a population of more than 2000, and its chief export is copra. Sir John Thurston. — John Bates Thurston was born in England in 1836, and after serving as an officer on an Indian liner he became a farmer at Namoi, New South Wales. In 1862 he was employed for a time under the government of that colony, and then went on a botanising expedition in the Western Pacific. In 1864 he was wrecked on one of the islands of Samoa, and before being rescued in 1866 he had acquired a wide knowledge of the native language and customs. On being taken to Fiji he obtained a post in the British consulate, and in 1869 he was for a while acting consul. "Shortly afterwards his remarkable influence with the natives became manifest. Fiji had one of those quaint imitations of a parliamentary constitution which are still found in some of the Pacific Islands. Such a constitution is not always a success, and in 1872 that of Fiji went to pieces. In May 1872 the king (Thakombau) saw that there was only one chance of safety, and called in Thurston to be Chief Secretary and Minister for Foreign Affairs. This led immediately in 1874 to the transfer of the islands to Great Britain, which had only a few years previously refused to 1 Letters and Memoirs of H. H. Romilly, 1893. 96 THE STORY OF FIJI accept them. • The negotiations were conducted through Thurston, and on the accomplishment of the cession he became Colonial Secretary and Auditor-General of the new Crown colony." In 1877 the High Commission for the Western Pacific was created, and in 1879 Thurston became secretary to the High Commissioner. The following year he was Acting-Governor of Fiji, and at the end of the year went on a special mission to the Friendly Islands to negotiate a treaty. In 1882 he was appointed Deputy Governor of Fiji, and in November 1883 Consul - General for the Western Pacific. " He established his reputation both with the natives and the Europeans by the judgment and wisdom with which he treated the former, and the firmness with which he upheld the dignity of British jurisdiction. So great was his reputation with the natives that in 1883, when the great Fijian chief was dying, he installed Thurston as chief of all the Fijians." In 1885 he went to England as British Commissioner to the Anglo-German Commission, and the following year returned to Fiji in the capacity of lieutenant-governor. In 1886 he became Governor and High Commissioner of the Western Pacific. In 1895 he visited England in broken health, and, returning to Fiji in 1896, died the following year {Diet. Nat. Biography). CHAPTER VI GERMANY IN THE PACIFIC John Caesar Godeffroy, of Hamburg. — It seems quite clear that the German interests in the Pacific, which dragged Bismarck into a colonial policy and eventually into conflict with Great Britain, were those which grew out of the small beginnings of John Caesar Godeffroy, a well-known merchant and ship-owner of Hamburg. Just when Godeffroy first appeared in the Pacific is uncertain. He had carried out a contract with the British Government in the fifties for the transport of German emigrants, reservists of the legions who served in the Crimean War, to the Cape of Good Hope. Early in the succeeding decade he took some out to Queensland. It was certainly no later than this that he acquired trading interests in the Pacific Islands. Zimmermann, 1 who is exceptionally well informed, says that Godeffroy's first station in Samoa was established in 1865, but the Inter- state Commission of Australia (1918) places it at 1857. It is not material. Germans in New Zealand. — In the French expedition which set forth in 1839 to establish itself at Akaroa, New Zealand, were half a dozen Germans, who with some whalers already established there, were soon absorbed in the British population of the new colony. In the following year the New Zealand Company, believing it had a valid title to lands as far afield as the Chathams, proposed to sell them to " certain persons officially connected with Hamburg and the other free cities of Germany, acting on behalf of a colonisation company forming in that country." The directors congratulated themselves on having got into touch with "the representatives of communities so little likely to be animated at any time by political hostility to Great Britain 1 Geschichte der Deutschen Kolonialpolitik, by Dr Alfred Zimmer- mann, Berlin, 1914. 91 98 GERMANY IN THE PACIFIC as the free cities of Germany." They proposed, moreover, to covenant that no penal settlement should be established, and that in the trade of the Chathams British subjects and shipping should be on an equality with those of the Hanse towns. Unfortunately for the company the Attorney-General of Great Britain decided that its charter gave it no authority to deal with the Chathams ; and the proposal fell through. 1 About the same time a branch of" the New Zealand Company was founded in Hamburg, and the North German Mission Society was prompted to send four young mission- aries of the Lutheran Church to New Zealand as pastors to a body of 140 German emigrants who settled in the neigh- bourhood of Nelson in 1843. 1° tne following year the colony was reinforced by forty-three families from Mecklenburg, and in a few years there were 350 Germans, with two national churches, at Moutere and Waimea East. A number of Germans afterwards went to the Chathams, where in 1867 one-fifth of the white population were Germans. During the governorship of Sir George Grey in South Australia (1841-5) a considerable number of Germans were introduced as settlers by Godeffroy & Son, in consequence of the failure of the promoters to recruit sufficient colonists in England. Moresby in 1872 found that almost all the white men in Gilbert and Ellice were the agents of Weber & Co., of Samoa, an allied firm. In the Mitchell Islands a German trader had established himself in 1857. At Arrowsmith and Ebon, amongst the Line Islands, Godeffroy had had stations in the sixties. He had previously had three b£che-de-mer stations in the Carolines, but had temporarily abandoned them. At Kittie harbour, Ponape, in the Carolines, H.M.S. Blanche found him well established in 1872. The same authority says that he had been in the South Seas some years before i860 establishing a direct trade with Hamburg. Other Pacific Interests. — At least a quarter of a century before Godeffroy Prussian whalers were quite prominent in the North Pacific. In 1831 they were well known to the Hawaiians, and in that year Captain Wendt, of the North German whaler Princess Louisa, took presents to Kamehameha III. from the King of Prussia. Early in 1854 the British consul at Hawaii received an interesting report from Hoffschlagen and Stapenhorst on whaling in the sub-arctic. Their captain had just returned to Europe for new apparatus. 1 " The Making of a Nation," by G. H. Scholefield, in the New Zealand Times, 13th March 1907. 1871] A NUCLEUS AT SAMOA 99 At the same period ships belonging to the North German Confederation shared with those of the United States practically the whole of the carrying trade of the young port of San Francisco. 1 And there were German interests in the South Pacific too. The principal of the land claims in Fiji for which Bismarck joined issue with the British Government in 1883 was that of Friedrich Wilhelm Hennings, who had acquired the island of Malaki from Mr Swanston in 1865. Samoa was Godeffroy's first station, and from that point this great merchant venturer spread his interests widely throughout what we know to-day as the Western Pacific. In the seventies he had posts and agencies throughout Fiji, Samoa, Gilbert, Ellice, Tonga, Marshall, Solomon, New Britain, and New Hebrides, as well as in the Carolines. He 171a 5 §01 10 20 30 40 SO I 5 s r^S Tutuila 7 Pat?o '?««a TmP gradually centred in his own hands almost the whole of the copra trade of the Pacific, except that of a small catchment area adjacent to the coast of Australia. The Consulate in Samoa. — The interests of the Godeffroys in Samoa were so predominant in 1871 that this was regarded as a suitable position for a German coaling station. The acquisition by the United States of a coaling station at Pagopago, in the Samoan island of Tutuila, was disconcerting to Germany, for this was the best harbour in the group. Germany therefore concluded a treaty, under which she obtained the right of establishing a naval depot and coaling station for the protection of German interests in the various groups where they now existed. From 1875 onward German ships of war were constantly stationed in the Pacific, and German interests were watched in the capacity of consul by Godeffroy's representative, Theodore Weber. 1 Report of Consul-General Booker, 1857. 100 GERMANY IN THE PACIFIC Establishments in New Britain. — The Australasian Board of Missions decided in 1874 to commence work in the New Britain archipelago east of New Guinea, and selected the Rev. George Brown, one of the best known of Pacific missionaries, to settle in New Britain or New Ireland. Captain Carteret, in H.M.S. Swallow, took possession of New Britain at English Cove in 1767. In the following year Bougainville, anchoring in the same bay, discovered vestiges of his English predecessors. Thereafter several French navigators visited the group — an intercourse which possibly accounts for the selection of this site by the unhappy expedition of the Marquis de Ray. In the seventies an English trader or two and the German firm attempted to station themselves, but were driven away by the ferocity of the natives. Brown chose as his headquarters the small island of Matupi, in Blanche Bay, where the Godeffroy agents had attempted to settle in 1874. The first Christian church, the outcome of his devoted tenacity, was opened in 1876, and soon became a strong centre of English influence and Christianity. In 1880 there were twenty-nine mission stations in New Britain, New Ireland, and the Duke of York group, and the mission was "doing unmixed good wherever its influence was felt" (Lieutenant Houghton, of H.M.S. Beagle). German Cruiser at New Britain, 1877. — In August 1877 Brown found that the German firm had two English traders acting as their agents at Kabakada, in New Britain, and a German cruiser had been making a survey of Blanche Bay. 1 In the following year the treacherous murder of one of his native catechists led Brown into an expedition which was much criticised in subsequent years. After consulting with the whites on Duke of York Island, it was decided that the only security for the whites in the future lay in a rigorous punishment of the tribe responsible for the murder. A comprehensive punitive expedition was organised, and as a consequence more than a hundred natives were killed, and the huts of the guilty villages were burned to the ground. Brown's action was fully approved by the commanders of H.M.S. Sandfly and the German corvette Ariadne, and also by the German consul at Samoa. The assumption of jurisdiction by Captain von Werner at this date (14th December J878) is of historical interest. He inflicted fines and administered warnings to the offending 1 George Brown, D.D. : An Autobiography, 1908. 1880] GERMAN RECONSTRUCTION 101 natives, and he wrote officially thanking the courageous English missionary for his conduct, which had " materially benefited German interests." Von Werner took special pains to defend Brown against criticism in Australia and the displeasure of the High Commission, both of which naturally followed. He also requested his own government to transmit a letter of com- mendation to the British Government, remarking that what he had done benefited " German interests principally, as, so far, only Germany has got commercial interests here, even if many of the trading agents in German employ are English subjects." Late in 1879, when Mr Brown was visiting Fiji, he was served by the High Commissioner's Court with a writ charging him with manslaughter. But the circumstances had been inquired into by H.M.S. Danae, and when the case was called on the charge was withdrawn, on the strength of the captain's report. The work of the Rev. George Brown forms a bright and heroic page in the story of the Pacific missions. Godeffroy & Son Collapse. — By the end of the seventies the firm of Godeffroy & Son was involved in heavy financial liabilities, and a new company was floated in Hamburg to take over and develop the assets. This is the proposal to which Sir Julius Vogel, then Agent-General for New Zealand, refers on 27th January 1 880 as the subject of a proclamation by the Imperial Chancellor earlier in the same month. The company was to be called the Deutsche See Handels Gesellschaft, and was to have a capital of 8,000,000 marks. Vogel remarks that this was largely in excess of the sum required to work the assets of Godeffroy & Son, and that obviously the real objects of the company were of a much more ambitious character. Bismarck proposed to guarantee a minimum dividend to the shareholders. Vogel had himself a few years earlier proposed that British interests in the Pacific should be developed through a chartered company from New Zealand, and he insisted that Great Britain could not afford to remain indifferent to the new German movement. 1 A German Narrative. — Zimmermann says that the interests of the two German firms — Godeffroys and Robert- son & Hernsheim — had suffered a good deal in the seventies by the operations of Australian and English labour recruiters, and that it was for this reason that a German 1 P.P. N.Z. 1880, A8. H 102 GERMANY IN THE PACIFIC warship was sent to the station and a consul-general appointed at Samoa. Anticipating help from the Imperial Government, the new company projected a settlement on the north coast of New Guinea. But Bismarck was dis- couraged by the failure of the Samoa bill of 1880 and hesitated to make any advance. The principal influence urging Bismarck to action in the Pacific was that of Geheimrat von Hansemann, a wealthy banker, who was in close touch with Dr Finsch, a celebrated German traveller. In November 1882 appeared the Kolonial- verein, openly demanding the acquisition of New Guinea and painting in glowing colours the future of German enterprise in the Pacific. The movement, Zimmermann says, created less stir in Germany than in Australia, where it led directly to Queensland's abortive act of annexation. When the resolutions of the Sydney Convention of December reached Europe the two German firms moved the Chancellor to take action without delay and to grant Imperial protection to acquired German interests. A war- ship had already been sent to New Britain, Bismarck replied, and a consular officer to Matupi, and he looked to the companies to make the next move. But the companies had their own rivalries and differences, and could not come to any understanding as to the terms on which they should co-operate in New Guinea. In the end, through the medium of Barings, in London, von Hansemann arranged an amal- gamation of interests. Tlie " Flaggenhissung." — Dr Finsch was at once despatched to Sydney with a ship captain named Dallmann and a picked crew, and they betook themselves to New Guinea and New Britain, under the guise of a scientific expedition (" unter dem Vorwand wissenschaftlicher Forschungen "), to seek out and acquire the best harbours. The new company, the Deutsche Handels und Plantagen Gesellschaft, established factories ashore. At the same time the Neu-Guinea Kompagnie was founded, on 26th May 1884, under Prussian law. All this, says Zimmermann, was carried out in the greatest secrecy (" Das alles vollzog sich in tiefstem Geheimnis "). The story proceeds until August 1884, when the conver- sations between Granville and Munster took place. 1 On the 1 2th of that month Gladstone announced in the House of Commons the boundaries of the proposed British protectorate in New Guinea, which were to exclude the northern part of the island and the islands to the north and east. 1 See the chapters on New Guinea. 1884] ACQUISITIONS IN NEW GUINEA 103 On the strength of this statement the Chancellor on 19th August instructed the consul-general in Sydney by telegraph to inform the commissioner in New Britain that it was intended to hoist the German flag wherever German under- takings were already in existence or were projected, either in New Britain or on the north coast of New Guinea. On the very next day von Hansemann and his co-banker von Bleichroder were informed that their undertaking would be duly regularised and recognised in the same form as the Hanseatische Unternehmen in South Africa. Dr Finsch left Sydney in the Samoa on nth September for Meoko in New Britain. That the nature of his under- taking was suspected by the Government of New South Wales is proved by telegrams which were sent by the Governor to the Colonial Office reporting his departure. Early in October, continues Zimmermann, he " betook himself to the north coast of New Guinea, and first of all in Port Constantine and then in other places opened friendly relations and acquired land of the natives." Arriving at the end of October back at Matupi, he found there the warships Elisabeth and Hyane, and they returned together and hoisted the flag at Friedrich Wilhelmshafen, Finschhafen, and Huon Gulf. In December Finsch again visited the coast of New Guinea, and the flag was hoisted at New Britain. Aggression in the Eighties. — Having come off so well in her diplomatic tussle with England, Germany came to an agreement with France at the end of 1885. With great prescience the German negotiators in all cases insisted on Germany retaining the right to recruit kanaka labour outside her own sphere, while she did not allow reciprocal rights to the other party. This was a feature of the Anglo-German agreement, and of the cession of the northern Solomon Islands to England under the agreement of 1899. It was also provided for in the French understanding of 1885. Yet the Interstate Commission of Australia has shown that the supply of native labour in the German possessions far exceeded that in the spheres of the other powers. In the Franco-German agreement Germany renounced all claims in Tahiti, the Leeward Islands, and the New Hebrides, receiving in return the recruiting rights. In 1885, too, the Kaiser's warships forced the issue with Spain by hoisting the flag at Yap, in the Caroline Islands. Feeling ran high, but the matter was eventually submitted to the arbitration of the Pope, and the sovereignty was awarded to Spain. Complete freedom of trade was granted 104 GERMANY IN THE PACIFIC to Germany, and her penetration prepared the way for purchasing most of the desired islands at the end of the century. Anglo-German Spheres. — The disputes of 1884 were finally settled by the declaration signed at Berlin by Sir Edward Malet and Count Herbert Bismarck in April 1886. The area dealt with extended from 1 5 deg. N. to 30 deg. S. latitude, and from 165 deg. W. to 130 deg. E. longitude. Germany to the south and east of the conventional line, England to the north and west, each party agreed not to acquire territory, accept protectorates, or interfere with the influence of the other, and to give up interests already acquired. Article VI. excludes from the declaration "the Navigator Islands (Samoa), which are affected by treaties with Great Britain, Germany, and the United States, the Friendly Islands (Tonga), which are affected by treaties with Great Britain and Germany, and the Island of Niue, which were to form a neutral region, and all places in the Western Pacific under the sovereignty or protection of any civilised power other than Great Britain or Germany." x Development of German Interests. — The increase and expansion of the trading interests of Germany in the Pacific became the affair not only of the companies concerned but also of the German Government and the shipping companies. In 1884, when Baron von Hiibner was in the Pacific, the trading companies were particularly active, and German interests were undoubtedly then second only to those of England. Germany alone, by lines of fast sailing ships, had direct communication with Europe. On the other hand British trade was done chiefly through the British colonies of Australia and New Zealand, and Hiibner admitted that "the goods and provisions which were imported came, as a rule, from England or America." The Germans generally sent to their trading stations a superior class of young men, often well educated. They went out as clerks and eventually were appointed to have charge of the stations. Nearly all of them, Romilly says,* could speak French and English as well as German, which, gave them a great advantage in the trade of the Western Pacific. 3 The Shipping Dispute, 1905. — Zimmermann says that the Jaluit Company not merely prospered but actually paid the expenses of the administration out of its income. In 1 P.P., C. 4656. 2 The Western Pacific and New Guinea, 1887. 3 For the distribution of trade in the Pacific, see table at p. 300. 1905] JALUIT SHIPPING DISPUTE 105 1900, with the help of a mail subsidy, it established its own steamship line to Sydney, and the following year, in con- sideration of an annual mail subsidy of 120,000 M., it connected the whole archipelago north of the equator with Hongkong, thus providing alternative connections for merchandise from the German Pacific Islands to Europe. This energetic shipping policy produced a clash of interests with a British firm, and eventually led to the revocation of the German company's exceptional privileges. In 1904 the Sydney firm of Burns, Philp & Co., with a view to establishing a British connection between the German groups north of the line and Australia, obtained the assurance of the German consulate in Sydney that it would receive equal treatment with the German lines. The service commenced in 1904, the main object being to link up Gilbert and Ellice. But the first act of the German adminis- tration, when the company's steamer called at Marshall for copra, was to levy what Zimmermann describes as "a very high license fee." At first it was 4500 M., and after two voyages 9000 M. per month, with an additional 1000 M. per sailing, while an export duty of 30 M. per ton was charged on copra. At the Carolines the captain was told that the German company possessed a monopoly of the trade. This position, of course, neither the Australian Govern- ment nor the British would accept; and a strong protest was made to Berlin against the violation of the equal trading clauses of the agreement of 1886. Germany's policy, said Lord Jersey in the House of Lords on 20th March 1905, was directed "towards the one object of ousting British trade from the Pacific." Lord Lansdowne explained that as a trading company the Jaluit Company was liable to pay the same duties as other traders, but it had a dual capacity, and as the government of the region it used the proceeds to assist its own revenue. The Carolines were purchased by Germany subsequent to the signing of the agreement, but they lay within the area comprised in the agreement and were plainly subject to it. On nth May Lansdowne was able to announce that the German Government, while claiming its right to make such arrangements as it wished for the government of its own colonies, admitted that the treatment of the Australian company constituted a breach of the agreement, and stated its intention of terminating the arrangement with the Jaluit Company. Accordingly on 31st March 1906 the German 106 GERMANY IN THE PACIFIC Government took over itself the administration of the Marshalls. 1 Recounting the negotiations, Zimmermann says that the mail subsidies given by Australia to Burns, Philp & Co., were themselves a breach of the treaty prejudicial to German trade. Though the duties in the islands were reduced, " this produced no effect upon the Australians, and at the end of the year they had their minds firmly fixed upon reprisals against Germany. Under these circumstances Germany, anxiously desiring to make an end of the quarrel, decided to annul the treaty with the Jaluit Company and to repeal their privileges." German Company Results. — According to the Australian Interstate Commission, 2 the Deutsche Handels und Plantagen Gesellschaft had at the beginning of the war a capital of ;£ 1 37,500, and its dividends had increased from 8 per cent, in 1900 to 36 per cent, in 191 2. The Deutsche Neu-Guinea Kompagnie, which was founded in 1885 and in the early days of the protectorate had administrative powers in Kaiser Wilhelmsland and the Bismarck Archipelago, had a capital of £375,000, and possessed the most extensive interests in New Guinea, operating its own line of steamers. Its administrative rights were resumed after the trouble with the British shipping line at Jaluit. The headquarters were at Rabaul. The Hamburgische Sud See Aktien Gesellschaft, the successor of Mrs E. E. Forsayth, of New Guinea, had a capital of £110,000. Another Hamburg firm, Hernsheim & Co., was engaged in New Guinea and the Solomons. The Jaluit Gesellschaft was also founded by Captain Hernsheim in 1880 to absorb German and American companies. It administered the Marshall Islands and had many fine trading stations, but its license for working the guano deposits of Nauru had been sold to a British company long before the war. This was the company whose imposition of shipping license fees and export duties against an Australian competitor was held by Great Britain to be a breach of the equal trading privileges contracted for in the agreement of 1885. German Shipping Advantages. — While almost all the shipping entered and cleared at Samoa in 191 1 was British, the Germans had driven their British rivals quite away from German New Guinea. From 1898 to 1907 an Australian 1 Parliamentary Debates, 12th July 1905. 2 , P.P. Aust. 1918, No. 66, F. 13489. GERMAN POLICY AT WORK 107 firm courageously kept ships trading with the ports of the German protectorate and the islands to the north until the trouble over the Jaluit Company in the Marshalls. At the same time, as part of a widespread shipping plan, the settlers at Bismarck Archipelago were offered specially low rates on agreeing to ship only by German lines for a period of five years. British competition had then perforce to withdraw. The Germans had communication with their own Europe-bound lines both at Hongkong and at Sydney; they had elaborate feeder systems by auxiliary schooners in the Line and Caroline Islands ; and they were guaranteed back freights by large contracts from their government for carrying coal from New Zealand and Australian ports to the German depots at Samoa and north of the line. Finally, the law of ioth June 1914 had given power to increase the already heavy mail subsidies to the Far East, Australia, and the Pacific to the extent of 1,300,000 M. In addition to these advantages, there was the substantial disability imposed on British {i.e., Australian) shipping by the white labour legislation of the Commonwealth. Off the Dead Centre. — The report of the Australian Commission is an illuminating demonstration of what was meant by Prince Bernhard von Bttlow, when he wrote, in Imperial Germany : — "We succeeded at last, during the tenure of office of Secretary of State Herr Dernburg (1906-10), in getting our colonial policy off the dead centre. With great trouble and after a long fight, we were at last lucky enough to convince all civil parties of the commonalty of the usefulness and necessity of a positive colonial policy, and to gain their support for such. About the same time when we began to build our fleet we established ourselves, in the autumn of 1897, in Kiauchau, and a few months later we concluded the Shantung Treaty with China, which was one of the most significant actions in modern German history, and which secured for us a ' place in the sun ' in the Far East on the shores of the Pacific Ocean, which have a great future before them." CHAPTER VII THE FIRST NEW GUINEA INCIDENT Early Intercourse. — Of the two main centres in which British and German interests came into conflict, there is no question that New Guinea is the more important. The material interests involved were immeasurably the greater. The rebuff to British policy was more significant, and finally, but possibly more important still, the conflict between the public opinion of the Australian colonies and the diplomatic expediencies of the Mother Country was very serious. The first discovery of New Guinea by a European was when the Portuguese, Antonio de Abreu, happened there in 1 51 1. It was revisited by his countryman Jorge de Meneses in 1526, and two years later a Spanish seaman, Alvaro de Saavedra, gave it the name of Isla de Oro. ^ The first Dutch visitor, from the possessions in the Spice Islands, was William Jansz in 1606, and the first English, William Dampier, who in 1700 explored and so named the Island of New Britain. Bougainville, the French navigator, touched at New Guinea in 1768, and two years later Cook made a most useful examination of its coasts. Forestalled in her colonising trend to the east, Spain did nothing to consummate the act of possession of New Guinea proclaimed by Torres in 1606. In 1792 Captain Bligh took possession of an island in Torres Strdits, and in the following year the East Indiamen Hormuzeer and Chesterfield proclaimed the sovereignty of King George over New Guinea itself and the islands in Torres Straits. The Dutch, by establishing Fort Dubus in Triton Bay in 1828 made effective their title to possession, which derived from four sources : (1) From the Sultan of Tidore, who acknow- ledged Dutch suzerainty; (2) From right of discovery; (3) From trade relations ; (4) From the formal, act of occupation. Fort Dubus itself was abandoned in 1835, but at a later date the 1867] AUSTRALIAN PROJECT CHECKED 109 Netherlands Government asserted its rights over the western portion of the great island to the meridian of 141 deg. E. In 1842 the British Admiralty ordered a survey of Torres Straits, in the belief that there would soon be a considerable intercourse through it with the Far East, and in 1846 Lieu- tenant Yule, of H.M.S. Bramble, formally hoisted the British flag at a point named by him " Cape Possession." The Veto to Adventurers, 1867. — The active demand for England to assume the sovereignty of the unoccupied portion of the island had its origin in Australia. New Guinea was obviously an important strategic factor in the future of Australia, and the earliest steps taken to become acquainted with its coasts were dictated by considerations of policy, more especially commercial. But the spirit of adventure in the Australian people gave rise to the first demand for its annexation. In 1867 a company was formed in Sydney to colonise the southern portion of New Guinea, and it approached the New South Wales Government for financial assistance. This was not forthcoming, but the Ministry of the day brought the project to the notice of the Home Government, together with a Cabinet minute affirming " that the increasing traffic between Australia and the Indian isles by way of Torres Strait makes the possession of New Guinea by the British Empire a matter of the highest importance to Australian colonists." x The considered reply of the Colonial Secretary (the Duke of Buckingham) was to the effect that — "Her Majesty's Government can give no plan of voluntary settlement in New Guinea the sanction of Imperial authority, and any persons who may embark in any such venture must neither look for aid nor protection from the national forces, nor for the confirma- tion by Her Majesty's Government of their titles to any acquisitions of land which they may profess to make from the natives." 3 In weighing this declaration it has to be borne in mind that the Imperial Government was in the sixties very weary of colonial responsibilities. The great question of responsi- bility for oversea forces had been conclusively decided in a sense that was a deliberate instruction to the Colonial Office not to incur political liabilities which might require military sanction. The same note persists throughout the controversy on expansion in the Pacific during the next decade or two. Buckingham's despatch, whatever was its motive, set a precedent which Colonial Office officials afterwards felt it 1 P.P. 1876, No. C. 1566. 2 14th September 1867 : P.P., C. 1566. 110 THE FIRST NEW GUINEA INCIDENT impossible to depart from. But the spirit of private adven- ture was not to be curbed by an official veto. In 1872 a party of young Australians bound for the forbidden El Dorado were wrecked with much loss of life off the south coast of New Guinea. In May of the same year a scientific expedi- tion financed by private individuals left for the southern coast, and a public meeting was held in Sydney to awaken interest in the subject. Australian Demand for Annexation. — The Government of New South Wales again urgeq" the annexation on the notice of the Imperial Government, and extended the demand to New Britain, Solomon, and New Hebrides in the South Pacific and the Marshall, Gilbert, and Ellice Islands near the equator. •" It appears to us,'' wrote the Premier, " that a more extended dominion in these waters on the part of the British Empire would be not only consistent with the maritime supremacy of England but would conduce much to the tranquillity and peace of these Australian colonies." It was pointed out that even if the colonies could bear the cost of the administration of the islands, the Empire only itself could exercise the powers and authority necessary to inspire obedience. A government under a governor-general was proposed for the whole of Polynesia. No expensive establishment would be necessary, as he would spend most of his time travelling from point to point in a warship. The colonies would inevitably suffer, the memorandum continued, by the withdrawal of active and intelligent young men attracted by the enterprise of developing and governing these new dependencies ; but they would gladly make the sacrifice " in the confident hope that in a few years, by the establishment of new commercial centres, trade would increase, the general prosperity of the colonies be augmented, and the Colonial Empire of Great Britain be enlarged and consolidated, and her beneficent rule extended over all the waters of the Pacific." * We have here stated, in the despatch of the Duke of Buckingham and that of the New South Wales Government, the first conflict of views between the Colonial Office on the one hand and the public opinion of the colonies on the other. The conflict lasted for fully twenty years before it came to an unfortunate climax in 1883-5, and in a less acute form for 1 P.P., C. 1566, p. 28. 1873] BRITISH NAVAL ACTIVITY 111 some years later ; but in its essential character it did not alter. These documents are historic. Moresby's Annexations. — During the Franco-Prussian War, and especially during the discussion of peace terms, the merchants of the Hanse towns made strenuous efforts to induce Bismarck to enter upon a colonial policy as an outlet for German manufactures and an offset to the extensive oversea interests of France and England. But the agitation was entirely premature. The Chancellor would not entertain the idea of a colonial policy, and for some years to come Germany showed the same disinclination as England did for commitments in the Pacific. There were already German undertakings, notably in Fiji and Samoa, but it was another decade at least before they entered into the state policy of Germany. In April 1873 Captain John Moresby, R.N., in H.M.S. Basilisk, was prosecuting the desultory survey of the channels through the eastern archipelago towards India and China when he discovered the deep-water passage known to-day as the China Strait, and established the insularity of the three islands now known as Basilisk, Hayter, and Moresby. "There lay the vast island of New Guinea," he writes, 1 "dominating the shores of Northern Australia, separated at one point by only twenty miles of coral reef from British possessions, commanding the Torres Straits route, the transit of the Queensland mails, and our newly discovered route for Australian trade to China, commanding the rich and increasing pearl-shell fisheries and also the beche-de-mer fishery. I felt that the occupation of this island by any foreign maritime power, more especially since the discovery of the Basilisk's harbours and anchorages, would be a standing menace to Queensland." Moresby said he felt it his least duty to secure the islands against acquisition by any foreign power until the British Government could make up its mind. Consequently he hoisted the flag on Hayter's Island on 24th April 1873, and took possession of the three of them. Moresby obtained permission to return the following season and continue his researches, and to assist him the Admiralty sent out a trained survey officer, Lieutenant Dawson. The result was entirely satisfactory, and only increased his enthusiasm for the great archipelago and the greater island. 1 Discoveries and Surveys in New Guinea, etc., by Captain T Moresby, R.N., 1876. r J ' 112 THE FIRST NEW GUINEA INCIDENT " We felt," he wrote, " that the Basilisk had opened a new and accurately surveyed highway for commerce between Australia, New Guinea, and China." An Australian Scheme. — The Australian interest was not in the China passage at all, but in New Guinea itself, an°5° ^S°»oii 30.037 43,086 1918] TOWARDS ANNEXATION 203 Less than half the revenue is from customs duties. The imports and exports were : — Imports. Exports. 1912 • ^193.013 ^216,512 1915 • 114,075 I03.95 1 Practically the whole of the exports is copra. The death of King George Tubou II. in 1918 and the accession of his daughter, the Princess Salote, seem to foreshadow the early termination of the protectorate and possibly the annexation of Tonga to New Zealand. British intervention in the affairs of the group necessarily increased during the great war, and several New Zealand officials have been employed in different departments of the Government. CHAPTER XIV NEW ZEALAND AND ITS DEPENDENCIES The Repudiation of Sovereignty. — The repudiation of sovereignty in the Pacific, after it had been proclaimed by the English navigators, came to a head in the first instance in New Zealand. Tasman, the Dutch seaman, discovered New Zealand in 1642, and in the belief that it was part of the great polar continent which his countrymen Schouten and Le Maire had already discovered and named Staaten Land, he gave it that name also. He sailed away without landing anywhere, though he endeavoured to do so in Murderers Bay, Nelson. A few months later the separate existence of Staaten Land was well authenticated, and Tasman's discovery was then renamed " New Zealand," after one of the states of Holland. When British interests had grown to considerable propor- tions and the British colony of missionaries, traders, and settlers had become too large to be controlled by a tribal native regime, the Colonial Office, wedded to the conviction that the only duty of England in the Pacific was towards the native races, declined year after year to make any advance. Private associations had long since demanded that the sovereignty of Great Britain should come in to protect the English missions and the English colonists. For, whether it was acceptable or not, colonists would go there. The Colonial Office essayed first to carry out its obligations by recognising the native " sovereignty," and to restrain its own subjects from acts of aggression and fraud against the natives by means of a resident. James Busby arrived in 1833 to take up this position. In informing the chiefs of the step it was proposed to take, Goderich wrote (14th June 1832) that Busby would investigate all complaints they might make to him, and would endeavour to prevent the arrival amongst them of men who had been guilty of crimes in their own country — a reference, of course, 204 1633-5] THE BRITISH RESIDENT 205 to the escape of convicts from New South Wales and Tasmania. In consideration of the anxious desire which would be shown by the resident for the protection of the natives, they for their part were expected to show him a proper obedience and support, so that they might reap the full benefit of the friendship and alliance with Great Britain. A Consul with no Power. — Busby was given no more real power than our consuls of the same period in Fiji and Samoa — so little, indeed, that he was often referred to as a man-of-war without guns. He was not even able to control British subjects — the avowed object of his appointment. Here, as elsewhere, the missionaries were openly hostile to the introduction of British sovereignty, for the very human reason that it would tend to detract from the position of influence, almost of power, which they themselves held with the natives. It is true that in New Zealand the missionaries never became the actual rulers that they were in Tahiti, but by their example of life and their dissemination of religion and civilised crafts they acquired year by year a position of influence to which they were morally entitled. The Declaration of Independence. — The principle of recognising the independence of native states was early expounded in New Zealand. When Busby had been there as resident for two years he was much alarmed at receiving from " a person who styles himself Charles, Baron de Thierry, Sovereign Chief of New Zealand and King of Nukuhiva, a formal declaration of his intention to establish in his own person an independent sovereignty in this country, which intention, he states, he has declared to their Majesties the Kings of Great Britain and France, and to the President of the United States." x Busby appealed to his compatriots to use all their influence with. the Maori "to inspire both chiefs and people with a spirit of most determined resistance to the landing of a person on their shores who comes with the avowed object of usurping a sovereignty over them." For his own part he convened a meeting of the chiefs at Waitangi "to advise them of what was due to themselves and their country," and the upshot was the Declaration of Independence of the United Tribes of New Zealand, which was signed on 28th October 1835. William IV. had already presented the Maori with a flag, and in this declaration they entreated " that he will continue to be the parent of their infant state, 1 Mr Busby's "Address to His Countrymen," 10th October 1835. 206 NEW ZEALAND AND ITS DEPENDENCIES and that he will become its Protector from all attempts upon its independence." 1 New Zealand was then within the extended boundaries of the Colony of New South Wales, and Glenelg instructed Sir Richard Bourke, governor of that colony, that " it would be proper that the chiefs should be assured, in His Majesty's name, that he will not fail to avail himself of every oppor- tunity of showing his goodwill, and of affording to those chiefs such support and protection as may be consistent with a due regard to the just rights of others, and to the interests of His Majesty's subjects." 2 There were no other assemblies of the chiefs, and the proposed parliament never essayed to legislate for the infant state. But when at length in 1839 the Colonial Office was forced to approach the question of establishing British sover- eignty in New Zealand, it proceeded on the assumption that the sovereignty recognised by William IV. was a real one, and instructed its envoy Hobson to negotiate as consul before developing into a lidutenant-governor. While James Stephen ruled at the Colonial Office the missionary interest — not merely in the Pacific — was para- mount in colonial policy. The act of William IV. recognis- ing the so-called Confederation of Tribes was perhaps more flattering to the missionaries than to the chiefs themselves. There was no conception of sovereignty amongst the Maori. The system of government was tribal, and the supremacy of the tribes moved here and there with the changes in their military power. Nor did even the most pronounced supremacy in historic times extend over more than a very limited number of tribes. The Native Sovereignty. — Stephen admitted frankly that the appointment of a resident did not answer its purpose, and in 1838 we find him proposing to the Foreign Office, with the same high respect for the fiction of a native autonomy, that "an officer vested with the character and powers of a consul should be appointed " (Colonial Office to Foreign Office, 12th December 1838). 3 As it happened, no consul was appointed. The New Zealand Association, urged on by the hot-headed coloniser, Edward Gibbon Wakefield, insisted on sending out an expedition to purchase land from the natives and to found a colony, and at the same time came news of a French colonis- ing expedition about to leave on the same purpose. Captain Hobson, R.N., was accordingly sent out in 1839 to be British 1 For text see p. 313. 2 25th May 1836. J P.P. 1840, xlvii. 1840] SOVEREIGNTY PROCLAIMED 207 consul in New Zealand and lieutenant-governor of any territory of which the sovereignty might be ceded to Queen Victoria. His commission as consul he never made use of, partly owing to a dispute with Captain Nias, of H.M.S. Herald, as to the salute to which he was entitled on landing. When he did land, on January 1840, at Bay of Islands, he issued his proclamations as "lieutenant-governor of the British settlements >\n progress in New Zealand," under a commission extending the limits of the Colony of New South Wales to comprehend " any territory of which the sovereignty has been or may be acquired by Her Majesty in New Zealand " (Governor Sir G. Gipps to Captain Hobson, R.N.). 1 The Treaty of Waitangi. — Hobson's proceedings on landing were strictly limited by the assumption that New Zealand was in fact the constituted sovereign state which had been recognised both in the appointment of the resident and in the Declaration of the United Tribes. After duly negotiating with the chiefs, he obtained their signatures to a treaty of cession which he regarded as " a full and clear recognition of the sovereign rights of Her Majesty over the northern parts of this island" (Hobson to Gipps, 6th February 1840). And on the following day he proclaimed the sovereignty and saluted it with twenty-one guns. The Treaty of Waitangi, 2 as this instrument is called, is one of the most remarkable documents in British colonial history. It was concluded on an equality between Great Britain on the one hand, and on the other a collection of native tribes living in a state of savagery which could not compare with that of the quasi-civilised Hawaiians of 1842. It was not a free cession of sovereignty, but covenanted the Queen to accord the Maori people certain rights and privileges, some of which were subject to the constant fortunes of war in their native state. What these involved neither the framer of the treaty nor the British Government can have understood, for the communal system of the New Zealanders had not been studied. Nevertheless the Treaty of Waitangi has been scrupulously honoured by the whites to the present day, often at great sacrifice of their own interests. This outstanding observance of justice and national obligations has not only had a most important effect on the national life of the New Zealand people, but it has contributed largely to giving the natives of New Zealand equal rights of citizenship with the whites, and 1 P.P. 1840, xxxiii. 2 See p. 314. 208 NEW ZEALAND AND ITS DEPENDENCIES enabling them to survive the advent of a preponderating white population. Incidentally the treatment of the Maori people by the white settlers of New Zealand has given that dominion the best claim to administer the Polynesian groups which are under British sovereignty. One of them, the Cook Islands, has already been annexed. Completing the Sovereignty. — It does not appear to have been in contemplation that the whole of New Zealand should be proclaimed British territory. But before he had secured all the signatures of North Island chiefs to the Treaty of Waitangi, Hobson received intelligence which determined him to complete the sovereignty over the whole group. At the southern end of the North Island the expedition sent out by the New Zealand Company had established itself on the site of the present capital city of Wellington, and had elected a form of council for local government which Hobson conceived to be republican, and therefore tantamount to an act of defiance of the authority of the Queen. In the South Island, also, a small group of French whalers at Akaroa had acquired landed rights and were expecting the arrival of a shipload of emigrants sent out by the French company before mentioned, under convoy of a corvette. " Deeming it advisable," Hobson wrote to the Secretary of State (25th May 1840), "notwithstanding the measures I had taken to secure the adherence of the chiefs, to display the dignity and importance of government in a more ostensible manner than could be done by private individuals," he despatched Major Bunbury in the Herald to hoist the flag at various points to the southward. Before this work was completed the lieutenant-governor, on 21st May, proclaimed the sovereignty of the Queen over the whole of the country, on the assumption that as regards the occupied lands all the chiefs would sign the treaty, and as regards unoccupied lands the British claim was good by discovery and by actual occupation. The Chatham Islands. — This small group, lying about 480 miles east - south - east from Wellington, fell within the original boundaries of New Zealand. Discovered by Lieutenant Broughton, R.N., in 1790, and named after his vessel, they attracted the usual occasional visits of whalers and sealers. 1900] ABSORPTION OF COOK ISLANDS 209 In 1 841 the New Zealand Company, claiming them as coming within their purchase from the Maori, proposed to sell them to a German firm on condition that they were not made a penal settlement and were always free to British shipping. 1 The Attorney-General of England, however, condemned the Company's claim and the negotiations fell through. Nevertheless many Germans went there, under the influence of the North German Mission Society. In 1867 one-fifth of the 115 white residents at the Chathams were Germans. The Chathams are administered as part of New Zealand, and are attached to one of the electorates of the South Island. Their population is largely engaged in sheep- farming and fishing. Expanded Boundaries. — New Zealand's claim to control any of the neighbouring groups in the Pacific had been placed beyond question since the Samoa dispute of 1884-5 by the progress and contentment of her own native popula- tion. When the Samoa Convention extinguished all other German claims in this region of the Pacific, Seddon made a determined demand that New Zealand should be permitted to take in hand the administration of all the islands thus left to British influence. Chamberlain readily agreed to the Cook Islands being absorbed. Their people were closely related to the Maori, and spoke almost the same language. They had petitioned in 1864 to be annexed, and their sympathies were entirely British. The way having been prepared by a resolution in the New Zealand Parliament, the arikis of the group petitioned for annexation in 1900. 2 The inclusion of the Cook group in the boundaries of New Zealand was effected by an Order-in-Council in May 1901 under the authority of the Colonial Boundaries Act, 1895 ; and the change came into force the follpwing month. 3 Under the New Zealand act for the administration of the group the Federal Parliament previously existing is continued. Each island is governed by a council of nine members, the Resident Agent of New Zealand Govern- ment being ex-officio president. The Federal Council is presided over by the Resident Commissioner for the group. No ordinance has validity until assented to by the Govern- 1 See reports of the New Zealand Company in Public Record Office : also, " The Making of a Nation," article in New Zealand Tim*s, by G. H. Scholefield, 13th March 1907. 2 P.P. N.Z. 1900, A 3;'. 3 P.P. N.Z. 1901, A 2g. 210 NEW ZEALAND AND ITS DEPENDENCIES ment of New Zealand, which can also apply to the islands any New Zealand law it cares to. There is a regular steamer service to the Cook group, and in 1918 Rarotonga was linked with New Zealand by wireless. Close to the Cook Islands is the outpost of Niue, or Savage Island, where German interests existed until 1899 which prevented British authority being set up. By the Samoa Convention Germany renounced her interests here, and the island was annexed to New Zealand in 1901. The natives of Niue are distinct from those of Rarotonga, and are of a roving disposition, so that of a population of 4500 about one-ninth are usually abroad in other Pacific islands. The principal industry of Niue is plaiting hats. There is a separate government with a Resident Commissioner. CHAPTER XV OCEAN OUTPOSTS The Auckland Islands. — An interesting but unimportant episode in the New Zealand orbit was enacted in the middle of the nineteenth century. The Auckland Islands, which lie in latitude 50 deg. 32 min. S. and longitude 166 deg. 13 min. E., 290 miles south of the Bluff, were discovered in 1806 by Captain Bristow in the whaling ship Ocean, which belonged to Samuel Enderby. Revisiting them in the following year in the Sarah, Bristow took formal possession in the name of King George III. During the succeeding decade they were freely visited by whalers and sealers, but no established settlement was formed. Formally included by the letters-patent of April 1842 in the boundaries of New Zealand, 1 the Auckland Islands were still governed direct from the Colonial Office. It was from Downing Street that a lease of the islands was granted in March 1847 to Charles Enderby, son of Samuel, on behalf of himself and Henry and George. Two years later the Southern Whale Fishery Company was formed to develop these rights, and Charles Enderby was sent out with full powers to carry out the intentions of the scheme. 2 The Antarctic Prince of Whales. — Enderby arrived at Port Ross in December 1849. There were then fifty-one persons in the Company's employ, and seventy natives had arrived from the Chathams a few years earlier. All were engaged on the work of the Company. To govern this little community Enderby had been granted by the Colonial Office a commission as lieutenant-governor, responsible direct to Downing Street. In his early reports he expressed the usual confidence of a company promoter that the group 1 The Constitutional History and Law of New Zealand, by Dr J. Hight and Dr H. D. Bamford. - The Auckland Islands, by Charles Enderby, 1849. 212 OCEAN OUTPOSTS would not involve the Imperial exchequer in any expense, and would even confer benefits on the adjacent colonies. The Company did not succeed. Not only was it soon in financial difficulties, but in 1850 we find Enderby significantly asking the Colonial Office how he should deal with cases which would be punishable by transportation if such powers existed. Earl Grey replied (18th December 1850) : — "You were fully informed before leaving England that in the absence of any parliamentary provision no regular government with full powers could be established in these islands until the settlers become sufficiently numerous to allow of English institutions being adapted to their situation. You must deal with offences of a more serious description, should they unfortunately occur, to the best of your ability according to the law of England, summoning a jury of settlers if it should be absolutely necessary." 1 For a year or two the Company struggled on, and in 1851 we find Bishop Selwyn jocularly looking forward to a visit to the " Antarctic Prince of Whales," the Auckland Islands being in his diocese. 2 In that year a commission was sent out by the Company to investigate the conduct of its affairs on the spot. ' After a long and rancorous dispute Enderby in January 1852 resigned his post under the Company and his appointment as lieutenant-governor, nominating a gentleman to carry out the duties of magistrate. A few months later the settlement was abandoned, and H.M.S. Fantome was sent down to supervise the evacuation. A Parallel with Vancouver. — Enderby's proclamation of abdication contained bitter complaints of the insults to which he had been subjected in his public and official capacity, insults which he had no power to resist since the whole of the population of the islands was in the pay of the Company. Consequently he had ceased to exercise the duties of his office until he should be able to enforce them. He went to Wellington and appealed to Sir George Grey for support. Grey felt compelled to recognise him as lieutenant-governor until his commission was revoked, but tactfully declined to take any part in the quarrel with the Company, or to incur the expense of sending Enderby back to his jurisdiction. In this Earl Grey concurred. Enderby, he said, was fully aware that his appointment as lieutenant-governor was issued at his own request, and entirely in connection with the design of his company for making use of the islands. 1 P.P. 1852-3, No. 122. - Tucker's Life of Selwyn. 1886, 1900] THE LINE ISLANDS 213 "That design having come to a termination, you must, without any expression of opinion as to the merits of the case between himself and the Company, warn him to abstain from any exercise of authority under the commission of which he has tendered the resignation." The government of the islands would probably be established in due course for the protection of the natives, but Her Majesty's Govern- ment had no present intention of maintaining an establish- ment there of any kind. 1 As a matter of fact, the Aucklands had no native popula- tion, but the Colonial Office was on traditional ground in making such a promise. Since then the group has been administered by New Zealand. It has been settled period- ically by sealers, whalers, and sheep-farmers from New Zealand, and by the last has been made quite successful. Government steamers from New Zealand pay periodical visits to replenish the depots for shipwrecked seamen and to deliver stores, and there are other means of communicating with New Zealand during the wool season. Port Ross, at the northern end of the main island, is a fine spacious harbour, and is described by D'Urville as one of the best harbours of refuge in the world. The Line Islands. — The Anglo-German agreement of 1 886 placed in the British sphere of influence two small but interesting groups of the Line Islands, the Gilberts and the Ellice Islands. Chiefly coral atolls, they stretch from 5 deg. N. latitude to io deg. S., and from 170 to 180 E., outcrops of a reef which connects the Fiji system with that of the Marshall Islands. The total land area is only 180 square miles, and the population at the end of 191 5 did not exceed 32,000. It was purely to protect the native from the depredations of the blackbirders and the abuses of the beach-combers that England intervened in these fierce and inhospitable islands — in the Gilberts in 1896 and in Ellice in 1897. Ocean Island came into the administration in 1900 for quite a different reason. It possesses valuable deposits of guano, which it was proposed to develop by license granted to an English company. Merely for convenience it was attached to the neighbouring administration, to the revenues of which it soon provided the bulk of the income. A Creditable Native Administration. — There are twenty- four main islands in the Gilbert and Ellice colony, and each 1 Early in 1853 Enderby was again seeking appointment as lieutenant- governor in view of the Aucklands becoming a penal settlement. P 214 OCEAN OUTPOSTS of them is governed by a native council under the overhead- ship of the resident — very much the system in vogue in the Cook Islands. Each native council, or kaubure, keeps its own scribe and its own police. There has been so far a sad lack of supervision owing to the resident commissioner having no means of visiting the islands except at rare intervals ; yet the reports show that the native government has worked remarkably efficiently. The High Commissioner's assistant in 1909 stated that though the books kept by the native councils in the different islands showed certain errors in method, there was not a single case of deficiency in the money, "a circumstance which redounds greatly to the credit of the native officials concerned." 1 The besetting sin of favouritism led at an early stage to the abolition of the post of uea, or high chief of the islands. The administration is in accordance with a code of laws drawn up by Sir J. B. Thurston in 1894, and the result of establishing the protectorate has been altogether for the benefit of the native population. Whereas there was continual fighting, varied by murders and burning of food crops, a few years of British administration produced perfect order. In the six years 1901-6 there were only four murders, and all the offenders were brought to justice. Planting and land reclamation were continuously progressing, poverty was unknown, and there was complete security for person and property. Housing was greatly developed, and the villages were kept in excellent condition. The only dis- turbance to the pristine simplicity of the islands was that caused by the attractions of the great European colony at Ocean Island. The Labour Question. — It was due to the exertions of Thurston that the recruiting of Gilbert and Ellice islanders for work in the plantations of Samoa and Fiji was dis- continued. His denunciation of the traffic was based on humanitarian grounds. Not only was the change from the equatorial atolls to the subtropical plantations ruinous to health, but the removal of large numbers of able-bodied men laid the remainder open to constant attacks from neighbouring islands. When Ocean Island with its guano deposits was added to the protectorate, the Gilbert and Ellice islanders were freely indentured for work there; but for one reason or another this migration lost its attractiveness. Either the natives acquired a competence, or they found life at home 1 P.P. 1909, Cd. 4992. 1780-1831] THE BOUNTY MUTINEERS 215 so much improved by the new regime that they ceased to offer themselves for the work. The guano is now worked almost entirely by European skilled labour and Japanese coolies. 1 Though each of the islands had previously made a con- tribution from its surplus to the funds of the administration, the inclusion of Ocean Island in the protectorate in 1900 was a great boon financially. The revenue of the protectorate increased from £2554 in 1901 to £4345 in 1906, and £30,273 in 1913. Of the exports, which in 1914 were valued at £349,250, phosphates from Ocean Island accounted for £300,000. A Crown Colony. — In 1908 the headquarters of the Government was transferred to Ocean Island, and since 1909 the revenues from the phosphate workings have been credited to the funds of the colony. The protectorate was incorporated in the Empire as a Crown colony in November 1915, and by a subsequent order Union, Fanning, and Washington were added to the colony. The Union Islands, three in number, with a population of about a thousand, are in 9 deg. S. latitude, and are ruled by their own chiefs through native councils, the pattern of constitution most favoured throughout the Pacific. Their trade is principally in copra. The Pitcairn Wanderers. A Refuge for Mutineers. — When the mutineers of H.M.S. Bounty fled with their Tahitian wives for a remote hiding-place, they fetched up at a small island on the extreme eastern fringe of the Polynesian archipelago, far from all steamship lanes of modern traffic. Pitcairn is situated at 25 deg. 3 min. S. latitude and 130 deg. 8 min. E. longitude, practically half-way between Australia and America. It has an area of about two square miles, and no harbour. Discovered by Carteret in 1767, it had no settlers until the Bounty refugees arrived there in 1780, and their presence was not discovered until 1808, so infrequent were the visitors. Thereafter vessels of the Royal Navy visited at long intervals. In 18 14, thirty-five years after the mutiny, Sir Thomas Staines, captain of H.M.S. Briton, assured the survivors that the time had passed when they were likely to be pursued by the hand of justice. So they continued to live on under their patriarchal form of government. 1 P.P., Cd. 4356. 216 OCEAN OUTPOSTS Migration to Tahiti — In 1831 scarcity of water threatened the existence of the little colony, and by order of the British Government the whole of the people, numbering then eighty-three, were removted to the homes of their maternal forebears, Tahiti. They were received with great cordiality by Queen Pomare, but took unkindly to the new life, and before two years had passed they were all back in their old home. The next proposal for migration came from the islanders themselves in 1853. They had been visited in the previous year by Admiral Moresby and the famous Baron de Thierry, and it was on their suggestion that they asked the Colonial Office to remove them to Norfolk Island. 1 Until this time Pitcairn had not been formally recognised as a part of Her Majesty's dominions, though its people always prized the British connection. Through Admiral Moresby they sent a petition to the queen asking to be allowed to consider themselves her subjects and Pitcairn a British colony, as it had in fact become subject to the ratifica- tion of the act of the captain of H.M.S. Fly a few years earlier. Her Majesty replied that she was gratified by the mark of loyalty " from her subjects on Pitcairn's Island," and that no doubt really existed as to its being part of her dominions. Removal to Norfolk Island. — The Colonial Office was quite favourable to the proposed migration, and took a most flattering view of the character of the islanders. In 1852 Pakington urged the speedy and complete evacuation of Norfolk to make room for the Pitcairners, " who in the small and remote island which they Occupied had preserved an innocence of life and gentleness and benevolence of manners which had gained for them the esteem and admiration and the goodwill of all by whom they had been visited" (Pakington to Lieutenant-Governor Sir W. Denisori). 2 Denison hastened to have the island cleared of its bad characters for the , reception of the Pitcairners. The simple islanders were very loth to change their abode, unless they received a guarantee of the complete cession of Norfolk, 3 to be held by them on the same terms on which they held Pitcairn. This, of course, was impossible, 1 Pitcairn, by the Rev. T. B. Murray. 2 P.P. 1854, No. 2160. 3 Norfolk Island (29 deg. 2 min. S., 167 deg. 58 min. E.) has an area of 15 square miles. It was discovered by Cook in 1774, and in 1788 became a penal settlement for the worst type of offenders. Owing to the difficulty of maintaining communication with New South Wales, 900 miles distant, it was in 1809 evacuated. In 1825 it was again occupied for penal purposes. 1856] NORFOLK ISLAND EXPERIMENT 217 but they were assured by Commodore Toup Nicolas that they would receive grants of allotments, and that at the moment it was not intended to allow "any other class of settlers to reside or occupy land on the island." The solicitude of the Colonial Office for the welfare of the islanders was quite genuine, but Denison carried it to rather an extreme point. When it was suggested that one convict, a clever craftsman, should remain on> the island for the benefit of the newcomers, who had lost most of the useful crafts of civilisation, he gave peremptory orders for his instant removal to Hobart Town, " as I cannot but consider the introduction of the convict element in the shape of an old unmarried sheep-stealer (for such I find was the crime for which he was transported) as most objectionable" (Denison to Labouchere). And this in spite of the petition of the islanders themselves, who had heard that the sheep-stealer was " an old man and, we think, a reformed man." An Uncontaminated People. — Denison even opposed the design of Bishop Selwyn in 1856 to make Norfolk Island the headquarters of the Melanesian Mission. Grey had suggested to the Home Government that some buildings vacated by the convicts should be handed over "to the Mission, but Denison's determination to protect the Pitcairners from all possible contact with other people was strictly adhered to. 1 The administration of Norfolk had now to be provided for afresh. As a convict settlement it had been under the administration of Tasmania. Geographically it fell within the boundaries of New South Wales, and Denison, to continue his fatherly interest in the new settlers, suggested that it should be placed under his jurisdiction. In this the Colonial Office concurred, and Labouchere promised an Order-in-Council to effect this purpose without annexing Norfolk to New South Wales. The Order, which was dated 24th June 1856, separated Norfolk from Tasmania and erected it into a separate and distinct colony, the governor for the time being of New South Wales being also governor of Norfolk. Ecclesiastically it remained part of the diocese of Van Diemen's Land. 2 Back again to Pitcairn. — The Pitcairners were moved to Norfolk in 1856, but once more they failed to take kindly to the new life. Some indeed settled down, and a band of young men purchased gear from an American whaler and started their own fisheries. But soon there were many of 1 Tuckers Life of Selwyn. * P.P. 1857, Sess. II., No. 2243. 218 OCEAN OUTPOSTS the islanders wishing to get back to their rock far away to the east. Denison tried hard to persuade them to per- severe for the sake of their children, who must profit from closer contact with civilisation than their fathers had enjoyed. The yearning for the old scenes prevailed. In 1859 sixteen families returned to Pitcairn and three others were preparing to /go. The Colonial Office grew naturally impatient, and ordered Denison to see that no further charges were incurred by the Imperial exchequer on behalf of the Pitcairners. A report by Captain Proby Doughty, R.N., in 1884, states that the islanders told him they just reached their rock again in time to prevent its occupation by the French, who had recently established their protectorate over almost the whole of the eastern Polynesian archipelago. The captain of a French ship of war which arrived the day following the landing appears to have told, them this and to have been surprised to find the island occupied. 1 The Administration of Norfolk. — When Lord Hampden was going out in 1895 as Governor of New South Wales he asked for advice as to the position of Norfolk. Under the Order-in-Council of 1856 the Governor of New South Wales had full legislative authority, but the old customs and usages of the Pitcairners had been preserved, with the result that commissioners appointed in 1 894 found " no court of justice nor prison, no sheriff nor paid policemen : consequently no means for the recovery of debt nor for the punishment of ,serious crime." 2 Complaints had been made to the chief magistrate of the island that the laws were not being enforced, few offenders being brought to trial, and sentences when pronounced being often evaded. Chamberlain took the obvious course of suggesting that New South Wales should take over the administration, to which that colony willingly agreed. But no sooner had an announcement been rriade than the peculiar interests of New Zealand were pleaded as a bar to the transfer. The island, wrote the Agent-General, was an ecclesiastical province of New Zealand, and the bishops of Melanesia and of New Zealand demanded that if any change was made New Zea- land should be given control, and in any case should be consulted as a matter of courtesy. The Colonial Office was surprised that New Zealand con- sidered she had any special claim to Norfolk, and the claim does not seem to have been very solidly based, for although 1 P.P. 1899, C. 9148. 2 P.P. 1899, C. 8358. 1897-8] A CONSTITUTIONAL PROBLEM 219 New Zealand protested in March 1896 against Hampden's proclamation absorbing the island she took no further steps, and Chamberlain had to cable again asking what had become of the despatch. 1 1 This produced a reply in which it was pointed out that Norfolk was likely to become a landing-place for the Pacific cable, and that New Zealand had the strongest possible objection to the point of bifurcation of this cable being controlled by any other colony than New Zealand. She desired no change at all, but if one was insisted on then New Zealand, being 300 miles nearer than New South Wales, should be the controlling authority. With characteristic brusqueness Chamberlain replied that the trade connections were with New South Wales, and that " unless you send by telegraph strong reasons for further delay" the transfer would be effected as a matter of urgency. New Zealand had nothing to add, and the Order-in-Council was issued on 15th January 1897. New South Wales was not at all anxious to legislate for the new dependency. The elders and members of the House in Norfolk itself prayed that the old laws and customs should continue, but Hampden insisted that a magistrate should be appointed to see that the laws were carried out. The Eternal Problem. — The problem of Pitcairn itself remained insoluble. Rear- Admiral H. B. Palliser reported in 1898 that the islanders were gravely deteriorating owing to intermarriage and overpopulation. They had left their old primitive ways and had developed vices. There was. an absence of discipline and incentive to work and of moral fibre, and Palliser suggested that besides sending a present of animals for the material benefit of the Pitcairners they should have a governor appointed to control them. But above all any who wished to leave the island should be encouraged to do so, for even if they returned it would be with an endowment of new ideas which must inevitably be helpful. 2 Chamberlain was not the sort of Colonial Secretary to allow things to drift. He at once placed the island under the jurisdiction of the High Commissioner for the Western Pacific, and in October 1898 Mr Hamilton Hunter went down to proclaim the change and to hold a court. He fully bore out the views of Admiral Palliser. There seemed to be no future at all for the Pitcairners except hopeless imbecility, and he suggested removing them to Fiji, where by working 1 P.P. 1897, C. 8358. 2 P.P. 1899, C. 9148. 220 OCEAN OUTPOSTS a block of land they might eventually become useful settlers, " while the young people might go out to service and supply a much felt want in this colony." The executive council of Fiji approved the proposal, but the High Commissioner for the Western Pacific, who was also Governor of Fiji, strongly dissented. The habits and intellectual attainments of the Pitcairners seemed to him to hold out little hope that they would be able to earn a living, and a considerable likelihood that they would become a charge on the finances of Fiji. The Colonial Secretary thought the present state of Norfolk precluded any idea of sending them thither again, and he looked with most favour on Hunter's alternative of educating the islanders by enabling them to visit Tahiti. The Governor of Tahiti was anxious to help, but here again was some difficulty. Pitcairn produced nothing that was marketable in Tahiti, and there was consequently no shipping communication. Eventually the Seventh Day Adventists in Raiatea came to the help of any young men from Pitcairn who wished to emigrate by offering them employment on their plantations. 1 The present population of Pitcairn is about 1 50. Norfolk Island became the headquarters and seminary of the Melanesian Mission, which had its origin in the province of New Zealand. The population at the census of 191 1 was 792 whites and 193 Melanesians, the latter being students and evangelists from the New Hebrides and the Solomon Islands. The Gateway of the Pacific. — Although situated in the South Atlantic, it is impossible to consider the Falkland Islands except as a part of the Pacific system, at all events from the strategic point of view. Situated between 5 1 deg. and 53 deg. S. and between 57 deg. and 62 deg. W., about 480 miles north-east of Cape Horn, they are an outpost and port of refuge on the Cape Horn route to and from the Pacific, and could be utilised as a most effective base of operations in a military empire. That significance was not properly realised until the early days of the great war, when a British force watching the gateway from this point was able to destroy the German Pacific fleet. It is important to note that no non-American power has any post in South America that could be so used. At the same time the opening of the Panama Canal has greatly diminished the importance of the Cape Horn route for any but South American shipping, and has diminished in the 1 P.P. 1901, Cd. 754. 1593-1914] THE FALKLAND ISLANDS 221 same measure the strategic importance of the Falklands position. The Spanish Cession. — The Falklands were discovered in 1593 by Richard Hawkins, and became British through cession by Spain in 1771. The possession was not asserted, and in 1820 the republic of Buenos Ayres occupied the group as derelict. In 1831, after a difference between the settlers and American whaling vessels, the United States ship of war Lexington broke up the settlement and removed the settlers to Buenos Ayres. Two years later Britain enforced her rights and occupied the islands for the protection of the whale fishery. For eleven years they were administered by the naval officers on the station, who made valuable surveys of the coasts. In 1843 a c;i"vil administration was formed with headquarters at Port Louis or Anson, but it was trans- ferred in the following year to Port William or Stanley. From 1 841 to 1880 the colony received regular grants from the exchequer, and until 1885 subsidies for a mail con- nection. Since then it has been self-supporting. The gov- ernor rules with a legislative council, of which two members are nominated by royal warrant. The area of the groups of Falkland and South Georgia (some hundreds of miles to the eastward) is 7SOO square miles, and the population was estimated in December 191 5 at 3451. South Georgia alone has an area of 1000 square miles and a population of 1003. The revenue of the Falklands before the war increased from .£15,476 in 1901 to £32,285 in 1913, and the expendi- ture from £17,639 in 1901 to £24,614 in 1913. CHAPTER XVI THE PACIFIC CABLE A Scientific Fallacy. — By one of those inscrutable assumptions which science has permitted, it was supposed for many years that the great depth of the Pacific Ocean would preclude absolutely the laying of a submarine cable across it to connect Canada with the Australasian colonies. This belief was accepted implicitly at the Colonial Conference held in Sydney in June 1877 to consider the improvement of telegraphic communication between Australia and the rest of the world. Four main projects were then discussed. Three of them proposed to lay cables by way of Asia, and the fourth by way of the United States. The practicability of the schemes was considered by the Agents-General in London, and the route from New Zealand to Honolulu and thence to San Francisco was condemned as absolutely impracticable owing to the depth of water. Two years later, in 1879, Mr (after- wards Sir) Sandford Fleming, chief engineer of the Canadian Pacific Railway, discussing the early completion of the over- land telegraph from the Atlantic to the Pacific, suggested that "as a matter of imperial importance the British possessions to the west of the Pacific Ocean should be connected by submarine cable with the Canadian line. Great Britain will thus be brought into direct communication with all the greater colonies and dependencies without passing through foreign countries" (Mr Fleming to the Superintendent of the Telegraph and Signal Service, Ottawa, nth June 1879). In his report the following year, Fleming developed his idea, insisting 1 that a trans-Pacific cable to Asia should have its American end on Canadian soil. He asked personally to be granted the exclusive privilege of landing such a cable in Canada, and urged that as the most favourable route to India, Australia, and New Zealand was via Japan one of 1885-7] A DEAD CENTRE 223 the Kurile islands should be transferred to the British Crown. The last proposal was dropped, but by the end of the year Japan had agreed to the landing of the cable at any suitable point in the island of Yezo. It is to the credit of the Canadian Government and the House of Commons that they took a pioneering interest in Fleming's proposals and granted him the desired charter. Fleming was not disposed to accept the existing knowledge of the physical conditions of the Pacific as conclusive or the deductions as sound. He asked that one of Her Majesty's ships stationed at Esquimalt should undertake a detailed survey of the proposed route. The Polynesian Route Proposed. — Five years elapsed without any headway being made. In 1885 Fleming published a pamphlet in London in which he boldly declared for the direct route from Canada to Australia through Polynesia, a route which had hitherto been con- demned as impossible. 1 He also suggested the payment of an annual joint subsidy of £100,000 by the governments of Great Britain, Canada, Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, Western Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand. The proposal to lay a cable from Australia to the United States was discussed at some length in Australia, and Earl Stanhope took the hint and addressed a circular letter to the whole of the colonies, suggesting that the American terminus should be in Canada rather than in the United States. When the Colonial Conference met in London in 1887 Sir H. T. Holland was in the chair, and he expressed in a rather off-hand manner the Government's attitude to a proposal towards which it had shown nothing but impatience : — "A very strong case would have to be made out," he said, "to justify Her Majesty's Government in proposing to Parliament to provide a subsidy for maintaining a cable in competition with a telegraphic system which, at any rate, supplies the actual needs of the Imperial Government." Sir Julius Vogel, Colonial Treasurer of New Zealand, suggested a joint ownership of the cable by the colonies and the Mother Country, but the discussion did not reach as far as this. The conference merely agreed on a resolution from Canada, urging the British Government " to set at rest by 1 For the history of the Pacific cable, see P.P., C. 7632, 9247, 9283, etc., and The All Red Line, ed. G. Johnson, Ottawa, 1903. 224 THE PACIFIC CABLE a thorough and exhaustive survey every doubt as to the practicability " of the Polynesian route. The Admiralty would not agree to send a vessel specially for the purpose of taking soundings over the whole route, but promised to endeavour to arrange that soundings should be taken gradually during the next few years in the ordinary course of hydrographic surveying. This was in May 1887. The Secretary of State excused the delay by the observation that there was no prospect of sufficient funds being found for the maintenance of such a cable (Colonial Office to Governor-General, Canada, 1st September 1887). In a later despatch the Colonial Secretary said he could hold out no hope of the scheme being favourably received, and that the colonies themselves would have to provide the money for cost and maintenance. Nothing at all was done in regard to the survey, and when the Intercolonial Postal Conference met at Sydney in March- 1888, it could only pass similar resolutions afresh and offer to pay the cost of the survey. The Survey Untouched. — The position was just the same when the Intercolonial Conference met at Ottawa in 1894, seven years after the conference in London. Nothing at all had been done on the survey, and again resolutions were passed praying the British Government to move its departments to assist. To show that they were in earnest, the colonies decided to call for commercial offers for laying the cable. As a result it was found that several firms were willing to survey the route and lay the cable at less than the estimated cost. Once again it was the galvanic personality of Chamberlain that infused life into a drooping empire cause. In November 1895 the new Colonial Secretary decided that no further time should be lost, and on his suggestion there was a meeting of the Agents-General in London a week later. They unanimously recommended the setting up of an expert commission to report on the project, and a few months later this was done by Chamberlain himself. When the report of the Imperial Pacific Cable Committee was signed on 5 th January 1897, the Pacific cable was almost an accomplished fact as far as the main obstacle— official indifference — was concerned. Its practicability was endorsed. State ownership was emphatically recommended. The route proposed was from Vancouver via Fanning Island, Fiji, and Norfolk Island to New Zealand and Queensland. The interest of Chamberlain was a driving force in striking 1897-1902] COMPLETION OF THE PROJECT 225 contrast to the obstinate and defiant indifference of the Colonial Office throughout the previous fifteen years. " In any matter in which the colonies themselves are deeply interested," he said in opening the Colonial Conference of 1897, "they may count on the support and assistance of the Mother Country. ... I think that one of the very first things to bind together the sister nations is to have the readiest and the easiest possible communication between the several units." That conference itself did not advance the question, but before they next met it was accomplished, in spite of influences which kept the Committee's report back from the public for two years. Construction of the Cable. — In 1899 H.M.S. Egeria surveyed the line from Vancouver to within 300 miles of Fanning Island. On 31st December 1900 the contract was signed for the construction of the cable. Towards the end of 1902 the cable was completed. A few months later the American cable from California to Hawaii was opened. During the protracted discussion over the project, extending over a quarter of a century, the prospects of various islands being used as landing stations were mooted, and the British Government did take steps from time to time to secure such as it thought desirable. In 1893, when Sir Mackenzie Bowell, Canadian Minister of Trade and Commerce, visited Australia in connection with the scheme, he was much impressed by the situation of Neckar Island (latitude 23 deg. 35 min. N., longitude 164 deg. 39 min. W.) as a midway station. Lying 240 miles to the westward of Hawaii, it was then derelict and uninhabited, and Fleming had strongly recommended it as being on the most direct route from Vancouver to the coast of Queensland. An Acquisitive Project. — Neckar was discovered by La Perouse in 1786, and was considered by him too insignificant to take possession of. While in Hawaii Mr Bowell made a memorandum strongly recommending that steps be taken to bring it under the British flag. Hawaii itself was in the throes of a revolution and on the threshold of annexation, and Lord Ripon, then Colonial Secretary, held this to be a reason for delaying action "pending the establishment of the Government of Hawaii upon a more permanent footing." When the new Government came into power it was composed almost entirely of Americans or persons of American sympathies. Month after month passed without any action being taken. 226 THE PACIFIC CABLE In May 1894 Lord Rosebery, who had come into office as Foreign Secretary, assured Canada that the British representatives at Honolulu would "watch the matter closely," but he too thought that no action should be taken in view of the disturbed condition of Hawaii. Fleming, though, was less patient He was intensely anxious to ensure that the British flag and no other should float over Neckar, and that it should be there as an accomplished fact when the conference met at Ottawa. And to forestall disappointment, he decided in his private capacity to arrange for the occupation of the island by a British subject, and the hoisting of the British flag. Sir Charles Tupper duly communicated the project to the Colonial Office. The result was a complete damper. "Rosebery much annoyed at action," he cabled to Fleming on 31st May. "Will repudiate. Fears will destroy good prospect of obtaining Neckar. Prevent action becoming public, if possible." A Scheme Miscarries. — But the project was defeated from London. When the naval officer whom Fleming had entrusted with this duty reached Honolulu, he learned that the British Government had already acknowledged the sovereignty of Hawaii over the island — although nobody of either nation had landed there — and had asked the provisional government of Hawaii on what terms they would transfer control to Britain for the purpose of the cable station. Under the circumstances the officer had no option but to abandon his mission, and the Hawaiian Government forthwith chartered the steamer for which he had been negotiating and made good its shadowy claim by hoisting its flag. Neckar Island still seemed so suitable for a landing-place that a Canadian Commission went to Hawaii to negotiate an agreement to use it for this purpose. They carried out their task quite satisfactorily, but the project was killed by the decision of the United States Senate that such a lease as was contemplated would be an infringement of the Reciprocity Treaty with Hawaii. Other Islands Annexed. — In view of the cable being laid, Great Britain in 1888 hoisted her flag on a number of small islands which seemed likely to be of use for landings. These included: Fanning, 3 deg. 51 min. N., 159 deg. 22 min. W. ; Penrhyn, 9 deg. S., 158 deg. 3 min. W. ; Christmas, 1 deg. 57 min. N., 157 deg. 27 min. W. ; Suwarrow, 13 deg. 13 min. S,, 163 deg. 9 min. W. When the Neckar idea fell through Fanning was decided ! 1 1857-88] FANNING AND PENRHYN 227 on as a landing station. The cable runs, therefore, from Bamfield (Vancouver) to Fanning Island, thence to Fiji and Norfolk, at which point it bifurcates to New Zealand and Australia. Suwarrow and Penrhyn are now included in the extended boundaries of New Zealand. Fanning was most favourably reported upon by the British consul at Hawaii as long ago as 1857. Besides large quantities of cocoa-nuts it produced abundance of bananas, arrowroot, firewood, and fresh water. Moreover, in its oblong contour 10 miles in length was a deep lagoon " capable of holding the whole of the British Navy," and abounding in a variety of fine fish. 1 The Pacific cable was cut at Fanning by a German squadron during the great war, but was shortly reunited. 1 P.P. 1857-8, Iv. p. 156. CHAPTER XVII BRITISH DOMINIONS AND THE FAR EAST The Nineteenth Century Expectation. — The relations of the British dominions in the Pacific with China and Japan are one of those questions which have caused some anxiety in the past, and must inevitably be of greater moment in the future. Hitherto their treatment has been comparatively simple, partly because of their great distance apart ; partly because neither of the Asiatic powers has yet taken an official interest in colonisation ; and partly because the foreign policy of both is more for the future than it has been in the past. The idea of a great trade connection between Australia and the Far East — India and China — is historic. Officials in the early part of the nineteenth century, when this region of the world was largely the affair of the Honourable East India Company, noted that the ships going out to Australia with convicts and supplies generally proceeded thence to China and to India for homeward cargoes. The dangers of navigating the wide uncharted archipelagos of the Spice Islands were a source of constant apprehension. Yet the idea of a more and more important trade persisted, and many naval scientists and surveyors devoted themselves to examining the channels and reefs of these islands with the enthusiasm due to a great task. Torres Straits Settlements. — Captain P. P. King, R.N., discovered in 1818 the haven of Port Essington, in the extreme north of what is now the Northern Territory of Australia, and he at once designated it as a spot which, by reason of its good harbour and its proximity to the Moluccas and New Guinea, on the direct line of communi- cation between Sydney and India, and commanding the passage of the straits, must become " a place of great trade and of very considerable importance." The first settlement at Port Essington was established 228 1824-60] TORRES STRAITS SETTLEMENTS 229 in 1824. It was a complete failure, and was finally evacuated in 1829, another settlement having been planted at Raffles Bay in 1827. These projects were all favoured by the Home Government as likely to foster the Eastern trade ; but they were killed by the lack of communication with the eastern colonies of Australia, the unhealthy climate, and the hostility of the natives. The hope of opening a trade with the East Indies by introducing European goods in the islands seemed quite doomed by the end of 1827, because the vessels passing the straits were on through voyages. This settlement too failed. But the Government persevered, for, after all, there was urgent need for a port of refuge in these waters. 1 The Essington scheme was again brought forward in the early days of Queen Victoria. The clearances from Port Jackson for India, Java, and the East Indies by way of Torres Straits grew from 4700 tons in 1832 to 14,950 tons in 1838. That quaint body of theorists on which the Colonial Office relied so much in its early Victorian troubles, the Colonial Land and Emigration Board, sat in judgment in 1840 on the Port Essington scheme, which it fully approved. The trade, it said, was likely to grow. Not only was there need of a port of call and refuge in that particular region, but "a trading post disposing of British manufactured goods to the Malays, and receiving in return various products of the East," seemed likely to succeed. But apart from all this, " upon grounds of general expediency and independently of the peculiar facilities this situation may possess as a naval station or as a commercial depot, it appears in the highest degree desirable that the northern coast of New Holland should be made British territory by actual occupation." Indeed the Board recom- mended this policy even at some cost to the country. 2 In 1837 the station was established, and garrisoned by detachments sent from England. But at the end of eleven years it was still unable to keep itself in fresh vegetables, and Captain Owen Stanley declared the site quite insalubrious. In 1849 it was finally abandoned. The Establishment at Somerset. — The matter of a station for naval and refuge purposes near Cape York was again brought forward by the Governor of Queensland (Sir G. F. Bowen) in i860. 8 He proposed this spot as more directly commanding the strait, and more healthy than 1 The Hisicry of Australian Exploration, by Ernest Favenc. 2 P.P. 1840, xlvii. 3 P.P. 1861, No. 2890. Q 230 BRITISH DOMINIONS AND THE FAR EAST the previous sites. His visit to Cape York in 1862 led directly to the formation of the coaling station, which was called Somerset. An additional argument which helped to decide the question was the establishment of the French colony and naval station at New Caledonia. By command- ing the whole of the commerce between the Pacific and the Indian oceans by this route, Somerset seemed a valuable counterstep to Noumea (Bowen to Colonial Office, 9th December 1861). Queensland offered to form and manage the settlement and to support the civil establishment, but carefully repudiated any direct interest in the naval station, inasmuch as it was farther from Brisbane than Gibraltar was from London The naval authorities selected a position close by for an arsenal and coal depot. Thursday Island. — In 1881 Major-General Sir P. Scratchley, in his report on the defence of Australia, advised the fortification of Thursday Island, from which the navigable channels of Torres Strait could be most efficiently commanded. That post has since been continuously held and developed as part of the general policy of Australian defence, and also for administrative and police purposes. Its importance can scarcely be exaggerated. The pearl fisheries and beche-de-mer industries both employ a considerable number of alien divers and other workmen, for whom it was absolutely necessary to provide a jurisdiction. It was for this purpose, and to prevent the lodgment of islanders and others "for questionable purposes," that the boundaries of Queensland were extended in 1878 to include the islands in the Straits. At the same time, for the purpose of coping with the kanaka traffic, the High Commis- sioner appointed the magistrate at Thursday to be his deputy. 1 The Rights of Chinese. — So much for the early trade relations of the colonies and the East. Keith 2 shows that as regards Chinese immigration, the Chinese people have no treaty rights either by the Treaty of Nanking or by that of Pekin, to enter upon British territory in any part of the world. These treaties were made with a power having little international status, and while they conferred rights and privileges on Englishmen in China they were not reciprocal. This is rather interesting in view of the treaties of amity and 1 P.P. 1883, C. 3617. - Responsible Government in the Dominions, by Dr A. Berriedale Keith. 1840-84] THE YELLOW PERIL 231 reciprocity which had ere this been concluded with such quasi-civilised states as Hawaii. The cession of Hongkong under the Treaty of Nanking was not demanded by England with any view to colonisation, but "for diplomatic, commercial, and military purposes" (Derby to Governor Sir Henry Pottinger, 3rd June 1843). This definition of its purposes was elaborated by Labouchere in 1856, when he said that Hongkong was held "not because of any natural advantages which it possesses, but simply as subsidiary to the intercourse between the British and Chinese empires." Like Port Hamilton, which was held for a short time as a precaution against Russian activity in the North Pacific, it had no outlook on the Pacific at all. It had no Pacific trade beyond the Philippines, which are Asiatic, and no Pacific communications. Origin of the Yellow Peril. — Long traffic with China ports by European nations had, by the middle of the nine- teenth century, set up a natural leakage of individual Chinese into almost all of the countries bordering on the Pacific. Everywhere the unsurpassed industrial qualities of the Chinese conquered for them a livelihood and often a competence. Employers appreciated their patience, their sobriety, their docility, and their capacity ; and on the whole they were made welcome. But herein lay the elements of an economic problem to which no European government could close its eyes for long. The influx into Australia became marked on the discovery of gold in 1 85 1. It was Victoria's gold, and Victoria took early alarm at the inrush. From 2000 in 1854 the number of Chinese in the colony had increased to 42,000 in 1859. In 1855 a law was passed limiting the admission of Chinese passengers to one for every ten tons burthen of the vessel carrying them. A poll-tax was also imposed. In 1863 the number of Chinese had decreased to 20,000, but it is not to be supposed that these restrictions were the only cause. The laws were then repealed. New South Wales and South Australia also legislated and repealed. For a while the scare died away so completely that the Imperial Government disallowed a Queensland Act of 1876, and drove the colony to the expedient of a poll-tax and a delay on mining rights. British Columbia was by this time feeling a wave of Chinese immigration, which it endeavoured to check by a series of acts between 1878 and 1884. Most of the more important were vetoed as clashing with Dominion rights or Imperial interests, and all that was left to the province in 232 BRITISH DOMINIONS AND THE FAR EAST the end was some prohibitions against the holding of Crown lands and other minor imposts. 1 Incidentally a royal com- mission in 1884 disproved most of the allegations against the character and morality of the Chinese, and found that a majority of the white population of the province did not wish them to be expelled. Nevertheless it proposed a moderate restrictive power for the future. In the long run the Dominion Parliament came to the rescue, and in 1885 enacted both a poll-tax and a tonnage rule as in Australia. The United States in 1880 concluded a treaty with China to limit or suspend the immigration of Chinese " labourers." China makes a Protest. — There was meanwhile a re- crudescence of the influx into Australia, and in 1881 Victoria, South Australia, New South Wales, and New Zealand all passed restrictive measures embodying in various degrees of severity the poll-tax and the tonnage rules. Queensland, Western Australia, and Tasmania also took action, so that by the end of 1887 Chinese were denied free access to any part of Australia. Moreover, by discriminating under the factory laws in that year, Victoria took the initiative in a programme of social conservation, which later became the guiding principle of legislation throughout Australia and New Zealand. Feeling was unquestionably strong on the subject, and the Imperial Government fortunately recognised the fact at an early stage. In December 1887 China took up officially in London the question of the treatment of Chinese nationals in British dominions. Basing its complaints on the fact that Crown colonies, administered direct from Downing Street, did not discriminate against Chinese immigration, it demanded that the same ~ freedom of movement should be given in self- governing colonies, and relied on the Acts of 1842 and i860 as securing that right. The Colonial Office submitted the matter to all the colonies, and the replies are instructive as giving the original arguments against the influx. New South Wales held her cause of contention to be so much a "national concern as to be taken up by the Empire. If we have no voice in making treaties, it seems only just that our interests should be considered by those who exercise that power. The most prevailing determination in all the Australian communities is to preserve the British type in the population. There can be no interchange of ideas, of 1 For a summary of these laws, see Keith's Responsible Government. 1887-8] DOWNING STREET'S SYMPATHY 233 religion, or citizenship, nor can there be intermarriage or social communion, between the British and the Chinese." Sir Samuel Griffith (Queensland) said experience had shown that the Chinese became formidable competitors with English labour in almost every branch of industry, and he continued : " As, owing to their habits of life, the cost of subsistence is to them very much less than to Europeans living in accordance with European habits, the effect of their unrestricted competition would undoubtedly be to materially lower wages and reduce the standard of comfort of the European artisan and labourer." 1 The British Government Sympathetic. — Thousands of speeches delivered in all parts of the world since then have not expressed more clearly than these extracts the case for a White Australia. At the very moment of the discussion an exceptional influx into the unoccupied Northern Territory (through Port Darwin) was reported, and the alarm was heightened by the arrival in Sydney and Melbourne of several ships carrying Chinese immigrants in excess of the statutory quota. With the vessels in their harbour the New South Wales Parliament passed a law of severe restriction, and refused to allow the Chinese to land. Lord Carrington (now the Marquess of Lincolnshire), who was Governor of New South Wales at the time, took the matter up very warmly, and assured the Secretary of State that it was the universal belief in Australia that " if these colonies are to be an offshoot of Britain they must be kept clear of Chinese immigration. I am positive," he added, "that this is not a cry got up for political purposes. It is a deeply founded feeling and belief of the vast majority of the colonists." The British Government was fully sensible of the strength of feeling, and in the midst of the negotiations •with China gave its assent to restrictive measures passed in New South Wales and New Zealand. South Australia proposed that a colonial conference should be held to arrive at a general scheme to lay before the Colonial Office. Knutsford treated the matter very tactfully. He cordially approved the conference as an Australian matter pure and simple, and did not desire that the Imperial Government should be represented — a mark of confidence which was much appreciated at the antipodes. The Sydney Conference. — The Conference met at "Sydney in June 1888. None of the colonies felt that they could safely leave the matter without further legislation of 1 P.P., C. 5448. 234 BRITISH DOMINIONS AND THE FAR EAST * their own pending the result of the negotiations with China. They recommended that the Imperial Government should endeavour to get a treaty with China, under which Chinese should be entirely excluded, with the exception of officials, travellers, merchants, and students ; and in the meantime they agreed to standardise their own legislation by leaving out the poll-tax, and making the passenger limitation one to every 500 tons of the ship's register. The utmost cordiality was shown towards the Colonial Office — a striking contrast to the unhappy conditions of the Convention of 1883. On the part of the Imperial Govern- ment the matter was put through with admirable despatch and goodwill. The letter of the Chinese Minister which led to the discussion was dated 12th December 1887. Within six months the colonies had held their conference, and the Secretary of State had instructed the Minister at Pekin to open negotiations in accordance with the resolutions. 1 Further Colonial Precautions. — Nevertheless the influx of Chinese continued to be governed by colonial legislation, under the advice of the Colonial Secretary. Nor did the I Imperial Government withhold assent from colonial bills. New Zealand imposed a language test ; and the number of Chinese in New Zealand is constantly diminishing, though not necessarily for this reason. The Imperial Government declined to interfere when a Chinese petition was received in 1908, holding that the matter was exclusively for the Dominion to decide. Canada also, following the report of a royal commission, raised the poll-tax in 1903; and again a Chinese petition was overruled. The Commonwealth of Australia, by its Act of 1901, relies chiefly on a language test. At the census of 1901 the number of Chinese inv Australia was only -79 per cent of the population, and in New Zealand. -28 per cent. Relations with Japan. — The case of Japan has been entirely different from that of China. Whereas China remained deep in mediaevalism, sending out a generous stream of emigrant labourers, Japan at one bound, long before her economic condition induced the emigration of her surplus population, stepped from an archaic civilisation to almost the front rank of the great powers. It was not possible long to maintain against the subjects of such a power restrictions and disabilities which could properly be enacted against the Chinese. The civilised powers first sought relations with Japan 1 P.P., C. 5448. 1854-89] MODERN JAPAN 235 in 1854, when an American expedition under Commodore Parry took the initiative in concluding a commercial treaty. The Crimean War was in full swing, and the naval operations of the Allies against the Russian forces in the Pacific took Rear- Admiral Sir James Stirling in the autumn of the year to Japanese waters. The Anglo-French naval forces had bombarded Petropaulovsk, and then Stirling put into Nagasaki in search of the Russian fleet, which had spent a great part of the previous season there. Even if he should not find them, he hoped " to make such arrangements as should prevent them from making use of the ports and resources of Japan for refitting their ships and harbouring their prizes." The Anglo-Japanese Treaty, 1854. — After prolonged negotiations, which he had to hasten by somewhat threatening language, Stirling completed his task on 14th October. The treaty opened Nagasaki and Hakodate as ports of refuge to British ships, all other ports remaining closed except in cases of distress. In other respects English ships and subjects were secured equal rights with those of the most favoured nation, "always excepting the advantages accruing to the Dutch and Chinese from their existing relations with Japan." 1 The main object of the treaty, Stirling said, was to promote friendly intercourse, and he believed that it " afforded a means of cultivating a friendly understanding with the government and people of an exten- sive empire, whose neutrality in war and friendship at all times are matters of vital importance to British interests in the adjacent seas" (Stirling to Admiralty, 26th October 1854). 2 British relations were improved by the mission of Lord Elgin in 1858. He took a steamer as a present to the emperor, and concluded a treaty of friendship and commerce providing for the appointment of British diplomatic agents and consuls in Japan, where hitherto only Holland and the United States were so represented. 8 Japan a Great Power. — The modernisation of Japan proceeded with remarkable rapidity. Her claim to admission to the family of nations was based upon the establishment of constitutional government in 1875. In 1884 the whole country was thrown open to foreign trade. The constitution was liberalised in 1889, the first parliamentary elections being held the following year. How great an advance the people had made in national consciousness was shown by their anxiety for more equal treatment in the approaching revision of their commercial 1 P.P. 1856, No. 2014. 2 P.P. 1856, No. 2077. 3 P.P. i860, No. 2589. 236 BRITISH DOMINIONS AND THE FAR EAST treaties. In 1891 Japan asked for an earlier recovery of her fiscal autonomy than she was entitled to under the British treaty, which came up for revision in 1894. One by one her commercial conventions were revised in her favour. Great Britain was more reluctant than most of the powers to concede her terms, but after the defeat of China in 1895 it was impossible to withhold any longer the privileges of a first-class power. The treaty then made abolished the consular jurisdiction which had been designed as a necessary safeguard for Englishmen living in the Far East. The Anglo-Japanese Alliance. — The close co-operation of the troops of England and Japan in the Boxer rising in China led directly to the Anglo-Japanese Alliance. " We have both desired," wrote Lansdowne to Sir Claude Macdonald (30th January 1902), "that the integrity of the Chinese Empire should be preserved ; that there should be no disturbance of the status quo either in China or in the adjoining regions; that all nations should be afforded equal opportunities." The military basis of the agreement was that if either party became involved in a war the other should maintain a strict neutrality, but in the event of either being confronted by the opposition of more than one hostile power the other should come to its assistance. The alliance bore early fruit in securing Japan freedom from attack by a third party in her war with Russia. The Asiatic Menace. — In 1896 a conference of Australasian premiers at Sydney decided to apply the anti-Chinese restric- tions to other Asiatics. New South Wales, New Zealand, South Australia, and Tasmania all presented bills for this purpose, but they were all reserved pending the meeting of the Imperial Conference in 1897. In welcoming the delegates, Chamberlain spoke very seriously and sympathetically on the Asiatic problem. The British Empire, he said, contained an empire of 300,000,000 Asiatics, all as loyal to the Crown as the delegates themselves, and including many hundreds of thousands every whit as civilised as the white races. " You cannot be willing," he continued, " to put upon those men a slight, which I think is absolutely unnecessary for your purpose, and which would be calculated to provoke ill-feeling, discontent, and irritation, and would be most unpalatable to the feelings not only of Her Majesty but of all her people." He advised the conference to confine its attention to the char- acter of the immigrants and not to their colour. The Natal 1897-1901] THE LANGUAGE TEST 237 Act, No. I of 1897, seemed to him to approach a satisfactory solution by applying the test of writing a passage in a Euro- pean language, as well as excluding unconditionally paupers, imbeciles, criminals, prostitutes, and diseased persons. No decision was come to at the conference, but Chamber- lain persevered, and later in the year was able to inform the Australian colonies that Japan also would accept the exclusion of her people by means of the language test. 1 With this powerful recommendation, the suggestion was accepted, and within the next few years Western Australia, New South Wales, Tasmania, and New Zealand put it into practice. After the federation the Commonwealth in its Act of 1901 adopted the language test for all Asiatics, and with some modifications it remains in force. The mere existence of the test has proved a powerful deterrent, and Australia has been able to make a further generous advance to India and Japan by allowing free admission to merchants, students, and people of kindred classes not wishing to become perma- nent residents. 2 Queensland had adhered to the Japanese Treaty of 1 894 conditionally on being enabled to restrict the immigration of Japanese labourers. This protocol became binding on the Commonwealth Government and Parliament after the federation, but it was formally denounced in 1908. 3 Australia and Asiatic Seamen. — That the language test did not, however, completely settle the Asiatic problem was evident when the Commonwealth proceeded in its earliest days to put into effect the "White Australia" policy to which it was committed from its birth. By the Post and Telegraph Act of 1901 the Federal Parliament forbade the making of any contract for the carriage of ocean mails with shipping companies who employed other than white labour. This was aimed directly at British lines which had for years employed seamen belonging to India (lascars). Chamberlain at once declared that this Act must terminate any mail agreement between the Imperial and the Australian governments. By the Mutiny Act of 1858 the Crown had bound itself to the natives of India in the same relationship of duty as to the other peoples of the Empire, and the British Government could not consistently become a party to a contract in which the employment of Indian subjects was in terms forbidden " on the ground of colour only." The case of Australia, he held, was all the weaker for the fact that it 1 P.P. Aust. 1901, No. 41. 2 P.P. Aust. 1905, No. 61. 3 Keith, Responsible Government in the Dominions, p. 1084. 238 BRITISH DOMINIONS AND THE FAR EAST was seeking not to protect its white population from an influx of foreign immigrants, but merely to prevent " the employ- ment of His Majesty's Indian subjects on a contract to be mainly performed in tropical or subtropical waters." " His Majesty's Government deeply regret," he added, " that in regard to a matter which cannot affect the conditions of employment in Australia, and in no way affects that purity of race which the people of Australia justly value, the (Parliament of the Common- wealth) should have considered it desirable to dissociate themselves so completely from the obligations and policy of the Empire." 1 The Commonwealth took yet another step in the same direction in 1906 by passing a Bill to restrict the tariff preference to British goods to such as were carried in ships manned exclusively by white labour. As the Bill infringed several commercial treaties it was not assented to, so that the white labour aspect did not require to be adjudicated upon. A New Zealand Bill of 1910 to penalise vessels employing lascars was also refused the royal assent, after being discussed at the Imperial Conference of 191 1. Wise Influence of the Colonial Office. — So far the restriction of Asiatics has been fairly satisfactory considering the geographical and economic influences bearing on the problem. It cannot be said to have reached a solution though, for a recent royal commission in Australia recom- mended the gradual exclusion of Japanese divers from the pearl fisheries in favour of white labour. For a few years the language test seemed to give wide satisfaction, but gradually even in this connection new difficulties arose. When Canada desired to take advantage of the commercial treaty with Japan, Japanese immigrants were ipso facto guaranteed free access to the Dominion, and a serious overflow from Hawaii was at once directed to British Columbia. Popular riots followed as a protest, and the Canadian Government sought an understanding by direct negotiation with Japan. A satisfactory agreement was arrived at, under which the immigration was limited to a certain number of persons each year. The Asiatic problem must inevitably be a serious one for Australia and New Zealand at all times. Up to the present, considering the strong public feeling on the matter, its treatment has had happy results. This is largely owing to the sagacious attitude adopted by the British Government. By taking the Dominions into its confidence and freely 1 P.P., Cd. 1639. A FACTOR IN POLICY 239 acknowledging the justice of their fears, the Imperial Government has been able to control and co-ordinate the colonial restrictions, and at the same time to conciliate the Asiatic power concerned, with almost remarkable success. An Influence on History. — The later history of both Australia and New Zealand has been influenced very seriously by the " Yellow Peril " in its twin aspects — the unconquerable industrial virtues of the Chinese and the power and prestige of Japan. By her possession of a strong constitutional government, Japan was enabled to take an honourable and responsible place amongst the great powers, and to be the faithful ally that she has been of Great Britain. That demonstration alone has done much to mitigate the apprehensions of the Dominions. China, on the other hand, is still on the threshold of a modern revolu- tion. Her government is not organised on modern lines, and she is not even yet capable of making responsible treaties and exercising an influence in world politics com- mensurate with her economic importance. The Imperial Government wisely acknowledged at the outset the reality of the menace offered to Australia and New Zealand by the overflow of capable and industrious artisans, labourers, and mechanics from China, and has lent the Dominions its loyal aid in endeavouring to bring the menace within bounds. It is a matter of conjecture how long the restrictions against the Chinese, notably the poll-tax, would have been maintained but for the influence of Japan. Japan's internal development gave opportunities for its growing population to prosper at home, so that their emigration never attained the proportions of the Chinese stream. Moreover, Western education was widely diffused amongst the Japanese early in the present century, and the educated Oriental presented quite a separate problem. It must not be forgotten that the military and naval preparations, which enabled the dominions of Australia and New Zealand to take such an honourable part in the great war as the ally of Japan, were instigated in the first instance by fear of the expansion of the Japanese themselves, and the Chinese. The pendulum of world politics has swung considerably since then ; but the overthrow of the German menace cannot have a greater or a happier result in the future than the consequent readjustment of economic opportunity by which Japan and China alike are promised a full and sufficient future in Asia, without the necessity of a strong colonial policy in the Pacific. CHAPTER XVIII THE LABOUR PROBLEM Does the Pacific need China ? — While the white dominions of the Pacific have been so jealously and rightly guarding themselves against the social consequences of a great Chinese influx, the future development of the Pacific as a whole suggests the possibility that before long an appeal may have to be made to China to supply the labour which is apparently not forthcoming from native sources. The smallness of the islands, their isolation and remote- ness, have only served to emphasise the difficulties of pro- viding labour for the plantations and other industries in which the white settlers have engaged. The economic organisation of those which are in British possession seems to depend to-day very largely on the use which can be made of the available supply of native labour. Up to the present the natives have not taken a very important part in the development of their islands. They have in too many cases yielded service only under conditions approach- ing those of " forced labour," even if in the British islands they have been far enough removed from actual slavery. In more than one important group numerous populations have existed in enervating indolence side by side with an imported race of labourers, and have steadily died off. This has happened in Hawaii and New Caledonia, and is happening to-day in Fiji. Will it also happen in Papua ? The Interstate Commission of Australia on the Trade of the Islands (191 8) estimates that in the British, French, and what were formerly German possessions 200,000 acres of cocoa-nut plantations employ 40,000 natives, a number which is only 2-64 per cent of the total native population, or 8 per cent, of the adult males. The wealthy sugar planta- tions of Fiji are quite dependent on the labour of 50,000 Indian coolies, who have flocked thither in the last thirty years and settled there as a new race. Elsewhere there are NATIVE LABOUR SUPPLY 241 4000 Chinese. In the American territory of Hawaii the once powerful Polynesian race is dying out. The work is done by thousands of Japanese, Chinese, and Portuguese labourers. Samoa, too, is largely worked by kanakas from outside the group. The Kanaka Population. — It is shown by the Commission already quoted that of an estimated native population in all the Pacific Islands of 1,514,000, more than half were living in the erstwhile German possessions, as the following table shows : — British Papua . . Solomons . . Fiji .... Gilbert and Ellice . . Tonga . Cook . . . 250,000 150,000 92,000 30,000 23,000 12,000 557,000 German New Guinea . Bismarck . . Carolines, etc. Samoa . . . Marshall . 531,000 188,000 55,000 35,000 1 5,000 824,000 United States Samoa . . 9,000 French New Caledonia 28,000 Tahiti, etc. . 26,000 54,000 French and British Condominium New Hebrides 70,000 In spite of the wealth of kanaka labour in their own possessions, the Germans were permitted by treaty to recruit in the British Solomons, while British planters were specific- ally debarred from obtaining labour either in German or French possessions, or in New Guinea. The Wrong Civilisation. — In the British possessions themselves, notably Fiji and New Guinea, the secured title to their land has tended to place the native inhabitants beyond the need of work and to make them idle. The Interstate Commission remarks that "the type of civilisa- tion meted out to the native of the Pacific has been largely of a character not only altogether unsuitable for, but in many respects fatal to, his well-being," and that the conversion of the native into a worker is a problem inseparably associated with the development of island industry. It is suggested that where measures taken by the Government have resulted in the creation of native landlords steps should be taken to correct the mistake. In Fiji, after more than forty years of British government, only about one-seventh of the land has been alienated, and only one-ninth under Crown grant. In Papua, which has been a protectorate or a possession for thirty-three years, not one-half per cent, of the whole area is held in fee simple, and the natives have still a valid title to 98 per cent. In the 242 THE LABOUR PROBLEM Solomons less than 2 per cent, has been disposed of to whites. There has been no alienation at all in fee simple in Gilbert and Ellice, or in Tonga. According to official statements * the individualisation of titles in Fiji, the absence of which has caused great trouble in the past, is still proceeding, and the Fijians show no anxiety to hand over suitable lands for development by white or Hindu enterprise. The Commission found the principle of leasehold firmly established in the British Pacific possessions and in Papua. It is certainly a well-favoured principle in the British dominions, but the Commission advises a liberal and well- directed policy to encourage settlement of the islands by security of tenure. Principles of Native Development. — Tribal ownership of land in New Zealand had very much the same baneful effect in the early days of the colony by making the native in- dependent of his own labour. Under the communal system of ownership the profits of the industrious individual benefited himself only in a small measure as a member of the society. There was no incentive to individuals to work. Herein the well-wishers of the Maori saw yet another menace to their survival, and native legislation by the New Zealand Parlia- ment proceeds on the assumption that the separation of individual titles, if it can be achieved, tends to encourage individual enterprise, and that it is in the interest of the race to develop their land as working agriculturists. The native legislation of New Zealand, side by side with the honourable observance of the Treaty of Waitangi, has been conspicuously successful. It has only been developing for a few decades, but one result, so far as results can be said to follow from definite causes, is that the Maori people have ceased to decline in numbers. The Interstate Commission suggests that if the other branches of the Polynesian race are to be saved from extinction, it will be by the same method of teaching them to become workers once more. The Hindu Immigrant. — Of all the labour imported from outside, the Hindu coolies of Fiji seem to have given the most satisfaction. At the end of 19 14 there were 15,602 under indenture, of whom 9644 were male adults. And there were 37,754 time-expired immigrants remaining as permanent settlers in the group. 2 The Australian Com- mission says : " An undoubted preference was shown for Indian coolie labour, not so much for his superior efficiency as for the fact that he represented a more desirable class and 1 Colonial Reports, No. 811. ' Ibid., No. 848. THE MIXTURE OF RACES 243 constituted a better type of settler. This is no doubt due to racial distinctions and habits of life." The Hindu, being generally a townsman, has a tendency to congregate in large centres, whereas the Chinaman is willing to live by himself wherever his work takes him. Economically the Hindus are a powerful factor in Fiji. Not only have they made the sugar industry sound and flourishing, but by leasing or buying native lands they are pushing the native Fijian back and changing the face of the country. 1 The racial complications produced in Hawaii and Fiji by a large and sometimes motley influx of coolies of other nations are not pleasant to contemplate. The happiest out- come of that governmental benevolence which the British have always practised towards subject races is to be looked for in the perpetuation of the natives themselves. And this is a result to which there is abundant reason to look forward hopefully in the light of our unexampled experience in such matters. The industrialising of the Polynesian and the Melanesian, even with some measure of compulsion, is essential in their own interest. 1 P.P. Aust. 1918, No. 66 : F. 13489. CHAPTER XIX THE NEW HEBRIDES France in the Western Pacific. — The rivalries of the French and British in the Western Pacific since the middle of the nineteenth century have centred chiefly in the New Hebrides. Though not greater in aggregate area than the county of Yorkshire, they are very fertile and possess many fine harbours and a numerous population, and are conse- quently capable of great economic development as well as of being used for naval and military purposes. First discovered by Quiros in 1606, and afterwards visited by Bougainville, the New Hebrides were so named by Cook in 1774 and carefully mapped. The clash of interests originated with the French occupation in 1853 of the island of New Caledonia, at the southern end of the ocean shelf from which the New Hebrides themselves protrude. It is almost as large as Yorkshire and Lancashire together, and its capital, Noumea, with a fine land-locked harbour (latitude 22 deg. S., longitude 166 deg. E.), is about 800 miles east-north-east of Brisbane. Close to New Caledonia are the smaller islands of Pines, Mard, and Loyalty ; and strung out to the northward over • 7 degrees of latitude are the beautiful and fertile New Hebrides, the most distant of which is only 400 miles from Noumea. The French Settlement of New Caledonia. — French missionaries landed in New Caledonia in 1843, an< 3 it was claimed then for France, but on Great Britain objecting the claim was renounced. In 1851 a landing party from a French man-of-war took possession, but the annexation was not formally declared until 1853. Almost at the same moment a British naval officer was hoisting the British flag at Isle of Pines. The chiefs who had favoured the step afterwards sided with the French and the flag was withdrawn. j It was a settled aim of French policy at the time of the 1853] FRENCH IN NEW CALEDONIA 245 first claim to secure in the Pacific one or two sites which would serve the dual purpose of naval bases and penal settlements. The failure of the transport system in the Australian colonies was already definite, owing partly to economic reasons but chiefly to the determined objection of the white settlers themselves ; but this repugnance had not been sufficiently canvassed to lead France to anticipate opposition from the same source. New Caledonia had been taken possession of by Captain Cook by right of discovery. Nevertheless Great Britain did not assert her rights when the French occupied the island. It is bootless to consider what might have been the trend of Pacific policy had England confirmed all the cessions and acts of possession of her scientific navigators. Certainly international rivalries in the great ocean would have taken quite a different aspect. Naval officers had several times recommended the occupation of New Caledonia. When Sir George Grey, Governor of New Zealand, was cruising throughout the wide jurisdiction of his first patent, he arrived at the Isle of Pines in 1853 in time to hear that the French were already in New Caledonia, and he wrote to Earl Grey at once pointing out how great a danger to the future of the British colonies this constituted. 1 The Govern- ment of New South Wales reiterated the warning, and in face of these protests the occupation did not become formal until 24th September 1853. The Penal Settlement. — The natives were not completely reduced, as the result of a series of small expeditions, until 1859. Five years later the transportation of convicts com- menced. In 1865 these numbered 245 ; the soldiers and free settlers 2000. By 1870 1500 free colonists were counter- balanced by 2000 convicts. In the following years 4000 sup- porters of the Commune were added to the island population. Australia made a restive protest, and soon after the political prisoners were amnestied. But criminals took their place in increasing numbers and saturated the white community. By the end of 1884 17,300 convicts had been sent to New Caledonia from France. Bishop Selwyn's Ambition. — The British interest in New Caledonia and the New Hebrides was at first of a purely missionary character. The letters-patent of Selwyn as first Bishop of New Zealand contained the same clerical error which appeared in the letters-patent of the colony itself, whereby the boundaries extended far north of the equator. 1 P.R.O., CO. 209,1vol. cxviii. R 246 THE NEW HEBRIDES Selwyn was the last man to complain of such a mistake. On the contrary he took the first opportunity of making a cruise amongst the myriad islands of his ocean diocese to judge of the prospects for Christianity. This came in 1848, and Selwyn afterwards wrote home hopefully offering to take spiritual charge of all the islands west of 180 deg. as far as the coast of Australia, a proposal which would give him the New Hebrides, the Solomons, the New Britain Archipelago, and New Guinea, with all the Line Islands. He contemplated establishing himself first of all in the Isle of Pines, to open the way to the spiritual conquest of New Caledonia and the New Hebrides, and he looked forward to the time when his work should fuse with that of the Bishop of Borneo in the East Indies, thus covering the whole of the Western Pacific. 1 When he revisited the islands in 1851, however, Selwyn found his teachers thriving on some of the other islands — notably Mar£, where afterwards the Presbyterians suffered much persecution. The Isle of Pines was occupied by Roman Catholics, and he forbore to establish his mission there, feeling that there was enough work for all to do without overlapping. A Vicariate-Apostolic had been established by the French Roman Catholics in New Caledonia in 1847, embracing the islands of Pines, Loyalty, and Belep. The priests were a most devoted class, and gave martyrs here just as freely as in other parts of the world. For a while their cause did not progress smoothly, and, as elsewhere in the Pacific, the active assistance of French warships tended rather to accentuate the friction. French Attitude to Protestant Missions. — With the political expansion of France the outlook for the Protestant missions, even in islands where they had hitherto been the sole Christians, became less and less hopeful. It is only fair to recognise the natural tendency of missionaries already established to encourage in the native mind, even if they do not create it, a feeling of hostility to new missions. In the Western Pacific, as in Tahiti, the menace of a rival religion entering the field drove the Protestants to look for assistance to their own Government, and by a natural tendency to promote movements inimical to the establish- ment of French authority. The Loyalty Islands are so close to New Caledonia that they came naturally into its orbit Long before they were definitively annexed France had assumed a predominant 1 Tucker's Life of Selwyn. 1850] THE MELANESIAN MISSION 247 position, and the Roman Catholic missionaries made no secret of their power to impose their religion on the natives. The priest at Lifou boasted to Bishop Patteson in 1858 that the French Government had a sufficient naval and military force at hand to render him any assistance he might require, but added that if the people behaved properly he would do nothing to interfere with their religion. About the same time the captain of H.M.S. Iris informed Patteson that " the French will meet with no opposition from the English Government." 1 Evidently this extension of the French protectorate had already been discussed in Europe and agreed to by the British Government, and all Patteson could do was to make the best terms he could for the toleration of the Protestants. It is not surprising that we should find him urgently demanding that all unoccupied islands should be taken under British protection. Nor could he fail to appreciate the real value of a man-of-war to a mission, " not with the idea of any protection being required, but with the intention of supporting the mission and giving help." A few months later he received just the help he most appreciated when he made a cruise amongst his islands in H.M.S. Cordelia. It is rather a pathetic reflection that so few years later a British man-of- war, commanded by the most humane of captains, was to take vengeance for his death at one of the islands. The Melanesian Missioii. — When the bishops of Australia and New Zealand met in Sydney in 1850 they were anxious, "relying on Divine providence, to adopt plans for the propagation of the gospel among the heathen races of Australasia and the adjacent islands of the Western Pacific." On Selwyn's suggestion the Australasian Board of Missions was set up, and it was decided, owing to the unhealthiness of the climate, that the work should be carried out rather by means of long visits in the healthy season than by the occupation of permanent stations. 2 The bishops were in some doubt as to their competence to act as an ecclesiastical synod for fear that they should impugn the supremacy of the Queen, and it was some years before they felt quite authorised in their actions. When the See of New Zealand was established in 1841, with the inaccurate boundaries transcribed from the letters-patent of the colony itself, a vast area of 4700 square miles of ocean, with myriads of scattered islands, seemed to be the arduous r Life of John Coleridge Patteson, by Charlotte M. Yonge. ' P.P. 1852, No. 355. 248 THE NEW HEBRIDES lot of the bishop. He was just the man to push his labours far north of the equator when it was obviously intended he should remain far to the southward. It appeared, too, that before the Board of Missions could undertake the creation of the proposed ocean diocese Selwyn, who had a life appoint- ment, would have to resign. This, too, was repugnant to the pioneering character of the man. At length, in 1861, the consecration of a bishop for the Melanesian field was achieved, not by royal mandate, as was customary, but by virtue of a despatch from the Secretary of State (the Duke of Newcastle), who wrote : — 1 "The bishops of New Zealand are at liberty, without the invasion of the royal prerogative or infringement of the law of England, to exercise what Bishop Selwyn describes as their inherent power of consecrating Mr Patteson or any other person to take charge of the Melanesian Islands, provided that the consecration should take place beyond British territory." But the Attorney-General of New Zealand, citing the con- secration of Bishop Mackenzie in Capetown Cathedral, held that there was no reason why Patteson should not be consecrated in Auckland. And so it was done, on 24th February 1861. Success and Authority of the Protestants. — The first Protestant missionaries settled in the New Hebrides in 1839 under the auspices of the London Missionary Society. Before long the care of the field was assigned to the Presbyterian mission bodies of Canada, Scotland, Australia, and New Zealand. It is to this association, with the people of Australia in particular, that much of the vigour of the agitation for British annexation fifty years later was due. By agreement with Selwyn, some time prior to 1850, the Presbyterians abandoned a few of the northern islands on condition that they were left alone in the others. The Roman Catholic missions arrived subsequently, but did not attain to nearly so much influence. The earlier missionaries literally took their lives in their hands amongst the savage and treacherous natives of these Melanesian islands. It was at Erromanga that Williams lost his life ; at Nukapu, Patteson ; at Ysabel, Bishop Epalle. Many teachers were killed ; many murderous attacks made on trading and mission ships alike. Where Christianity was established, some missionaries formed their own civil courts under the authority of the chiefs to control and 1 Life of J. C. Patteson, by C. M. Yonge. 1845-80] PROTESTANTS OPPRESSED 248 police their flocks, a first step towards that missionary government which we see more fully developed in Polynesia. Founded in 1848, the Presbyterian' Mission had by 1887 extended to all the islands except Pentecost, Aoba, and Maewo, which had been allotted to the less opulent Melanesian Mission. "The only people who were constantly on the spot," says Captain E. G. Rason, R.N. (late Resident Deputy Commissioner), 1 "working for peace, law, and order, were the Presbyterian missionaries, and in process of time each one became a sort of bishop within the area appointed for his ministry, that is, as far as the native Christians were concerned. These missionary bishops, where the island was all or mostly Christian, arrogated to themselves con- siderable power, and consequently came into conflict with the local settlers, none of whom came up to the standard required by the missionary." Protestants in Loyalty. — The Protestants had been established in Loyalty since 1845. Until the arrival of the Roman Catholic missionaries in 1866, the work of the Presbyterians was conspicuously successful. Thenceforward there was nothing but friction. It was the policy of the French authorities to eradicate by all means the great influence wielded amongst the natives by the English Protestants, and it was not difficult to pick quarrels with them. The Governor of New Caledonia in the early years of the seventies told Mr Brenchley the whole story, " how he had forbidden the Protestants to make any more converts. There was a French law or ordinance forbidding the further expansion of the Protestant religion in the country because, as it was French, the Catholic faith its religion, and French its adopted language, they would have to undo what the missionaries might do, and to teach French in the schools and propagate the Catholic religion in place of Protestantism." 2 By 1880 the trouble in Loyalty had become a matter for diplomatic discussion. The French Government com- plained of the conduct of the Rev. John Jones, in the island of Mare\ Granville ordered an investigation, and the result was so much in the missionary's favour that he decided he could not ask the Society to withdraw him from Loyalty (Granville to French Ambassador, 23rd September 1881). 1 Paper read before the Royal Colonial Institute, 19th April 1910. - Jottings during the Cruise of H. M.S. " Curacoa," by J. L. Brenchley, 1873. 250 THE NEW HEBRIDES Anglo-French Understanding, 1878. — During the decades before Australia developed an oversea trade, French influence spread through the New Hebrides by the sheer force of propinquity. The high-handed steps taken to oust British influence from New Caledonia and Loyalty, and the con- tinued reports of aggression against the missionaries, gave rise to much uneasiness in Australia. At the root of the anxiety was the discriminating conduct towards the English missionaries, and the fear that the islands in French hands might be used for penal purposes. There was already a strong feeling that the only sure way of preventing such results was by British annexation, and the colonists boldly demanded that step. ' In 1878 the Australian agitation for annexation attracted attention in France, where already French interests in the New Hebrides were cherished ; and the French Ambassador drew the attention of the Foreign Office to the matter : — "Sans attacher a ce mouvement de l'opinion une tres grande importance," he wrote, 1 "mon gouvernement tient toute fois a declarer que pour ce qui le concerne il n'a pas le projet de porter atteinte a l'independance des Nouvelles Hebrides, et il serait heureux de savoir que, de son cote, le gouvernement de S.M. est egalement dispose a la respecter." With the concurrence of the Colonial Office, Derby replied that " Her Majesty's Government have no intention of proposing any measures to Parliament with a view of changing the condition of independence which the New Hebrides islands now enjoy." This exchange of notes constitutes the much debated "understanding" of 1878, which became a traditional griev- ance and obstacle to the consummation of the wishes of Australia in regard to the islands. It is hard to condemn it in view of the interests existing at the time. British settlers in the group were not very numerous. According to Captain Bridge, 2 of H.M.S. Espiegle, they numbered only twenty-six in 1883, and most of them were missionaries and their families. But even that was more than double the total number of foreign residents of all other nationalities. Com- munications were chiefly with the neighbouring French possessions, but the missionaries were closely in touch with their supporters in Australia, and particularly in the colony 1 French Ambassador to Foreign Secretary, 18th January 1878; P.P., C. 3863. 2 P.P. 1883, C. 3641. 1878] THE NEW HEBRIDES UNDERSTANDING 251 of Victoria, where they had their headquarters. It was this association, and the fear of penal settlements being established, that stirred Australian anxiety. New French Activities. — In 1883 there were several new reasons for alarm. Large tracts of land were being purchased in the island of Efate, both from natives and from British settlers, and claims were even set up to the island of Iririki, in Vila Harbour, of which the missionaries them- selves believed they possessed the title. Moreover, a company was being formed at New Caledonia to colonise the New Hebrides, and so " force France to take possession of the group as Britain had to do in Fiji." The Compagnie Caledonienne des Nouvelles Hebrides, as it was called, had a capital of 500,000 francs and claimed to have established trading stations throughout the group, and to have acquired an area of 245,000 hectares of good agricultural land. The produce shipped for the 1 first year of its operations — chiefly copra, maize, and coffee — was valued at 200,000 francs. 1 Feeling in Australia ran very high, and five of the colonies sent petitions to the Colonial Office demanding action. Victoria naturally took the lead, and the Agents- General of the colonies in London made joint representations to Lord Derby. In their celebrated Memorandum of 21st July they remarked : — " At some time of which we are, not aware a rather vague understanding appears to have been come to with the Government of France that the New Hebrides should be relinquished as a possession of the Crown and their independence recognised." 2 It seems that when the understanding of 1878 was entered into, Sir George Grey, then Premier of New Zealand, protested that the islands were within the boundaries of that colony. The Imperial Government replied that that was no longer the case, and moreover, that it had no intention of proceeding in the direction of annexation or a political protectorate. Some light is thrown on the suggestion of a prior understanding with France by the fact that in the Western Pacific Order-in-Council of 1877 the New Hebrides are omitted from the islands which are specifically mentioned as within the jurisdiction of the High Commissioner for the Western Pacific. If they were regarded as being under the jurisdiction of a civilised power (to wit, France) this would explain it, and yet the High 1 P.P. 1883, C. 3863. 2 C. 3814- 252 THE NEW HEBRIDES Commissioner appointed Captain Cyprian Bridge, R.N., to be his deputy there. Derby's reply to the Agents-General merely affirmed the position previously taken' up. The independence of the New Hebrides, he said, had been recognised and accepted up to that time by both governments, whereas the " Loyalty Islands, being close to New Caledonia, are to be looked upon as dependencies of the French Government in that island." 1 Fresh Anglo-French Understanding, 1883. — In view of the new agitation the French Government asked for a new assurance that the British Government did not propose to interfere with the status quo. " De cette epoque le Gouvernement Francais avait fait connaitre le prise qu'il attachait, en raison des rapports etablis entre ses etablissements de la Nouvelle Caledonie at les Nouvelles Hebrides, a ce qu'aucun changement ne fut apporte a la situation politique de ce dernier groupe d'lles. Loin de diminuer l'importance de ces rapports, n'a depuis lors, cesse d'accroitre, ils presentent aujourd'hui pour notre colonie une int£ret de premier ordre. Le Gouvernement de la Republique a, par suite, le devoir de s'assurer si les declara- tions de 1878 ont pour le Gouvernement de la Reine, comme pour lui, conserve toute leur valeur, et d'insister, s'il y a lieu, pour le maintien de l*etat actuel des choses " (French Charge d' Affaires to Granville, 9th July 1883). To this Granville returned an immediate assurance that his Government "also considered the agreement to be binding." 2 The Marquis de Ray's Expedition. — In September 1879 an expedition left Flushing in the ship Chandemagore with the object of founding a colony under the name " The Free Colony of Port Breton," in the New Britain or Solomon Islands, or the non-Dutch portion of New Guinea. The colonists had to make their departure from Flushing because the French Government would not recognise the undertaking, and the Belgian Government forbade it to leave from Antwerp — disabilities which accounted for a very large proportion of Germans being included. The expedition was commanded by M. Charles Noetinger. Portion of it landed at the Laughlin Islands and others near Cape Bougainville, in New Ireland, where they arrived in January 1880. It was an ill-advised and badly managed expedition, and parties were dropped at different parts of L P.P. C. 3814. "- Ibid. 1879] THE DE RAY EXPEDITION 253 the islands without equipment and even without drugs. Within a few weeks almost every member of the expedition was sick and helpless. Utterly dispirited and demoralised, those who could get passages with casual traders accepted them to escape from their hopeless predicament. Later in the year other emigrants, including some Italians, arrived in French ships sailing under the Liberian flag. The whole party then moved to English and Irish Coves, and commenced to form plantations and make some ordered progress as a colony. Yet another vessel, La Nouvelle Bretagne, arrived in the spring of 1881 with 150 more adventurers. She had no sooner dropped anchor than word came from France that the company was in financial difficulties and the Marquis himself was "surrounded by traitors and enemies." The troubles of the outcasts were overwhelming, and after losing their most trusted leaders, they were rescued by the good offices of the missionaries and taken in a starving condition to New Caledonia. Some of them later received grants of land in New South Wales, where they founded the settlement of New Italy, between the Clarence and the Richmond rivers. Of the whole original party 40 were Germans, 25 French, 6. Belgians, and 11 Swiss. 1 Further Developments at Loyalty. — Early in the eighties the French authorities in Loyalty decreed that the schools must be carried on in the French language, and that where French schools could be opened immediately the others should be closed forthwith. " The only thing which the administration desire," said the official letter, "absolutely the only purpose which they have in view is the spread of the French language and influence in those islands which are French; and no question of religion can in these circumstances be raised, but the most complete religious liberty being left from that point of view to all the natives." The decree was a challenge to the Protestant missions, which in the English language had carried out all the education the natives had hitherto received. The British Government was appealed to by the missionaries, but it had to plead, reluctantly, no doubt, that it could not interfere with the internal arrangement of islands which were under French sovereignty. Mr Jones struggled on bravely for three years more in conditions of despair. In 1887 the end came. His disputes with the Government led inevitably to 1 George Brown, D.D. : an autobiography. 254 THE NEW HEBRIDES his expulsion. On 8th December the Governor of New Caledonia issued a decree setting forth that his proceedings were calculated to compromise public order and tranquillity, and he was expelled. There was further diplomatic corre- spondence, in which France asserted her right to deal in this manner with a foreigner who had placed himself in open revolt against authority. The incident ended very much as that of Pritchard at Tahiti. M. Goblet, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, denied that there was any ground for uneasiness in England regarding liberty of religious worship in Loyalty. What had happened was " merely a measure of local police directed against a person who had continued in spite of warning to stir up the population of the island against the French authorities, and to foment religious discord between the British and French missionaries." 1 1 P.P., C. 5581. CHAPTER XX THE RECIDIVISTE QUESTION AND THE CONDOMINIUM The Recidiviste Problem. — The agitation for British action in the New Hebrides was much strengthened by the proposal of the French Government to pass a law with the object of making fuller use of the penal settlement at New Caledonia. The most objectionable feature of the proposal was that transported criminals were to be free within the bounds of the colony itself, their crime having been expiated by the mere fact of being removed from France. As Australian statesmen pointed out, this in practice meant simply that they might not return to France. Apart from that, the scheme would obviously have been a temptation to both the liberis and their guards to be lax about leaving New Caledonia for neighbouring countries. " It is vain for anyone to imagine," wrote Sir Francis Bell, Agent-General for New Zealand (30th November 1883), "that habitual criminals, steeped in vice and debauchery, and stained with every crime, to whom a distinct promise is given of absolute freedom on their arrival in the French colony, will really be interned within its limits." l There were constant escapes of convicts, both time- expired and actual, from Noumea to Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne. Gavan Duffy's Victorian commission on the treaty-making power had drawn attention to the subject, and Queensland took the lead in 1881 in trying to deal with the leakage by means of a statute. The Imperial Government refused its assent, and the other colonies understood thereby that this was a matter of foreign relations which could only be redressed through the Imperial Government itself. Derby's Sympathy. — The grievance was real and sub- stantial, and Derby told the Foreign Office in August that 1 P.P. 1884, C. 3863. 266 256 RECIDIVISTE QUESTION AND CONDOMINIUM he was convinced it would not be possible long to resist colonial legislation for the exclusion of undesirables. The sending of convicts to New Caledonia under conditions which permitted them to escape to the adjacent British colonies could only be regarded as an unfriendly act. The annexation movement in 1883 gained much weight from the continued reports of French criminals being dis- covered by the police of the large Australian cities, and it must be said for Downing Street that while fighting stubbornly against annexation it did its best to lay the grievance by pressing the French Government to cease sending criminals to the Pacific at all, and to take proper precautions that those already there should not be allowed to escape. The colonies were all supporting a vigorous annexation policy before the end of the year, in the belief that this was the only way to prevent France from using the New Hebrides as she had already used New Caledonia. New South Wales, as a rule, was less enthusiastic than the others on these matters, but Mr Stuart came into line regarding the New Hebrides. He felt personally that after the repeated exchange of assurances between England and France the rights of France in the group would have to be recognised, and he suggested (8th September 1883), possibly for the first time, that " a joint protectorate by England and France over the New Hebrides and other groups would be the best and most practical solution of the question." Nevertheless, he felt that their occupation by any foreign power would be so detrimental to colonial interests that " rather than leave such a contingency open, I would urge as strongly as anyone that the Imperial Government should annex them." And on the same day he instructed the Agent-General to that effect. The Intercolonial Convention, 1883. — When the confer- ence of premiers met at Sydney at the end of the year, the New Hebrides ranked almost equally with New Guinea as a matter for urgent attention, and the report of the Rev. J. G. Paton that " the vessels and men-of-war of at least five nations have been cruising among our islands for purposes of annexa- tion," showed that no time was to be lost. The Convention recognised that the understanding of 1878 was an obstacle to annexation by Great Britain, but it insisted that further acquisition by foreign powers south of the equator would be in the highest degree injurious to colonial interests. Eventually a resolution was passed unanimously that the understanding with France should 1883] PROTEST OF THE COLONIES 257 give way to "some more definite engagement which shall secure those islands from falling under any foreign dominion," and that the British Government should seize any oppor- tunity of negotiating "with the object of obtaining control of the islands in the interests of Australasia." New South Wales undoubtedly acted as a brake on the impetuosity of Victoria, and it was due to the steadying influence of" the Premier of the Mother Colony (Mr A. Stuart) and his colleagues that the resolution was toned down to its final form. Mr Service, the Premier of Victoria, who petulantly referred to the moderation of New South Wales as " lukewarmness," said 1 that the southern and western colonies could not bear the idea that any arrangements should be made which would prevent the islands eventually coming under the control of Great Britain. 2 The New South Wales delegates, on the other hand, congratulated themselves that while they freely expressed their opinions they secured their main object, namely, that those opinions " should be couched in language of statesman- like moderation, so as to facilitate the action of the Imperial Government and to prevent its embarrassment with any foreign power." 3 A Protest against Transportation. — The Convention, too, declared itself emphatically against the intention of France to transport large numbers of relapsed criminals to the Pacific, and hoped that existing penal settlements in their neighbourhood would soon cease to exist. In spite of the disallowance of the Queensland Bill a few years earlier, the Colonies decided to pass uniform laws to prevent the landing on their shores of escapees from New Caledonia. Almost at the moment when the delegates were passing this resolution, the French Minister of Foreign Affairs was assuring Lord Lyons that the proposals of his Government were as harmless as possible, and that the protection of other nations was specially secured by the remoteness of the prisons and the severity of the penalties for attempting to escape {Note Verbale French Foreign Minister to Lord Lyons, in despatch 3rd December 1883). 4 In acknowledgingthe resolutions of the Convention, Derby reaffirmed the attitude taken up by the British Government 1 P.P. 1884, C. 3863. 2 Speech at Parliament House, Melbourne. 3 Hon. W. B. Dalley, Q.C., in the Legislative Council of New South Wales. 4 P.P. 1884, C. 3863, p. 68. 258 RECIDIVATE QUESTION AND CONDOMINIUM in reply to the Agents-General six months earlier, thus dis- posing for the moment of any talk of annexation. But he took up very vigorously with the Foreign Office the matter of the penal settlement at New Caledonia. Lord Lyons's Blunt Language. — It is rather interesting to find M. Jules Ferry, within a month of Bismarck's conversations with Mr Meade and Sir E. Malet, using almost precisely the same language regarding the feeling in Australia. M. Ferry asked the Ambassador whether " the emotion which appeared on the surface was genuine and sincere. Was it not rather caused by the thirst for annexation of territory with which the colonists were beset, than by any real alarm " as to the consequences of French transportation ? He could not understand the apprehensions about which the colonies made so much, since the relapsed criminals would not be actual convicts, they would not be numerous, and they would be prohibited from leaving the island. M. Ferry said France sincerely desired to show every consideration, but "he could not admit that any foreign country had a right to prevent France from sending convicts to one of her own colonies." Lord Lyons protested that he had not wished to put the matter on that sort of footing, but held that " it was reasonable for a friend who lived next door to ask one not to make his house a danger to his neighbours" (Lyons to Granville, 9th January 1884). The colonies were not likely to accept these assurances as sufficient, when at the moment their police authorities had records of 247 escapees and expirees who had effected their landing in Queensland, New South Wales, and Victoria between 1874 and 1883. It was asserted that prisoners who had served the full period to which they were sentenced were permitted to embark from New Caledonia as free passengers. Some of the convicts on completing their sentences were admittedly free, except to return to France, and concerning these Derby remarked to the Foreign Office : " The French Government have no right to impose on Her Majesty's colonies a burden which they have removed from France. If the convicts are thought to be unfit to be at liberty in their own country, it is clearly unjustifiable to allow them to be deported to Australia. The objection which is entertained in Australia is but the same as that entertained in France, and it appears that the French Government should take the same precautions to prevent the landing of convicts on Australian shores that they would to prevent their landing in France." 1884] COLONIAL OFFICE SYMPATHY 259 The Colonial Office Sympathetic. — The Colonial Office and the Australian governments saw eye to eye on this matter, at any rate, and the Foreign Office was hardly less emphatic in its protests. It was a strong point in the demand made on France that England had herself ceased transporting convicts to Australia precisely for the reasons that were now being urged. While the Bill made slow progress through the Senate Committee, the colonies continued their bombardment of resolutions and protests, and Lyons pressed the French Government for an assurance that recidivistes would not be sent to New Caledonia at all. The Senate Compromises. — The report of the Senate Committee, tabled on 29th July 1884, afforded a certain amount of relief to the anxieties of the colonies. It showed that while the Governor of French Guiana was anxious to have as many convicts as possible, the Governor of New Caledonia was just as urgent that none at all should be sent to his colony. He had no means of finding employment for them, and feared that if unemployed they would be a dangerous element. In an almost impassioned appeal x he said : — "Je me trouve dans l'obligation de declarer que les terres, tant en Nouvelle-Caledonia qu'aux iles Loyalty, dont I'administra- tion peut disposer, ne permettent pas d'appliquer la loi sur la relegation, conformement au voeu du legislateur. La Nouvelle Caledonie est impuissante a donner du travail aux liberes des travaux forces, dont le nombre augment chaque jour: l'envoi des recidivistes ne pourra qu'augmenter le nombre de ces hommes non employes, et qui resteront fatalement a la charge de Padminis- tration, tout en constituant un veritable danger." Room could only be found for them, he added, by dis- possessing the natives, and that was a course which would arouse passionate protests from both Australians and English. 2 M. Ferry then promised that when the debate was resumed in the Senate, the Government would proceed with every desire to show a spirit of bon voisinage. He offered, moreover, to enter into a special extradition treaty to deal with the escapees who might reach Australia. 3 This Derby 1 P.P. 1885, C. 4217. 1 Report of M. Pallu de la Barriere, Governor of New Caledonia, 8th October 1883. 3 Sir John Walsham to Granville, 9th October : P.P., C. 4217. 260 RECIDIVATE QUESTION AND CONDOMINIUM hesitated to entertain, because he believed the colonies would prefer to trust to legislative measures of their own for the exclusion of undesirables (Colonial Office to Foreign Office, 27th October). The Annexation Fever. — When Germany seized upon the northern part of New Guinea, there was something like a fever of annexation raging amongst people who had any interests in the Pacific. Relations with Germany were so strained that the British Government adopted the very wise precaution of asking for some assurance as to what was likely to happen next, and what native states, if any, might be considered secure from seizure. Sadly disappointed about New Guinea, the colonies begged Derby to make sure that France would not next succumb to the fever and lay hands violently upon the New Hebrides. There was some ground for fear in the exceptional activity at the moment of the New Caledonia company at Mallicolo and Vate, at which latter place they had bought out the rights of the last English proprietor. It was certainly disquieting, considering that the quarrel with Germany had to some extent thrown Pacific affairs into the melting-pot; and Derby moved the Foreign Office " to make some intimation to the French Government that Her Majesty's Government take no exception to the proceedings which have been reported, because they feel satisfied that they can fully rely upon the loyal observance by the French Government of the understanding that the neutrality of the islands is to be maintained." The disclosure of Mr Meade's unhappy " conversations " at this moment did not serve to allay the anxiety of the Australians. It will be remembered that in his discussion with Dr Busch at Berlin he had emphasised the claims of France in the Pacific. He had even gone so far as to suggest as a basis of the arrangement : " France to be allowed to take the New Hebrides group, which lie away from the others, and would naturally fall into the New Caledonian system." 1 It is true that he explained in a later memorandum — to Granville — that he merely wished to show that Germany and England were not the only powers to be considered, and that " questions between England and France respecting this particular group were our own concern . . . without going into details as to what we should require from France as the equivalent for the withdrawal of the under- 1 See Meade's Memoranda, 14th December 1884 and 10th February 1885 : C. 4290. 1885] THE ANNEXATION FEVER 261 standing as to the independence of the New Hebrides," an understanding which could not be surrendered ■' except upon terms which would be thoroughly satisfactory to the Australasian colonies." If the suggestion was not made seriously the whole thing was unfortunate ; and the conclusion arrived at in Australia, that antipodean interests were being bartered away in camera for the sake of placating foreign nations, was not unreasonable. Gladstone denied in the House of Commons on 5th March that there had been any proposal that France should assume the sovereignty of the New Hebrides unless on terms satisfactory to the Australian colonies, but this only served to increase the suspicion that the matter had really been entertained. Petitions continued to reach the Colonial Office from all parts of the colonies, until anxiety was set at rest for the moment by Derby's assurance to the Presbyterian Church of Otago (New Zealand) that the Colonial Office would never entertain any proposal for French annexation "without consulting the Australasian colonies, and without securing conditions satisfactory to those colonies ; and further, that no government of this country would ever think of giving over the New Hebrides to France without taking care that they would never become a penal settlement." * There is even here the suggestion in terms that eventually the sovereignty would pass to France ; but for the time being it was satisfactory. Within the next few months (24th December 1885) Germany agreed to renounce for herself in favour of France any claims she might have had in the New Hebrides and Tahiti, and undertook not to interpose any obstacles to French sovereignty in New Hebrides, should such a step be proposed. The Western Pacific Commission. — When the Com- mission sat to consider the working of the Western Pacific Orders-in-Council, it took cognisance of the New Hebrides as not being within the jurisdiction of any civilised power, and with all the bluntness which characterised Gordon's utterances it laid down 2 that in such groups, the inhabitants being heathens and for the most part cannibals, "the less we as a government have to do with such communities the better. It is not to the influence of government, but to that of the missionary and trader, that we must in the first instance look for the improvement of their condition." The Commission saw, however, that the centre of gravity 1 P.P., C. 4584- 2 P.P-, C. 3905. s 262 RECIDIVATE QUESTION AND CONDOMINIUM of the jurisdiction of the High Commission had shifted towards the west, and that such islands were certain to require a good deal of attention, and it recommended that one of" the five deputy commissioners should have his headquarters at Havannah harbour. France's Obstinacy about Transportation. — Though the report of M. Pallu convinced the French Senate that New Caledonia was out of the question for the purposes of the Recidivistes Bill, M. Waldeck Rousseau strenuously resisted the proposal that it should be specifically excepted. Granville, becoming impatient, instructed Lyons to make an urgent appeal to the French Government to bring about an under- standing, with an overt suggestion of hostile legislation by the colonies themselves (Granville to Lyons, 16th March 1885). But Ferry stood upon the principle that "the French Government could not abdicate its freedom of action with regard to a French colony by an engagement with a foreign power." And it must be remembered that France had resented for some years the refusal of England to permit her ', to make definitive her protectorate in Raiatea, which had , existed de facto for nearly forty years. Ferry's successor, De Freycinet, was scarcely better disposed, and the Bill passed on 12th May 1885, without the desired safeguard having been inserted. It was left to the administration to fix the places of relegation of convicts. A commission was set up to draft the regulations, and in the subsequent Bill to appropriate the necessary funds Guiana only was referred to, no mention being made of New Caledonia (Lyons to Salisbury, 28th July 1885). French Military Posts Established. — Early in 1886 the Federal Council of Australia framed an address for the Imperial Government, pointing out that, as far as it had gone, the introduction of Christianity and civilisation in the New Hebrides was the work of Australian men and Australian money, and that naturally there was a keen public feeling attaching to the future of the group. It is quite clear, on the other hand, that the French Government had never contemplated retiring. The absorption of the New Hebrides in New Caledonia was logical and almost inevitable, but for the special interests created by the activity of the Protestant missionaries. There are suggestions all through the despatches of the Colonial Office that somehow or other the islands must eventually be French, and that Britain only retained her interest out of deference to Australian opinion, and out of regard for the missionaries. 1886] OBNOXIOUS MILITARY POSTS 263 Dilke, writing at the end of 1889, 1 repeats the statement that an arrangement had been practically come to with the French Government, whereby France should assume the sovereignty on covenanting to cease all transportation to the Pacific, to protect the British missionaries, and to arrive at a general understanding on Pacific affairs. The proposal is said to have originated with New Zealand, and to have been killed, when on the point of acceptance, by the opposi- tion of Victoria, the Mother Colony of the missions. Yet is it conceivable that any British government, know- ing what had been the fate of Protestant missions in almost every such case, and what at that moment was happening to the mission in Loyalty, could have faced Parliament with such a proposition? Rosebery warmly repudiated the suggestion, and there does not seem to be any documentary evidence of the existence of the scheme. Lest it might be thought that the anxieties for the treatment of Protestant missionaries were unfounded, the Australians could point not only to what was happening in Loyalty, but to the documentary statement of policy avowed by the Governor of New Caledonia (M. Pallu) in his report on transportation : — " On peut affirmer en effet, qu'il n'y a pas un indigene qui ne trouverait des deTenseurs passionnes parmi les Australiens et les Anglais. Je cherche a extirpir l'infiuence Anglaise de ces lies par les ecoles, par tous les moyens en mon pouvoir : mais je suis en presence d'une situation trentenaire : la France aurait de l'ennui si une pareille combinaison partait les Chambres. Je laisse de cot6 la contradiction, malheureusement trop flagrante, que toutes les nations trouveraient ici entre les principes que nous aimons a affirmer et notre conduite." 2 French Military Posts Established. — In June 1886, France advanced the New Hebrides question a step by proceeding without warning or notice of any kind to establish one or two military posts in the islands. There was no doubt as to the fact of occupation, " but they have assured us," Salisbury stated in the House of Lords, "in terms whose earnestness and sincerity we have no right to doubt, that they have'no intention of permanently occupy- ing those islands, and therefore no definite character ought to be attached to their proceedings. France had stated that the step was forced on her by the occurrence of outrages, 1 Problems of Greater Britain, vol. i., pp. 433-5. - P.P., C. 4217. 264 RECIDIVISTE QUESTION AND CONDOMINIUM and that she would be glad to withdraw as soon as satis- factory arrangements were made for peace and security. 1 Carnarvon pointed out how one after another of the Pacific archipelagos — Society, Low, Austral, and Raiatea — had been occupied by France in spite of definite understandings. He quite agreed that " no Australian would, or could, or ought to, regard the prospect without a feeling of considerable anxiety." Lord Granville admitted that his first impulse on hearing what had occurred had been to send ships to the scene, not as a menace, but to put both countries on an equal footing ; but it was thought this might cause friction. Nor was it necessary, since the act of occupation had been consistently disowned by the French Government. 2 Political uncertainties in France delayed the negotiations and enhanced the uneasiness of the Australians. The position was an awkward one for the British Government, which could not reply except in awkward terms to its critics. For more than a year the occupation continued to be a subject of unsatisfactory comment. The Government in August 1887 feared that to set a term to the occupation would involve acquiescence in the meantime. France wished to introduce the question of the Suez Canal, to be discussed concurrently. But Salisbury firmly refused any such complications. Meanwhile, it was well known that a considerable number of settlers were going to the New , , Hebrides direct from France ; but this, of course, was perfectly legitimate on the part of either power. The Convention of 1887. — At length the discussions, with the new Rouvier Ministry, came to a happy conclusion on 24th October, when separate conventions were agreed to governing the New Hebrides and the Suez Canal. France had endeavoured on numerous occasions to con- tract for the abrogation of the Declaration of 1847, which prevented her completing her sovereignty over Raiatea. The abrogation had been practically arranged under the Newfoundland Fisheries Convention of 1880, but this was never ratified. Great Britain now agreed to it in considera- tion of a plan being agreed upon " for the future protection of life and property in the New Hebrides by means of a joint commission" (Article I.). 8 The Convention provided for a Joint Naval Commission of British and French officers, to be charged with the duty of maintaining order and protecting life and property. In the regulations, which were 1 Hansard Debates, House of Lords, 2nd May 1887. * IHd. 3 P.P., C. 5256. 1888-1904] IMPROVED RELATIONS 265 framed a few months later, it was laid down that in the event of a disturbance breaking out, the Joint Commission should immediately assemble and decide what action to take. No naval officer, whether British or French, was to take independent or isolated action. The French military posts in the islands were withdrawn on 15th March 1888, and in May, accordingly, the declaration for the abrogation of the instrument of 1 847 was signed. 1 The Commission for a while worked very satisfactorily. It was not an easy task that it had to carry out, for the rivalries of the two nationalities at that time were world- wide and real : and in the New Hebrides they were not rendered any less bitter by the encouragement given to the respective sides by their nationals in Australia and in New Caledonia. International Rivalries. — When Mr Rom illy arrived as consul in 1888 he was in a most awkward position. Clinging presumably to the fiction of an independent state, the Foreign Office had nominated him as British Consul to the New Hebrides, and he asked pertinently to whom he was accredited. Every attribute of a sovereign state was lacking, and when the office had been in existence for eighteen months it was quietly abolished. The consular instructions, flags, stamps, and seals for the consulate only reached the New Hebrides when the office was being abolished. There being no consular residence, Romilly chose " the nearest civilised abode to the district," trusting to being able to charter a vessel to visit his jurisdiction. He went innocently to reside in Noumea, but his presence there gave rise to great jealousy on the part of the French, who fancied they saw in it a first step towards the setting up of British sovereignty in the disputed islands. The Colonial Office then instructed him to make his headquarters at Port Sandwich, in the New Hebrides. Here he found the rivalry of the nations no less warm. On Christmas Day 1888 there was a collision, happily bloodless, between the two sections of the population. 2 The Entente Understanding, 1904. — Long before the end of the century the Joint Commission, in its existing form, had outlived its usefulness. The subject was a delicate one to handle, since the federation of the Australian colonies, and the more outspoken attitude of New Zealand on Pacific matters, promised that the British Government would find 1 P.P., C. 5372. 2 Letters from the Western Pacific, by H. H. Romilly. 266 RECIDIVATE QUESTION AND CONDOMINIUM more difficulties than ever in making such concessions as might be necessary. A joint protectorate was discussed from time to time, but the Deakin Ministry in Australia strongly opposed it, as precluding the old Australian ambition to see the group under British sovereignty. There was a good deal of correspondence between the Colonial Office and the colonies, and when it was made clear that understandings with France quite prevented Britain obtain- ing full control, Deakin agreed reluctantly to the principle of joint control. One of the first-fruits of the Entente Cordiale was the declaration signed at London on 8th April 1904, under which the two countries agreed to concert measures to put an end to the difficulties arising from an absence of jurisdic- tion over the natives, and to settle disputes regarding landed property "without modifying the status quo." 1 The position did not so easily lend itself to adjustment. Yet another full year passed without any progress being made, and in August 1905 Deakin is impatiently writing to demand if nothing is ever to be done. The interminable postponements and uncertainties, he said, were most dis- couraging, and the joint protectorate would be preferable to such a state of things. The sentiment of Australia, he added, was strongly averse to anything like a sacrifice of the great imperial possibilities of the New Hebrides, and he urged therefore that any proposed settlement should be submitted to Australia and New Zealand before being concluded 2 (Deakin to Governor-General of Australia, 29th August 1905). New Zealand placed annexation first and a definite partition of the islands second (Governor of New Zealand to Colonial Office, 5th December 1905). 3 Mr Balfour had promised in the House of Commons in 1900 that no decision would be come to without consulting the dominions concerned. Throughout 1905 the chancelleries of Great Britain and France were intermittently engaged trying to agree on the terms of reference for the proposed joint discussion. It was at first proposed to debate land titles only. Then the lack of jurisdiction over natives forced itself to the fore, and finally in September the French Government proposed that there should be a verbal discussion by officials from both sides in the hope of solving certain difficulties which had "paralysed for a long time the action of the two powers." 1 P.P. 1905, Cd. 2385. 2 P.P. 1907, Cd. 3288. 3 Ibia. 1906] THE ANGLO-FRENCH CONVENTION 2G7 The Convention of 1906. — It was not until ist February 1906 that the delegates met. They were : — Great Britain. — Sir E. Gorst, Under Secretary for Foreign Affairs ; Mr H. Bertram Cox, Assistant Under Secretary for the Colonies ; Mr C. J. B. Hurst, Legal Adviser to the Foreign Office ; Mr H. E. Dale, of the Colonial Office. France. — M. Saint-Germain, President of the Council oi Administration of the Colonial Office ; M. Picanon, Governor of New Caledonia ; M. Weber, Under Secretary for the Colonies ; M. Gournay, Secretary and Interpreter. The Convention 1 was signed early in March for sub- mission to the respective governments. It provided (Article I.) that the New Hebrides, with the Banks and Torres Islands, should form a "region of joint influence" where neither power should exercise a separate control, but each should have jurisdiction over its own nationals, who should be under the laws of their respective countries. Each country should appoint a high commissioner and a resident commissioner, and each resident commissioner should have control of a body of police of the same strength, sufficient to guarantee the protection of life and property. Each of the com- missioners and the joint court should be established at Vila, in the island of Efate, and they should administer the following services in common : police, posts and telegraphs, public works, ports and harbours, lighthouses, public health, and finance. No fortifications should be erected or penal settlements established. The old Joint Naval Commission remained in force for the purpose of co-operating in maintaining order. In order to prevent either of the powers from seeking to increase its influence by inflating the number of its subjects or citizens, it was provided (Article VIII.) that no native should be allowed to acquire the status of a subject of either power, or to come under its protection. The high commissioners, on the other hand, were endowed with authority over the natives, and power to make binding regulations for their government, but they were enjoined to respect their manners and customs. To the joint court each of the powers was to appoint a judge and the King of Spain the president. Very elaborate provision was made for the settlement of land disputes and for the control of the labour traffic, which is restricted to vessels under the French or British flag. The sale of arms and alcoholic liquors to natives is totally 1 Convention of 20th October 1906 : P.P., Cd. 3300. 268 HECIDIVISTE QUESTION AND CONDOMINIUM prohibited. To encourage municipal government it is pro- vided that all applications to form a municipality, by not less than thirty non-native adults, shall be granted. Criticisms from Australasia. — Before confirming the new instrument, Lord Elgin had to submit it to Australia and New Zealand. This he did in a somewhat apologetic despatch (9th March 1906), with the rather irrelevant preamble that by recognising the paramount rights of Great Britain and France, the Convention " provided for the first time against the possible appearance of a third country as a claimant to political rights in the group." This contingency had surely passed into the background with the Franco- German agreement of December 1885, and out of sight altogether with the tripartite agreement of 1899. He asserted, too, that out of deference to the wishes of the Commonwealth the joint arrangement had been made as " narrow as possible," so that it might not be rendered difficult at some future date to bring the group entirely under British sovereignty. He was confident that the Convention repre- sented a great step in advance, by substituting a civilised and orderly administration for a state of chaos, and removing the main cause of friction between the European residents. Those who were of other nationality than British or French would be permitted within six months to choose which law they would come under. 1 The Attitude of New Zealand. — New Zealand entered an early caveat, and cited the case of Samoa to justify her distrust in joint protectorates. 2 Elgin replied that the Imperial Government could not entertain the idea of making concessions elsewhere to obtain the entire withdrawal of France. Nor could they, owing to the distribution of population, effect an equitable partition. Shortly after the despatch reached the Antipodes Mr Seddon, the Prime Minister of New Zealand, paid an official visit to the Commonwealth and discussed the matter with the Federal Ministry. The outcome is seen in almost identical despatches 3 from Australia and New Zealand to the Colonial Office, prefaced with " a respectful but earnest protest in regard to the manner in which this important subject, in which all parties in Australasia feel the deepest concern, has been dealt with " (Deakin to Governor-General, 13th June 1906). 1 P.P., Cd. 3288. 2 Ibid. 3 Seddon died at sea on 10th June 1906. The Memorandum from New Zealand was actually signed by his successor, the Hon. (now Sir) William Hall-Jones. 1906] RATIFIED AFTER PROTEST 269 Deakin complained that not only had the Dominions not been invited to send a representative to the conference, but they did not know officially that such a conference was being held. Though it lasted a month, no information was sent to Australia until six days after it had concluded. And they were then asked for their opinion in a despatch which ended with the words : " The draft convention must be confirmed or rejected practically as it stands." He insisted that no other settlement than annexation could possibly satisfy the people of Australia. Australian Criticism. — Deakin contended that unequal treatment must result from a system which put French and British settlers under different jurisdiction ; and it could only be obviated by a common code of law. It was important, he thought, that the high commissioners should not be permitted to impose any religious disabilities, or to interfere with the liberty of worship. It was important that there should be provision limiting the area of land which one man might hold. It was important that the shipping of the two powers should have some protection against the discrimination of German policy in other groups. That none of these things had been taken cognisance of by the framers was due, it was suggested, to the fact that no representatives of Australia or New Zealand had taken part in the conference. The Convention Ratified. — By the time these despatches reached England the Government was already troubled about reports, which they considered well founded, "that large interests other than British or French were being created in the New Hebrides," and it was impatient on that account to proceed to the joint protectorate, leaving other details for subsequent consideration. To this France objected on the ground that such a step might be held to imply that the rights of France* and Great Britain were not already recognised as paramount. Elgin was prepared to put forward some of the oversea suggestions, but he felt it was wiser to ratify the draft as it stood, lest France should raise disturbing counter-proposals. Thereupon Australia and New Zealand again conferred, and, having no alternative, they withdrew their objections and threw the entire responsi- bility for the Convention on the British Government. The Convention was ratified on 20th October. The annoyance of the Dominions was not allayed by the appearance of a despatch from the High Commissioner for the Western Pacific (Sir Everard im Thurn) dealing 270 RECIDIVISTE QUESTION AND CONDOMINIUM with a visft paid by him to the New Hebrides between the signing and the ratifying of the Convention. 1 He found in the group 228 British settlers (including 25 missionaries), and 401 French (including 33 missionaries). He remarked here the phenomenon so frequently met with of missionaries exercising almost the authority of a government. The Presbyterians, he said, had been so long there, unchecked by the concurrent existence of anything representing lay government, that they to some extent felt themselves the real ruling power, and were inclined to resent not merely the authority but even the existence of the lay government. The Roman Catholics, having come at a later date, had acquired no such political interest, or had lost it. In the kidnapping days, he added, some of the missionaries actually set up police forces of their own, and one such force~acting quite independently of the civil British authority, existed quite recently in the island of Epi. 2 French Preponderance Explained. — The High Com- missioner ascribed the preponderance of French interests over British largely to the influence of the powerful French company, and to the subsidies and tariff advantages which were afforded by the neighbouring colony of New Caledonia. The British settlers had no subsidies, and their only market, that of the Commonwealth, was not only not free, but was heavily protected " precisely against the New Hebrides." Deakin took up the challenge with avidity. He denied that there was any protection directed against the New Hebrides. The chief product — copra — was actually admitted free, and exceptionally low freights had been arranged for the group, besides which the Commonwealth Parliament had passed a vote for assisting the British settlers. More- over, both Australia and New Zealand had expressed the hope, when discussing the Convention, that provision would be made for reciprocal trade with the New Hebrides. The decision that exemption from customs duties could not be granted. to the British settlers without contravening inter- national agreements was given; by the British Board of Trade. 3 Machinery of the Condominium. — When the arrange- ments under Article X. of the Convention came to be put into force, the Solicitor-General for New Zealand was one of the delegates for Great Britain to decide upon the constitution of the joint court and its rules. In handing over the administration of British interests to the High 1 P.P., Cd. 3288. "- P.P., Cd. 3525. 3 Ibid. CONDOMINIUM A FAILURE 271 Commissioner, Elgin described the arrangement as a species of " Condominium," for which there was no diplomatic precedent, since the country had no institutions of its own and no political organisation. It was merely a reinforcement of the existing British and French organisations, under which two aggregations of nationals would exist side by side, each governed by its own code of law. The subjects of third powers would be in precisely the same position as French or British subjects, according to which they elected to be under. In appointing the Governor of New Caledonia to be High Commissioner for France, the French Minister emphasised the responsibility of the Republic towards native races. " It is not only a duty of humanity," he wrote, " it is also obviously the interests of the settlers, which necessitate that equitable treatment and real protection should be afforded to the natives. The future of the New Hebrides is, to a great extent, dependent on that of the kanaka race, and you are aware that the Government of the Republic is animated, in the administration of the French colonies, by the knowledge that the fate of colonial enterprises depends, in the first place, on the amount of prosperity assured to the native populations." 1 Conditions To-day. — That the Condominium in its present form is far from satisfactory to either race is evident from the report of the Interstate Commission of Australia (1918). There are four distinct jurisdictions: 1. A French adminis- tration and tribunal. 2. A British administration and tribunal. 3. The mixed tribunal with its native police, its " Franco- Anglo " police, and its services in common. 4. The Joint Naval Commission entrusted with litigious matters between the natives. The complexity ol the system has evoked from both French and British residents, it is said, an endless series of complaints as to the " uncertainty of the law, the inertness of the administration, and the tardy dispensation of justice, more especially in the determination of disputed titles. . . . Complaint is made that neither French nor British colonists are receiving fair treatment at the hands of their respective governments, and that the New Hebrides question remains a menace not only to the political and material well-being of these islands, but also to the harmonious relations of the South Pacific and the Commonwealth generally." Control under such conditions is necessarily slack. There. 1 P.P., Cd. 3876. 272 RECIDIVATE QUESTION AND CONDOMINIUM is no power to compel the natives to work, and while 70,000 of them live idle lives, plantations cannot be developed with- out importing labour. At present the settlers are inclined to look for this commodity to the Dutch East Indies, or to China. The Solomon Islands. — Stretching northward from the New Hebrides towards the Bismarck archipelago, between 1 1 deg. S. and 4 deg. S. is a fertile and thickly populated tropical group, climatically favoured as compared with the New Hebrides in being outside the area of the hurricanes. Discovered by Mendana in 1567, they were settled by Catholic and Protestant missionaries in the middle of the nineteenth century, and are now a strong centre of the Melanesian Mission. There are many British traders, the white population in 191 2 numbering 438. Most of the Solomons were placed under British protec- tion in 1893. Four years later the protectorate was extended to Rennell, Bellona, and Sikiana (Stewart Islands), and the Marists were then about to establish themselves on Guadal- canal 1 In the following year the Santa Cruz group was added, so that the protectorate extended from Treasury Island to Mitre Island, W.N.W. to E.S.E., a distance of 900 miles. 2 The Anglo-German Agreement of 1899 gave to Great Britain the large islands of Choiseul and Ysabel, which had been allotted to Germany by the demarcation of 1886. A powerful British company under the presidency of Lord Stanmore (formerly Sir Arthur Gordon) applied in 1898 for a grant of the whole of the unoccupied lands in the islands of Kulambangra, Gizo, and Narovo Lnoo, and the north-east coast of New Georgia, with the object of pro- ducing copra, pearl, shell, and india-rubber. The company proposed to administer the islands, and to repress at its own expense the raids of Solomon islanders on the neighbouring German islands. It anticipated that at the termination of its lease of ten years a federated Australia would wish to take control (Stanmore to Colonial Office, 17th April 1899). Chamberlain declined to entertain such an ambitious scheme, but eventually, in 1903, a certificate was issued leasing 193,490 acres for a period of ninety -nine years. The British Resident Commissioner for the Solomons resides at Tulagi, and there are several magistrates 1 P.P. 1899, Cd. 9046. ■ P.P. 1898, Cd. . igu-a. 1912-3. £ 1 6, 040 j^iS>432 22,639 15.571 130,019 i3!.76i 89» 2 34 109,921 BRITISH SOLOMONS 273 throughout the group. Following are significant financial figures : — Revenue . Expenditure . Imports . Exports . Wallis Island Colony. — The small island of Wallis, or Uea, about 250 miles west of Samoa, has no political significance. At one time it seemed likely to be of great importance, for it was here that in 1837 the French mission- aries, forbidden admission to some of the more important groups, formed their base and seminary for the Western Pacific. Though not actually in French possession until 1887, it was practically French from the first owing to the exclusive existence of the French missionaries. The population now is stated to amount to 4500. On first becoming a French possession Wallis was administered from New Caledonia. In September 1917 the French Parliament declared Wallis and Home islands a French colony. CHAPTER XXI A REVIEW OF POLICY Motives of Policy. — The origins of British policy in the Pacific trace back to the pioneering discoveries of Captain Cook, and the scientific rivalries of the French and British navigators in the following decades. The only political motive evident before the French Revolution was the necessity for disposing of the criminal classes of Great Britain for the safety — it was supposed — of the non-criminal. From this motive sprang the establishment of the only colony which England created willingly and of set purpose in the Pacific. New South Wales was designed and founded by the British Government in 1788, with no arriere penste, with no ambitions for future dominion. From that time onward each step towards ' ordered settlements of British people in the Pacific, each later step towards free development and self-government, was stoutly opposed by the official classes. There was no desire any- where for colonies better than penal settlements. Every step of political expansion in the Pacific, until the last decade or two of the nineteenth century, was a grudging counter- stroke, jealous of French progress. It was thus that Governor King in 1798 sent Lieutenant Robbins in the Cumberland to follow up the ships of M. Baudin and assert British rights in Tasmania — rights dormant and comfortably forgotten until this menace approached them. 1 It was thus that Swan River was occupied in 1829 on receipt of a polite intimation of the intention of the French to form a settle- ment there. 2 It was thus, on the rumoured formation of a New Zealand company in France, that the British Govern- ment, having fought against all representations for fifteen years, suddenly in 1839 despatched a lieutenant-governor with a dormant commission. And it was the immediate 1 Logbooks of the "Lady Nelson," by Ida Lee. 2 The Genesis of Queensland, by Henry S. Russell. FREEDOM IN COLONIAL POLICY 278 menace of French action on the spot that caused Hobson to make the occupation of the South Island definitive almost under the guns of a French corvette. The Impulse for Freedom. — The Revolution in France gave a great impetus to missionary enthusiasm in England, and to that impulse for freedom which showed itself, not so very many years later, in the demand for the emancipation of slaves. England's own activity in the Pacific was primarily scientific. Thereafter, in the first half of the nineteenth century, it was a combination of philanthropy with the spread of Christianity. In the second part of the century it was a police activity pure and simple. The old antagonism to the colonising spirit gradually reacted. While the Colonial Office stoutly resisted the assumption of new responsibilities, it tended more and more to throw the existing colonies entirely on their own resources, and thus conferred on the outer empire the most important of all its benefits. The revival of France after the Revolution — about the third decade of the century — introduced for the first time a political element of rivalry, but did not overcome the old motives of British policy. The earliest clashes of interests with the French in the Pacific were generally in respect to the religious freedom of missionaries. The obstacles which the Wakefield school of colonisers encountered had their origin, also, in the missionary influences which were so long paramount ,at the Colonial Office. Actuated always by regard for the welfare of the natives, {he Colonial Office felt that any intrusion of, whites into the savage islands of the Pacific, unless they were missionaries carrying the blessings of religion, tended to the injury of the natives. Consequently the constructive schemes of the colonisers were invariably met by a relentless policy of negation. The foremost place given to the welfare of the natives is a motive beyond criticism, and one from which the British Empire has reaped nothing but honour. But it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that the Colonial Office of the day carried the principle to an absurdity. It was impossible to stop the clock of progress, and to prevent whites from going to live and trade and work amongst the heathen communities of the South Seas. The Wakefield school was scarcely less concerned for the welfare of the natives than the Colonial Office itself. Yet by its traditional policy of reluctance — now discountenancing a colonising company that should have been encouraged — again and again declining to assume 276 A REVIEW OF POLICY the sovereignty of races honestly desiring to be British subjects — the Colonial Office brought it about more than once that after much trouble and bloodshed and anguish, the natives were handed over to the authority of nations which have dealt with them much less humanely and successfully than the British would have done. The history of the Colonial Office in the nineteenth century is, in fact, that of a failure to recognise the colonising capacity and the irrepressible oversea enterprise of the British people. A Dash of Vigour. — With the advent of Lord John Russell at the Colonial Office (1839-41) there was a momentary change. In his all too short tenure of the office, British policy was more virile and positive than at any previous period. Which of all the earlier — or all the •later — secretaries of state would have answered so blithely " The whole of it," when the French diplomat asked how much of Australia England laid claim to? Russell had no patience with the laissez-faire character of the policy which had such a fortress in the missionary and anti-slavery interests. He could see the destiny of England in taking hold of the problems of the uncivilised world, instead of standing by and ordering the world to keep its hands off for fear of making things worse than they were. He insisted on England asserting herself in the colonial sphere. And it was an opportune time to do so. Under the aegis of Louis Philippe (1830-48) the naval commanders and missionaries of France were restless and often overbear- ing neighbours; and one can suppose quite a different outcome of the incidents of this, decade in the Pacific if Russell had come to the Colonial Office a few years sooner, and remained there a few years longer. Lord John Russell's policy at the Colonial Office is well summed up in his own words : — "If Great Britain gives up her supremacy from a niggardly spirit of parsimony, or from a craven fear of helplessness, other powers will soon look upon the Empire, not with the regard due to an equal, as she once was, but with jealousy of the height she once held, without the fear she once inspired. To build up an empire extending over every sea, swaying many diverse races, and combining many forms of religion, requires courage and capacity : to allow such an empire to fall to pieces is a task which may be performed by the poor in intellect and the pusillanimous in conduct." 1 1 Lord John Russell, by Stuart J. Reid, p. 116. M THE FRENCH CHALLENGERS 277 The French Navigators. — In a space of less than forty years the London Missionary Society had not only civilised and Christianised the Society Islands, to the immense benefit of their inhabitants, but had brought them under a form of government based on the English model. They were in fact an English colony or centre, and a shining example of the successful enterprise of English missionaries. The missionaries were candidly not anxious to see the British flag hoisted, for the very human reason that their own temporal power must necessarily be curtailed thereby. The activity of the French scientific navigators in the Pacific, already very marked, was of course a Catholic influence. When it came under the fostering protection of a strongly Catholic sovereign, the ambitious Louis Philippe, the French corvettes in the Pacific became active colonisers and spreaders of French influence, aiding and assisting French interests and French missions wherever they found them. The Holy See participated in the enthusiasm for the conquest of the islands, and in June 1833 Pope Leo XII. confided to the Parisian Society of Picpus the task of bringing the natives of these myriad islands into the Church. With his handful of priests and catechists, the Apostolic Prefect landed humbly in the Gambier Islands, there to form the base and seminary from which to conquer the islands for Christianity. A few years later we find his priests radiating to all the other groups, whether already occupied or not. The direct result was a series of conflicts and persecutions. The French ships openly championed the French missions. In Tahiti, in Hawaii, and elsewhere, they intervened brusquely and triumphantly, and generally British policy was exhibited in a weak and abashed light. Russell had left the Colonial Office, and the poor in intellect and the pusillanimous in conduct seemed ready to allow the Empire to fall to pieces. It would be difficult to-day to find any tolerance in the Empire for the flabby attitude which, at point after point, surrendered British interests and the guardianship of British centres of culture to the noisy demands of the French frigate captains. To avoid friction at any cost. seemed to be the aim. England was to be the high-minded philanthropist watching after the welfare of the natives, the policeman curbing the British foreloper and adventurer. But under no conditions should she assume responsibility. These events were happening chiefly in the Eastern Pacific. It is refreshing to find within the next few years, at the other extremity of the wide ocean, an official of the 278 A REVIEW OF POLICY Government boldly enunciating the doctrine of Monroeism for Australasia. Sir George Grey's Scheme. — The celebrated Pacific scheme of Sir George Grey, Governor of New Zealand, had its origin, apparently, in a letter from Mr Walter Lawry, the general superintendent of National Missions, dated 22nd December 1847. Lawry, who had just spent six months in the islands, brought back with him from the chiefs of Fiji and Tonga a cordial invitation to Grey to visit them, " because they have fixed their hearts on being the friends and allies of England." Thakombau Mr Lawry described as "a fine savage about to embrace Christianity, and very desirous of being under Your Excellency's wing and in alliance with England." Tonga, for its part, repeated -the request it had made for British protection in February 1844, a request which seems to have been lost in the Foreign Office, for it was never replied to. 1 Grey was enthusiastic over the prospect of an extended empire in the Pacific. He wrote to Earl Grey 2 that he was satisfied that the desire for annexation in Fiji and Tonga was a genuine one on the part of both Europeans and natives. It had arisen partly from the fact that many respectable whites settled there looked forward to the arrival of British sovereignty to give them security in their holdings as against the possibility of French aggression ; and partly from the influence upon the natives of many native New Zealanders living amongst them who had informed them of the happy condition of their country under British rule. Grey did not feel justified in accepting the offers on his own responsibility, but he strongly favoured fostering the feelings of goodwill which the natives had evinced. In Tonga perhaps one-third of the population was Roman Catholic, but it was not likely to be hostile. On the whole the Tongans seemed the finest branch of the Polynesian race and pre-eminently capable of improvement. Fiji contained a population estimated at 300,006, and Tonga about 20,000. A Self-supporting Empire. — Grey's enthusiasm looked very far ahead, and evidently scared the Colonial Office. He scouted the idea that the proposed new colonies would be any burden to the Empire. On the contrary, such was the warlike character of their people and of those of New Zealand, that "they would be able to afford valuable and powerful assistance in time of need for the protection of 1 P.R.O., CO. 209, vol. lix. J Ibid., 14th March 1848. SIR GEORGE GREY'S DREAM 279 our neighbouring Australian settlements. At the present moment, also, this Government (New Zealand) could in the event of any war with France immediately raise a force which could without difficulty take and hold the French possessions in these seas. In the same manner I think that any extension of our possessions in these seas would not be a source of weakness but of strength, if such possession was assumed with the consent of the inhabitants of the territory occupied, and if their goodwill was retained, which it easily might be. The islands of the Pacific would all soon afford a sufficient revenue for their own government, and a sufficient force not only for their own protection but for aggression against any other power, should a necessity for such movements ever unfortunately arise." 1 He warned his chief that if England did not act the same possibilities were open to be seized by France. The altered state of British relations with France in the Pacific rendered the question a very different one from that which had arisen in Hawaii a few years earlier. Notwithstanding his great respect for the opinion of his namesake in New Zealand, Earl Grey " recoiled from the idea of the establishment of a new empire in the Pacific." Even if there were no other reason, the expense would be a sufficient objection. Palmerston suggested that officers might visit the islands and make treaties with the native chiefs, which would be in the nature of protectorates. They should give the chiefs all the advice they could as to their own government, and should stipulate that in the event of their getting into trouble with foreign powers they should engage to address themselves to the Queen of England, and to leave it to her to determine what steps they should take. Earl Grey was chary of accepting even this measure of responsibility, and preferred merely to proffer advice and recommendations to the chiefs "without introducing an express condition into the treaties." Tonga and Fiji Rejected. — After further discussion he informed th# governor that the submission of Fiji and Tonga to British sovereignty could not be accepted at present, "since, independently of other reasons, it is to be apprehended, notwithstanding your arguments as to the ultimate economy of the measure, that the expense which such an extension of the Empire would occasion would be larger than His Majesty's advisers would think themselves justified in proposing to Parliament. The offers must there- 1 P.R.O., CO. 209, vol. lix. 286 A REVIEW OF POLICY fore be declined, but in a manner as conciliatory as possible, accompanied by the expression of Her Majesty's desire to promote, as far as may be in her power, the welfare of the inhabitants of those islands, although she is unable to accept their proffered allegiance." He was, however, con- sidering the appointment of consuls in the Pacific, whose duty it should be to advise and instruct the native authorities "towards the establishment of a regular government, to protect British subjects, and to conclude treaties with such chiefs or powers as they might consider of sufficient import- ance. The chiefs should also contract, in return for the aid offered them, not intentionally or willingly to do wrong to the subjects of any foreign power," and if involved in disputes with foreign powers they should, as Palmerston had suggested, address themselves to the Queen. The consuls were in time appointed, but it was many years before Great Britain consented to assume sovereign authority anywhere. Later Sir George Grey visited with Bishop Selwyn the vast archipelagos of the Western Pacific. He came back filled with enthusiasm for the great trust which seemed to lie at England's door, and propounded his scheme of a Pacific dominion under England's sway. All foreign settle- ment was to be excluded from this region — the region of so much subsequent dispute and bitterness — and the island peoples, civilised by English missionaries and taught by English teachers, were to learn to govern themselves under the auspices of a beneficent empire. When he arrived at New Caledonia Grey found that France had entered into tentative possession of the island. This did not at all accord with his scheme, and he at once lodged a protest with the French commander, which secured sufficient respite, at any rate, for the matter to be discussed between London and Paris. 1 When France forced her protectorate on Protestant Tahiti as the outcome of a sectarian dispute: when she browbeat Hawaii, England merely protested, and wrung from her the historic Declaration of 1847. This was a purely negative undertaking, binding both sides not to take action against the independence of other groups. It amply satisfied the reluctant Imperialism of the day, and formed the model of a series of compacts which in the next half century were to cause unbounded indignation and impatience in the British colonies of Australia and New Zealand. Nor did 1 Life and Times of Sir George Grey, by W. L. Rees and L. Rees. SELF-RELIANCE IN DEFENCE 281 the Declaration prevent France from doing in the Western Pacific the sort of thing she had done in the Eastern. The transportation of criminals, for which alone the continent of Australia had been taken possession of by England, had been condemned by the colonists and stopped at their urgent request ; but this was not so much an accepted part of British policy as to prompt a protest against the commencement of the same system in the same region by France. The aims of France were not merely penal. She had regained all her old confidence as a rival of England, and in her seizure of posts in the Pacific she had an eye always to strategic purposes. Colonial Self-reliance. — In spite of the peril thus set up against the outlying portions of the Empire, the movement in Parliament for the reduction of oversea garrisons and the removal of responsibility for defence to the shoulders of the colonies themselves gained ground steadily. The impatience of the British Parliament was not due to reluctance to defend British interests against direcf. aggression. It was chiefly the outcome of the long and costly wars against the natives in New Zealand and South Africa. These campaigns reacted on colonial policy in two ways. They fostered the demand for local responsibility for defence, and at the same time intensified the hesitation of the Colonial Office to assume the sovereignty of other islands with native populations. A departmental committee of three first considered the question of Empire defence, and of the two who signed the majority report one was John Robert Godley, a fbunder of the Canterbury settlement in New Zealand. Their report condemned the system of colonial garrisons for two main reasons. The first was the world-wide dispersion of forces paid for entirely by the Mother Country. The second and more important was the tendency of the system to prevent the development of a proper spirit of self-reliance amongst the colonists, and thus to enfeeble their national character. " By the gift of self-government," the two commissioners wrote, ".we have bestowed on our colonists a most important element of national education ; but the habit of self-defence constitutes a part hardly less important to the training of a free people, and it will never be acquired by our colonists if we assume exclusively the task of defending them. ... It must be borne in mind that the interests of the colonists in repelling aggression upon them is primary and direct : that of Great Britain indirect and secondary." The report recommended the withdrawal of the oversea 282 A REVIEW OF POLICY detachments, a policy which was followed out gradually during the succeeding decade with little friction, except in the case of New Zealand. 1 The evidence taken by the Select Committee of the House of Commons on the same subject shows clearly that the real factor in the Pacific at that time (i860) was the power of France. Rear- Admiral Erskine said that the only possible danger to Australia was from the French establish- ment at New Caledonia. France, he thought, would have nothing to gain by occupying Sydney, and would probably content herself by using Noumea as a base and cutting off the clippers conveying gold from Australia to England. ' The French garrison at Noumea at the time seemed to be limited to a few hundred men. 2 There is no need to pursue this subject further than to point out that precisely the same principle was raised later by Carnarvon and Derby in regard to colonial demands for annexation. In 1870 the relations between England and her Australian colonies were as cool as possible, and the laissez-faire spirit at its height. A large section or the British Parliament was heartily impatient of colonial responsibility, and was glad to feel that, as regards defence at any rate, the British taxpayer was likely to be somewhat relieved. Policing the Ocean. — All dreams of expansion being thus comfortably thrust aside, and the menace of France having been tragically extinguished for the time by the result of the Franco-Prussian War, England was again drawn into the vortex of Pacific activity by an influence which she could not ignore. A new development only remotely connected with the colonies compelled her to increase her interest and her power in the Pacific Ocean. The new demand for labour caused by the development of planting in Queensland and Fiji had its immediate effect in a traffic very little removed in character from the old West African slavery, and much more difficult to cope with from the geographical conditions. For the most part the traffic was carried on in remote and scattered islands where there was no civilised jurisdiction ; by captains of no nationality ; in vessels which changed their flag between dusk and dawn> To suppress it was a task of surpassing 1 Prof. H. E. Egerton, in his Short History of British Colonial Policy, gives the best reasoned account of this important episode in colonial government. 2 P.P. 1861, No. 423. THE LABOUR TBADE 283 difficulty. Yet by the tradition of the British Navy the duty fell to it, as years ago the duty of suppressing the Barbary pirates and the African slave-traders had fallen to it ; and, having entered on the task, it could not withdraw. It did not even demand the co-operation of other powers. One step led to another. Where jurisdiction did not exist it had to be created. Fiji had to be annexed, else would the beaches of Suva and Levuka have become the Alsatia of lawlessness and crime that some had feared. For about ten years the British Government struggled honestly and energetically to stamp out the evil without extending its own sovereignty. There was a tendency now and again to lay at the door of the Australian colonies all the responsibility for the dreadful traffic. Queensland certainly gave reason occasionally for the suspicion that she was not whole-hearted in trying to suppress abuses, but the charge as against Australia generally was no more just than to lay the Barbary piracies at the door of Spain or Italy. The extension of British rule was the essential con- dition precedent to the extinction of the trade. The colonies had demanded its extension over and over again. For the rest, they passed severe restrictive laws, but they had neither the prerogative nor the means of maintaining a navy of police. Britain was put to strange expedients to avoid extending her sovereignty in those days. British consuls were gaolers without gaols, and judges without sheriffs, so that miscreants caught red-handed and apprehended for trial sailed off scot- free in their schooners, or shed their nationality and their responsibility in one all-embracing act. New South Wales had less to do with the kanakas than Queensland, and, probably on that account, was chosen by the British Government as the medium for all communi- cations regarding the traffic. Yet the Foreign Minister protested in 1870 that New South Wales had no special authority in regard to the islands. The extension of British authority was obviously demanded by circumstances, but again the old question of colonial responsibility cropped up. The Colonies and Annexation. — When Carnarvon was faced in 1 874 by requests from Australia for the annexation of Fiji — a step rendered imperative for the suppression of the kanaka traffic — he was determined to fight to a finish the principle that the colonies should bear the cost of any annexations they asked for. In order to test the question, he 284 A REVIEW OF POLICY suggested to New South Wales and New Zealand, who bad specifically requested the annexation, and to Queensland and Victoria, which were equally interested in island affairs, that they should contribute together the sura of £4000 a year necessary for the administration. This seemed more convenient than actually administering the colony, as New Zealand and New South Wales had offered to do, and more likely to place all on an equal footing. There was nothing equivocal about the replies. New South Wales would have none of it, but was quite prepared to share with the Mother Country any deficit in the adminis- tration. Queensland, having no trading relations with Fiji, was not interested as she was in New Guinea. New Zealand, the pioneer of expansion, would not hear of contributing to the cost of the new colony, unless she had a proportionate share in its control. Victoria feared that a preference might be shown to some other colony in trading relations with Fiji. A Suggestion towards Administration. — Carnarvon was not at all satisfied with the result of his appeal. He was wedded to the self-reliant policy, and when a few months later requests came to hand for the annexation of the whole of non-Dutch New Guinea, the New Hebrides, and all the islands south of the equator, he put forward again the suggestion that the colonies should hold themselves jointly responsible for the cost In fact, he was determined to with- hold what they wanted until they accepted his conditions. " It would be impossible," he said, " for a very large propor- tion of the taxpayers of (Great Britain) to understand on what principle they should bear, whilst the colonies immedi- ately concerned should be exemoted from, the burden of any expenditure that may be incurred " (Circular despatch, 9th July 1875). 1 Most of the colonies adhered to their previous attitude. Queensland could not see that the admission of a principle could alter the case, since each instance would have to be decided on its merits. New South Wales, like New Zealand, objected to contributing, not from indisposition to provide the money, but solely on account of the " apparent impossibility of having any share in the control commensurate with the amount subscribed, and the natural indisposition of the representatives of these people to grant money for a purpose over which they cannot have any such control." Victoria thought the annexation an Imperial matter. The Vogel Memorandum. — It was New Zealand again 1 P.P. 1876, C. 1566. WARNING TO PIONEERS 285 that provided to the controversy a constructive and reasoned memorandum (5th April 1876). Vogel was again the composer, but he had the approval of his cabinet. He deplored the fact that the colonies were beginning to feel that the Motherland was drifting into a new colonial, or " anti-colonial," policy. The act of asking contributions from the colonies for the extension of the Empire seemed to him " a novel proceeding, connected only with the presumed policy of casting the colonies adrift; and to acquiesce in it would argue the acceptance by the colonies of the new position it was desired to assign to them." Moreover, there was an insurmountable anomaly in contributing to the cost of a government in which no control was to be permitted to the contributors. Vogel was glad to believe that the policy of " disintegrating the Empire was being less actively pursued," but it could not be supposed, he added, that the soreness which had grown up in the colonies for some years, under the conception of such treatment, would die away in a single day. 1 So the question was not at all advanced. Carnarvon's successor, Sir Michael Hicks-Beach, took up precisely the same attitude. He wrote to the High Commissioner (5th October 1878): 2 — "The principle that the Australasian colonies must bear the cost of an enterprise in which this country is not directly concerned, except in so far as it is of interest and importance to those colonies, should be upheld as long and completely as possible." The Veto on Adventure. — But it fell to Gordon himself to express in all its baldness the Colonial Office policy of absolute negation. In doing so he echoed faithfully enough the purely police character of the High Commission, but his caveat against adventure evoked a storm of protest from the colonies and colonial circles in England. It was an official veto on the old enterprise of the British race. In 1878 a Victorian company, the Australasian Colonisation Company, applied for a royal charter to colonise the north-eastern coast of New Guinea, and in the event of being unable to find a suitable site, it proposed to apply to the King of the Netherlands for permission to settle in Dutch territory. Sir Arthur Gordon caused a written reply to be sent, stating : — "It is his duty formally and emphatically to declare that the 1 P.P. 1876, C. 1566. " P.P., C. 3617. 286 A REVIEW OF POLICY British Government disclaim all obligation to protect or interfere on behalf of persons voluntarily placing themselves in positions of danger in a savage country without the approval or consent of Imperial authority, and that those who enter on such enterprises do so at their own risk and peril." Gordon would hardly have made such a downright pronouncement if he had not been fully cognisant of the Government's determination to pursue such a policy. Hicks- Beach entirely approved his action, and five years later we find Derby proclaiming exactly the same principle to an English company of venturers, the New Guinea Trading Corporation. In this case he objected to the intention of the promoters to engage in the purchase of land from the natives. And about the same time Derby made his immortal statement that the Queen had already black subjects enough. The Native Autonomy Fiction. — And so the years passed. In spite of its limitations the High Commission, in co-operation with the naval commanders and the colonial governments, achieved considerable success in combating the evils of the kanaka traffic. For some years, so well did things go, that the Government was able to flatter itself it would not require to undertake further liabilities. The Colonial Office nursed fondly the fiction that the native races of the Pacific were really sovereign states, capable of looking after their own affairs and of saying what was good for themselves. Tahiti and Hawaii, now almost historical, were founded on an aristocratic native society, and both received valuable assistance and advice from the missionaries and foreign residents. The system of society in the Western Pacific afforded no basis at all for such experiments. The mission- aries had not been able to graft civilised institutions and a settled polity on the crude village society of the Melanesians : and nobody who understood the natives was under any misapprehension as to their future. As long ago as 1883 Thurston expressed his firm conviction that the natives of Polynesia were incapable of forming or maintaining any form of government worthy of the name, and that any attempt to do so would only afford opportunities for entanglements with foreign powers and "the intrigues of private speculators and low-class adven- turers" 1 (Thurston to Des Voeux, 1st December 1883). Tonga, Samoa, Tahiti, and Hawaii all gave this statement point; and Melanesia was only less hopeful than Polynesia. 1 P.P., C. 3839. GERMANY'S ADVENT 287 But Downing Street clung fondly to its illusion, and more than once met a colonial demand for annexation with the answer that the natives had shown no desire t.o give up their " independence " or their " sovereignty." In the case of Fiji, the " kingship " itself was a pure assumption by officials of the Colonial Office and the Navy. The chief of Bau became King of Fiji, over the heads of his equals and contemporaries, by a stroke of the official pen. Entry of the German Companies. — Before the old menace of France had been laid, a new and more insidious menace took root in the Pacific, in the incipient undertakings of the German trading companies. The Australian colonies were the first to take alarm at the wide interests which sprang from the beginnings of Godeffroy & Sons, and the old demand for annexations blazed up again. The dispute about contributions was not settled ; but the colonies approached the question in a serious mood, and clamoured for action to prevent a recurrence of incidents like those of Tahiti in the previous generation and Samoa at the moment. Acting under fears, the sincerity of which was frankly questioned by Derby and Granville, Queensland on her own initiative hoisted the flag in New Guinea. Subsequent events show that in their, treatment of this incident both Derby and Granville failed to appreciate the real dangers of the position. Derby seemed too anxious to compel the colonies to accept the conditions laid down by Carnarvon and himself; and when he did realise the danger it was too late. The Agents-General supported the Queensland annexa- tion by a noteworthy memorandum (July 1883), emphasising the importance of seizing at once positions which might be of value in view of the opening of the Panama Canal. France had already secured herself in the possession of Tahiti, and the United States of the splendid harbour of Pagopago, in Samoa. They warned Derby to take heed of the changing attitude of Germany, as disclosed in recent events at Samoa and elsewhere, and to yield to the impelling power "not of desires but of events." They vigorously repudiated the doctrine of non-responsibility for the pro- tection of British traders and settlers beyond civilised jurisdiction, and added : — " It is certainly not by colonists who have founded communities on this side of the world, whose trade already exceeds in volume the whole of the foreign trade of England at the accession of Queen Victoria, that this doctrine will ever be acquiesced in. It 288 A REVIEW OF POLICY was by voluntarily placing themselves in danger that English adventurers built up our Indian and Colonial Empire. It surely can never be contended that an elaborate scheme of government was to be founded, whose sole object should be to punish a subject of the Queen for any wrong he might commit, while it denied him redress for any wrong he might suffer." Almost at the same moment Derby received a despatch from the Governor of New Zealand (Jervois)y, expressing his conviction not only that the colonies were well able to undertake the management of the islands, but that the responsibility would be good for them, as tending to encourage the feeling in favour of federation, "of which intercolonial free trade would be an incident, and make them realise more fully the necessity for providing for their own defence" (Jervois to Derby, 16th June 1883). Derby's Rebuff to the Colonies. — Nevertheless, at the end of August, in spite of the accumulated evidence of the unanimity and earnestness of the colonies, Derby informed them that he was not now prepared to receive contributions from them. A couple of days later, in his reply to the Agents-General, he refused point-blank to ratify the annexa- tion. In Samoa, he said, no power had shown any desire to obtain a paramount influence, and it therefore remained an "independent state recognised as such by European diplomacy, and in these circumstances the question might possibly arise whether its annexation by any power would not be a violation of international law." The same argument applied to Tonga, and the New Hebrides were the subject of an understanding with France. So that, on the whole, the claims and interests of other powers con- stituted a very serious impediment to the complete jurisdiction by the High Commissioner which had been claimed. The most frequented of the groups had already " such relations with foreign powers, in common with England, as could not be summarily ignored." As regards New Britain and the Solomons, the British Government had no evidence that the governments of the Australasian colonies had sufficiently considered the extent of the responsibilities attaching to annexation, and was far from being satisfied that the assumption of those responsibilities was necessary or advisable. Finally the colonies were adjured to consult together, and "make those united . representations which have been invited, furnishing also an effective guarantee for such expenditure as may be incurred. They will, no doubt, at the same time consider whether they i DERBY'S ADVICE TO COLONIES 289 wish to make jointly any similar definite proposal with regard to other islands not already connected by treaty or otherwise with foreign powers." An Impetus to Federation. — It was very much the sort of letter a tradesman might write to a prospective customer of doubtful solvency. Empire relations have travelled far since those days. It is quite inconceivable that a Secretary of State could hold office to-day after addressing self- governing colonies in such terms. But it was the deplorable temper of the time ; and it had deplorable results, from which the Empire recovered but slowly. Still, it did make clear to Australians what Derby wished to make clear, namely, that he had no intention of meeting their wishes, and that he hoped in future that he would be called on to confer with a united Australia rather than with a number of independent states. Within four months the colonies had met in convention, and laid the foundations of the future Commonwealth of Australia. Their promptitude was the best possible evidence, if evidence were necessary, that they were in earnest, and honestly believed themselves face to face with danger. The Convention of December 1883 urgently begged reconsideration of the annexation proposals, and pledged the colonies individually to defray such share of the cost incurred in giving effect to their wishes as the Imperial Government should deem fair and reasonable, "having regard to the relative importance of Imperial and Australasian interests." 1 At the Convention all the colonies were represented, including even Western Australia, which was still under Crown colony government. Nor were the Australian colonies unwilling to regard Fiji as a prospective unit of the future federation. When invited to attend in his dual capacity of Governor of Fiji and High Commissioner for the Western Pacific, Des Voeux's first impulse was to decline, as he had reason to believe that the Imperial Government did not contemplate the early inclusion of Fiji in the Australian federation. Fortunately he changed his mind, and his presence was most helpful and instructive. Incidentally the Convention received a petition from the whites in Fiji asking for amelioration of their condition by federation with Australia. They urged that it was altogether opposed to the spirit of the age that they should be denied any voice in the appropriation of their expenditure. Considering his position, Des Voeux took a very bold 1 P.P. 1884, C. 3863. 290 A REVIEW OF POLICY attitude in his constructive memorandum on the future of the Pacific. 1 "In view of the not unnatural reluctance of the Imperial Government to undertake additional responsibility, I have gradually formed the opinion that control on the part of the confederated colonies over these islands affords the only reason- able prospect of material and moral advantage to them." The object of his memorandum, he told Derby, was to convince the Convention that further colonisation of the tropical islands was undesirable in the interests of Australasia, and should be excluded from any project of annexation. In view of the conference, Victoria had inquired of the Colonial Office on what terms annexation would be agreed to ; but Derby refused to commit himself. All he would say was that if the colonies came to a decision either to federate or on the particular point at issue, there would be much less difficulty in "arranging for the transfer to them of the obligations of this country in respect of neighbour- ing native communities," but it was not possible to say whether annexation would even then be agreed to (Colonial Office to Agent^General for Victoria, 22nd October 1883). Meanwhile Sir Anthony Musgrave, who had just come to assume the governorship of Queensland, and might be supposed to know the mind of the Secretary of State, gave it as his opinion, in opening Parliament on 9th November, " that a firm and united expression of opinion would lead to the annexation being carried out." Derby's Great Blunder. — Judged fairly, the events of 1883 must be held to prove conclusively the sincerity of Australian anxieties. The colonies had, moreover, backed up their opinion by guaranteeing the expenses of the policy they were contending for. It is seriously open to question, therefore, whether Derby was justified in any further delay after receiving the reports of the Convention. His own governors in all the colonies had assured him of the reality of the menace, and even New South Wales, the least intrepid of all, had been converted to the view of Victoria by the obvious likelihood that the attention of other countries must by now have been attracted to these fallow and tempting fields by the mere warmth and length of the controversy. Derby, it is to be feared, was no longer in the right 1 Memorandum on the Future of New Guinea and Polynesia, 7th November 1883 : P.P., C. 3863. GRANVILLE SLOW TO ACT 291 temper to judge the question dispassionately, and Granville never did grasp the position until it was too late. What had occurred at Tonga, Samoa, Fiji, and New Britain was conclusive proof that Germany already had a Pacific policy, and that her protestations of disinterested- ness were not to be taken too seriously. When Bismarck demanded a rehearing of the Fiji land claims he was actuated more than anything else by annoyance at the idea that Great Britain's policy was being dictated by the wishes of her colonies in the Pacific. In June 1884, six months after the Convention, Ampthill warned Granville in the plainest terms that Bismarck was being driven, "contrary to his convictions and his will, into the inauguration of the colonial policy he had hitherto denounced as detrimental to the concentration of German strength and power" (Ampthill to Granville, 28th June 1884). 1 The company to which in 1883 Bismarck had ostensibly refused protection, now came to light as the pretext for the extension of German sovereignty. Derby had spent a whole year of valuable time haggling with the colonies over the financial guarantee, and even when it was forthcoming he had delayed to act on it. Granville's Responsibility. — The story of the New Guinea incidents is not a satisfactory one, and it is not surprising that it should still be quoted in Australia and New Zealand as proof of the disregard of Downing Street for the opinions and interests of the oversea Dominions. Derby made a mistake in disallowing the Queensland annexation, but a much greater in delaying his own action so long after he had taught the colonies the lesson in manners on which he was so bent. But he was evidently sincere in the belief that no foreign intervention was to be feared. This blunder seems to have been due to the unaccountable failure of Granville to inform Derby of what he knew about Bismarck's change of policy. Did Granville himself realise what it meant? The only faults of his administration, the Duke of Argyll told him three years later, were that " he had not taken alarm in time or replied in time to certain despatches." But in extenuation he thought it not surprising that anyone should have been " unsuspecting of the strength of the colonial mania which took possession of Bismarck so unexpectedly." 2 1 Life of Lord Granville, by Lord E. Fitzmaurice, vol. ii., p. 355. 1 Ibid., vol. ii., p. 480. 292 A REVIEW OF POLICY For Granville it must be said that (according to Meade) he was the only English, or indeed continental, statesman who really stood up successfully to Bismarck " at a time when relations were strained, not to say bitter." The New Guinea negotiations do not convey exactly this impression, but possibly it was so, for Morley records that Granville could not be taken into the new government in January 1886 owing to the German Chancellor's objection to him. " Bismarck hates Granville and would begin to make trouble for us as before." 1 In his intimate recollections of the Chancellor, Busch traces this antipathy as far back as the Franco-Prussian War, when Granville was Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. Bismarck was much annoyed at the action of England in furnishing coal and munitions to France, and in July 1870 he ordered Busch to inspire comment in the German press on the following theme : — "In Germany the feeling is becoming more and more wide- spread that under Lord Granville England, while nominally maintaining neutrality, favours France in the manner in which it is really observed." - Wherever the responsibility P.P., Cd. 3525. 2 P.P., N.Z., 1907, A.5. 300 A REVIEW OF POLICY timated at only about i| million souls. The trade figures r the year 191 3 are given as below : — British — Imports. Exports. Fiji .... ^903,968 ^1,425,940 Solomon . 162,761 148,265 Gilbert and Ellice i°3>559 33°»5 l8 Tonga 181,044 82,321 Norfolk . 12,000 4,000 Cook. . . 122,903 132,096 / ^1,486,235 ;£2, 113,140 Foreign — New Caledonia . ^7°8,3i6 ^633,536 Society 361,218 462,l80 Samoa (U.S.A.) . 27,400 27,250 Samoa (German) 250,000 250,000 ;£i,34°,934 ^1,372,966 New Guinea — British ^218,323 j£l28,Ol6 German (Bismarck, Caroli tie, etc.) 450,000 ^668,323 595)°°° ^723.°i 6 New Hebrides .£150,000 ,£160,000 Grand total ^3,651,492 ^£4,369,122 Other statistics showed the trade of the three Pacific powers of Europe with the islands to be as follows : — Exports to Islands. Imports from Islands. 1912. 10.13- 19,12. 1913- Great Britain Germany . France £502,126 905,000 632,000 ^454,967 1,050,000 680,000 £284,156 155,000 400,000 £321,760 165,000 444,000 The value of the trade of Australia and New Zealand with the islands in 19 13 was as follows : — Exports to Islands. ^1,239,879 2 95>°53 Imports from Islands. Australia . New Zealand • ^1,203,841 916,259 FORWARD POLICY REQUIRED 301 Production in the Islands. — In the different islands of the Pacific practically all the products of the tropics have been raised with success — sugar in Fiji ; cotton in Fiji and Tahiti ; coffee in New Guinea, New Hebrides, and New Caledonia ; copra everywhere. Owing to heavy freights and the lack of cheap labour or near markets, one after another has fallen off in production. The most noteworthy exception is the production of cane sugar in Fiji, which has become so important to both Australia and New Zealand that labour has been obtained from India to secure its permanence. Throughout the whole of the Western Pacific the prolific growth of the coco-nut palm has led to a steadily increasing output of copra. The demand for oil for margarine has expanded tremendously, and to-day copra is by far the most lucrative and promising industry in the Pacific. In 1913, the Commission states, one-seventh of the exported copra of the world came from those islands of the South Seas -, which are regarded as coming within the Pacific itself, while practically the whole of the 490,600 metric tons of exported copra in the world came from this area and from the adjacent islands of the East Indies and the Philippines. The potentialities of the industry are evidently immense. It is scarcely possible to consider in the same economic category the guano workings of Ocean Island, which at present are yielding great wealth to their owners and to the colonial revenue, since the deposits cannot be reproduced and must sooner or later come to an end. Administrative Cohesion Needed. — The Commission sees great weakness to the Empire and to Empire trade in the lack of cohesion or uniformity in the organs of govern- ment, or any general policy tending to weld them together. In Fiji we have a Crown colony with some measure of representative government ; in Tonga a quaint protectorate with a British resident ; in Cook a dependency of New Zealand with a representative native government and a resident ; in Papua a " territory " administered by the Commonwealth of Australia ; in the New Hebrides a condominium with a medley of jurisdictions ; and over the Western Pacific generally the High Commissioner, who is also Governor of Fiji, holds sway and exercises it chiefly through a number of deputies. No wonder the Australian Commission pleads : — "It cannot too strongly urge that it has already become a pressing necessity to concentrate in some new form of government 302 A REVIEW OF POLICY the authority of the Crown now scattered among so many adminis- trations. While there is great divergence of view as to the shape which a central authority should take, almost all those interested agree that some direct authority should be established to give uniformity, promptitude, and efficiency to the task of administratidn and of economic development in the islands." The Commission suggests tentatively a federal system which should respect existing forms of government as far as possible, and be under a high commissioner having his headquarters at Sydney, though not in any way subject to the Commonwealth Government. That is, of course, a question on which New Zealand would probably hold a different opinion. The Language Question. — Not the least striking evidence of the lack of cohesion in the administrative policy is the multiplicity of languages in official use in the different groups. In their native state the Polynesian races all spoke slight variations of one language, which enabled the Hawaiian and the Samoan, the Tahitian and the Maori, severed by hundreds of years of isolation and by thousands of miles of ocean, to understand each other with little trouble. A considered policy could so easily have adapted this tongue for universal use that it is astonishing to find this was not done. Melanesian and Polynesian meet at Fiji. To the west- ward the woolly-headed and more savage* islanders of New Hebrides, Solomon, and Papua are not quite so well equipped. In most of the islands it was the British missionaries who committed the native language to writing. As a general rule the missionaries have acquired a knowledge of the native tongue to enable them the more readily to converse with the people. As a consequence the teaching of English is not even yet general in the wide diocese of the Bishop of Melanesia. In the French possessions, on the other hand, the secular authorities have insisted on the teaching of French even in the schools of the British missions, as an instrument for spreading French influence. The same practice is followed by the Germans. During their last years in Samoa they even insisted on the English and American members of the Municipal Council at Apia speaking German. Yet by historical conjuncture the English language was extremely favoured in the Pacific. English-speaking traders and whalers and missionaries were everywhere in advance PIDGIN-ENGLISH TRIUMPHS 303 of others. The British man-of-war carried law and order even where no jurisdiction at all existed. And above all, the great bulk of the island trade, until the last few years, has been with the English-speaking colonies of Australia and New Zealand. By sheer force of circumstances English was the dominant language of the Pacific, even in the possessions of other powers. The quaint blackfellow patois of English had obtained such a hold before other nation- alities came into the Pacific that it has been able to survive a decade or two of official discrimination by both French and Germans. Robert Louis Stevenson in 1889 declared pidgin- English, or "beach la mar" to be the language of the Pacific. In Majuro he found a Marshall Island boy who had been taught English in the German firm at Jaluit, and could speak no German at all. In Rapa-iti, where French was the official language, the children picked up English "on the wayside " ; and we know how earnestly the French laboured to eradicate English in Loyalty. A grammar and vocabulary of Samoan, published in Germany after fifteen years of occupation and forty of predominance, 1 contained only a single word which was clearly adapted by the natives from German, and a host of Samoanised English words. In New Guinea, too, the triumphant Australian forces in 1914 found the Germans dealing with their kanakas in blackfellow English ; and it was in the same quaint jargon that the conquerors issued their proclamation to the natives. 2 1 By H. Neffgen, trans, by Arnold B. Stock. " Australia v. Germany, by F. S. Burnell. CHAPTER XXII SUGGESTIONS FOR THE FUTURE The Trustees of the Islands. — The necessity for a forward policy in the organisation of the Pacific is now urgent. All who have interests there, and particularly the Commonwealth of Australia and the Dominion of New Zealand, are determined that the policy of drift and incohesion must cease, and that the islands which are in the trusteeship of Great Britain and the Dominions shall be developed to the utmost. The problem has four main facets : — i. The sovereignty of the islands at present held, pending the decision of the Peace Conference, must be determined. 2. The form of administration of the British possessions, individually and collectively, must be decided upon by consultation between the Colonial Office and the govern- ments of Australia and New Zealand. 3. A scheme must be devised for utilising the unoccupied > land and the labour of the native inhabitants. 4. Communications must be vastly improved. While the peace negotiations are still unconcluded, it may be premature to forecast a partition of the erstwhile German possessions. Yet certain principles have clearly emerged from the discussions of the past four years. Claims which in the first year or two were not openly asserted have crystallised owing to the protraction of the struggle. It was on behalf of the Allies collectively that Australia seized Kaiser Wilhelmsland and Bismarck ; New Zealand German Samoa ; and Japan the German islands north of the Line ; and in execution of their trust they had to provide a regular administration. As the months passed without any sign of the end, the trustees gradually assumed a proprietorial standing, and the actual ownership of the groups came to be regarded as an offset to the steadily mounting war bills of the Allies. 804 JAPAN'S OUTSTEP 305 Within the last eighteen months Japan, Australia, and New Zealand have, in effect, renounced officially their disinterestedness, and have demanded to retain their holdings in perpetuity. Nor has any disposition been evinced to contest the claim. An Element of Misgiving. — As regards the two British dominions, there is not much prospect of dispute, except that France may ask compensating advantages. The unhappy Pacific policy of the Colonial Office before the war created in New Guinea and in Samoa irredentist regions for Australia and New Zealand respectively. The administrative record of the two dominions — Australia in Papua and New Zealand in Samoa — has certainly been such that the Allies for whom they hold the new lands in trust can feel every confidence in continuing the trust in perpetuity. America has shown no desire to widen the possessions she holds in Samoa — a mere calling-place for her merchant ships — and her acquiescence in the adminis- tration of German Samoa by New Zealand is almost certain. There are signs, too, that the protectorate of Tonga will shortly be handed over to the administration of New Zealand. And the Dominion will thus become the steward for the Empire of the whole of British Polynesia, an area extending from 155 deg. to 180 deg. W. longitude and north- ward to 8 deg. S., and embracing three important branches of the Polynesian race. It is equally satisfactory that Australia should assume the control of" the whole of non-Dutch New Guinea and the Bismarck Archipelago. That is the only arrangement, in the light of our Pacific history, which can possibly satisfy Australia and give her a proper feeling of security. Japan's claim to the small islands north of the equator is certain to be sanctioned out of appreciation for Japanese loyalty to the cause of the Allies. Nevertheless, this first stepping-out of the Asiatic power into far outposts in the Pacific is an entirely new departure, and it cannot fail to contain the seeds of new misgivings for the future. The New Hebrides Difficulty. — The control of the New Hebrides remains the problem of the Western Pacific and the most logical pretext of disputes for the immediate future. For the future peace of the Pacific and the continuance of Anglo-French goodwill that problem must be faced and settled without delay. The Condominium is an abnormal arrangement and entirely unsatisfactory. It yields to the settlers neither 306 SUGGESTIONS FOR THE FUTURE security nor the advantage of being a full citizen of either power. Nor does it possess the vigour to govern effectively the native population. On the face of it there does not appear to be any guarantee, apart from the entente cordiale between France and England, that the New Hebrides may not degenerate into another Samoa? Under existing con- ditions the French residents appear to thrive better than the British, chiefly because the proximity of New Caledonia, with a benevolently disposed administration, affords them preferences which the British do not enjoy. Neither Australia nor New Zealand has ever approved the New Hebrides arrangement. When it was under discussion fifteen years ago New Zealand plainly saw the danger of trying to perpetuate the system of dual control, which had failed so tragically in Samoa, and the New Zealand Government strongly urged a partition of the group in preference to a joint protectorate. Suggestions for a Settlement. — Mere geographical reasons would seem to favour the withdrawal of Great Britain in favour of France, for the New Hebrides fall logically within the orbit of New Caledonia. In spite of hopes which have been cherished by Australia and New Zealand ever since the understanding of 1878, France has never shown the slightest disposition to withdraw from the group. The value to her of New Caledonia has in recent years been very much augmented by the development of the vast deposits of nickel, an essential and rare raw material of French industry. France has more than once desired — and very naturally — to extend her sovereignty, and in 1885 concluded an agreement with Germany to eliminate any possible opposition from that direction. Moreover, many far-seeing Australians recognise a clear Australian interest in retaining France as a benevolent neighbour in the Western Pacific, which being admitted, there are cogent reasons for satisfying her aspirations as far as may be consistent with national honour. The main obstacle, as France would probably frankly admit, was created by her own policy of transportation and her treatment of Protestant missions and English centres of influence. For fifty years, apart altogether from Australian commercial enterprises, there has been an unremitting contest in this region between the missionary interest of Australia and the political and commercial activity of the French. France can hardly consider unreasonable the fear of Australia and New Zealand that her policy of discrimina- THE NEW HEBRIDES PROBLEM 307 tion would crop up again in some form if she were entrusted with the government of the New Hebrides. When the Condominium was set up, Deakin protested that any attempt to establish two codes of law and two administrations within one community must fail. Fifteen years' experience has fully vindicated his fears. It is clear that a unitary code and a unitary administration, to which all residents of the group — French, British, and native — should be alike responsible, are essential. The failure of the Condominium is due to the inequalities of treatment and- responsibility resulting from the operation of two different administrations side by side. It is scarcely open to argument that these inequalities have been all to the disadvantage of the British settlers, and largely to the advantage of the French, and largely by reason of them, French interests have waxed in comparison with British. A Case for a Mandate. — In the light of recent develop- ments the New Hebrides case seems to be an ideal one for the application of the mandatory principle of govern- ment. But the success of mandatory government is dependent upon a unitary code and administration, and it will be a difficult matter in the light of history to persuade Australia and New Zealand that the mandate should be entrusted to France. Unless, therefore, France will accept the mandate of Great Britain for this region, we are brought again face to face with the old demand of New Zealand, that there should be a definite partition of the group between the two powers Defective Administration. — Assuming the question of sovereignty in all the islands to be decided, there is still much to be done to make the administration of the British possessions cohesive and efficient. The local administrations are in general very efficient. Fiji is an exemplary instance of Crown colony government. Gilbert and Ellice, the newest of the Crown colonies, is also unexceptionable. In the Solomons the resident commissioners have succeeded very well in policing the natives and reducing the country to a state of law and order. Yet it cannot be said that in any instance the Govern- ment goes far beyond the elementary duties of police and sanitation, or far into the sphere of modern technical educa- tion, with a view to leading the natives into ways of economic value. The principle of protecting the natives against the encroachments of the whites has been carried to the extent of curbing the whites themselves in the provision of that 308 SUGGESTIONS FOR THE FUTURE employment for the natives which is vital to their future welfare. There is no doubt that under a more energetic commercial policy the British possessions in Melanesia and Polynesia would by now be more developed and more wealthy than they are, and as a consequence the natives would be a more, efficient economic factor than they are. As the Australian Interstate Commission points out, the general character of the education imparted to natives by the missionary schools is not suitable for modern require- ments. It does not teach the natives to be efficient workers. Axioms of Native Policy. — In New Zealand it has been accepted as an axiom of native policy that the best that can be done for the natives is to encourage them to be workers and taxpayers — developers, if possible, of their own domain. This can best be achieved by the active example and tutelage of white residents, whose own enterprise and industry must be fostered by favourable conditions of land tenure and labour regulations. It is partly due to the exaggerated policy of conserving native title to land that the Polynesians and Melanesians are here and there a race of landlords independent of their own labour except to a slight extent, and existing side by side with numerous bodies of imported labourers. The proportion of natives throughout the Pacific who are employed on the plantations of the Europeans is ridiculously small. In most of the islands the population is very sparse in relation to the natural resources, and there is no necessity to perpetuate, with the object of being fair to the natives, the example set in New Zealand in 1840, when it was laid down that every acre of land in a country only half occupied was the property of the Maori race. The sovereign race owes it to the aborigines that they should be secured in the title of all the land they require for their generous sustenance. This principle has been established and vindicated in New Zealand to the lasting credit of the white population. But, that provision having been made, it is entirely for the benefit of the natives that the balance of the land should be made available on attractive terms to white enterprisers, whose prosperity provides both an inspiring example and abundance of employment for the native race. New Zealand found that widely-acred land- lords could still be indigent, and proceeded to individualise the native title so as to throw each owner, if possible, on his own initiative and enterprise. An Obsolete High Commission. — As regards cohesion of AN OUT-OF-DATE COMMISSION 309 external policy, practically everything remains to be done. Communications must inevitably be foremost in the organisa- tion of a domain spread so widely over the face of the ocean as this of Britain in the South Pacific. And the communica- tions of the region are much less effective than they need be. Sporadic efforts have been made by this authority and that — by the Australian Commonwealth, by the Government of New Zealand, by the High Commission for the Western Pacific — to provide steam communication with the different groups. But it must be confessed the result is not nearly so efficient as the reticulation provided by the Germans for their possessions, with one terminal at Hongkong and the other at Sydney, giving alternative routes to Europe. "The difficulty of communications," says the Colonial Office Report (Cd. 5582), "still remains the great obstacle to adequate administration and adequate development of the Western Pacific." These difficulties strikingly emphasise the failure of the High Commission for the Western Pacific in its capacity of a supervising authority over the local administrations of this vast region. Nearly forty years ago Sir Arthur Gordon and his colleagues urged that the head- quarters of the High Commission should be moved from Fiji, which had its own adequate government, to some spot in the New Hebrides, which they divined would be more central in the changing orientation of the future. Long ago the centre of gravity moved westward, but the High Commissioner remained seated in Fiji, on the extreme eastern fringe of his jurisdiction, 600 miles from the New Hebrides and 1200 miles from the Solomons, where its authority was constantly required. Speaking at the Melanesian Mission meeting in London only a few months ago, the retiring High Commissioner (Sir E. Bickham Sweet-Escott) admitted that he had not been able to visit these groups at all in six years of office. 1 Nor 1 " Although for six years I was Governor of Fiji and High Com- missioner for the Western Pacific, I was unfortunately prevented by circumstances beyond my control from visiting the Solomon Islands, where the principal activities of the Melanesian Mission are carried on, and those parts of the New Hebrides where the M ission does such excel- lent work. . . . H.M.S. Torch, attached to the Australian Fleet, was the one vessel placed at the disposal of the High Commissioner for convey- ing him to the different parts of his very wide dominions in the Western Pacific. Once H.M.S. Torch came to take me to the Solomon Islands, and her sailing was countermanded ; a second time she was coming, but was countermanded before she left for Fiji. Then in July 1914 came the rumours of war."— The Southern Cross Log, December 1918. X 310 SUGGESTIONS FOR THE FUTURE could he communicate freely by telegraph. In 1909 a Pacific Conference decided upon a system of wireless communica- tions ; yet in the early stages of the great war the German squadron in the Pacific had the full advantage of its absence. In 191 1 Fiji had its low-power station; the Resident Com- missioner at^Solomon had just obtained his necessary yacht ; and his colleague at New Hebrides was looking forward to acquiring one. In 1916 the fruit exporters of Rarotonga agreed to tax their industry a penny a case to maintain a wireless station there. And finally, in the middle of 1918, the first weak chain, embracing Tahiti, Fiji, and Rarotonga, was complete. A Federative Commercial Policy. — The revision of the High Commission is essential if its authority is to be more than a farce and an obstacle to organisation. Not only must the headquarters be changed, but the functions of the office must be altogether different. Possibly it may resolve itself into the governing authority of a federation of the British groups ; but the present tendency is in the direction of the abolition of the existing office and the transfer of the supervision of the different groups to Australia or New Zealand. This would have the evident advantage of interesting these two great communities in the material welfare of their islands ; but it would accentuate, if possible, the necessity for some authority of acknowledged prestige, whose duty it should be to co-ordinate administrative policy throughout the region, and especially to bring about a joint policy of communications by sea and wireless, with low freights for island produce and reciprocal tariff treat- ment, to encourage both shipping and insular production. It might be the part of the local administrations to provide interinsular shipping to concentrate trade in suitable ports, but only a joint policy can furnish an adequate system of ocean lines. And here again the rapprochement with France should be invoked to bring about a mutual arrangement of benefits. Australia and New Zealand can scarcely suffer from the competition of the tiny French realm in the Western Pacific. They cannot in any case eliminate French steamship lines running to New Caledonia, which must necessarily send much trade through Australian ports. The admission of France to the shipping agreement and to the reciprocal tariff arrangement would strengthen both French and British interests. The Language Question. — As a matter of purely ENGLISH MUST BE TAUGHT 311 British concern it devolves on the Colonial Office to insist on the teaching of the English language in all schools in British possessions. Hitherto Government has done little or nothing to spread the English language in the Pacific. In Fiji at an early stage it selected the dialect of Bau and made it the official language for the group. In Melanesia much of the teaching of the British Mission is in the Mota tongue, which has to be taught to evangelists and to converts speaking a host of other dialects and tongues. The Australian Commission has recommended the teaching of English in native schools, and it is a recom- mendation that cannot be resisted. The fact that " pidgin "- English is almost universal throughout the Pacific is a valid reason for regarding the teaching of English itself as a right rather than an imposition. Besides assisting in the spread of English influence, it would greatly facilitate the movement of the native population without unnecessary hardship, as the development of local industry makes that movement necessary. The traditional British policy of leaving missions to be advanced by private effort is one that has triumphed in severe tests ; but one might suggest as quite a legitimate act of government that subsidies should be granted from state funds to mission schools in considera- tion of the teaching of English. The teaching of English will probably be the least contested of all the measures of organisation, and a radical alteration in the office of the High Commission certainly not the most contested. TREATIES AND CONVENTIONS DECLARATION OF THE INDEPENDENCE OF NEW ZEALAND, 2%th October 1835. [Translation.] " 1. We, the hereditary chiefs and heads of the tribes of the Northern parts of New Zealand, being assembled at Waitangi, in the Bay of Islands, on this 28th day of October 1835, declare the Independence of our country, which is hereby constituted and declared to be an Independent State, under the designation of the United Tribes of New Zealand. "2. All sovereign power and authority within the territories of the United Tribes of New Zealand is hereby declared to reside entirely and exclusively in the hereditary chiefs and heads of tribes in their collective capacity, who also declare that they will not permit any legislative authority separate from themselves in their collective capacity to exist, nor any function of government to be exercised within the said territories, unless by persons appointed by them, and acting under the authority of laws regularly enacted by them in Congress assembled. "3. The hereditary chiefs and heads of tribes agree to meet in Congress at Waitangi in the autumn of each year, for the purpose of framing laws for the dispensation of justice, the preservation of peace and good order, and the regulation of trade ; and they cordially invite the Southern tribes to lay aside their private animosities and to consult the safety and welfare of our common country, by joining the Confederation of the United Tribes. "4. They also agree to send a copy of this Declaration to His Majesty the King of England, to thank him for his acknowledgment of their flag ; and in return for the friendship and protection they have shown, and are prepared to show, to such of his subjects as have settled in their country, or resorted to its shores for the purposes of trade, they entreat that he will continue to be the parent of their infant State, and that he will become its Protector from all attempts upon its independence. "Agreed to unanimously on this 28th day of October 1835, in the presence of His Britannic Majesty's Resident." [Signed, in the presence of four leading English witnesses, by thirty-five chiefs of tribes between North Cape and the River Thames.] fit 314 TREATIES AND CONVENTIONS THE TREATY OF WAITANGI, 6th February 1840. " Her Majesty Victoria, Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, regarding with Her Royal Favour the Native Chiefs and Tribes of New Zealand, and anxious to protect their just Rights and Property, and to secure to them the enjoyment of Peace and Good Order, has deemed it necessary in consequence of the great number of Her Majesty's Subjects who have already settled in New Zealand, and the rapid extension of Emigration, both from Europe and Australia, which is still in progress, to constitute and appoint a functionary properly authorised to treat with the Aborigines of New Zealand for the recognition of Her Majesty's sovereign authority over the whole or any part of those islands. Her Majesty, therefore, being desirous to establish a settled form of Civil Govern- ment, with a view to avert the evil consequences which must result from the absence of the necessary Laws and Institutions alike to the native population and to Her subjects, has been graciously pleased to empower and to authorise me, William Hobson, a Captain in Her Majesty's Royal Navy, Consul and Lieutenant-Governor of such parts of New Zealand as may be, or hereafter shall be, ceded to Her Majesty, to invite the confederated and independent Chiefs of New Zealand, to concur in the following Articles and Conditions : — " Article the First. — The Chiefs of the Confederation of the United Tribes of New Zealand, and the separate and independent Chiefs who have not become members of the Confederation, cede to Her Majesty the Queen of England, absolutely and without reservation, all the rights and powers of Sovereignty which the said Confederation or Individual Chiefs respectively exercise or possess, or may be supposed to exercise or to possess over their respective territories as the sole sovereigns thereof. " Article the Second. — Her Majesty the Queen of England confirms and guarantees to the Chiefs and Tribes of New Zealand, and to the respective families and individuals thereof, the full, exclusive, and undisturbed possession of their Lands and Estates, Forests, Fisheries, and other properties which they may collectively or individually possess, so long as it is their wish and desire to retain the same in their possession ; but the Chiefs of the United Tribes and the individual Chiefs yield to Her Majesty the exclusive right of Pre-emption over such lands as the proprietors thereof may be disposed to alienate, at such prices as may be agreed upon between the respective Proprietors and persons appointed by Her Majesty to treat with them in that behalf. "Article the Third. — In consideration thereof, Her Majesty the Queen of England extends to the natives of New Zealand Her Royal protection, and imparts to them all the Rights and Privileges of British subjects. ,„ „ _. . _, _ W. HOBSON, Lieutenant-Governor. " Now, therefore, We the Chiefs of the Confederation of the United Tribes of New Zealand, being assembled in Congress at Victoria in Waitangi, and We, the Separate and Independent Chiefs of New Zealand claiming authority over the Tribes and Territories NEW ZEALAND DOCUMENTS 315 which are specified after our respective names, having been made fully to understand the Provisions of the foregoing -Treaty, accept and enter into the same in the full spirit and meaning thereof, in witness of which we have attached our signatures or marks at the places and the dates respectively specified. " Done at Waitangi, this sixth day of February in the year of our Lord, One thousand eight hundred and forty." {"Facsimiles of the Declaration of Independence and the Treaty of Waitangi"; Government Printer, New Zealand, 1892.) INDEPENDENCE OF HAWAII. Declaration between Great Britain and France relative to the independence of the Sandwich Islands: signed at London, 28th November 1843, by Lord Aberdeen and the Comte St Aulaire. "Her Majesty the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and His Majesty the King of the French, taking into consideration the existence in the Sandwich Islands of a govern- ment capable of providing for the regularity of its relations with foreign nations, have thought it right to engage reciprocally to consider the Sandwich Islands as an independent state and never to take possession either directly or under the title of a protectorate or under any other form of any part of the territory of which they are composed." — Hertslet's Treaties, vol. ix., p. 255. THE RAIATEA DECLARATION OF 1847. Declaration between Great Britain and France acknowledging the independence of the islands of Huahine, Raiatea, and Borabora, and of the small islands adjacent thereto, signed at London, 19th June 1847, by the plenipotentiaries, Lord Palmerston and the Comte de Jarnac. " Her Majesty the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and His Majesty the King of the French, being desirous of removing a cause of discussion between their respective governments relative to the islands in the Pacific Ocean which are hereinafter designated, have thought proper reciprocally to engage : — "1. Formerly [sic] to acknowledge the independence of the Islands of Huahine, Raiatea, and Borabora (to the leeward of Tahiti), and of the small islands adjacent to and dependent upon those islands. " 2. Never to take possession of the said islands, nor of any one or more of them, either absolutely, or under the title of a Protectorate, or in any other form whatever. "3. Never to acknowledge that a Chief or Prince reigning in Tahiti can at the same time reign in any one or more of the other islands above mentioned : nor, on the other hand, that a Chief or Prince" reigning in any one or more of those other islands can reign at the same time in Tahiti : the reciprocal independence of the islands above mentioned, and of the Island of Tahiti and its dependencies, being established as a principle." — Hertslet's Treaties, vol. viii., p. 998 ; P.P., C. 5256. 316 TREATIES AND CONVENTIONS THE NEW HEBRIDES UNDERSTANDING, 1678. Ambassade de France, U 18 Jamitr, 1878. M. le Comte, — II s'est e"tabli entre l'ile de la Nouvelle Caledonie et le groupe des Nouvelles Hebrides des rapports d'ordre commercial qui se sont rapidement deVeloppes en raison de leur voisinage et qui presentent pour la prospdrite de notre eteblissement colonial une importance considerable. Mon Gouvernement qui attache beaucoup de prix a ce que ces relations continuent sur le m£me pied se preoccupe dans une certaine mesure d'un mouvement d'opinion qui se serait produit en Australie dans ce dernier temps. Les journaux de ces pays auraient denoue' l'intention qu'ils attribuent a la France de reunir les Nouvelles Hebrides a ses possessions et demanderaient qu'afin de prevenir cette Eventuality 1'archipel dont il s'agit fut plac6 sous la souverainete de la couronne d'Angleterre. Sans attacher a ce mouvement de l'opinion une tres-grande importance, mon Gouvernement tient toutefois a declarer que pour ce qui le concerne il n'a pas le projet de porter atteinte a l'independ- ance des Nouvelles Hebrides et il serait heureux de savoir que de son c6t6 le Gouvernement de S.M. est egalement dispose 1 a la respecter. — Veuillez, etc., (Se\) D'Harcourt. S.E. le Comte de Derby. FOREIGN OFFICE TO COLONIAL OFFICE. Foreign Office, 1st February 1878. Sir, — I am directed by the Earl of Derby to transmit to you here- with, to be laid before Her Majesty's Secretary of State for the Colonies, a copy of a communication received from the French Ambassador at this Court calling attention to certain articles which have recently appeared in the Australian newspapers advocating the annexation of the islands of the New Hebrides to the British Crown, and stating that, although the French Government do not attach any great importance to this movement in favour of annexation, still, as they themselves have no intentions with regard to this group, they would be glad to receive an assurance to this effect from Her Majesty's Government. I am now to state that Lord Derby proposes, with the concurrence of Her Majesty's Secretary of State for the Colonies, to inform the French Ambassador, in reply to His Excellency's communication, that Her Majesty's Government have no intention of proposing any measures to Parliament with a view of changing the condition of independence which the New Hebrides Islands now enjoy. — I am, etc , (Signed; T. V. Lister. The Under-Secretary of State Colonial Office. NEW HEBRIDES UNDERSTANDING 317 COLONIAL OFFICE TO FOREIGN OFFICE. Downing Street, loth February 1878. Sir, — In reply to your letter of the 1st instant, I am directed by the Secretary of State for the Colonies, to acquaint you that he concurs in the terms of the reply which the Earl of Derby proposes to give to the enquiry of the French Ambassador at this Court with reference to the intentions of Her Majesty's Goxernment in respect of the New Hebrides group.— I am etc., (Signed) W. R. Malcolm. The Under-Secretary of State, Foreign Office. CIRCULAR DESPATCH TO GOVERNORS OF AUSTRALIAN COLONIES, FIJI, TASMANIA, AND NEW ZEALAND. Downing Street, z%th February 1878. Sir, — I have the honour to transmit to you, for your information (and for that of your Government 1 ), a copy of a letter from the Foreign Office, enclosing a communication which has been received from the French Ambassador at this Court with reference to the relations of Her Majesty's Government in respect of the New Hebrides group, together with a copy of the reply which I caused to be addressed to the Foreign Office. — I have, etc., (Signed) M. E. Hicks-Beach. -P.P., C. 3863. ANGLO-SAMOAN TREATY. 2ith August 1879. Article II. — "The King and Government (Malo) of Samoa engage to grant to no other Sovereign or State any rights, privileges, authority, or predominance in Samoa in excess of such as are or may be accorded to Her Britannic Majesty. The subjects of Her Britannic Majesty shall always enjoy in Samoa whatever rights, privileges, and immuni- ties shall be granted to those of the most-favoured nation, and no rights, privileges, or immunities shall be granted to the subjects of any foreign State that shall not be equally and unconditionally accorded to the subjects of Her Britannic Majesty." Article III. — " Full liberty for the free pursuit of commerce, trade, and agriculture is guaranteed to British subjects, as well as the peace- able possession of all lands heretofore purchased by them from Samoans in a customary and regular manner, and in the event of any dispute arising as to the fact of such purchase, it shall be determined by a Commission, to consist of one person nominated by the Samoan Government (Malo), and one nominated by Her Britannic Majesty's 1 To responsible colonies only. 318 TREATIES AND CONVENTIONS Consul : and in the event of their disagreement, they shall themselves select an umpire : or, if they fail to do so, such umpire shall be appointed by Her Majesty's Consul-General. All British subjects resident in Samoa shall be exempt from war contributions, military requisitions, and occupation of their houses and lands by war parties." Article VII. — " Her Britannic Majesty engages to cause regulations to be issued to enforce the observance by British subjects of such of the existing municipal Laws and Police Regulations of Samoa as may be hereafter agreed upon by agreement between the Government of Her Britannic Majesty and that of the Samoan State, and for the due observance of quarantine by British subjects." Article VIII. — "Her Majesty the Queen of Great Britain may, if she think fit, establish on the shores of a Samoan harbour, to be hereafter designated by Her Majesty, a naval station and coaling depot : but this article shall not apply to the harbours of Apia of Saluafata, or to that part of the harbour of Pagopago which may be hereafter selected by the Government of the United States as a station under the provisions of the Treaty concluded between the United States of America and the Samoan Government, on the seventeenth day of January, in the year One thousand eight hundred and seventy-eight." [The treaty is signed on behalf of Great Britain by Sir Arthur Hamilton Gordon, High Commissioner for the Western Pacific, and Mr Alfred P. Maudslay, a Deputy-Commis- sioner : and on behalf of the King and Government of Samoa by Malietoa Laupepa himself, and the High Chief Saga le Auauua.] —P.P., C. 2747- CONVENTION FOR THE GOVERNMENT OF APIA, SAMOA, Signed at Apia, 2nd September 1879. This convention, for the good government and neutrality of Apia, was agreed upon by the same plenipotentiaries as the above, but in consultation with representatives of the other treaty powers, namely : — For Germany, Korvetten-Kapitan F. Mensing, of the gunboat Albatross, and Theodore Weber, the German Consul for Samoa and Tonga : for the United States — Captain R. Chandler, of the U.S. warship Lacka- wanna, and Thomas M. Dawson, United States Consul at Apia. Article II placed the town and district under the control of a Municipal Board consisting of the foreign consuls resident in Apia representing the treaty powers. " Representatives of every such nation, having a consul in Samoa, shall, at a future period be added to the said board, and shall be chosen in such manner, and exercise such functions, as may be provided by regulations to be hereafter agreed upon and published by the said Board." Article VIII. — " The foregoing articles shall in no way prejudice the territorial integrity of Samoa, and the Samoan flag shall be hoisted at such place of meeting of the municipal board as may be permanently adopted." EARLY SAMOAN TREATIES 319 Article IX. — " In case of civil war, the town and district of Apia, and the adjacent districts comprised between the boundaries of the town and district of Apia and Letogo, Tiapepe Point, and Siusega shall be considered as neutral territory, and the Municipal Board may frame and issue such regulations as may be considered necessary for the support and maintenance of such neutrality." Article X. — " The present Convention shall be revised at the end of four years from its date, and if the internal state of Samoa at that time will happily admit thereof, without prejudice to the interests of the foreign residents in Samoa, the powers conferred by the present convention upon the Municipal Board of Apia shall cease and determine, and the district again pass under the control and authority of the Samoan Government, or such other authority as may be agreed upon between the Samoan Government and the High Contracting Parties." — P.P., C. 2748. SULU AND NORTH BORNEO PROTOCOL. Signed at Madrid, yth March 1885. Article I. — The Governments of Great Britain and of Germany recognise the sovereignty of Spain over the places effectively occupied, as well as over those places not yet occupied, of the archipelago of Sulu (Jolo), of which the limits are laid down in Article II. Article II. — The archipelago of Sulu (Jolo), conformably to the definition contained in Article I. of the Treaty signed the 23rd September 1836, between the Spanish Government and the Sultan of Sulu (J0I6), comprises all the islands which are found between the western extremity of the island of Mindanao on the one side and the Continent of Borneo and the island of Paragua on the other side, with the exception of those which are indicated in Article III. It is under- stood that the islands of Balabac and of Cagayan J0I6 form part of the archipelago. Article III. — The Spanish Government renounces, as far as regards the British Government, all claims to sovereignty over the territories of the continent of Borneo which belong, or which have belonged in the past, to the Sultan of Sulu (Jolo), and which comprise the neighbouring islands of Balambangan, Banguey, and Malawali, as well as all those comprised within the zone of three maritime leagues from the coast and which form part of the territories administered by the Company styled "The British North Borneo Company."— Hertslet's Treaties and Con- ventions, vol. xvii., p. 1016. SOVEREIGNTY OF THE CAROLINES, PROTOCOL BETWEEN GREAT BRITAIN AND SPAIN. Signed at Madrid, ith January 1886. "The Governments of Great Britain and Spain, being desirous of affording a proof of the friendly feeling which unites the two nations, the undersigned Sir Francis Clare Ford, K.C.M.G., C.B., Her Britannic Majesty's Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary at the 320 TREATIES AND CONVENTIONS Court of Madrid, and His Excellency Don Segismundo Moret y Prendergast, Minister of State to Her Majesty the Queen Regent of Spain, duly authorised thereto by their respective governments, declare as follows : — " I. It is agreed that Her Britannic Majesty's Government will recognise the sovereignty of Spain over the Caroline Islands, and the Pelew Islands to the same extent as such sovereignty has been, or may hereafter be, recognised by the German Government. " II. It is agreed that whatsoever privileges, advantages, favours or immunities have been or may hereafter be accorded in the aforesaid islands by the Spanish Government to the Government or subjects of the German Empire shall be immediately and unconditionally accorded to the Government or subjects of Great Britain. "Done at Madrid in duplicate, this 8th day of January 1886. (L.S.) "Francis Clare Ford, (L.S.) "S. Moret." — Hertslet's Treaties and Conventions, vol. xvii., p. 1019. ANGLO-GERMAN DECLARATION. Signed at Berlin, 6th April 1886. " The Government of Her Majesty the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the Government of His Majesty the German Emperor, having resolved to define the limits of the British and German spheres of influence in the Western Pacific : — "The undersigned, duly empowered for that purpose, viz. : (1) Sir Edward Baldwin Malet, Her Britannic Majesty's Ambassador Extra- ordinary and Plenipotentiary ; (2) Count Herbert Bismarck, His Imperial Majesty's Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, have agreed on behalf of their respective governments to make the following declaration : — " 1. For the purpose of this Declaration the expression ' Western Pacific ' means that part of the Pacific Ocean lying between the 15th parallel of north latitude and the 30th parallel of south latitude, and between the 165th meridian of longitude west and the 130th meridian of longitude east of Greenwich. " 2. A conventional line of demarcation in the Western Pacific is agreed to, starting from the north-east coast of New Guinea, at a point near Mitre Rock on the 8th parallel of south latitude, being the boundary between the British and German possessions on that coast, and following that parallel to point A, and thence continuing to points B, C, D, E, F, and G, as indicated in the accompanying charts, which points are situated as follows : — A. 8° south latitude, 154° longitude east of Greenwich. B. 7* 15' south latitude, 155* 25' east longitude. C f 15' » i55°35' D. 7° 25' „ 156" 40' E. 8° 50' „ 159° 5°' F. 6° north latitude, 173° 30' „ G. 15° „ 173° 3°' .• THE ANGLO-GERMAN DEMARCATION 321 The point A is indicated on the British Admiralty Chart 780 Pacific Ocean (South-west sheet) : the points B, C, D, and E are indicated on the British Admiralty Chart 214 (South Pacific, Solomon Islands) : and the points F and G on the British Admiralty Chart 781, Pacific Ocean (North-west sheet). " 3. Germany engages not to make acquisitions of territory, accept protectorates, or interfere with the extension of British influence, and to give up any acquisitions of territory or Protectorates already established in that part of the Western Pacific lying to the east, south-east, or south of the said conventional line. "4. Great Britain engages not to make acquisitions of territory, accept protectorates, or interfere with the extension of German influence, and to give up any acquisitions of territory or protectorates already established in that part of the Western Pacific lying to the west, north-west, or north of the said conventional line. " 5. Should further surveys show that any islands, now indicated on the said charts as lying on one side of the said conventional line, are in reality on the other side, the said line shall be modified so that such islands shall appear on the same side of the line as at present shown on the said charts. " 6. This Declaration does not apply to the Navigator Islands (Samoa), which are affected by treaties with Great Britain, Germany, and the United States : nor to the Friendly Islands (Tonga), which are affected by treaties with Great Britain and Germany : nor to the island of Niue' (Savage Island), which groups of islands shall continue to form a neutral region : nor to any islands or places in the Western Pacific which are now under the sovereignty or protection of any other civilised power than Great Britain or Germany. " Declared and signed in duplicate at Berlin this 6th day of April, 1886. (L.S.) " Edward B. Malet. (L.S.) "Graf Bismarck." — Hertslet's Treaties and Conventions, vol. xvii., p. 442. ANGLO-GERMAN DECLARATION ON RECIPROCITY Signed at Berlin, 10th April 1886. " The Government of Her Majesty the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and the Government of His Majesty the German Emperor, having resolved to guarantee to each other, so soon as the British and German spheres of influence in the Western Pacific have been demarcated, reciprocal freedom of trade and commerce in their possessions and protectorates within the limits specified in the present declaration, the undersigned Sir Edward Baldwin Malet, Her Britannic Majesty's Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, and Count Herbert Bismarck, His Imperial Majesty's Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, having been duly empowered to that effect, have agreed on behalf of their respective governments to make the following declaration : — "Article 1. — For the purpose of this Declaration the expression 'Western Pacific' means that part of the Pacific Ocean lying between 322 TREATIES AND CONVENTIONS the 15 th parallel of north latitude, and the 30th parallel of south latitude, and between the 165th meridian of longitude west, and the 130th meridian of longitude east of Greenwich. "Article 2. — The Government of Her Britannic Majesty and the Government of His Majesty the Emperor agree that the subjects of either state shall be free to resort to all the possessions or protectorates of the other state in the Western Pacific, and to settle there, and to acquire and to hold all kinds of property, and to engage in all descrip- tions of trade and professions, and agricultural and industrial under- takings, subject to the same conditions and laws, and enjoying the same religious freedom and the same protection and privileges as the subjects of the sovereign or protecting state. " Article 3. — In all the British and German possessions and pro- tectorates in the Western Pacific, the ships of both states shall in all respects reciprocally enjoy equal treatment as well as most-favoured nation treatment, and merchandise of whatever origin imported by the subjects of either state, under whatever flag, shall not be liable to any other or higher duties than that imported by the subjects of the other state or of any third power. "Article 4. — All disputed claims to land alleged to have been acquired by a British subject in a German possession or protectorate, or by a German subject in a British possession or protectorate, prior to the proclamation of sovereignty or of protectorate by either of the two governments, shall be examined and decided by a mixed commission, to be nominated for that purpose by the two governments. The claim may, however, be settled by the local authority alone if the claimant to the land makes formal application to that effect. "Article 5. — Both governments engage not to establish any penal settlements in, or to transport convicts to, the Western Pacific. "Article 6. — In this declaration the words 'possessions and pro- tectorates in the Western Pacific ' shall not include the colonies which now have fully constituted governments and legislatures." "The present declaration shall. take effect from the date of its signature. " Declared and signed in duplicate at Berlin this 10th day of April 1886. (L.S.) "Edward B. Malet. (L.S.) "Graf Bismarck." — Hertslet's Treaties and Conventions, vol. xvii., p. 443. NEW HEBRIDES CONVENTION, 1887. 16th November 1887. " The Government of Her Majesty the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and the Government of the French Republic, being desirous to abrogate the Declaration of the 19th June 1847, relative to the islands leeward of Tahiti, and also to make pro- NEW HEBRIDES CONVENTION 323 vision for the '• future, protection of life and property in the New Hebrides, have agreed upon the following articles : — "Article I. — The Government of Her Britannic Majesty consent to proceed to the abrogation of the Declaration of 1847, relative to the islands to the leeward of Tahiti, as soon as the agreement hereinafter contained for the future protection of life and property in the New Hebrides by means of a Joint Commission shall have been carried out. " Article II. — A Joint Naval Commission shall be immediately con- stituted, composed of British and French naval officers on the Pacific Station, charged with the duty of maintaining order, and of protecting the lives and property of British subjects and French citizens in the New Hebrides. " Article III. — A Declaration to that effect shall be signed by the two Governments. " Article IV. — The regulations for the guidance of the Commission shall be drawn up by the two Governments, approved by them, and transmitted to the Commanders of the British and French ships on the Pacific Naval Station within a period not exceeding four months from the date of the signature of the present Convention, should it be impossible to do so earlier. " Article V. — Immediately on the approval of those Regulations by the two Governments, and the consequent withdrawal of the French military posts from the New Hebrides, the Government of Her Britannic Majesty will proceed to the abrogation of the Declaration of 1847. It is understood that the assurances relating to trade and to convicts, which are contained in the note verbale of the 24th October 1885, communicated by M. de Freycinet to Lord Lyons shall remain in full force." [Signed by Mr Edwin Henry Egerton and M. Flourens at Paris.] Extract from note verbale referred to in Article V. " II (le Gouvernement Francais) renouvelle volontiers au Gouverne- nient de la Reine Passurance que le regime douanier qui sera institue aux iles sous le vent de Tahiti le jour, ou l'autorite Francaise y aura e"te definitivement &ablie, ne difKrera pas de celui qui est en vigueur a Tahiti meme, et que les sujets Britanniques y jouiront du meme traitement que ses propres nationaux. " D'autre part, M. de Freycinet ne fait aucune difficult^ de declarer a tenue jusqu' a present en ce qui ses possessions de Tahiti." [A further declaration establishing the Joint Naval Commission and making regulations for its guidance was signed at Paris on 26th January 1888 by Lord Lytton and M. Flourens.] —P.P., C. 5256. 324 TREATIES AND CONVENTIONS THE SAMOA CONVENTION. 14/A Novetnber 1899. [A Convention and Declaration between Great Britain and Germany, for the settlement of the Samoan and other questions.] " The Commissioners of the three Powers concerned having in their report of the i8th July last expressed the opinion, based on a thorough" examination of the situation, that it would be impossible effectually to remedy the troubles and difficulties under which the islands of Samoa are at present suffering so long as they are placed under the joint administration of the three Governments, it appears desirable to seek for a solution which shall put an end to these difficulties, while taking due account of the legitimate interests of the three Governments. " Starting from this point of view the Undersigned, furnished with full powers to that effect by their respective Sovereigns, have agreed on the following points : — " Article I. — Great Britain renounces in favour of Germany all her rights over the islands of Upolu and of Savaii, including the right of establishing a naval and coaling station there, and her light of extra- territoriality in these islands. " Great Britain similarly renounces, in favour of the United States of America, all her rights over the island of Tutuila and the other islands of the Samoan group east of 171° longitude east (?west) of Greenwich. " Great Britain recognises as falling to Germany the territories in the eastern part of the neutral zone established by the Arrangement of 1888 in West Africa. The limits of the portion of the neutral zone falling to Germany are defined in Article V. of the present Convention. "Article II. — Germany renounces in favour of Great Britain all her rights over the Tonga Islands, including Vavau, and over Savage Island, including the right of establishing a naval station and coaling station, and the right of extra-territoriality in the said islands. "Germany similarly renounces, in favour of the United States of America; all her rights over the island of Tutuila and over the other islands of the Samoan group east of longitude 171° east (?west) of Greenwich. " She recognises as falling to Great Britain those of the Solomon Islands, at present belonging to Germany, which are situated to the east and south-east of the island of Bougainville, which latter shall continue to belong to Germany, together with the island of Buka, which forms part of it. " The western portion of the neutral zone in West Africa, as defined in Article V. of the present Convention, shall also fall to the share of Great Britain. " Article HI. — The Consuls of the two Powers at Apia and in the Tonga Islands shall be provisionally recalled. " The two Governments will come to an agreement with regard to the arrangements to be made during the interval in the interest of their navigation and of their commerce in Samoa and Tonga. " Article I V. — The arrangement at present existing between Germany and Great Britain and concerning the right of Germany to freely engage labourers in the Solomon Islands belonging to Great Britain shall be THE SAMOA PARTITION 325 equally extended to those of the Solomon Islands mentioned in Article II., which fall to the share of Great Britain. "Article V. — In the neutral zone the frontier between German and English territories shall be formed by the river Daka as far as the point of its intersection with the 9th degree of north latitude, thence the frontier shall continue to the north, leaving Morozugu to Great Britain, and shall be fixed on the spot by a Mixed Commission of the two Powers, in such manner that Gambaga and all the territories of Mamprusi shall fall to Great Britain and that Yendi and all the territories of Chakosi shall fall to Germany. "Article VI. — Germany is prepared to take into consideration, as much and as far as possible, the wishes which the Government of Great Britain may express with regard to the development of the re- ciprocal tariffs in the territories of Togo and of the Gold Coast. "Article VII. — Germany renounces her rights of extra-territoriality in Zanzibar, but it is at the same time understood that this renunciation shall not effectively come into force till such time as the rights of extra- territoriality enjoyed there by other nations shall be abolished." Declaration, signed \a,th November 1899. " It is clearly understood that by Article II. of the Convention signed to-day Germany consents that the whole group of the Howe Islands, which forms part of the Solomon Islands, shall fall to Great Britain. " It is also understood that the stipulations of the Declaration between the two Governments signed at Berlin on the icth April 1886, respecting freedom of commerce in the Western Pacific, apply to the islands mentioned in the aforesaid Convention. " It is similarly understood that the arrangement at present in force as to the engagement of labourers by Germans in the Solomon Islands permits Germans to engage those labourers on the same conditions as those which are or which shall be imposed on British subjects non- resident in those islands." [The Convention and Declaration were signed by the Marquess of Salisbury and Count P. Hatzfeldt] —P.P., Cd. 7. THE SAMOA TRIPARTITE CONVENTION. Signed at Washington, ind December 1899. " Her Majesty the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Empress of India : His Imperial Majesty the German Emperor, King of Prussia : and the President of the United States of America, desiring to adjust amicably the questions which have arisen between them in respect to the Samoan group of islands, as well as to avoid all future misunderstanding in respect to their joint or several rights and claims of possession or jurisdiction therein, have agreed to establish and regulate the same by a special convention : and whereas the Governments of Great Britain and Germany have, with the con- currence of that of the United States, made an agreement regarding their respective rights and interests in the aforesaid group, the three Powers before named, in furtherance of the ends above mentioned, have appointed respectively their plenipotentiaries as follows : — Y 326 TREATIES AND CONVENTIONS " Her Majesty the Queen of Great Britain and Ireland, Empress of India, the Right Honourable Lord Pauncefote of Preston, G.C.B., G.C.M.G., Her Britannic Majesty's Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary : ' " His Majesty the German Emperor, King of Prussia, His Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, Heir von Holleben : and " The President of the United States of America, the Honourable John Hay, Secretary of State of the United States : " Who, after having communicated each to the other their respective full powers, which were found to be in proper form, have agreed upon and concluded the following articles : " Article I. — The General Act concluded and signed by the aforesaid Powers at Berlin on the 14th day of June, A.D. 1889, and all previous Treaties, Conventions, and Agreements relating to Samoa are annulled. " Article II. — Great Britain renounces in favour of the United States of America all her rights and claims over and in respect to the island of Tutuila and all other islands of the Samoan group east of longitude 171 west of Greenwich. " Germany in like manner renounces in favour of the United States of America all her rights and claims over and in respect to the island of Tutuila and all other islands of the Samoan group east of longitude 171° west of Greenwich. " Reciprocally the United States of America renounce in favour of Germany all their rights and claims over and in respect to the islands of Upolu and Savaii, and all other islands of the Samoan group west of longitude 171° west of Greenwich. " Article III. — It is understood and agreed that each of the three . Signatory Powers shall continue to enjoy, in respect to their commerce and commercial vessels, in all the islands of the Samoan group, privileges and conditions equal to those enjoyed by the Sovereign Power in all ports which may be open to the commerce of either of them."— P.P., Cd. 39. THE ENTENTE CORDIALE DECLARATION. London, %th April 1904. [A Declaration between the United Kingdom and France concerning Siam, Madagascar and the New Hebrides.] New Hebrides " Article III.-— The two Governments agree to draw up in concert an arrangement which, without involving any modification of the political status quo, shall put an end to the drmculties arising from the absence of jurisdiction over the natives of the New Hebrides. " They agree to appoint a Commission to settle the disputes of their respective nationals in the said islands with regard to landed property. The competency of this Commission and its rules of procedure shall form the subject of a preliminary Agreement between the two Governments." [Signed by Lord Lansdowne and M. Paul Cambon.] —P.P., Cd. 2385. THE CONDOMINIUM 327 NEW HEBRIDES CONVENTION. London, loth October 1906. Article I. — Status. " 1. The Group of the New Hebrides, including the Banks and Torres Islands, shall form a region of joint influence, in which the subjects and citizens of the two Signatory Powers shall enjoy equal rights of residence, personal protection and trade, each of the two Powers re- taining jurisdiction over its subjects or citizens and neither exercising a separate control over the Group. " 2. The subjects or citizens of other Powers shall enjoy the same rights and shall be subject to the same obligations as British subjects or French citizens. They must choose within six months between the legal systems of one of the two Powers. Failing such choice, the High Commissioners mentioned in Article II. or their Delegates shall decide under which system they shall be placed. " 3. In all matters not contrary to the provisions of the present Convention or the regulations made thereunder, the subjects and citizens of the two Signatory Powers and the subjects and citizens of other Powers shall, within the New Hebrides, remain subject to the fullest extent to the laws of their respective countries. "4. The two Signatory Powers undertake not to erect fortifications in the Group and not to establish penal settlements of any kind." Article II. — Local Authorities — Police. " i. The Signatory Powers shall be represented in the Group by two High Commissioners, one appointed by His Britannic Majesty's Government, the other by the Government of the French Republic. "2. The High Commissioners shall each be assisted by a Resident Commissioner, to whom they shall delegate their respective powers, in so far as they consider it expedient, and who shall represent them in the Group when they do not reside there. "3. The High Commissioners or their Delegates shall be provided with a police force of sufficient strength to guarantee effectively the protection of life and property. " 4. The force shall be divided into two divisions of equal strength. Each of these two divisions shall be under the orders of one of the two Resident Commissioners, and shall in no case be employed otherwise than in conformity with the principles laid down by the present Convention. " 5. When it is necessary to employ some or all of both divisions of the Force in conformity with the present Convention or of the regula- tions framed for its execution, the Jbrce shall be under the joint direction of the High Commissioners or their Delegates." Article XVI I I. — Official Languages. " Either the English or French language may be employed in proceedings before the Joint Court. In a suit between British subjects and French citizens, the proceedings shall be interpreted and the judgments shall be drawn up in both languages. The registers of the Court shall be kept in both languages." 328 TREATIES AND CONVENTIONS Article XX VII I. — Vessels registered in the Group. " i. No vessels other than those intended to sail under the flag of one of the two Signatory Powers shall be registered in the Group of the New Hebrides, including the Banks and Torres Islands. " 2. Each High Commissioner shall prescribe the regulations affect- ing the navigation in the Group of the vessels sailing under the flag of "the Power which he represents. " 3. The High Commissioners, the Resident Commissioners, and the persons appointed for the purpose shall, with regard to vessels sailing in the Group under the flag of the Power which they represent, exercise respectively the supervision, protection and policing necessary to ensure the carrying out of these regulations without prejudice to the rights to which the vessels of that Power are legally entitled." Article XXXI. — Recruiting Lzce?tse. " 1. No vessel shall recruit native labourers in the New Hebrides, including the Banks and Torres Islands, unless she sails under the flag of one of the two Signatory Powers, and unless she is provided with a recruiting license issued by the High Commissioner representing the Signatory Power under whose flag the vessel is sailing, or by his Delegate." Article LX1I. — Establishment of Municipalities. " 1. Municipalities may be established in the Group, on the applica- tion of the non-native inhabitants. "2. Applications for the establishment of municipalities shall be addressed to one or other of the High Commissioners or their Delegates. The latter shall communicate such requests to one another, and determine jointly what action shall be taken thereon. "3. Applications made by a group of not less than thirty non-native adult inhabitants residing in the same district shall be, as far as possible, complied with." [The Convention contains 68 articles, many of them devoted to providing an elaborate system of protection for native labourers. It is signed by Sir Edward Grey and M. Paul Cambon (P.P., Cd. 3300). The arrangements for the Joint Court provided for in Article X. are embodied in an exchange of Notes dated 29th August 1907 (PP., Cd. 3876).] CHRONOLOGY Secretaries of State for the Colonies in Black Type. 151 1 Discoveries — New Guinea, by de Abreu. 1521 Philippines and Marianne Islands, by Magellan. 1527 Carolines, by Vasco da Rocha. 1529 Marshall Islands, by Alvaro de Saavedra. 1555 Hawaii, by Gaetano. 1567 Solomon Islands, by Mendana. 1593 Falkland Islands, by Richard Hawkins. 1606 New Hebrides, by Quiros. 1642 New Zealand, by Tasman. 1643 Tonga, by Tasman. 1767 Tahiti, by Captain Wallis. Pitcairn, by Captain Carteret. 1768 Samoa, by Bougainville. 1790 Chatham Islands, by Lieutenant Broughton. 1806 Auckland Islands, by Captain Bristow. 1565 Spanish expedition from Mexico conquers Philippines. 1606 Torres takes possession of New Guinea for Spain. 1767 Captain Wallis takes possession of Tahiti ; Captain Carteret of New Britain. 1780 Bounty mutineers reach Pitcairn. 1788 Penal settlement founded at Botany Bay, N.S.W. 1789 Nootka affair ; 1790 Nootka Convention. 1792 Captain Bligh takes possession of islands in Torres Straits. 1793 New Guinea taken possession of, for George III. 1794 Hawaii offers sovereignty to England ; 25th February, Lieutenant Puget takes possession (not ratified). 1795 Foundation of London Missionary Society. 1796 L.M.S. ship Duff sails. 1797 Roman Catholic Mission reaches Tahiti from Peru, before L.M.S. expelled from Marquesas Islands. 1798 British possession of Tasmania asserted. 1799 Russian American Company founded. 1809 L.M.S. compelled to leave Tahiti. 1812 Pomare II. of Tahiti baptised. Russian settlement founded at Ross, California. 1814 Missionary Association of Picpus founded in Paris. Rev. Samuel Marsden lands in New Zealand. 181 5 M. Baranoff sends Dr Scheffer to Hawaii from Sitka. 1817 First English act of police for the Pacific (57 Geo. III., c 53). 1819 Tahitian code adopted. Death of Kamehameha I., conqueror of Hawaii. »39 Y 2 330 CHRONOLOGY 1820 American missionaries land in Hawaii. Raiatea code adopted. 1821 Tzarclaims North American coast southwards to Vancouver Island. North- West Company merged in Hudson Bay Company. 1822 George IV. presents schooner to King of Hawaii, who offers the sovereignty to England. 1824 Tahitian Parliament meets at Matavai. King and Queen of Hawaii die while visiting England. Imperial Act, c. 96, extends jurisdiction of Supreme Court of New South Wales. Convention between Russia and United States fixing boundary at 54° 40'. Port Essington settlement formed (evacuated 1829). 1825 Canning Convention with Russia. British Consul appointed to Hawaii. Queen Pomare of Tahiti seeks British protection. 1826 Wesleyan Mission in Tonga. Reciprocity between Hawaii and United States. Apostolic Prefect of Sandwich Islands appointed 1 827 Raffles Bay settlement formed. 1828 Dutch establish Fort Dubus in New Guinea (abandoned 1835). Tongan Christians arrive in Samoa. 1829 H.M.S. Satellite submits regulations for Huahine. Sovereignty asserted at Swan River, W.A. 1830 King George of Tonga converted. Viscount Goderich (afterwards Lord Bipon). 1 83 1 Roman Catholic priests banished from Hawaii. King of Prussia sends gifts to King of Hawaii. 1833 E. G. Stanley (afterwards Lord Derby). James Busby appointed British Resident in New Zealand. American Mission expelled from Marquesas. Great Britain occupies Falkland Islands. 1834 Thos. Spring Bice (afterwards Lord Monteagle). Lord Aberdeen. 1835 Roman Catholics return to Hawaii. Wesleyans arrive in Fiji. Charles Darwin in the Pacific. Declaration of Independence of Maori chiefs (N.Z.). Charles Grant (atterwards Lord Glenelg). 1836 Roman Catholics refused admission at Tahiti. Tahitian appeal for British protection. 1837 Franco-Hawaiian Treaty. 1838 Tahiti accepts French ultimatum ; appeals to England. Anti-Catholic law passed. Treaty with France. 1839 United States exploring expedition in Pacific. Captain Hobson, R.N., appointed consul to New Zealand. Tahiti : Anti-Catholic law repealed. Hawaii : Declaration of Rights. Wesleyans retire from Samoa. Nanto- Bordelaise Company formed in France to colonise New Zealand. Charter of the Colony of New Zealand granted. Marquess of Normanby. Lord John Russell. CHRONOLOGY 331 1840 Liberal constitution in Hawaii. British sovereignty in New Zealand ; Treaty of Waitangi. Captain Croker, R.N., killed in Tonga. French emigrants at Akaroa. 1841 Lord Stanley (afterwards Earl of Derby). 1842 France annexes Marquesas. Ross (California) sold to United States. United States recognises independence of Hawaii. 1843 Roman Catholic diocese of Arathea (Hawaii) founded. French protectorate in Tahiti. Lord Paulet's government in Hawaii ; Hawaiian independence recognised. German emigration to Nelson (N.Z.). French mission in New Caledonia. 1844 Arrest and deportation of Mr Pritchard, late consul in Tahiti. 184; W.E.Gladstone. 1846 Captain King, R.N., reports to N.S.W. Parliament on Panama route. Anglo-Hawaiian Treaty. Lieutenant Yule, R.N., takes possession of New Guinea. Oregon Treaty fixes Canadian-United States boundary at 49th parallel. Earl Grey. 1847 Anglo-French Declaration re Raiatea, etc. Labour traffic in islands first reported. 1848 Tongan Christians under Maafu land in Fiji. Sir George Grey recommends proffered protectorate of Fiji and Tonga. 1849 Southern Whale Fishery Company to colonise Auckland Islands. Admiral Tromelin (French) occupies Hawaiian forts. Hawaii-United States reciprocity treaty. 1850 Hawaiian Society for Foreign Missions formed. Vancouver Colony established. Melanesian Mission decided on. 185 1 Hawaiian commercial treaty with Great Britain. French land in New Caledonia. 1852 Sir John Paklngton (afterwards Lord Hampton). Auckland Islands evacuated by Enderby's company. Duke of Newcastle. 1853 French annex Gambier Islands and New Caledonia. Hawaiian missionaries established in Marquesas. 1854 Anglo- Japanese Treaty. Sir George Grey, Bart. 1855 Sidney Herbert (afterwards Lord Herbert). Lord John Russell. Sir William Molesworth. Henry Labouchere (afterwards Lord Taunton). 1856 Pitcairn islanders removed to Norfolk Island. 1857 W. T. Pritchard consul at Fiji. J. C. Godeffroy & Sons (Hamburg) commence trading at Apia 1858 Abortive annexation of Raiatea by United States. Fijian chiefs seek British sovereignty (offer renewed in 1859). Lord Stanley. Sir B. Bulwer Lytton. 1859 Duke of Newcastle. 332 CHRONOLOGY 1861 Colonel W. J. Smythe, R.A., advises declining sovereignty of Fiji. 1861 Indenturing of coolies for Queensland approved. John C. Patteson consecrated Bishop of Melanesia. 1863 Hawaiian Church declared independent. Captain Towns imports kanakas for Queensland plantations. 1864 Cook Islands desire annexation. Edward (afterwards Viscount) Cardwell. 1865 Thakombau grants charter to whites of Ovalau (Fiji). 1866 Earl of Carnarvon. 1867 Company formed in Sydney to colonise New Guinea (Imperial Government refuses sanction). United States purchases Alaska. Duke of Buckingham and Chandos. 1868 Queensland Polynesian Labourers Act assented to. Polynesian Company formed in Melbourne to develop Fiji. Lord Granville. 1870 Native government set up in Levuka (Fiji). Colonial Conference at Melbourne demand annexation of Fiji; declined by Lord Klmberley. 1 87 1 Bishop Patteson murdered by natives at Nukapu. Thakombau's constitution inaugurated. German consul appointed at Apia (Samoa). 1872 Pacific Islanders Protection Act (Imperial). Fijian Parliament passes native poll-tax. 1873 Commodore Goodenough and Mr E. L. Layard appointed a commission on Fiji. Captain J. Moresby, R.N., annexes Basilisk, Hayter, and Moresby Islands, New Guinea. 1874 Lord Carnarvon. Goodenough Commission recommends annexing Fiji ; October : sovereignty proclaimed. Australasian Mission established in New Britain. 1873 Reciprocity Treaty between Hawaii and United States. Pacific Islanders Act amended establishing High Commission for Western Pacific. Spain claims sovereignty over Caroline Islands. Queensland demands annexation of New Guinea (refused). 1876 Sir Arthur Gordon (afterwards Lord Stanmore) appointed High Commissioner. Vogel's scheme of Pacific government. 1877 Survey of Blanche Bay, New Britain, by Germans. German treaty with Samoa. 1878 United States' rights at Pagopago acquired by treaty with Samoa. Anglo-French agreement to recognise independence of New Hebrides. Germany acquires rights at Jaluit (Marshall Islands). Gold discovered in New Guinea. Sir Michael Hicks-Beach (afterwards Lord St Aldwyn). 1879 German rights in Samoa by treaty j Anglo-Samoan treaty ; Apia Convention. Indenturing of Hindus for Fiji approved. Deputy Commissioner appointed at Rotuma. J. C. Godeffroy & Sons in reconstruction. CHRONOLOGY 333 1879 German rights at Tonga by treaty ; Anglo-Tongan Treaty. Marquis de Ray's expedition to New Ireland. 1880 Hawaiian federation scheme. Lord Kiruberley. France annexes Tahiti. Jaluit company formed to develop Marshall Islands. 1881 Britain annexes Rotuma. Rev. S. W. Baker, Prime Minister of Tonga. 1882 Lord Derby. Kolonialverein formed in Germany. 1883 April : Queensland annexes New Guinea (disallowed). December : Intercolonial Convention in Sydney ; genesis of Australian federation. Anglo-French understanding re New Hebrides renewed. 1884 High Commissioner forbids traffic in arms. German consul in New Britain. Conversations between Granville and Count Munster. 6th November : British New Guinea protectorate declared. December : Germany annexes remainder of New Guinea and Bismarck archipelago. 1885 Sulu protocol — Spain, Germany, and Great Britain. Delimitation of New Guinea boundaries. German flag hoisted at Yap (Caroline Islands). June : Ool. Sir P. A. Stanley (afterwards Lord Derby). Franco-German agreement on spheres. Completion of Canadian Pacific Railway. Recidiviste Bill passed by French Parliament. 1886 Lord Granville. Anglo-German agreement on spheres. French military posts in New Hebrides. American port of call in Tonga by treaty. Commissioners in Samoa. Edward Stanhope. 1887 Sir H. T. Holland (afterwards Lord Knutsford). France occupies Wallis Island. Persecutions in Tonga. War in Samoa ; Germany deports Malietoa and appoints Tamasese king. Anglo-French Convention for New Hebrides (Joint Naval Commission). 1888 Great Britain annexes Fanning, Christmas, Penrhyn, and Suwarrow islands, for cable stations. New Guinea declared a separate possession ; Sir William Macgregor first administrator. Declaration of 1847 abrogated. 1889 German and American warships lost in hurricane at Apia (Samoa), 15th to 16th March; H.M.S. Calliope alone escapes. Berlin Conference on Samoa. 1890 Queensland ceases employment of kanakas. Shirley W. Baker deported from Tonga. 1892 Queensland resumes kanaka traffic for limited period. Marquess of Ripon. 1893 Queen of Hawaii deposed by American Hawaiian*. Great Britain annexes Solomon Islands. Death of King George Tubou I. of Tonga. 334 CHRONOLOGY 1894 Republic proclaimed in Hawaii. 1895 Dutch and British boundary in New Guinea fixed. Joseph Chamberlain. 1896 Great Britain annexes Gilbert Islands. 1897 Great Britain annexes Ellice Islands. United States treaty of annexation with Hawaii. 1898 Spanish American War. Hawaii annexed by United States. Spain cedes Philippines and Guam to United States. War in Samoa. 1899 Germany purchases Caroline, Pelew, and Marianne Islands from Spain. Survey for Pacific cable commenced. November : Samoa Convention ; Great Britain withdraws. Germany obtains Savaii and Upolu and cedes Solomon Islands ofYsabeland Choiseul ; United States obtains Tutuila. 1900 German flag in Samoa. Hawaii becomes a territory of the United States. Ocean Island absorbed in Gilbert and Ellice. British protectorate of Tonga ; annexation of Niue. 1901 1st January : Australian Commonwealth comes into existence. Cbok Islands and Niue become part of New Zealand. Kanaka labour forbidden by Australian law. 1902 Anglo- Japanese Alliance. Pacific cable opened. 1903 October : A. Lyttelton. 1904 Entente Cordiale understanding with France. 1905 Jaluit shipping dispute. December : Lord Elgin. 1906 New Hebrides Convention ; establishment of the Condominium. New Zealand raised to dignity of " Dominion." 1908 Administration of Gilbert and Ellice transferred to Ocean Island. April : Lord Crewe. 1910 November: Lewis Hareourt. 19 1 4 New Zealand expedition occupies Samoa. Australian forces occupy Kaiser Wilhelmsland and Bismarck. 1915 French colony of Wallis and Home Islands founded. A. Bonar Law. 19 17 'Walter Long. 1918 King George Tubou II. of Tonga dies. 1919 New Zealand entrusted by League of Nations with mandate to govern Samoa ; Australia to govern German New Guinea and Bismarck. January : Lord Mllner. INDEX AKAEOA (N.Z.), Germans at, 90 ; French colony, 209 Alaska, sale to U.S.A., 189, 195 Ampthill, Lord, British Ambassador at Berlin, warns Granville of German colonial schemes, 119; Bismarck's changed attitude, 121, 126, 141 ; death, 129 Anglo-French understandings, 1878, 250 — text, 316.7 ; 1883, 252 ; 1887, 68, 264-5— text, 322-3 ; 1904, 265, 297— text, 326; 1906, 267-8 -text, 327-8 Anglo-German Agreement, 1886, 68, 104, 213 — text, 320-1 ; reciprocity declara- tion, 321-2 ; Convention, 1899, 103, 176, 272, 296 — text, 324-6 Anglo-Japanese treaties, 1854, 233 ; 1902, 236 Anti-Slavery Society, 56 ; kanaka traffic, 69 Apia (Samoa), German trading post and consulate, 149 ; tripartite convention, 151-2 — text, 318-9; convention col- lapses, 166 ; hurricane, 1889. 169-70 ; municipal council, 171 ; Baron A. S. von Pilsach, president, 173 ; Dr Solf, president, 175 Arms, traffic in, 62-8 ; Kimberley's measures, 63 ; regulations of High Commission, 66 ; traffic in New Hebrides prohibited, 267 Auckland Islands, 21 1-3 ; discovery, 211 ; Enderby appointed lieutenant-governor, 193 ; company fails, 212 ; evacuation, 212 Australia, settlement at Botany Bay, 3 ; coolie labour, 3 ; attitude to Fiji, 93 ; alarm about New Hebrides, 250-1 ; objec- tion to Convention of 1906, 26n-g, 297-9 ! anxiety about New Guinea, 127 et seq.; indignation against Lord Derby, 134 ; agrees to finance New Guinea protector- ate, 144-5 ! Commonwealth takes over ad- ministration, 145-6 ; recidiviste question, 255-60, 262 ; shipping dispute Marshall Islands, 104 ; rivalry with New Zealand, 177 ; Monroe doctrine for the Pacific, 835 294 ; attitude towards Japan, 239 ; Japan in North Pacific, 305 ; mandate for Kaiser Wilhelmsland and Bismarck, 305 Austria, arms traffic in Pacific, 67 BAKER, Rev. Shirley W., Prime Minister of Tonga, 200-2 ; life attempttd, 201 ; deported, 202 Balfour, Rt. Hon. A. J., statement on New Hebrides, 1900, 266, 297 Banks Islands, 267 Baranoff, M., Governor of Sitka, 33, 188 Baranoff Island, 188 Bates, G. H., United States member of Samoa Commission, 164-5 ; of Berlin Conference, 181 Behring Straits, protection of fur seals, 67 ; Behring s discoveries, 188 Berlin Conference 01 1889, 170-2 Berry, Sir Graham, on Australian relations with Imperial Government, 293 Bismarck, Count Herbert, Anglo-German agreement, 104 ; goes to England, 140 ; conversation at Lord Rosebery's, 142; president of Berlin Conference, 171-2 Bismarck, Prince, objects to Hawaiian mission to Samoa, 49 ; attitude to colonisation, 97, 151 ; the Deutsche See Handels Gesellschaft, 101-2 ; von Hansemann's influence, 102-3; Carolines arbitration with Spain, 103-4, 181-2 ; pressure of Hanse towns, in ; changed attitude to colonisation, 121, 291-2 ; Granville's fear of Bismarck, 129, 291-2 ; conversations with Mr Meade, 137-9; complains of closing-in policy, 137, 139 ; rapprochement wiih France, 140 ; cen- sures consul at Samoa, 170 Bismarck Archipelago, 107, 143 ; kanaka population, 241 Blackbirding, 51. See Labour problem Blanshard, Richard, Governor of Van- couver Island, igi Borabora, Society Islands, code of law, 8 ; Declaration of 1847, 29 — text, 315 Borneo, Spanish claims renounced, 1S0 Botany Bay, penal settlement, 3 336 INDEX Bounty, mutineers of H.M.S., 215 Bourke, Sir Richard, Governor of New South Wiles. 206 Bow ell, Sir T. Mackenzie, Canadian Minister of Trade and Customs and Pacific Cable, 225 ■_-«• Bowen, Sir George, Governor of Queens- land, and the Somerset settlement, 229-30 Brandeis, Herr, executive officer of Tamasese Government, 166 ; Steven- son's opinion, 167 Bridge, Captain A. C, R.N., report on Samoa, 161 ; deputy commissioner, 252 Bristow, Captain, discovers Auckland Islands, 211 British Columbia founded, 193 ; Hudson B.iy Company, 190 ; the Canadian Pacific Railway, 194; Chinese influx, 194, 231-2 ; Japanese from Hawaii, 238 Broughtoa^ Lieutenant, R.N., discovers Chatnam Islands, 20S Brown, Rev. George, mission in New Britain, 100 ; reprisals on natives, IOO-I Brown Islands, acquired by Germany, 180, 182 Bruat, M., Governor of Tahiti, 26, 27 Buckingham, Duke of, and New Guinea company, 109 Bulow, Prince B. von, Imperial Germany, 107 Bun ury, Mijor, hoists flag in South Island of Nev Zealand, 208 Burns, Philp & Company, shipping dispute, 104-6 Burt, S., member of Thakombau's Ministry, 87 Busby, James, British Resident in New Zealand, 204 ; Declaration of Independ- ence, 205 Busch, Dr, private secretary to Bismarck, conversations with Mr Meade, 136-9, 260 ; Bismarck and Granville, 282 Bush, Hon. J. E., Hawaiian Commissioner to Samoa, 47-9 Cairns, Governor of Queensland, on New Guinea annexation, 113 California, 38 ; purchase and occupation, 184; Ross settlement, 188-9; gold miners for British Columbia, 192 Calliope, H.M.S., Captain Kane, 167 ; escape from hurricine, 169 Canada, 187-96 ; Nootka Convention, 187-8 ; Russian company, 187-8 ; U.S. boundiry disputes, 189-qo ; acquisition of Vancouver Island, 190 ; North- West Co-upany, 190 ; growth of Vancouver and British Columbia, 190-3 ; defence of Pacific Coast, 193, 194-5 ; Chinese influx, 194 ; Pacific fisheries, 195 ; Canadian Pacific Railway, 1 93- J ; Pacific cable, 222-5 Canning, Earl, attitude to Tahiti, 10 ; Canning Convention, 189 Carnarvon, Earl, annexation of Fiji, gi ,- Thakombau's civil list, 92 ; coolies for Fiji, 93 ; colonial responsibility, 112, 283-4 ; British Columbia, 193 Caroline Islands, Hawaiian missionaries, 45 ; Western Pacific Orders-in-Council, 61 ; German traders, 98 ; German flag hoisted, 103, 181 ; Spain asserts sovereignty, 180 ; the Pope's award, 181-2; islands purchased by Germany, 183 ; kanaka population, 241 ; protocol, 1886, 319-20 Carrington, Earl (now Marquess of Lin- colnshire), and White Australia policy, 233 Carteret, Captain, R.N., takes possession of New Britain, 100 Cedercrantz, Otto C. W., Chief Justice of Samoa, 172-4 Chamberlain, Rt. Hon. Joseph, Secretary of State for Colonies (1895-1903), stops recruiting in Gilberts, 70 ; declines to intervene in Queensland labour traffic, 71 ; censures Governor of Fiji- 94 ; in- duces Australia to take over New Guinea, 145-6 ; defence of Samoa Con- vention, 176-7, 296-7 ; agrees to unite Cook Islands with New Zealand, 178, 209-10 ; Tonga Protectorate, 202 ; Pacific islanders 219; status of Norfolk, 219 ; Pacific cable, 224-5 ! on Asiatic immigration, 236-8 ; at Colonial Office, 295-7 Charleton, Richard, British Consul at Honolulu, 36 ; intrigues, 39 Chartered companies, Vogel's scheme, 101 ; Parkes's proposal for New Guinea, 112; New Guinea Colonisation Association, 114 ; German company for New Guinea, 119 Chatham Islands, discovery, 20S ; proposed sale to Germany, 97-8, 209 Chester, H. M. (Queensland magistrate), annexes New Guinea, 120-1 Childers, Rt. Hon. E., New Guinea question, 130, 141 Chincha Islands occupied by Spain, 179 Chinese, invade British Columbia, 194 ; treaty rights, 230 ; influx into Australia, 231 ; protest against restrictions, 232-9; conference at Sydney, 1 896, 2 36 Chirikoff's discoveries, 188 Christmas Island, 226 Clarendon, Earl, and labour traffic, 58-9 ; annexation of Fiji, 84 INDEX 337 Codes, Hawaiian, 1829, 36 j Declaration of Rights, 37 ; 1852, 42 ; Tahiti, 7 ; Tonga, 199 Coffee culture, 301 Colonial Conferences. See Imperial Con- ference Condominium in New Hebrides, 270-3 ; failure, 306-7 Cook Islands, Seddon demands possession of them, 178 ; absorbed by New Zealand, 209-10 ; kanaka population, 241 Coolies for Australia and Fiji, 3, 51-2 Hindus, 71, 93 Copra, 93, 99, 105, 251, 270, 301 Cotton-gTowing in Queensland, 52 ; in Fiji, 58. 77, 93. 301 Cricket, restricted in Samoa, 172-3 ; in Tonga, 199 Croker.CapLW., R.N., killed at Tonga, 197 Crown colony government, Fiji, 93-4 ; Gilbert and Ellice, 215 Darwin, Charles, at Tahiti, 1835, 7 Deakin, Rt. Hon. Alfred, Prime Minister of Australia, on the New Hebrides, 266, 269, 298-9 Declarations of 1847 (Raiatea), 28-9, 315 ; abrogated, 30 ; New Hebrides, 1878, 250, 316-7 ; of rights, Hawaii, 37 ; of Inde- pendence ol the United Tribes of New Zealand, 205, 313 Denison, Sir W., Governor of New South Wales, and Pitcairn islanders, 216-7 D'Entrecasteaux Islands, included in New Guinea, 133 Depopulation, Hawaii, 42-3 ; New Hebrides, 54 ; Fiji, 93 De Ray, Marquis, expedition, 252-3 Derby, Earl (Secretary of State for the Co onies, 1882-5), arms traffic, 66-7 ; "black subjects enough" speech, 113; approves rej ection of annexation of New Guinea, 114; repudiates Queensland annexation, 122 ; takes steps, 127, 129; anxiety to satisfy colonies, 129 et seq. ; goes out of office, 144, 293 ; restrains New Zealand from action in Samoa 155, 157; New Hebrides, 251-2; sympathy on recidiviste question, 255-60, 262 ; New Guinea Trading Corporation, 286 ; New Guinea, 287-93 Dernburg, Herr, German Colonial Secre- tary, impetus to colonial policy, 107 Des Voeux, Sir G. W., Governor of Fiji and High Commissioner of Western Pacific, arms traffic, 66 ; appointment as governor, 92 ; recognises German claims in Samoa, 153, 163 ; desires to deport S. W. Baker, 200; at Inter- colonial Convention, 289-90 De Thierry, Baron, at Tahiti, 11 ; " sovereign chief " of New Zealand, 205 ; at Pitcairn, 216 Deutsche, Handels und Plantagen Gesell- schaft, 102, 106, 182 ; Neu-Guinea Kompagnie, 102, 106, 143 ; See Handels Gesellschaft, 101 Dilke. Sir Charles, on Canadian Pacific defence, 195 ; supposed New Hebrides agreement. 263 ; Australian fears, 294 Douglas, John, Hudson Bay Company, Igo ; Gove, nor of Vancouver, 191-3 Duff, L.M.S. ship, 1, 6 Duke of York, mission established, 100 Dupetit Thouars, Admiral, ultimatum to Tahiti, 13 ; establishes protectorate, 18- 19, 20 ; annexes Tahiti, 26 ; at Hawaii, 37 Dutch New Guinea, claims to, 108 ; Fort Dubus, 108 ; boundaries and administra- tion, 147 East India Company, exploration in Pacific, 4, 228 ; possession of New Guinea, 108 Elgin, Earl, Secretary of State for Colonies (1906-8), replies to Australian com- plaints, 268-9, 270, 297-9 Ellice Islands, 2135; Western Pacific Orders-in-Council, 6c ; annexed, 68; German traders, 98 ; Crown colony, 215 ; kanaka population, 24I Ellis, J. W , on missionary government, 6 ; Tahitian code, 7 Emigration Commissioners and labour traffic, 54, 57 ; Port Essington scheme, 229 Enderby, Charles, 193 ; lease of Auckland Islands, 211 ; appointed heut.-governor, 211 ; company fails, 212 ; his troubles, 212-3 Enderby, Samuel, 211 English, teaching of. See Language Erskine, Commodore Jas., R.N., takes possession of New Guinea, 133 ; evidence on colonial defence, 282 Esquimalt, warships at, 192 ; naval base, 194 Falkland Islands, 220-1 Fanning Island, 215 ; Pacific cable, 224-7 Favorite H.M.S., at Tonga, 1840, 197 Federation, Australian, suggested by Derby, 123, 289 ; Sir*T. M'llwraith calls a conference, 123-4 ; Federal Council, 293 ; New Zealand Commission on Australian federation, 94, 177 ; Fiji and New Zealand, 93-4 ; Pacific, 46-9 ; Grey's scheme, 149 ; Hawaiian pro- posals, 46-9 ; Vogel's scheme, 149 338 INDEX Ferry, M. Jules, no French designs on New Guinea, 12 1-2 ; on recidivistes, 258-9, 262 Fiji. 73-96; annexation suggested, 31, 5.), 75. 77. 80, 91 ; labour traffic, 51, 57-8, 59, 71, 282-3 ; cotton planting, 58, 77 ; High CommissioD for Western Pacific, 61, 62, 65, 72, 301-2 ; arms traffic, 67 ; centre of Polynesia, 74 ; Wesleyan Mission arrives, 74 < Maafu arrives with Tongan Christians, 74 ! consul for U.S.A., 74 ; for Great Britain (W. T. Pritchard), 74 ; Colonel Smythe's inquiry, 79 ; charters to whites, 80 ; charter of 1870, 85 ; Thakombau's government, 87-90 ; proposed American protectorate, 82-4 ; E. March, British Consul, 82-4 ; Melbourne Polynesian Company, 82, 84 ; Goodenough Com- mission, 87, 90-1 ; Governor Sir A. Gordon, 92 ; labour problem, 92, 241-3 ; federation proposed, 93-4 ; government, 93-4 ; production, 93, 301 ; Rotuma,95 ; German land claims, 99, 126-7, 130 ; New Zealand offers to administer, 155 ; Pacific cable, 224 ; land settlement, 241 Finsch, Dr, German explorer in New Guinea and New Britain, 102-3 Fisheries, Russian American, 188; Canadian rights, 195 ; pelagic sealing, 196 Fleming, Sir Sandford, and Pacific cable, 222-3, 225-6 Fort Rupert (Canada), warships at, 192 France, effect of Revolution on colonial policy, 275 ; Anglo-French agreement, 1878, 250; 1883, 252; 1887, 30, 68, 264-5 ; 1904, 265-6, 297 ; New Hebrides Convention, 1906, 267-8 ; convention with Hawaii, 41 ; teaching of French, 302 ; Waliis Island colony, 273 ; British labour recruiters, 55-6, 59 ; arms traffic, 67 ; no designs on New Guinea, 1 2 J-2 ; welfare of kanakas, 271 ; Mr Meade's proposals re New Hebrides, 1 39 ; Franco- German rapprochement, 140, 261 ; settle- ment at Akaroa, N.Z , 208 ; reported designs on Pitcairn, 218 ; New Cale- donia occupation, 245 ; Recidiviste Bill, 255-60, 262; military posts in New Hebrides, 262-4 ; French preponderance in New Hebrides, 270-3 Friendly Isles, or Tonga (g.v.) Froude, J. A., on Monroeism in Australasia, 294 Galapagos Island, report by Captain King, R.N., 30; acquired by U.S.A. and abandoned, 1 84-5 Gambier Island, Roman Catholic seminary, 10, 30 ; annexed by France, 30 George IV., King, gifts to Kamehameha II., 33. 35 George Tubou I., King of Tonga, becomes a Christian, 197-8 ; establishes a free church, 200 ; persecutions, 201-2 ; death, 202 Georgian Islands, discovered and named, 5 ; national flag, 9 Germany in the Pacific, 96-107 ; commer- cial treaty with Raiatea, 29 ; Hawaiian mission to Samoa, 48-9 ; labour traffic, 59. 69-70 ; arms traffic, 67 ; New Britain, commissioner appointed, 67 ; settlement, 100 ; Anglo-German agree- ment, 1886, 68, 104 ; Godeffroy & Sons in the Pacific, 97 etseg., 148-9, 287; Ger- mans in New Zealand, 97-8 ; in South Australia, 98 ; in Chatham Islands, 98 ; in Marquis de Ray's expedition, 253 ; in Fiji, 99 ; consul at Apia, 99, 149 ; Pacific trading companies reconstructed, 101-2, 106-7 ; von Hansemann's in- fluence on Bismarck, 102-3 ! Kolonial- verein, 102, 126-7 ', flag, hoisted in New Guinea and New Britain, 103, 133 ; in Caroline, 103, 180-2 ; arbitration with Spain, 103-4, 180-2 ; Jaluit Company, 106, 180, 104-6 ; Marshall Islands, adminis- tration taken over, 106 ; shipping policy, 106-7 ; proposed annexation of New Guinea, 119, 127 ; relations with England strained, 113 et seq„ 291-3 ; treaty with Samoa, 149-50; claims recognised, 153, 160-1 ; Malietoa, war declared on, 165 ; Tamasese proclaimed king, 166 ; con- vention of 1899, acquisition of Upolu and Savaii, 176 ; Brown, Providence, and Marshall Islands annexed, 180-2 ; treaty with Tonga, 199 ; withdrawal, 202 ; German language, 302-3 Ghent, Treaty of, 189 Gilbert Islands, 213-5; Hawaiian com- missioner, 46 ; labour trade, 59 ; Western Pacific Order-in-Council, 61 ; kanaka population, 241 ; satisfactory administra- tion, 307 ; annexation , 68 ; recruiting stopped, 70, 214 ; German traders, 98 ; Crown colony, 215 Gladstone, Rt. Hon. W. E., New Guinea annexation, 128, 130; intervenes to secure concession to Germany, 141-2 ; statement on New Hebrides, 261 Glenelg, Earl, Secretary of State for the Colonies (1835-9), instructions on found- ing of New Zealand, 206 Godeffroy, J. C. & Sons, operations in Pacific, 97-100, 148-9, 180, 287 ; recon- struction, 101 Goderich, Viscount, Secretary of State for Colonies (1830-3), instructions to British resident in New Zealand, 204 INDEX 339 Godley, John Robert, self-reliant policy, 281 Gold discoveries, New Guinea, 116-7 ; California, 184 ; Queen Charlotte Islands, 191-2 Goodenough, Commodore J., Commission on Fiji, 87, 90-1 Gordon, Sir Arthur (afterwards Lord Stanmore), High Commissioner for Western Pacific, 61 ; operation of the Act, 62-5 ; relations with naval captains, 63-4 ; Governor of Fiji, 92 ; converted to annexation of New Guinea, 116-7; concludes Samoa Treaty, 152 ; Tonga Treaty, 199 ; utterance on New Hebrides, 261 ; Solomon Islands company, 272 ; veto to adventurers, 28516 Gorrie, John, Deputy High Commissioner, and the arms traffic, 63 Granville, Earl, Secretary of State for the Colonies (1868-70, 1886), conversa- tions with Count Munster, 102, 127 et seq. ; assurance re New Guinea, 121 ; fear of Bismarck, 129-30, 291-2 ; feeling towards German policy, 141 ; suggests New Guinea boundaries, 142 ; persecu- tion at Loyalty, 249 ; French aggression in New Hebrides, 264 Grey, Earl, Secretary of State for the Colonies (1846-52), labour traffic, 51 ; government of Vancouver, 191-2 ; Auck- land Islands, 212-3; New Caledonia, 245 ; Pacific expansion, 279, 280 Grey, Sir George, Governor of New Zealand, labour recruiters, 51 ; Germans in South Australia, 98 ; Pacific schemes, 149, 276-80 ; advises Samoan chiefs, 152-3; Lieut. - governor C. Enderby, 212-3; Pitcairn islanders, 217; occupa- tion of New Caledonia, 245 ; New Hebrides Understanding, 251 ; Monroe doctrine for the Pacific, 294 Griffith, Sir Samuel, Premier of Queens- land (1883-8, 1890-3), Chief Justice of Australia, k . naka labour, 69 ; administra- tive scheme for New Guinea, 144 ; white Australia, 233 Guam (Marianne Islands), seized by the United States, 183 Guizot, M., the Tahiti affair, 20, 22, 28 Hamburgische Sud See Aktien Gesell- schaft, 106 Hampden, Earl, Governor of New South Wales, state of Norfolk Islands, 218-9 Hansemann, Geheimrat von, influence on Bismarck, 102 ; annexation of New Guinea, 103 Hawaii, 2, 32-49 ; discovery, 33 ; independ- ence, 21, 39, 40-1, 315 ; national flag, 33-4 ; Russians at, 33, 34 ; Christianity, 34 ; Roman Catholics, 34-7 ; Hawaiian Church independent, 45 ; cession offered to Great Britain, 35 ; sovereigns visit England, 35 ; consul, British, 36 ; Dupetit Thouars concludes a treaty, 37 ; Declaration of Rights, 37 ; code, 42 ; Pacific cable, 225-6 ; California cable, 225-6 ; Lord G. Paulet's government, 20 ; reciprocity with United States, 42-3 ; Anglo-Hawaiian treaty, 42 ; republic proclaimed, 44 ; annexation by U.S.A., 44 ; a territory of the Union, 45, 184-6 ; trade, 44 ; Pacific federation project, 46-9 ; intervention in Samoa, 46-9 ; Japanese influx, 238 Hayter's Island annexed, III Hennings, F. W., land claims in Fiji, 99 Hernsheim & Co., 106 Hicks-Beach, Sir M., Secretary of State for the Colonies (1878-80), colonial self-reliance, 285-6; New Guinea, 117 High Commission for the Western Pacific, Pacific Islanders Act, 1872, 61 ; Sir Arthur Gordon appointed, 61 ; deputies, 62 ; overlapping duties of naval com- mander, 63-4 ; arms traffic, 64 ; operation of the Commission, 65-6 ; separation from Fiji recommended, 72 ; genesis of the Commission, go ; Des Voeux's ap- pointment, 92 ; New Guinea arrange- ments, 116, 123 ; activity in Samoa, 149, 151; Tonga treaty, 199; religious persecution, 200-2 ; Tongan finance, 202 ; the Pitcairn islanders, 219-20 ; New Hebrides, 269-70 ; an obsolete office, 95, 301-2, 308-11 Hindu coolies in Fiji, 93, 242-3 Hobson, Captain W., R.N., Governor of New Zealand (1840-2), 206, 275 ; Treaty of Waitangi, 207-8, 314-5 Holland, fair H. T. (Lord Knutsford) Secretary of State for the Colonies (1887-92), the Pacific cable, 223 ; kanaka traffic, 69 ; Chinese immigration, 233 Hong Kong, cession of, 231 Honolulu, 44 ; proposed cable station, 222 Horn, Cape, passage, I, 2, 73, 2201 ekoi Hoskins, Admiral Sir A. H., and the High Commission, 65 Huahine (Society Islands), code 8 ; regu- lations, 9 ; Declaration of 1847, 29, 315 Hubner, Baron von, German interests in, Pacific. 1884, 104 Hudson Bay Company, directors in Hawaii, 39 ; cramp Pacific trade, 191-2 Hunter, Hamilton, at Pitcairn Island, 219- 20 340 INDEX IDDESLBIGH, Earl of, warning to Samoa, 47 Imperial Conferences — Ottawa, 1894, 22 4 i London, 1907. 299 Ira Thurn, Sir Everard, Governor of Fiji, and High Commissioner for Western Paci6c, on New Hebrides, 269 Intercolonial Conferences — Melbourne, 1870, 88 ; Sydney, 1877, and Pacific cable, 222 — 1683, 103,124-5, 256,288-9; Hawaiian petition, 47 ; the Samoan question, 153-4 — 1888, 233 (Postal), 224 — 1896, 236 Interstate Commission of Australia on Pacific trade, 97 ; German companies, 106-7 ; New Hebrides, 271-2 ; trade conditions, 299-302 Jaluit, Gesellschaft, 106; Malietoa banished to, 166 ; Mataafa banished to, 174; shipping dispute, 104-6; German rights acquired, 180 Japan, attitude to American expansion in Pacific, 186 ; pelagic sealing, 196 ; Pacific cable, 222-3 ; treaty with U.S.A., 1854, 233 ; Anglo-Japanese treaty, 1854, 233 ; immigration restriction, 237 ; Japan in North Pacific, 305 Jervois, Sir W. F. D., Governor of New Zealand (1883-9), Samoan movement, 154, 157 ; his strange indifference, 158-9; slow conversion, 160, 288; de- fence of Canadian Pacific sea-board, 193 Kaiser Wilhelmsland, SchutzbrUf, 142-3 ; kanaka population, 241 Kalakaua, King of Hawaii (1874-91), 45-8 Kamehameha, Kings of Hawaii, I., 33-4 ; I'm 33-4; HI., Declaration of Rights, 37 Kanakas, 50. See Labour traffic. Supply of labour, 241-3 Kidnapping. See Labour traffic Kimbetley, Earl of. Secretary of State for the Colonies (1870-4, 1880-2) traffic in arms, 63-4 ; refuses to annex Fiji, 86 King, Captain P., R.N., report on Panama route, 30 ; discovers Port Essington, 228 Knappe, Dr, German Consul at Apia, reprimanded by Bismarck, 170 Knorr, Rear- Admiral, and German squadron at Samoa, 163 Knutsford, Lord. See Holland, Sir H. T. Kolonialverein, 102, 126 Kotzebue (Russian explorer) at Tahiti, 9 ; at Hawaii, 33 Krauel, Dr, German Consul-Genera 1 at Sydney, member of Anglo-German Com- mission, 130 ; Thurston-Krauel Com- mission, 162-3 ; communicates Thurston's report to Foreign Office, 164 ; Berlin Conference, 170 Kurile islands (japan), landing for Pacific cable, 222-3 Labour traffic, 51-72 ; islanders as shep- herds, 50-1 ; coolie labour sanctioned, 51-2 ; Hindus in Fiji, 71 ; plantation labour, Captain Towns's experiment, 52 ; in Fiji, 89 ; naval officers' reports, 52-5, 59-60 ; Emigration Commissioners' re- port, 54 ; France complains, 55-6, 59 ; Intercolonial Conference (1870) resolu- tions, 86 ; Queensland traffic, the colony censured, 57 ; Queensland Act, 58 ; stops the trade, 68 ; resumes, 68-9 ; Thurston's action, 57-8 ; Clarendon's measures, 58-9 ; New South Wales Commission, 59; Victorian Government takes steps, 60 ; Pacific Islanders Protection Act, 1872, 60 — 1875,61 ; High Commissioner appointed, 61 ; operation of the Act, 65-6 ; arms traffic, 62-8 ; German bill to protect natives, 67 ; recruiting in German sphere, 69, 103 ; in British. 70 ; in New Hebrides, 71 ; in Gilbert and Ellice, 214; in Papua, 146-7; Fiji the headquarters of the traffic, 81 ; supply of labour, 240-3 ; the future, 308 Lanessan, M. de, on Pacific routes, 31 ; anti-British writings, 294 Lang, Dr J. D., and annexation of Fiii, 8 5 Language, French suppress English in Loyalty, 249, 302 ; universality of English, 302-3 : German in German colonies, 302 ; demand for teaching of English, 310-11 Lansdowne, Marquess of, on Jaluit dispute, 105 ; Anglo-Japanese Alliance, 236 La Place, Captain, at Tahiti, 17 ; at Hawaii, 37-8 Lascars employed in British mail ships, 237-8 ; New Zealand bill, 238 Lau confederation (Fiji), 80 Layard, Edgar L., Fiji commission, 87, go T i ; vice-president of the council, Fiji, 92 Leeward Islands, of Tahiti, 29 ; Franco- German agreement, 103 ; Declaration of 1847, 315 ; abrogated, 322-3 Levuka, charter to whites, 80 Line Islands, 2, 213-5 Liquor traffic prohibited, 267 Lisiansky, Captain (Russian), at Hawaii, 33 Lomaloma district (Fiji), 80 London Missionary Society, departure of ship Duff., 1 ; foundation, 6 ; deputation to South Pacific, 8, 34 ; at Hawaii, 34 INDEX 341 Long Island annexed, 134 Louis Philippe, King of the French, 276-7 ; policy at Tahiti, 1 2 LouUiade Islands, Western Pacific Order- in-Council, 61 ; annexed, 134 Loyalty Islands, British recruiters, 55-6, 59 ; treatment of British missions, 246-7 Lyons, Lord, Ambassador at Paris, action on recidiviste question, 257-8, 262 Lyttelton, Rt. Hon. Arthur, Secretary of State for the Colonies (1903-6), reply to Australian complaints, 297-8 MAAFU, Tongan leader in Fiji, 74, 198 ; charter to whites, 80 Macgregor, Rt. Hon. Sir William, first administrator of New Guinea (1888-99), 145 ; biography, 145 M'llwraith, Sir T., Premier of Queensland (1879-83, 1888), advises annexation of New Guinea, 118; authorises annexa- tion, 120; convenes federal conference, 123-4 Maclay coast of New Guinea, 129, 132, 136 Mahan, Captain A. T., on United States policy, 185-6 Malet, Sir E., Ambassador at Berlin, Anglo-German agreement, 1886, 104 ; seeks settlement with Germany, 139-41 ; Berlin Conference, 170 Malietoa, elected King of Samoa, 152 ; treaty with Great Britain, 151 Malietoa Laupepa, elected king, 1880, 152; expelled, 158, 163; commissioners from Hawaii, 47-9 ; federal agreement, 48 ; surrenders to Germany and is deported, 166 ; pardoned, 170 ; re- appointed king, 171 ; death, 174 Maori tribes (N.Z.), Declaration of Inde- pendence, 205-6, 3 [3; national flag presented by William IV., 205 ; Treaty of Waitangi, 206-7, 314-5 March, E., British consul at Fiji, 82 . Marianne Islands discovered, 179 ; bought by Germany, 183 Marquesas Islands, L.M.S. mission, 6 ; Hawaiian mission, 45 ; French acquisi- tion, 21, 22 Marshall Islands, 213; Western Pacific Order-in-Council, 61 ; shipping dispute, 104 ; administration taken over, 106 ; dis- covery, 179 ; Germany takes possession, 1 82 ; Ge man rights acquired, 180 ; kanaka population, 241 Mataafi, anointed King of Samoa, 167 ; defeats Tamasese, 168 ; returns from banishment, 174 ; provisional govern- ment. 175 IMtade, Sir R. H., Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies (1892-7), con- versations in Berlin , 1 36-9, 260 ; biography, 137 Melanesian Mission. See Selwyn, 217, 218, 220, 245-8, 309 Merivale, Herman, Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies (1847-59), on Canadi.in defence, 190 Mikhailoff Islands, 92 Missions, American to Hawaii, 2, 34, 36 ; L.M.S. , I, 6, 277 ; at Tonga, 197 ; in- fluence of missionaries, in Tahiti, 6, 7, 23 ; in New Her rides, 249, 270 ; support in British Parliament, 28 ; Hawaiian mission in Carolines, 45-6 ; in Marquesas, 45 ; Roman Catholics in Tahiti, 6 ; in Hawaii, 34-7 ; in Mare, 246 ; Melan- esian mission, 245-6 ; Protestants perse- cuted in Loyalty, 249, 253-4 Mitchell, Sir Charles, High Commissioner for Western Pacific, intervenes in Tonga, 201-2 Mitchell Islands, German traders in, 98 Monroe doctrine of U.S.A., 189 ; of Australasia, 294 Moresby, Captain J., R.N., at Gilbert Islands, 98 ; annexations in New Guinea, 1 1 1 Mulinuu (Samoa), German land claims, 156 ; government expelled, 158 ; defence against Mataafa, 1 68 Munster, Count von, German ambassador in London, conversations with Lord Gran- ville, 102 et seq., 292 ; on Samoan treaty, 157 Musgrave, Sir Anthony, Governor of Queensland, 290 Native policy, 308 Nauru, guano deposits, 106 Naval matters in Pacific — rights for naval stations, Samoa — Germany, 149; United States, 150; Great Britain, 151 ; Caro- line Islands — Germanyand Great Britain, 181-2; Marshall Islands — Germany, 180 ; naval defence — Canada, 190, 193, 194-6; Australia, 195-6 ; New Zealand, 196 ; French Navy and missions, 12, 13, 15, 37, 276-7 ; Dupetit Thouars at Tahiti, 13, 14, 16, 18, 19; at Hawaii, 37; French position in Pacific, 22, 282 ; Joint Naval Commission, 264-5, 2D 7 ; British Navy and labour traffic, 52-5, 282-3 Navigation laws, French in Tahiti, 29 j U.S.A. in Hawaii, 44-5 Navigators Islands. See Samoa Neckar Island project, 225-6 New Britain, Western Pacific Order-in. Council, 61, 62 ; German commissioner 67 ; possession taken, too ; Australasiai 342 INDEX mission, ioo ; Marquis de Ray's colony, loo ; German protectorate, 133, 135 New Caledonia, annexed by France, 30, 280 ; naval station, 230 ; kanaka popu- lation, 241 ; French take possession, 245 ; recidiviste question, 255-60, 262 New Caledonia (Canada), 187 Newcastle, Duke of, Secretary of State for the Colonies (1859-64), on Melanesian diocese, 248 New Cornwall, 187 New Georgia, 272 New Georgia (Canada), 187 New Guinea, 108-47 ; discovery, 108 ; Western Pacific Order-in-Council, 61, 62, 65; iNeu Guinea Kompagnie, 102, 106, 143 ; Dutch New Guinea, Fort Dubus, 108-9 i possession taken by Lt. Yule, R.N., 109 ; New Guinea com- pany (Sydney), 107 , New Guinea Colonising Association, 114; New Guinea Trading Corporation, 286 ; annexation demanded by Australia, no, 112; refused, 114; Moresby's annexations, III ; Queensland annexa- tion, 1 18-2 1 ; repudiated, 122; Queens- land resolution, 113 ; hoists flag, 118-21 ; disallowed, 122 ; gold discovery, 116-7 ! German activity, 117; German pro- tectorate, 133-4; protectorate proposed, 129; proclaimed, 132-3; sovereignty proclaimed, 145 ; Australia, indignation against Colonial Office, 134 ; boundaries of protectorate, 131, 142; Sir Peter Scratchley, Special Commissioner, 143 ; Port Essington scheme, 228-9 ! kanaka population, 241 New Hanover (Canada), 187 New Hebrides, 244-72 ; labour recruiting, 54, 71 ; Anglo-French Understanding, 1878, 68, 250, 322-3 ; 1883, 252, 316-7 ; 1887,264-5; 1904,265; Franco-German Agreement, 1885, 103 ; missions — evan- gelists at Norfolk, 220 ; Roman Catholic and Protestant, 248 ; Mr Meade's pro- posals, 139; kanaka population, 241; High Commission for Western Pacific, 90, 95 ; discovery, 244 ; French aggres- sion, 251-2, 262-4; Convention of 1887, 264-5 ! Joint Naval Commission, 264-5 ! Anglo-French convention, 1906, 267-8, 297-9, 327-8 ; Condominium, 270-3 ; failure, 306-7 ; mandate suggested, 307 New Ireland, Western Pacific Order-in- Council, 61, 62 ; mission established, 100 ; German protectorate, 134 New South Wales, labour traffic, 51, 54-5, 56, 81, 283 ; commission, 59 ; Western Pacific Order-in-Council, 62 ; annexation of Fiji, 77, 86-7, 91 ; warnings against German aggression, 103, 112 ; about New Caledonia, 245; boundaries included New Zealand, 206 ; Norfolk Island, 217-9; recidiviste question, 257; New Guinea, 290 ; penal settlement, 3, 274 New Zealand, 204-10 ; reason for creation, 56 ; federation — with Australia, 94 ; with Fiji, 93-4 ; Vogel's South Sea scheme, 149 ; warning to H.M. Government, 101 ; Samoa, intervention intended, 136; sympathy, 152-4; annexation of Tonga and Samoa demanded, 154, 156-60; offers troops, 175; protests against partition of Samoa, 177-8 ; seal- ing convention, 196 ; Jas. Busby, Res- ident, 204 ; Declaration of Independ- ence. 205 — text, 313; New Zealand Association and Company, 206-7 ; Treaty of Waitangi, 207 — text, 314-5 ; Chatham Islands, 208-9 1 Cook Islands absorbed, 209-10 ; Niue (Savage Island), 210 ; French at Akaroa, 208 ; Auckland Islands, 213 ; boundaries, 209-10, 245-6 ; New Hebrides question, 251, 255, 263, 265-6, 268, 270; protest against con- vention, 298-9 New Zealand Company, 274 ; proposes sale of Chatham Islands, 97 ; branch at Hamburg, 98 Nicolas, Commodore H. Toup, R.N., at Tahiti, 24 ; Pitcairn Island, 216 Niue, Anglo-German Agreement, 104 ; absorbed in New Zealand, 210, 296 Norfolk Island discovered, 216 ; Pitcairn experiment, 216-20 ; administration, 217-20; transferred to New South Wales, 219 ; headquarters of Melanesian Mission, 220 ; Pacific cable, 227 O'Brien, Sir G. T. M., Governor of Fiji, censured by Chamberlain and recalled, 94 Ocean Island, absorbed in Gilbert and Ellice colony, 213 ; guano deposits, 213, 301 ; imported labour, 214; head- quarters of colony, 215 Ono Island, 92 Oparo. See Rapa Oregon, 38, 184; boundary, 189; British Oregon, 187; treaty, 190 Otaheite. See Tahiti Pacific cable, 93, 222-7 ; Sir Sandford Fleming, 222-6 ; Chamberlain's help, 224-5 i completion, 225 ; Colonial Office attitude, 294-5 Pacific Islanders Protection Act, 1872,60. See Labour traffic Pagopago (Samoa), U.S. Treaty, 150 ; development of, 169 ; strategic value, 178 INDEX 343 Palmerston, Lord, and Pacific relations, 16, 279-80 Panama Canal, effect on Pacific, 22, 30 ; Fiji, 75, 76 ; control of canal, 184-6, 220 Papeete, 30 Papua, 146-7 ; native labour, 240 ; land, 241 Patteson, Bishop J. C, murdered, 60 ; war- ships and missions, 247 Paulet, Captain Lord Geo., R.N., pro- visional control of Hawaii, 40 Peel, Sir Robert, the Tahiti controversy, 27-8 Pelew Islands, discovered, 179; sovereignty, 179; seized by Spain, 181 Penal settlements, New South Wales, 274 ; New Caledonia, 245 ; Australian ob- jections to, 251, 281 ; French escapees, 258 ; recidivates, 255-60, 262 Penrhyn Island, 226-7 Philippine Islands, discovered, 179 ; ceded to United States, 183 Phoenix Islands, Western Pacific Order-in- Council, 61 Picpus, Society of, 13, 277 Pilsach, Baron A. Senft von, President of Apia Municipal Council, 173, 174 Pitcairn Island, discovered, 215 ; H.M.S. Bounty, 215 ; Tahiti emigration, 216, 220 ; removal to Norfolk, 216-20 ; placed under High Commission, 219-20 Polk, President, of United States, electoral campaign, 189 Poll-tax on natives (Fiji), 89 ; on Chinese, 231,232,234 Polynesian Company (Melbourne), 82, 84 Pomare, Kings of Tahiti, I., 6 ; II., 6 ; III., 9 ; V. (Queen), 11, 24, 29 Pompallier, Bishop, at Tahiti, 12, 1 98 Pope Leo XIII. arbitrates on Carolines controversy, 181-2 Port Essington, 228-9 Port Hamilton, occupation of, 231 Port Moresby, annexation by Mr Chester, 121 ; by Commodore Erskine, 133 ; by Mr Romilly, 145 Port Ross (Auckland Islands), 211, 213 Ports of call, New South Wales report, 30 ; Hawaii, 32, 38, 42 ; Fiji, 92, 93 ; Samoa, 99, 150 ; Tonga, 199 ; Falkland Islands, 220-1 ^ for United States, 184 Pntchard, Rev. Geo., consul at Tahiti, n, 13 ; censured by Foreign Office, 25 ; resigns, 26 ; arrested by French, 27 Pritch-ird, W. T., consul at Fiji, Poly- nesian Reminiscences, 17 ; appointed consul, 74 ; visits England, 75, 77 ; dictator, 78 Protestantism, protection guaranteed by France, 21 ; state religion in Tahiti, 14-16 ; persecutions at Loyalty, 253-4 Providence Islands, acquired by Germany, 180, 182 Prussian whalers at Hawaii, 98 QUEENSLAND, labour traffic, 51-2, 282-3 ; rebuked by Lord Granville, 57 ; New South Wales Commission, 59 ; kanaka labour stopped, 68 ; resumed, 69 ; white Australia policy, 70; Darnley and Murray Islands, 62; New Guinea,early attitude to, 113 ; resolutions, 113 ; publicalarm, 118 ; Mr Chester's annexation, 1 20-1, 287 ; repudiated, 122 ; administration of New Guinea, 144-5 ; Pacific cable, 224 ; Japanese treaty, 94, 237 ; cotton growing, 52 ; Godeffroy & Sons trans- port Germans, 97 ; Western Pacific Order-in-Council, 62 ; arms traffic, 63-4 ; stopped, 66 - Raffles Bay settlement, 229 Raiatea, idols destroyed, 6 ; Code 1820, 8 ; Declaration 1847, 29, 30, 264-5, 2 8o — text, 315 ; annexation by U.S.A. (dis- allowed), 29; German treaty, 29; French Protectorate, 29 Rapa, Col. Smyihe's report, 3r Rason, Captain E. G., R.N., on mission- aries in New Hebrides, 249 Recidiviste Bill, in French Parliament, 255-60, 262 ; protest of colonies, 255 ; Derby's sympathy, 255 ; Intercolonial Convention, 256 Recruiting. See Labour traffic Resanoff, M., at Sitka, 188 Ripon, Lord, Secretary of State for Colonies (1892-5), on kanaka traffic, 69 ; on Neckar Island project, 225 Robertson & Hernsheirn, 101 ; consulted by Bismarck, 1 8 1-2 Robinson, Sir Hercules, Governor of New South Wales, annexes Fiji, 91 ; pro- visional governor, 92 Roman Catholics, in Tahiti, 6, 10, 11 ; Society of Picpus, 13 ; toleration, 14-9; domination at Gambier, 30 ; at Hawaii, 34, 36 ; Roman Catholic diocese, 46 ; Tonga, 198, 278 ; Isle of Pines, 246 Romilly, H. H., Deputy Commissioner at Rotuma, 95 ; on German interests, 104 ; proclaims New Guinea protectorate, 132- 3 ; consul in New Hebrides, 265 Rosebery, Lord, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Samoa discussion, 162- 3 ; Neckar Island, 226 ; New Hebrides bargain, 263 Ross, Russian settlement in California, 1S8-9 344 INDEX Rotuma, recruiting labour, 50 ; Western Pacific Order-in-Council,6l, 62; annexed, 95 Royal Society and Tahiti, 5 Russell, Lord John, Secretary of State for Colonies (1839^.1, 1855), 276 Russia, navigators in Pacific, 9, 23, 33-4 : arms traffic, 67-8 ; Russian American Company, 189-90 ; claims in North America, 189-90 ; naval power in the Pacific, 194 ; sealing, 196 ; occupation of Port Hamilton, 231 ; naval operations in Crimean War, 233 Salisbury, Marquess of, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Hawaiian mission to Samoa, 48-9 ; Samoa Con- vention, 1899, 176 ; Carolines agree- ment, 182 ; New Hebrides question 263 ; Colonial Conference, 295 Samoa, 148-78 ; discovery, 148 ; missions, 148 ; Hawaiian mission, 47-9 ; Western Pacific Order - in - Council, 61 ; arms traffic, 66-7 ; Germans in — Godeffroy's first station, 97-9 ; interests recognifed, 149, 151, 155, 160-1 ; flag hoisted, 158 ; war on Malietoa, 165 ; Germans defeated at Fayalii, 168 ; independence recog- nised, 133 ; intercolonial conference, 153 ; rights of other nations — United States, 99, 150 ; Great Britain, 151 — text, 317-8 ; Anglo-German agreement 102 ; Vogel's scheme, 149 ; kanaka population, 241 ; mandatory government, 305 ; annexation movement, 152-3, 156 ; German-Samoan Council (Staatsrath), 156-7 ; Thurston- Krauel Commission, 162-3 ; Tripartite Commission, 163 ; Malietoa deported, 166 ; appointed king, 171 ; dies, 174 ; Tamasese king, 166 ; defeated by Mataafa, 167-8 ; hurricane at Apia, 169-70 ; Berlin Conference, 170-2 ; ..partition of 1899, 176-7, 296-7 — text, 324-5 ; captured by New Zealand ex- pedition, 178 Sandwich Islands. See Hawaii Santa Cruz, Western Pacific Order-in- Council, 61 ; recruiting forbidden, 69 Savage Island. See Niue Savaii (Samoa), ceded to Germany, 176 Scheffer, Dr, at Hawaii. 33 Scherzer, Dr Karl, on Roman Catholics in Tahiti, 13 Scratchley, Sir Peter, appointed Special Commissioner for New Guinea, 143 ; Thursday Island defences, 230 Seals in Behring Straits, 67-8 ; pelaeic, 196 Seddon, Rt. Hon. R. J., Prime Minister of New Zealand, (1893-1906), federa- tion with Fiji, 94 ; protest against Samoa Convention, 177-8 ; demands control of Tonga, 202 Selwyn, Bishop G. A., Auckland Islands, 212; Norfolk Island, 217; New Zealand boundaries, 245 ; foundation of Mtlan- esian Mission, 246-8, 280 Service, Sir J as., Prime Minister of Victoria, on the New Hebrides, 257 Shipping, German policy in Pacific, 106-7 ; British policy required, 310 Simonoff Island, 92 Simpson, Sir George, Commissioner for Hawaii, 39 Sitka, 33, 188 Smythe, Co!., R.A., report on Fiji, 31 Society Islands. See Tahiti, 5-31 ; named by Captain Cook, 6 Soil, Dr, German Consul at Apia, 175 Solomon Islands, 272-3 ; Western Pacific Order-in-Council, 61, 90 ; outrage on H. M.S. Sandfly, 65 ; annexed, 68 ; land settlement, 241 ; cession of Ysabel and Choiseul, 272 ; recruiting, 70 ; kanaka population, 241 Somerset settlement, 229-30 Spain, Sulu agreement, 68, 180; German dispute at Carolines, 103-4, 180-2 ; abandons New Guinea, 108 ; seizure of Pelew, 181 ; Caroline agreement, 182 ; Philippines and Guam taken by U.S.A., 183 ; Nootka affair, 187-8 ; cession of Falkland Islands. 221 Staatsrath (Samoa), 156-8 ; British pro- test, 160 ; Commission, 162 Stanhope, Earl, Secretary of State for the Colonies (1886-7) ; approves colonial enterprise, 295 Stanley, Col., Secretary of State for the Colonies (1885-6), 293 Steinberger, Col., in Samoa, 152 Stephen, Sir James, Under-Secretary for tie Colonies (1836-47), and missionary influence, 206 Stevenson, Robert Louis, Hawaiian mission to Samoa, 48-9 ; High Commissioners Court, 67 ; estimate of Malietoa, 163 ; of Brandeis, 167 ; the hurricane at Apia, 160-70 ; cricket, 172 ; his burial- place, 178, 297 Stirling, Rear-Admiral Sir James, Anglo- Japanese treaty, 1854, 233 Stirling, Commodore, R.N., labour traffic, 59-60 Stout, Sir Robert, Chief Justice of New Zealand, Premier (1884), interest in Samoa, 154, 177 ; excitement in N.Z., 155 el seq. \ speech at Dunedin, 160 Stuart, Sir A., Colonial Secretary of New South Wales, on annexation of N«w Guinea, 124, 126 INDEX 345 Stuebel, Dr, hoists German flag in Samoa, 158, 160 Sugar-growing in Fiji, 93, 301 Sulu agreement, 1877, 180; 1885, 180, 319 ; 1897, 68 ; ceded to U.S.A., 183 Suwarrow Island, 227-8 Swan River, settlement, 274 Sweet-Escott, Sir H. B., High Com- missioner of Western Pacific, on diffi- culties of the post, 309 TAHAA (Society Islands), 8 Tahiti, 5-31 ; discovery, 5 ; settlement of missionaries, 1-2, 6, 10, 11 ; idols destroyed, 6 ; possession taken, 5 ; Code, 1819, 7 ; protection of Great Britain sought, 9, 15 ; declined, 10-11 ; Dupetit Thouars, 13; French protection sought, 18-19 ; accepted, 20 ; pro- visional government, 19 ; annexation, 25 ; Panama Canal, 30 ; trade, 31 ; kanaka population, 241 ; Pitcairn migra- tions, 215, 220 Tamasese, rival of Malietoa, 156, 163, 164-5 ; proclaimed king, 166 ; defeated, 167 ; allegiance to Malietoa, 172 Tanna (New Hebrides), 63 Tasmania, 274 Thakombau, King of Fiji, appeals to King George of Tonga, 74 ; charters to whites, 80, 85 ; his government, 87-90 ; civil list, 92 ; offer of cession, 278 Thomas, Admiral, independence of Hawaii, 40 Thomson, Basil H., C.B., Commissioner to Tonga. 202 Thurston, Sir John B., High Commissioner of the Western Pacific, 95-6 ; control of labour trade, 57-8 ; arms traffic forbidden, 66-7 ; recruiting in Gilbert Islands, 70 ; member of Fijian cabinet, 87 ; Thurston- Krauel Commission, 162-3 ; report, 164-5 i Tonga inquiry, 202 ; Gilbert and Ellice, 214 ; native governments, 286-7 Tonga, 197-203 ; L.M.S., 6 ; Western Pacific OrdeWn-Council, 61 ; a deputy commissioner, 62 ; King George at Fiji, 74 ; missionaries in Samoa, 148 ; Anglo- German agreement, 104 ; 1899 agree- ment, 177; independence recognised, 133, ^"Ji discovery, 197; Christianity introduced, 197-8 ; constitutional govern- ment, 198-9 ; British protection sought, 198 ; protectorate established, 202, 296 ; German treaty, 199 ; British and Ameri- can treaties, 199-200 ; religious perse- cution, 200-2 ; S. W. Baker deported, 202 ; finances, 202-3 ; kanaka popu- lation, 241 Tongoa (New Hebrides), recruiting at, 69 Torres Islands, 267 Torres Strait, defence of, 4 ; possession taken, 109; survey, 109, II I ; refitting station, 116; Port Essington, 229; Thursday Island, 230 Towns, Captain, kanaka labour experi- ment, 52 Trade of Pacific, 240-3, 299-302 ; Tahiti, 31 ; Hawaii, 44 ; Papua, 146 ; Tonga, 203 ; Solomon Islands, 273 ; German trade in North Pacific, 99 ; Australian Commission on trade, 72, 240-3, 299- 302 ; Anglo-German shipping dispute, 104-6 Transportation. See Penal Settlements Travers, Herr, German consul in Sydney, 163-4 Tromelin, Admiral, and Hawaii, 41 Tucker, Captain, R.N., at Tahiti, 26 Turtle Islands, 92 Tutuila (Samoa), 150 ; rebellion, 173 ; ceded to United States, 176, 186 Uea, or Wallis Island, 273 Union Islands, 61, 215 United States, consul at Tahiti, 14 ; at Hawaii, 35 ; at Fiji, 74 ; annexation of Raiatea, 29 ; of Hawaii, 32 ; mission for Hawaii, 34, 36 ; treaties with Hawaii, 35, 42-3, 184-6 ; harbour traffic, 58-9 ; claims against Fiji, 76 ; annexation of Fiji, 82-4 ; Samoa, rights at Pagopago, 99, 287; treaty, 150; 'flag hoisted, 163-4 1 Tutuila acquired by cession, 176 ; liberty of worship in Carolines, 182 ; Spain, war with, and conquest of Philippines, 183 ; Canadian rivalry, 187, 189-90 ; Monroe doctrine, 189 ; Treaty of Ghent, 189 ; Oregon Treaty, 190 ; Alaska boundary, 189; purchase, 195; China, treaty with, 232 ; sealing conven- tion, 196 ; Tonga, treaty with, 199-200 Upolu (Samoa), ceded to Germany, 176 Vancouver, 189 ; assigned to Great Britain, 190 ; Governor Blanshard, 191 ; Pacific cable, 224-7 Vancouver, Captain G., at Hawaii, 33 Vavau (Tonga), 199 Victoria, reparation for illegal recruiting, 60 Vogel, Sir Julius, Premier of New Zealand (1873-5, 1876), memorandum of 1876, 284-5 ! German Pacific schemes, 101 ; advises intervention in Samoa, 1 36, 149 ; Pacific cable, 223 Waitangi (New Zealand), treaty of, 205, 207-8 — text, 314-5 ; observance by whites, 207, 242 346 INDEX Wakefield, Edward Gibbon, labour problem, Wilson, Admiral J. C, on the High 50 ; New Zealand Company, 206, 274-5 Commission, 65 Wallis, Captain, R.N., discovers Tahiti, 5 Windward Islands (Society Islands), Wallis Island, 198 ; colony, 273 Parliament of 1824, 8 Washington Island, 215 Wireless stations, 309-10 Weber, Theodor, German consul at Apia, Woods, G. A., member of Fijian Cabinet, 87 98, 99, 149-50 Werner, Captain von, German Navy, at Yap (Caroline Islands), German flag New Britain, 100 hoisted, 103, 181 Western Pacific, the High Commission, Yellow peril, 231-40 61 ; boundaries, 61 ; New Hebrides, York, Cape, 116 251, 261 Wheeler, Daniel, at Hawaii, 34 Zimmermann, Dr Alfred, on German White Australia, 70, 232-4, 237 operations in Pacific, 97 ; Godeffroy & Wilkes, Commodore Charles, United States Sons, 101 ; German companies, 102-4 ; Navy, 7, 14, 15, 38, 74, 198 Caroline Islands, 180 PRINTED BT OLIVER AHD BOTD, EDINBURQH, iCOTLAHD. FROM MR. MURRAY'S LIST THE CRADLE OF THE WAR The Near East and Pan-Germanism. By H. CHARLES WOODS, F.R.G.S. " Mr. Woods' lucid and well-informed study will be invaluable to any reader who desires to understand the situation." — The Daily Telegraph. Illustrations and Maps. 12s. net. THE 14th POINT A Study of the League of Nations. By C. 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