THE FRENCH AS COLONISTS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume IV, Issue 833, 4 January 1883, Page 2

THE FRENCH AS COLONISTS.

The Times concludes a long article) on this subject as follows: —“ The failure of the Colony of New Caledonia has been due to causes altogether different from those which militate, against the other dependencies. H && there would have been an opportunity' of founding a truly rich colony if the National Assembly had not, with mistaken kindness, decreed, in tSyaj that the transported Communists should not be compelled to work. The 1 edn!” sequence of this was that, although thecolony at one time contained more than 10,000 political deportes, among whom there were nuny very intelligent men, most of them lived in idleness and tried to shame others out of working. Their object was to make themselves as disagreeable as possible, ingi order that the colony, becoming a costly nuisance to France, they might getamnestied and sent home. M. Henrik Rochefort, in landing at Noumea, conoof plained bitterly that he was served with uncooked rations, just as if the soldiers of the garrison ought to haypj been employed in cooking for the convicts. The rattening practised by the idle deportes upon the few who tried tor be industrious was pushed to lengths that Assia, the famous organ*iser of strikes at the Creuzot and quondam advocate of French tradi. unions, was obliged at length to invoke the protection of the military against, some of his old friends. He had set tip a foundry, which was flourishing, and, finding himself in a fair way of becoming a capitalist, his views about strikes and rattening had, of course, undergone! a change. Since most of the political--depones have returned home, work of colonising in New Caledonia has been carried on principally by ordinary convicts liberated on ticket-of-leave, but forced to reside in the colony/It is too early yet to predict how they will thrive. The last thing heard of, them was that they were endeavoring* to ‘ Boycott ’ the Marist who had established a flourishing agricultural settlement near Noumea, and. were doing good among the natives.”