THE LONDON PRESS ON NEW GUINEA.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume IV, Issue 965, 9 June 1883, Page 4

THE LONDON PRESS ON NEW GUINEA.

StKiicrOid £■; i ..■L —The principal London papers nave articles *n the annexation of New Guinea* and following:— The Times observes: “ Queensland ( has long been known as one of"the most enterprising of the Australian ( Cf f «j&ldbieS aisgrbkth gnd Vitality have! * of late been astonishing and T we have more than once called attetttioh to the success with which its people have struggled with their almost tropical i-Hmatf, and have forced the soil to do their bidding. But few Englishmen suspected that the Queensland, vernment were planning a, f stroke of policy that would be likely ,to take rank amid the boldest acts’of the kind ever done? } By v a' : 5 ti^tfOr.'brdeiri , %aid< *Mr Ashley in the House of Commons, ‘to prevent :f or- ; eign powers from taiang possession of : . Mew Guinea, .Queensland Governr,fS‘iKebt Save, through the Police Magistrate of Thursday Island, taken format possession in Her-,Majesty’s name, pending the u dettsidd hi the 1 Government at -Home.’ Police magistrates arc officials, but t h e first themes beefr wiialledto play the, part” of a Columbus krger than n^' T The Daily Telegraph says : Whatever else may be said of the capture,it will certainly take rank as the most important* Affiieslrf .‘fetofd&l history. Whether the Government will *" indeed' be in a position to refuse—its sanction to the step is another matter. Much, of course* will depend upon the actual State of the facts on which the telegram of the Governor of Queensland was f haded, and which have? induced hihi to believe that some foreign power or powers were about to take possesion of the island. That he must have 4 regarded the emergency ?is! obvious from the remarkable promptitude with which he has acted ‘the* Governor of an important colopy not, as a rule a man, iikely ta' -beebrae- the victim of a groundless nanie in such ,a, matter. This at rhay be said, that if the Governor’s appreGuinea with reference to our Australg C lailia/ fender' it exceedingly undesirableto allow the island to pass into .foe .possession of, any foreign power. a To" be a born cblonisjt is the heritage and privileged the Anglo-Saxon man, whether from this little and squre spot on the map of the world, or the more prominent and conspicuous continent of Aastfolia.'" ’The ' art 'or firing and holding new countries runs in foe blood; and what Queensland has jlflfe sScd&pushed'W-whit may '"again -and again -be looked for from—the robust dSshoots of sturdy stock.” The Morning Post is disposed, to think that -th#iiiiiafieDce of foe Queenslanders will react to their own disadvantage. It adds ;—“ They ought to have been aware Gbvefnfaient which seems desirous to minimise rather than to extend the responsibilities of foe Empire, and a Secretary of State for the Colonies who has bluntly declared that the Queen already possesses enough ‘ black subjects,’ would view with scant approval, if not actual disgust, -any—proposal —t 6 saddle Her Majesty’s Ministers with the duty of , governing ppon -paternal princjpleg ** several millions of the warlike cannibals inhabiting New. Guinea.” Ths Daily News says : “ The House Wrenr daughter The ' whole story' seemed too like an opera-botiffe version -{hhfi tbedeeds wf’ Qrkke 6*, Pizarro to.be listened to . with; ,perfect Of course Her Majesty s’ t san£tsrs yrilh form their OWft'-cfahclysion US to the proper steps to be taken, and will ndtffimd* pledged to the policy . who annexed single-handed the vast] and mysterious island, of thegreater of which up to this time civilisation has, 1 known little more than it knqyrs of foe poetic land east of the suiibFtvest of the moon. Projectsesfbr* '>its' annexation have long beeo,,yery popular b Queensland, and, indeed, in Australia generally; but the responsibility of Queensland is a very different thing from the responsibility of Great Britain.”