The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. MONDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 1887. THE FUTURE OF THE PACIFIC ARCHIPELAGOES.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1482, 14 February 1887, Page 2

The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. MONDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 1887. THE FUTURE OF THE PACIFIC ARCHIPELAGOES.

In an article, under the above heading, which appears m the January number of the Australasian and South Amcrkan % reference is made to an alleged " diplomatic agreement between England and Germany as to the disposition of the various island groups m the Pacific " according to which it 19 supposed that the Powers named have mutually arranged for the " division of the ocean into two parts, each taking one and retaining sole right to the acquisition of such territory therein as may not be already possessed by or under the" dominion of some other nation." If it be true that such an understanding has been arrived at, it is somewhat curious that no word of it should have reached us from Home, and that the first intelligence should come through an American channel, while it ia on the face of it improbable that France would be altogether left out of considaration m the case of any international convention of the sort. That some agreement on the, subject which would map out the spheres cf influence of all parties interested ia very desirable admits of no doubt, and indeed the necessity for it becomes daily more apparent. The writer ot the article to which reference has . been made is most concerned for the interests of America and Australasia, and his remarks upon this head are so interesting as to be well worth reproducing. He says : — " There are thirtytwo distinct groups of islands m the Pacific, besides some separate islands. New Guinea, m the Western Pacific, is under three European protectorates. Holland has possession of 112,350 square miles; Germany has 68,390 square miles; Great Britain has a protectorate over 86,800 square miles, making a total now m the possession of those three Powers ot 267,540 square miles. Of the scattered groups Great Britain really controls nine, France six, Germany five, Spain three, and the remainder are "independent," with the greedy eye of some great Power on them. This classification of islands m the Pacific may be of interest just now. There can be no question but what the lapse of a few years will witness the completion of a great highway^of some kind between jhe^Atlaritic and^ Pacific pceans, v ancJ: thjs'will 6JL course brujg 'all > acinlc .Islands^ j^^erj . muci^^clo'ser^ > * with Powsrs . |h*n > ever before. .Nev,ejP:befprfr' ; nas "this island' world assumed such an importance m the eyes of European Powers as at present. Every great maritime nation is now looking out for •' coaling stations" m the Pacific. In nearly all euch cases the coaling station ripens sooner or later into a protectorate, and that ripens finally into unqualified possession. The rivalry at present is between the Germans and the English. The former has secured by far the best part of the trade m the Pacific islands, England just now is interested m the future prospect of steamship lineß by way of the Panama Canal, /vnd also m other lines m Pacific waters, with a terminus at Victoria, or wherever the Canadian Pacific Railroad shal{ have its Final terminus. Spain is not reaching out at present for larger possessions, but will cling tenaciously to all the island territory that has thus far been acquired m the Pacific , . . . . France, Germany, Spain and Russia $re establishing protectorates m all parts of the Pacific, and eventually the two former will each control a continuous chain of coaling stations and fortified depots and trading posts extending almost around the world. America and Australasia, as deeply interested m the question of supremacy m the Pacific as any European Power, alone stand alooi and remain inactive, and yet the one would be practically isolated should the stations above reterred to pass into inimical hands, and the other is rapidly Icjsing, through their systematic absorption by other powers, profitable fields for the extension of its commerce, and neither offers a protest. Australia sees the Admiralty Islands, New Ireland, New Britain, New Caledonia, the Loyalty Islands, and part of New Guinea given over to foreign rule, while the United States toys with the renewal of a treaty that has built up a profitable-trade with us with the Ha.waii.in Islands, and pan alone maintain our future influence m them, as opposed to that of Great Britain. As commercial stations, the former are of the greatest importance to Australasia, while to us the Sandwich Islands constitute an advanced post on the mercantile highway between the United Stales and Polynesia." There is much m the foregoing that is well worthy of the attention of Australasian as well as American statesmen, as the apathetic indifference with which the whole subject of the Pacific Islands is treated to-day will assuredly have to be paid for m the shape of the most unpleasaut complications at a not very distant to-morrow.