NEW ISLANDS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1706, 8 November 1887, Page 3

NEW ISLANDS.

la addition to the two large Islands recently di«oovored m the Pacific Ooean » third hnn just bt en discovered lyirg ieis than 100 miles from the northern coast of New Guinea. It bus been n»tmd Allison Island, is nearly throe miles long, rises from 100 to 150 feet above the sea and hat abundant timber. Several otretohes of ! fertile and inhabited land, some of them much larger than Allison Island, have beon found wi'hin a few years at a distance of 200 or 300 miles from the Mew Guinea coast, and similar disoovarieß are made once In a while m various pirts of the Pacific. Although the maps of the Pacific Ocean aro studded with Islands which appear to be lying close together, vesiels may sail among these ialanda for weeks together without onoe coming m sight of land. 8o vast is the waste of waters that not long ago a crew which bad been shipwrecked m the great Island region of the Pacfio rowed north 40 days before they reaohed Hawaii, the nenttt land. Mr A, & Wallace, who has travelled widely In the Pacific, hio expressed his opinion that there is still a good many islands whioh have naver yet been seen by white men. JSow and then a Pacific trader finds some new and little known islands, and opens trade with its inhabitants. When tha Woodwark Islands wore explored some time ago It was found that an Australian firm hnd carefully charted the Islands several years before, and had been quietly trading there, all unknown to the other Paolfio merchants.