The South Sea Islands.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume I, Issue 24, 30 September 1843, Page 4

The South Sea Islands.

(From thu f.mnhm i'..iHs.; It would appear from the" progress which the French are making in the Pacific Ocean that the suggestions recently convoyed in a message from president Tyler to the Legislature of the United States, in which he recommended that precaution should be taken for maintaining the independence of the Sandwich Islands, was not uncalled for or premature. At the same time we are very unwilling to stimulate, or even to tolerate, a spirit of national jealousy which discovers merits and advantages in every acquisition of a foreign power that no one could discern j jin it as long as it remained independent. ' The islets of the great Archipelago of the ! Pacific have remained up to the present time in the enjoyment of their savage independence, for the very simple reason that they offered no inducement to an European or maritime power to occupy them. The only acquisitions we have sought in those groups of coral reefs and half-cooled volcanoes, known by the strangely inappropriate names Of the Friendly and the Society Islands, have been yams and fresh water for our ships, and licenses for chapels and spirit-shops of our missionaries. The fair sex in those tropical retreats are wont to receive our sailors with the favours which their easy manners lavishly bestow ; and we have been informed that Queen Pomare has made considerable progress in psalmody. Thus, under the joint influence <ef whale-fishers and Wesleyans, a sort of semi civilization has sprung up in the south sea islands, which is compounded of the profligacy of some parts of wapping and the spiritual gifts of the Ebenezer Chapol. The presence of admiral Dupetit Thouars at the court of Queen Pomare has introduced a new element into these islands, tending rather, as we should infer from the national and professional gallantry of the crew of a French man of war, to encourage the former than the latter of these social characteristics. Otaheite, which is described at missionary meetings as the isle of saints, was profanely christened by Bougainville, in the style of Barny's novels, " La nouvelle Cythere, " and we understand that^ it fully deserves that bewitching name. To speak seriously, however, it is clear that if any political or mercantile advantages could be anticipated from the occupation and settlement of these islands, they would long ago have been discovered by the British or American -vessels which frequent the southern Pacific. But, except as a .place where ships may -water, rendezvous, and recruit the health' of their companies in very long voyages, they offer no imaginable advantage to compensate the expense of keeping up a colonial establishment there. The Society and Friendly Islands, lying nearly twenty degrees south of the equator, are at an immence distance from the track of the commerce which already exists, and will one day be greatly increased between the north-west coast of America and China ; and their position between Chili and Australia will not suffice to establish any important relations with either of those countries. The Society Islands are the last places in the world which could attract the choice of emigrants from Europe ; and nothing can be more absurd than to apply the word "colony" to the acquisition of a few specks in the Pacific, inhabited by sav|ages scarcely raised above cannibalism. ! Politically speaking, the only effect of the cession of these islands will be ascertain quantity of self-congratulation in France, and the appointment of a viceroy of the Cannibal Islands. Whatever British interests may have sprung up in those islands, whether of a religious or temporal kind, will of course be respected. But nothing can be in worse taste than for us to apply harsh names to the mere act of the appropriation of unoccupied and uncultivated parts of the globe, especi- ! ally with the consent of the natives, when we are ourselves the nation who have done most to establish the legality of the practice, and who have within the last few years transformed the finest islands in the southern Pacific into a British colony by very similar means. The extension of the British empire 1 has gone on with a rapid but necessary growth, in order to keep pace with the increace of the commercial relations and maritime enterprise of this county. In the c&se of New Zealand, for instance, the government in the home country resisted the acquisition of those islands until it was called upon to provide laws and to extend its authority over the] subjects of the Queen of

England, who had already made a large settlement their own. In France, and some other countries of Europe, a common delusion prevails as to the advantages of Colonial possessions. A state having very extensive mercantile relations may find it convenient to multiply its commercial stations in various remote parts of the world ; but an isolated garrison on a ccrral reef in the south sea islands can have no effect whatever in promoting or creating those relations of trade. Such a position commands no important I channel of intercourse, it produces nothing I for export ; it has no population and no wealth to establish a demand for the produce of Europe. As a mere harbour, the chief benefit which the French can derive from it must be drawn from the merchant vessels of other countries ; and it would probably have been more convenient, as well as more rational, to have left Pomare in the full enjoyment of her regal authority, without the protection of the tri-coloured flag.