COLONIAL ANNEXATION SCHEMES.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3777, 23 August 1883, Page 4

COLONIAL ANNEXATION SCHEMES.

If ho could return to earth (says the Graphic;, Captain Cook Avould possibly be surprised to find the prodigious results of his voyages of exploration, A hundred years ago there AA'as not, it may bo preS lined, a single Avhito man permanently located iv Australasia. Noav there are some three millions of them, ancl they are beginning to make themselves heard. The young lions of the Antipodes arc roaring for prey. Queensland has annexed New Guinea, AA-bercupon A'ictoria says, " Why should not I annex something too ? " And so sho proposes to take possession of the Solomon Islands and the Ncav Hebrides. Worried by these troublesome children of hers, tho overburdened old Mother Country feels inclined to say, "First cultivate your own gardens, my doors ; there's plenty _of waste ground there, I'm sure." To Avhich her children reply, "There's a greatugly Frenchman loafing about, and if we don't take these islands ho Avill." This is really a very serious matter. The ncAvly-born colonial ambition of Franco, Avhich had lain dormant since the fall of Quebec and tho death of Dupleix, seems to have come nearly a century too lato. All the really colonisablo parts of the earth—that is, places where Europeans can live, and labor, and multiply—are already in the hands of other nations. These Pacific islands, with their limited area and damp heat, can never be genuine colonies, but might be utilised as penal settlements'; and they mightjbo developed into formidable military and naval stations. Noav, to either of these contingencies Australia strongly objects. She knoAvs the A-irus of convictism only too avcll, and she docs not want to be inoculated AA'ith the French variety of it, and she certainly does not want to bo surrounded by a chain of forts and harbors AA'hich, in the event of a Avar between England and Franco, might render the invasion of her territory, and even the seizure of her chief cities, a probable consequence. It is from prudential motives, then, rather than from greed, that she cries for annexation. Tho question, in its broadest extent, ought to be seriously considered by our Government Avithout delay, or, Avhilc they are deliberating, other people may be found acting.