REVIEW.

Evening Star, Issue 2851, 9 April 1872, Page 2

REVIEW.

The Since Tcarle in the 2few Ilehdhes. Edited by the L!ev, John Kay, Coatbridge. Edinburgh : Edmonstou and Douglas, 88, Priuces street.

We have received, by favor of the Rev. D. M. Stuart, a copy of a pamphlet published in Edinburgh, containing papers read at the annual meeting of the New Hebrides Mission, held at Aniwa, July, 1871. It is to be regretted that the Colonies are so apathetic in a matter that so nearly affects every one of them. If anyone doubted that a slave trade had sprung up in the Pacific, the evidence presented in this compilation is sufficient to bring conviction. There are some men in official positions whose ju igment is so perverted that, in order to defer d that which is indefensible, they, without hesitation, malign that which is benevolent and good. Thus Mr Robert Gray, immigration agent, Brisbane (Queensland), in a Government despatch, under date February 21, 1871, says—“ The Government should hesitate before giving credence to any of the statements in Mr Paton’s letter, more especially as it is currently reported that many of the missionaries on these islands are interested in the retention of the islanders, more from motives of personal gain than anything else. ” We scarcely recollect reading a piece of cooler effrontery than this. A man, the servant of a people who for their special gain take a cargo of human Kings at less prices per head than they would pay for horses, and compel them to work in a climate that they themselves do not care to li t a spade in, has the hardihood to condemn tellishness in those who, setting a truer value on human life and human liberty, hold their lives cheap, forsake the comforts and associations of civilised society, if they can but raise untutored savages from the degradation of ignorance ! The pamphlet cm • tains ample proof that the so-called labor contracts are a sham ; that the natives are deceived, kidnapped, or bought of ther chiefs, and taken away either under false pretences or against their wills ; that if any women are taken, it is commonly for degrading purposes ; and that the few natives wlo have found their way back to their hom( s have returned uncivilised, unweaned “from their heathen and superstitious beliefs ai d practices,” but that there is added to them “ the vices of the low and degraded while men among whom they have lived.” Our Borne telegrams tell us nothing of the Act passed by the Imperial Parliament on tb s subject. It is to be feared it will be a me- e tampering with the matter. We shou’d therefore recommend a careful perusal of the work, so that if needs be every right-minded man and woman may be prepared to join in an indignant protest to the Imperial Government against a traffic discreditable to civilisation and Christianity.