The Evening Star. TUESDAY, JULY 28, 1874.

Evening Star, Issue 3566, 28 July 1874, Page 2

The Evening Star. TUESDAY, JULY 28, 1874.

W e have deferred commenting .on what is now known asMr Vogel’s Polynesian Scheme, as we did not feel at liberty to pronounce any opinion upon it until we had full information on the subject. The receipt of the Parliamentary papers laid before both Houses relating to it, enables us to present our readers with details concerning it, and as it Is a proposal, whether acted upon or not, which involves the well-being of the inhabitants of th,e islands of the Pacific; and one which, established and properly conducted, would add wealth to the Australasian Colonies and the Mother Country, we have no doubt a careful .digest of the information will prove acceptable. The papers laid before Parliament are necessarily somewhat bulky, for they give a minute and elaborate description of the area, population, trade, natural products, and resources of various groups of islands that are scattered in clusters over the vast basin of the Pacific. Whst may be termed the geographical division of the papers is comprised in fifty-four closely printed pages of the Blue Book, and as they afford important information, not generally accessible to the mass of the population, we consider it would be advisable to divest them of political bearing and re-arrange them, so as to present them in a cheap and portable form, in order that they could be used not only as hand-books for merchants and others, but as school-books for our schools. They have been compiled by Mr W. Sied, Secretary to the Customs, and are illustrated by a well-executed map. Mr Seed introduces the geographical and statistical information he has collected by a short statement pf the sources from which he has derived it. The labor he has given to the work and

the difficulties he has had to overcome in his investigations prove how little is really known respecting the vast populations in our vicinity. Yet it is to supplying their wants that we must look for the best and most profitable markets for the produce of our soil and industries. Years ago we pointed to these peoples as likely to be our best customers. We have frequently endeavored to show the utter selfishness of the labor traffic which is tending to depopulate some groups for the aggrandisement of Queensland and Fiji, and we cordially endorse the opinion expressed by Mr Fox in the Ministerial memorandum to his Excellency the Governor, under date 24 th November, 1871, which forms part of the subject of these papers:—

Ministers desire very earnestly to add that if Great Britain really intends to stop the frightful system of slavery, which, under the pretence of voluntary labor, is now being carried on and extended among the islands of the Pacific, some hold must be obtained upon a group 'such as the Navigators ; and a feeling must be created that the inhabitants of any of the scattered islands can depend that Great Britain will not only refuse to countenance the iniquities which are now driving the islanders to desperation, but will afford protection against slavery in any form or shape. We have often read with disgust the hypocritical excuses accepted by the Houses of Lords and Commons for the abominations perpetrated under the euphonious term “ labor traffic” in Queensland and Fiji. They are a resuscitation of the clap-trap which Clarkson, WILBERFORCE, PHILLIPS, HARRISON, Allen, Stephen, the barrister; George Thompson, Lord Brougham, and other men who have done so much for the human race, had to encounter for so many years, and which proved sufficient under Tory rule to prevent the abolition of slavery. We have read with disgust of the hypocrisy of suppressing slavery in foreign countries, on one side ot the globe, and of the sanction of its practice in British communities on the other. Men tell us that Englishmen cannot work in Queensland and Fiji, and therefore they must have the labor of those who can. Since there is no absolute necessity for Englishmen to go where the climate does not permit them to work, we see no reason, why, because they are cunning and have a powerful nation to back them, they should be at liberty to kidnap or swindle the Natives of the South Sea Islands. Precisely the same sort of reasons was given for the slave trade that is abolished, as will be seen by the following quotation : With the discovery of America a new description of slavery and slave trade arose. Christian nations purchased heathen negroes for the purpose of employing them in the mines and plantations of the New World. It was found by experience that the natives of America were too weak and too indolent to undergo the hard work which their Spanish taskmasters exacted of them, and they died in great numbers.

How far ignorance of the resources of the islands of the Pacific has influenced the Parliament of Great Britain in their apathy and one-sided action in regard to slavery is hard to say. We suspect that political jobbery is at the bottom of it, but that can only prevail to so great an extent where knowledgeof facts is partial and imperfect. Mr Seed shows how scattered and diffused it has hitherto been in his account of the difficulties he has had in executing his task. He says—

I feel that the information here presented is most meagre and incomplete ; but it is all I can procure at present, after the most careful search in the library of the General Assembly and in other directions where I thought it likely such information might exist. The general descriptions of the islands have been mainly gathered from Findlay’s South Pacific Directory ; bnt some of them have been taken from Admiralty hydrographic notices, from M'Culloch’s Commercial Directory, from Chambers’s Encyclopedia, from missionary notices, and reports, and from various books of travel.

The statistics have been gathered principally from the Statesman’s Year Book for 1873, the American Year Book for 1869, and ■ vom the reports from Her Majesty’s Consuls, which are printed annually and laid before Parliament. With regard to the government of the various islands, so far as I can ascertain, all the groups that are situated north of the equator {with the exception of the Sandwich Islands, which have a settled form of constitutional government, the Marshall Islands, about which I can gather no information whatever, and the Kingsmill group, partjnorth aud part south of the line, and which nas no form of government) are either claimed by or are in the possession of some civilised power. The Philippines, Ladrones, Palaos or Pelew, and the Caroline Islands are all Spanish possessions. The Galapagos belong to the republic of Ecuador. Of the islands in the South Pacific, the Society Islands, Pauraotu or Low Archipelago, Loyalty Islands, New Caledonia, and New Hebrides are in the possession of or are claimed by the French. The Tongan Islands are governed by a King, assisted by a Parliament of chiefs. Fiji can scarcely now be said to have a government; whilst all the rest are a kind of “no man’s land,” are without government, and are constantly torn by the debasing and savage wars of the petty chiefs inhabiting them.