NEW GUINEA COLONIZATION SOCIETY.

Globe, Volume V, Issue 528, 26 February 1876, Page 3

NEW GUINEA COLONIZATION SOCIETY.

The correspondence between Lord Carnarvon and the New Guinea Colonization Society completes (.says the Pall Mall Gazette) the view of the situation of which one side was disclosed last week, when Lord Carnarvon received a deputation from the Anti-Slavery Bociety, who pressed him to discourage, if not indeed to forbid, the quasi-filibustering expedition to New Guinea which is about to be set on foot by the Colonization Society. Lord Carnarvon then ■aid that he had expressed his distinct protest against the proceedings of the society, but he doubted whether, as had been suggested by a member of the deputation, he had any legal powers to forbid such an expedition. At the same time, he was within his power as a Minister in assuring those who Sroposed to take part in it, as he did most, lstinetly, that they were embarking on a most unusual and most dangerous course ; that if they do acquire land the Crown will not recognise titles which they may have obtained in an improper way, and that if there should be occasion to colonize New Guinea hereafter such holdings would not be recognised as legal. JThe correspondence now published shows in what a decided tone these warnings have been addressed to the society. Lord Carnarvon has pointed out to them that the position in which the Government stands with regard to New Guinea is not such as to leave them free to sanction even tacitly the acquisition of laud within the island by British subjects. Representations in favor of the annexation of the island had been addressed to the Government by the Australian colonies, and were being carefully considered, and pending such consideration it was not open to any independent association of Englishmen to take possession of the land as proposed. It is impossible to say what effect these plain intimations will produce upon the society ; but, if they should insist upon carrying out their scheme, they will do so after full notice that they will acquiie no legal rights over the territory which they are about to invade.