THE HIGH COMMISSIONERSHIP.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2213, 30 March 1881, Page 3

THE HIGH COMMISSIONERSHIP.

[By Telegraph. J

[FROM THE OWN CORRESPONDENT OF THE PBEBB.”] WELLINGTON, March 29. I have been courteously favored with the perusal of the memo, by the High Commissioner for the Western Pacific and by the Commodore of the Australian Squadron, on the report of the Sydney Intercolonial Conference relative to the state of affairs in Polynesia, and the appointment of the Commissioner. It will be remembered that the New Zealand representative, Mr Dick, strenuously protested against the action of the Conference in the matter.

Sir A. Gordon in his memo, regarding the Intercolonial Conference says “ The appendix to the report of the committee contains matter which may with advantage receive some immediate comment from me. The contents of that appendix are somewhat singular. No statistical table is given from which information could be drawn as to tho comparative frequency of _ murder among Europeans in tho Pacific at different times, or the proportions which such murders bore to the number of Europeans resident in those seas now and formerly. Official or authentic accounts of massacres recently perpetrated are altogether wanting, and other evidence in support of the resolutions of the committee will be as vainly looked for. All the information given with regard to outrages recently committed is contained in a telegram, without date and addressed to some unnamed individual, reporting the murder of the crew (not British subjects) of the " Prosperity,” and four newspaper paragraphs containing details of other murders. These paragraphs are undoubtedly written in good faith, and no doubt contain the best accounts obtainable by the editor of the transactions to which they refer. But it is often found on subsequent examination that such narratives are, owing to very obvious causes, not always to be relied on as strictly accurate. The appendix further contains two leading articles from the “ Sydney Morning Herald,” which, though based on erroneous assumptions, are fairly and temperately written, and no fewer than eleven extracts from the “ Sydney “ Daily Telegraph,” censuring in strong terms the High Commissioner, the Commodore commanding the Australian Squadron, the Chief Judicial Commission, and the Government of the colony of Fiji. There is also a letter in a similar strain addressed to the Secretary of the Conference by a person of the name of Thomas, the avowed author of two of the extracts taken from the Sydney “Daily Telegraph,” with which newspaper I am informed he _is closely connected, and a statement which ♦he evidence afforded by the remainder of the extracts from that journal would not incline mo to believe to be well founded. It is not easy to understand the object of the Conference in reprinting and giving official circulation to those articles. It is certainly not to cover information as to facts, for they contain none. It cannot be to exhibit the state of popular opinion in Australia, for the extracts are almost exclusively taken from a single Sydney journal, and even in the device of these extracts care has been taken to limit them to such as reflect but one opinion, the anonymous letter of “A Queenslander,” containing little but invective, being inserted, while that of a man so competent to speak on the subject as the Bov. Mr Murray is omitted. lam not well acquainted with Australian journals, but I know that some of them entertain different views from those advocated by the Sydney “Daily Telegraph.” Yet it would be inconsistent with the respect due to a conferenos consisting of the leading officials of the Australian colonies, to suppose that they intended to imply their own adoption of statements they have had no means of verifying, and their concurrence in recommendations that the Solomon Islanders should bo “ cruelly and relentlessly massacred, or their participation in attacks on officers of the Imperial Government, on High judicial authorities, and on the government of a colony unrepresented at the meeting of the Conference. But, whatever the motive of the publication, the fact remains that grave charges against the High Commissioner for tho Western Pacific, the Commodore commanding on the Australian station, the Chief Justice of Fiji, and the G .vernment of that colony generally have been reprinted at the public expense by order of the Conference, and have been presented bycommand of the Governor to the Parliament of New South Wales, and probably to the Legislatures of the other colonies, thus giving them widespread official circulation. These facts and the deduction which will inevitably, if erroneously, in many quarters bo drawn from them, that the Conference adopts the charges made, render it, I think, desirable that their want of foundation should at once bo mode apparent. The charges preferred against the High Commissioner are two - fold • it is alleged that he has on the one !hand shown undue leniency towards the misdeeds of Natives, and on the other has shown equally undue harshness in the punishment of British subjects when charged before him with offences against Natives.” [The memorandum then proceeds with an elaborate and exhaustive answer to these charges, and concludes as follows]: —“It is. I think, to be deplored that reflections on the Government of a colony not represented at the conference should be republished under the auspices of that body. What would be thought of the good taste or propriety of the conduct of this Government if it had reprinted and laid before the Legislature newspaper attacks ok the internal administration of an Australian colony—the letters for instance which have lately appeared in tho Sydney Press as to the alleged systematic and wholesale murder of natives in Queensland, or the attacks upon members of this or that Cabinet, which might be gathered from the Victorian Press during the heat of an election 'contest. Yet what has been done in this) instance is practically very similar, and Fiji as an Australian colony is not less sensitive to her rights and dignity than those of larger area and someyears longer history. She has a right to ask why if her affairs were to bo a topic of discussion she was not herself invited to take part in the Conference, and is entitled to protest against a course calculated to excite popular prejudices against the highest officials, of her Government, especially those occupyirg the Bench of justice. I cannot conclude this memorandum without expressing my regret that the Conference should not have availed itself of my offer, at least so far as to make some enquiry of me into the nature of the powers possessed by tho High Commissioner. Had this been done I do not think its members would have collected and thought worthy of republication allegations which they would then have known to be based on misapprehension. But I still more regret that if it was originally intended that the subject of those powers should be discussed at tho Conference it should not have been mentioned in the circular sent to the different Governments as a matter to which attention was to be invited, and that no intimation should have been given to the High Commissioner himself. The subject was certainly one of sufficient importance to warrant such mention if its introduction was contemplated. If, on tho other hand, the question was raised without previous concert, it is, I think, still more unfortunate that the Conference should not have declined to enter into its consideration without previous communication with those from whom alone it could obtain accurate information on at all events some of the points raised, and that it should have allowed itself to be made a medium for tho dissemination of slander on men holding high and responsible situations, who had received no intimation of the intentions of the Conference to investigate the value of the functions committed to them by the Crown. : “A. H. Q»*don, “ Wellington, 26th February, 1881 ” Commodore Wilson’s letter to the Governor, Lord A. Loftns, is as follows : “ H.M.S. Wolverine, at Hobart—February 16th. 1881.—My Lord, at the termination of tho sittings of ike Intercolonial Conference you were good enough to send me the Blue Book containing the minutes of its proceedings and the resolutions which the Conference arrived at on the various subjects investigated by it. Amongst these resolutions was one which both touched my functions as the Naval Officer in command of this station, and the duty of the navy generally in those seas. On the merits or demerits of this resolution I do not propose to comment, and only refer to it as lending up to the point to which I most decidedly take exception. Appended at the end of this book are certain scurrilous documents, being either anonymous letters from an individual signing himself “ Tho Vagabond,” or taken from a second-class Sydney newspaper. These productions, which not only reflect on myself and the Royal Navy, also animadvert on all Imperial officers of the highest rank. Without exception, those documents, which I must suppose form the principal groundwork from which the Conference grounded its resolutions touching the Navy, are scurrilous libels, devoid of truth, either in tenor or in facts, and are quite unworthy of a place amongst State papers, probably the most important these colonies have ever printed. I was quite aware that these miserable productions were appearing in the Sydney '‘Doily Telegraph ” before X left there in December last, hut the opinions expressed therein were to mo of no importance or interest. I cannot say I read any of them before they were placed in tho conspicuous position they now bold, and wore forwarded to me by jour Excellency as part of important official documents. X feel certain that when the enlightened statesmen who now hold office under your lordship realise that such unworthy matter has found its way into the minutes of tho proceedings of the Intercolonial Conference, they will be much annoyed, feeling ns they must that tho importance given to such incorrect and irresponsible i effusions must detract from tho value of other i better digested measures, and depreciate tho entire Blue-book in proportion. I have, &c., J. C. Wilson, Commodore,”