NEW CALEDONIA.

Grey River Argus, Issue 73, 30 June 1866, Page 3

NEW CALEDONIA.

The following account of this French colony, which, it seems, is to-be converted into a- convict settlement, appeared in the "Australasian," of the 2nd instant, in an article on an official report to the French Government, abridged from the "Review Maritime et Coloniale " : — The transportation question, thanks to the persistently firm attitude maintained by the. colonists,, and the wise retrocession of the Imperial Government, made Justin time, is probably decided once and for ever as far as Great Britain is concerned. But a French ruffian is quite as bad as an English one to have among us, or rather he is much worse, for the latter has commonly some scruples of; conscience as to his treatment of the defenceless and , unresisting, while the former generally has none. We would rather see a Bengal tiger loose among our women than a genuine French " Forcat*" from the Bagnes of Brest or Toulon, for the tiger could only take life, and the gaily slave would take life and something else. It is, therefore, with no very agreeable feelings that we read of the fixed determination of the French Imperial Government to make New Caledonia/ an island so near to Australia as to be almost a part of it, the abiding place of a section of its convicts labelled "irreclaimable." We read in the official review now before us that a second cargo of these interesting gentry, "-.chosen from the nature of their sentence for perpetual exile," started from. Toulon on the 20th January, 1866, in the frigate Sibylle.* The first, of 250, came out on the 7th May, 1864. This convict stream is evidently setting in strong, and as it is hopeless to attempt to bully— the keepers of the tigers being such a man as Louis Napoleon lll.— it may be as well to look at the site of the cage in which he proposes to keep them, . • New Caledonia was discovered by Cook oh the. 4th September, 17.74. The first point which the illustrious navigator made, he christened Cape Cobett, after the sailor who first sighted it. Some days afterwards he ran with his two vessels, the Adventure and Resolution, into the Bay of Baiup, arid, as the natives were quiet, was able to water, and make a few astronomical observations, while his naturalist, Forster, took a look after the botany and geology. Unfortunately Perouse, there is no doubt, visited it in 1788, after leaving y ;Sbtany Bay, but his shipwreck at Vanlkora has left U3 no record of the results. Then came the expedition in search of Porouse, under Rear- Admiral Bruni d'Entrccasteaux, with the two frigates the Recherche and Esperance, th*e latter commanded by.M. Huon de Kermandec. (All dwellers^ on D'Entrecasteaux Channel, Bruni Island, the Huon, Port Esperance and Recherche .Bay, you now know from whom your habitats are named.) The final settlement came from the priests. In 1843 five were landed on the island, which, however, they had to quit four years afterwards. In 1351 the French reappeared upon the scene, when a massacre of a scientific exploring party took place after the old New Zealand fashion. Two officers and twelve sailors, out of fifteen, were butchered unresistingly, and then the French' Government, which grievously wanted a site for a convict establishment, determined to take possession of the island. We have no reason to carp at them for doing so. They had as much right to take possession of New Caledonia as we cf Australia, arid they occupied it for precisely the same reasons as ye did Botany Bay.- They took possession on the 24th Septenary 185$. What has been since done we wULjbriefly epitomise a little farther on, **" New Caledonia i» about 140 miles long by 40 broad, and contains about 1200 square leagues. Like meat of the islands of the South Pacific, it is girded with coral reefn 400 miles long. Against this outer barrier the long wall of the outer j ocean breaks in thunder, but within the water is almost constantly smooth, and a vessel passing through any one of the numerous gaps finds i itself at once in a natural harbor. A low chain of hills runs along its entire length, nowhere more than 2000 feet liigh, and capable of being cultivated up to tho top. l/he formation ill the south is serpentine with magnesian limestone. Farther north, argillaceous schut crops out, which gives away to gneiss and mica schist. At one point there is a stratum of crystalline chalk, {with quartz veins.. Though there are no fossils,: the whole formation is nearly identical with the silurian of Australia. On the south-east, a second series of schists form the basin of the JDiaot. At one extremity large beds of whitish clay and chalk appear, with, strong, indications of coals, red clays full of iron, and containing some kaolin y and then another formation of serpentine. So much for the geological formation. The rest is, from the foregoing details, very easily under-' stood. Wlicn-ijlands are situated In tropical regions, four times as long as they are broad, and that breadth only of from thirty to forty miles, of course there can be'no great rivers, only bubbling streams. But of these there seem to be plenty in New Caledonia. From every isolated peak, of which; to judge from the official map now before us, there are any number, the water comes streaming down. Some times it is lost in marshes, but generally it percolates through small valleys lined with the richest vegetable mould. The largest of these rivers, however, are worthless' for shipping, from invariably having fbaro,:at their mouths. The largest of 'them is the Diaot, which runs in at .-the north of the island, ; a very ? pioturesque, beautiful stream, some five or six feet deep; and navigable for boats thirty miles up, with a little landing, pulling, and hauling.- It runs through a beautiful valley. The only level and fertile ground, in fact, are, as might be expected, tKose which are formed by the washing down and detritus of these streams. Everything grows in New Caledonia, cotton especially, and though, knowing from pretty steady experience what the French colonial officials are apt to be, we should not like to advise any of our countrymen, or stiU less our countrywomen, to go arid pla<»themselyes under the aegis of the subjects, of his present Imperial Majesty, still we cannot help thinking that, con- j