THE AUCKLAND ISLANDS.

Grey River Argus, Volume VIII, Issue 576, 25 September 1869, Page 4

THE AUCKLAND ISLANDS.

The Telegraph comments upon the visit of H.M.S. Blanche to these Islands as follows >— " Her Majesty's ship Blanche, being at the Antipodes along with! the Duke of Edinburgh's. ship Galatea and the Challenger, was despatched, to. the Auckland group, aa agent in distraining for rent '.upon certain premises;' to wit, ; 'the islands and other lauds demised to persons named Enderby, by lease dated on Or about the Ist of March, 384 f, the rent thereby reserved not having been paid.' Cromwell once sent a ship of war as an, ambassador ; .but this was the first time in history, we should think, that a vessel of the Royal Navy carried a writ from the Court of Common Pleas, and ploughed the billows to do the work of a bumbailiff. It was probably the -first time, tooi that a distress warrant was ever levied, upon an archipelago, and that Britannia had to ' put in a bailiff's man' for arrears of reaV. Having a ship to spare, and nothing better to do with her for the time, Britannia has naturally enough looked u^ the deserted bit of property ; and the Auckland Islands are once more 'in tha occupation of the owner.' Before 1806, they were totally uninhabited ; . and we are not aware that there is- .anybody upon the little group now ! Stay! surely there must be a broker's man on them still — for, if not, what is to prevent the 'Flying Dutchman' or anybody else from making Li nself at home upon the islands ? John Dne or Richard Roe must certainly be left in possession; and the imagination fondly dwells upon the wretched official, and wonders how .he likes it. Does he wander on thr sands, taking inventories of the penguins and limpets, "and g«tttng the whale skeletons ticketed and ready for ike : sale by auction. Does he label the t>ld oil-casks, and count up the rotten planks and timbers of the whalers wrecked there ? The islands would not prove such a bad bargain either, if any gentleman were desirous of renting a sea-girt empire of convenient size, with unquestionable ' water privileges.' The whales are said to be coming back; and, for anybody of an enterprising mind, near at hand lies the vast and mysterious Antarctic Continent, in which — for ■ anything that is known to the contrary — there may :be found the Elixir of Life, the Philosopher's Stone, gold mines absolutely, without limit, or any other now incredible marrel. Right through the. globe, almost beneath our feet, lie these dolightful islands, in an excellent position for a per-planetary tunnel — should M. de. Lesseps turn his attention that way, after the opening' of the Suez Canal in November next. "jnTio wants to take the lease of a snvig little insular kingdom ?-^-for why should wjj be ashamed of playing estate-agents- when the British navy thinks k no degradation to t&k§ a turn at being sheriffs officer {"