THE NEW HEBRIDES.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XI, Issue 1683, 13 April 1886, Page 2

THE NEW HEBRIDES.

At a meeting held m Melbourne to oppose the annexation of tho New Hebrides, ono of the speakers said : — " There were five reasons why prompt and rigorous action should be - taken by the Australian colonies to prevent this : barter from being effected, viz. : Thnt the occupation of. the New Hebrides by the French, within firing distance, would be a perpetual menace to Australia ; that the value of Australian trade with Polynesian Islands, between 1871 and 1880 was £6,000,000 sterling, and that the French occupation of the New ! Hebrides, would materially affect our I trade ; that, notwithstanding French '"protestations, the New Hebrides, if \ takon by France, would eventually become a convict settlement; that most of the South Sea Islands were discovered by British sailors, the British fla: had floated over most of them, and to haul it down would be a loss of prestige m the eyes of the natives of. the islands and of the world ; and that British mission-* aries had civilised the South Sea Islands, the London Missionary Society having spent £1,000,000 upon that work, and the Pmbyterian Church of Victoria £160,000 on the evangelisation of the New Hebrides alone. In 1889 the Panama Canal would be completed, and the French bade fair by that time to hare a line of forts from New Caledonia to Panama, and so cut off the trade of the canal from Australia.