THE ITALIAN EXPEDITION TO NEW GUINEA.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIV, Issue 166, 16 May 1879, Page 4

THE ITALIAN EXPEDITION TO NEW GUINEA.

The Italian correspondent of the Sydney Motning Herald, writing from Rome under date March 14, supplies tbe following particulars respecting tbe expedition which it was telegraphed would be sent from Italy to colonise New Guinea. We have since heard, it will be remembered, that tbe expedition had some at present unexplained connectiou with the rising in Albania : — " I have to announce to you tbe approaching birth of a new city, if not on Australian ground, at least within easy hail of it. It is to be called Italia. Somewhere about the end of September or the beginning of October next four screw vessels will be seen steaming in Torres Straits. They will make for jtbe southern coast of New Guinea. Three thousand men will disembark there. They will pitch their tents nnd live partly in them and partly oa board, ship, until an exploring party has decided upon an eligible site, and then tbey will found tbeir city. The leader of the expedition is Meqotti Garibaldi, son of the fatuous general, aod his object is to open a new field and afford an outlet ior, those enterprising spirits who wil! not or cannot settle down to. the uneventful rou.iua.of quiet life. Menotti Garibaldi aad Achilie Fazsari, his

fellow red shirt under his father's company — it wos young Faz_ .ri wbo was Garibaldi's faithful soldior nurse during the many montha he suffered though!, tbe wound he receivel nt Asprommte —have thought out, planned, and I believe completed the arrangements for a colonising expedition to New Guinea, Applications to join it are, sent in ot the rate of about 200 a day; the money, some 30,000,000 franco, for all requirements, is ready, and the leaders expect to have all in order for embarkation at Taranto by the end of July or the beginning of August. The pioneer party will, as I have said, number atout 3COO, the pick of the applications made. I understand that among those who have joined the venture are 30 or more who have sat or are now sitting, as deputies in tho Italian Parliament. Menotti Garibaldi himself is one of the mem berg for Rome. The party is to be divided into two sections —the military i -—headed by Fazzari, for the protection of the settlers against the natives, and the agicultural and industrial, to commence all the work of establishing their Colony. The latter will include handicraftsmen of all tradei and callings, and of all arts and sciences, that of the law only being excluded. No applications for advocates are accepted. Together with the requisite implements for tilling the ground, building their habitations, and all other things that will be necessary, the adventurers take with them printing presses, and, I am told, a telegraphic cable, with which to place themselves at once in communication with Australia, via, I suppose, Cape York. With this expedition, I understand,'the Government have nothing to do beyond affording it moral support, and the leaders are anxious it should be understood they have no idea of attempting, in however small a way, to initiates rivalry with Australia. As the children of Garibaldi tbey have the warmest remembrance of the honor in which England has always held him, and the aid she afforded when he was on his way to Sicily. They are desiroub of coming into contact with Eng lish institutions, work, and enterprise, as illustrated in her grandest colony— of profiting by it for their own honor and their country's good, and of doing all they can to merit Australia's sympathy and deserve her support. They are not ignorant of the difficulties and dangers they are about to encounter, and are prepared to face them. "When this pioneer party have established themselves, recruits will quickly follow, and the leaders look to strengthening their colony on the one hand and affording a resource to a large number of their countrymen on the other by making New Guinea the point of attraction for that 60,000 to 65,000 poor emigrants who leave the shores of Italy every year to find a more miserable iate in the republics of South America."