A NEW BRITISH SETTLEMENT.

New Zealander, Volume 1, Issue 33, 17 January 1846, Page 4

A NEW BRITISH SETTLEMENT.

We copy the following interesting article from one of our contemparories :— " If the journals of our Eastern possesions be rightly informed, government is about to lake a very important and interesting step in a quarter of the world full of commercial capabilities, and intimately connected with the stability of our political i elations, and the extension of our trade with China, as also with the prosperity of our Australasian colonies. It is the formation of a Biitish settlement off the northern coast of Borneo, in the Indian Archipelago. Laboan, a small adjacent island, midway between Singapore and the Philippines, with a line and well frequented harbor, inhabited by a freindly people, who are prepared to welcome us, and possessing extensive beds of coal, has been selected for settlement by Captain Bethune,R.N., who lately visited Borneo and its northern islands on a political mission, and found their chiefs anxious to secure the friendship and alliance of the British government. A settlement at Laboan will almost perfect the chain of outposts that connects by means of steam navigation, Southampton with Victoria in Hong-Kong, namely — Southampton, Mai ta, Alexandria, Suez, Aden, Galle, Singapore, and Laboan. It will require only another such acquisition as the last named in the Andamans, or(betterstill, for there the Danish exploring expedition found coal,) the Nicobars, between Galle and Singapore, to complete the watering ports and coal depots that link Great Britian to China. We already have bound British North America, the West Indies, Ceylon cind India to the dominant country by steam navigation. We are now riveting China by the same bonds, and are about to open out the Indian Archipelago to commerce, civilization, and Christianity, by the like agency. Nor is it likely that our Australasian possesions will remain long without the advent from Laboan of this the greatest of modern improvements. Thus, in a very few years we may expect to see the world fairly belted by the steam navy of England. A British settlement off the hoi them coast of Borneo will be no novelty. When in 1762, Junius's Sir W. Draper captured Manilla, he found in captivity the Sultan of Sooloo. Sir William liberated him, and agreed to replace him on the throne of his ancestors on condition that he ceded to England, all his claims to the Island of Borneo. These terms were accepted and fulfilled by England ; but it was not until 1773, ten years afterwards, that the East India Company availed themselves of the Sultan's cession ; and then only by forming a settlement on the land of Palambangan, at the most northerly point of Borneo. Disease and native treachery destroyed this settlement ; and though it was re-established in 1802 by Lord Wellcsley, when Governor-General of India, it was withdrawn by orders from home- Subsequently, the temporary acquisition of Java, afterwards settlements on the coabt of Summatra, and on their cession in 1824, to the Dutch, the formation of Singapore diverted our attention from the more southern portions of the vast, populous, and fertile Archipelago. But gradually the seltish and grasping attempts of the Dutch to monopolize in violation of its treaty stipulations with us, its whole trade, their monstrous and cruel wars against the natives of Sumatra, their illegal impositions on our commerce with Java, their formation of se.ret and, because secret, unlawful treaties with native pi inces, and their unlawful exclusion of British trade from the Molucca or Spice Islands, were re-directing the vision of our government south of Singapore, when the Chinese war broke out, and exhibited the Indian Archipelago in all its political importance. Useful as Singapore undoubtedly was to us during these hostilities, iis position was, it became obvious, too far north; and the inconvenience of having between it and China clusters of the most valuble islands infested by pirates became, ofcouise, very apparent. Mr. Brooke, too, a member of the Yacht Club, who had, unaided, formed a settlement of his own in Borneo, overtin owing usurpation, and raising legitimacy to its lightful tin one, brought the importance of thai island still more prominently before the authorities' So the Chinese war over, Captain

Keppell was comraisioned to chastise native ! piracy j and that he did most effectually and gallantly. One step leads to another. Captain Bethurae followed on apoltical mission to Borneo Proper ? Mr. Brooke has been appointed confidential agent of government in the island j and Laboan has been selected as a spot suitable for a British settlement. To such a settlement in the Indian archipelago there can be but one political objection, and that under all the circumstances, not a very formidable one. It arises out of the treaty of 18J4, which regulates the relations of England and Holland m those seas By the 12th article of that treaty England engaged, lhat no British establishment shall be made on the Caraman Isles, or on the islands of Bantam, Bustany, Lingen, or on any of the other islands south of the Straits of Singapore *' Hitherto, it ha* oeeu argued by the Dutch, jealous of any interlerenc in the trade of the Archipelago, that the words in italics prevent our forming settlements in any of the islands between Singapore or the Moluccas. But this, even reading the article isolated from the rest of the treaty, is clearly too wide an interpretation: all that the words 'or on any other islands south of the Straits ol Singapore 1 mean is, islands similiar m geographical position and political bearings to the other islands expressly named; that is, 1o the other small islands adjacent to* the Dutch Sumatra settlements and to Java. So read the article is a corresponding obligation on our part to that by which Holland engaged not to form settlements on the peninsular of Malacca, where our establishments were, But that the aiticle, however vaguely expressed, was never meant to exclude us from forming settlements on the greater islands of Borneo, the Celebes, or their satelite isles, is proved by the 6th article ; by which it is agreed that orders shall be given by the two governments to their officers and agents in the east 'not to form any new settlements on any of the islands in the Eastern Seas without previous authority from their respective governments in Europe,' —an agreement that would be altogether unilateral were the Dutch reading of the 12th article to prevail, seeing that all the really valuable 'islands in the Eastern Seas' are ,south of Straits of Singapore.' All, then, that is necessary to enable us, in strict conformity with the treaty, to form a settlement on Laboan-, is previous notice in Europe to Holland tbat such is our intention ; and the sooner it is given the better. The effect on tiade. civilization, and Christianity, on the welfare of the Auchipelago, on the stability of our relations with China, and on our political strength generally, of a settlement off the northern coast of Borneo, well chosen and snpported by two or three armed steamers, cannot we think be reasonably exaggerated. Piratical insecurity depreses the trade, industry, and production of the fine islands in these seas. The existence of a British settlement and the coercive presence of a few Britsh ships would quickly suppress Malay piracy, and encourage the rapid developement of native trade. With British commerce, civilization and true religion would penetrate into the islands and drive out superstition, barbarism, and error. A British settlement midway between Singapore and Ho n g Kong would open out the resources of the Philippine Islands, besides increasing, our, military strength ond our political influence over China. During 20 years' Dutch supremacy the Indian Archipelago has retrograded ; under five years* English supremacy it might be converted into one of the most flourishing parts of the world and aid meterially in assisting the progress of our Australian colonies and of New Zealand. And though last certainly not least, it would more than compensate us for the subjection of Tahiti and other islands in the Pacific to France.