The Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR P.M. Resurrexi. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 1883.

Thames Star, Volume XIV, Issue 4628, 3 November 1883, Page 2

The Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR P.M. Resurrexi. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 1883.

The proposal made to form a colonising expedition to New Guinea by General Mclver has had a good effect, if it only has been the cause of making Great Britain recognise the necessity of protecting, if cot annexing, the island in question. The importance of preventing the foreign colonisation of the South Pacific Islands is— owing to the different means used to place the matter before them—beginning to dawn upon British Ministers. Domestic government has hitherto proved enough for them to deal with, and while they have accepted all the benefits derivable from possessing productive and wealthy colonies, they have shown but little disposition to undertake the responsibilities consequent on the ownership. The proposal made was to take possession of the island, form settlements, and protect them. This project seems feasible enough, but upon an objection being offered by the Queensland Government to such a movement, the English authorities could not see their way to sanction the colonisation proposed. The motives of the Queensland Government need not be canvassed ; what we wish to point out, and have previously endeavored to show, is the necessity of preventing the Pacific Islands being made stations for the reception of foreign convicts, and the commercial advantages attached to their annexation to adjacent colonies. Whether labor traffic has been carried on in an improper manner by Queensland or not, does not affect the question of the desirableness of the union of colonial interests. Such things, we take it, are matters to be dealt with according to the laws of the country, buf they should not be used in interference With the interests of the colonies generally. It must remain an indubitable fact, that if the welfare of the British possessions in the South Seas is studied by the parent country.the islands surrounding us must not be used as convict settlements, or for any pappose of so vile a nature, nor should we be submitted to the direful results which might otherwise arise from the unlimited control of any of them by a foreign power. Doubtless the coming conference on the Annexation question will place these matters in a strong light, and cause some little consideration to be given to colonial matters by those in power and authority in England.