21

A.—s

discord and pillage in one part of the territory, and the exclusion of settlers from waste portions of the other. The local Government will therefore have to interfere, as in all colonies and communities under British rule, subject to the approval of the Colonial Office, to determine and adjust the territorial relations existing between various tribes, in order that certain lands and their products maybe secured to them in their true sense. And it is equally impossible to believe that a paternal Government could suffer the plans for the general good to be thwarted through the prejudice and obstinacy of a tribe or some of its members, influenced very possibly by a " beach-comber " who has married one of their women, or by any other equally obstructive person who has gained undue ascendancy over them. The fact is that all the public actions and expressions of those charged with establishing the Protectorate show that they simply and solely intended to guard the aborigines against unscrupulous adventurers. In this connection Commodore Brskine left the Eegulation 4 —" No settlement or acquisition of land is on any account to be permitted." Why does Mr. Lawes not quote this statement ? Purely, I believe, because he is aware that it could not possibly be construed as applying to a local Government in any literal sense. If he wishes, however, to treat Eegulation No. 4 in this inflexible spirit, it would be satisfactory to know whether the Mission have been, careful, in obtaining their stores since November, 1884, to abide by the stringent Eegulations Nos. 2 and 3, in respect of the landing of spirituous liquors, firearms, gunpowder, &c. It is noteworthy that the Eev. Mr. McFarlane holds diametrically opposite views on the subject of settlement to those of Mr. Lawes ; and his opinion is entitled to more weight. He founded the mission in British New Guinea, and has resided here considerably longer. His knowledge of the portions of Eastern New Guinea and the islands is co-extensive with that of Mr. Lawes, while he has travelled much in the western division, with which part of the territory Mr. Lawes is unfamiliar. In a lecture given in Brisbane in January last, prior to his final retirement from mission work, he summarises his experience gained during fifteen years, and encourages strongly the idea of settlement and the development of local natural resources. I append copies of some interesting extracts from the lecture as reported in the Brisbane Courier of the 30th January last. The expression, "He would like to.see the.country thrown open to-morrow," is remarkable, as signifying the abolition of all checks upon the indiscriminate intercourse between aliens and indigenes, and appears to discredit the system of permits to aliens which the late Special Commissioner introduced as a wise temporary measure of precaution in the interests of both foreigners and aborigines. Finally, in respect of the acquisition of lands in the district of Port Moresby to which this correspondence more particularly applies. As the friendly dictation or compulsion of a paternal Government towards its " wards of the Crown" ought not easily to be confounded with the callous and selfish greed and action of the " evil-disposed persons " mentioned in the Queen's Proclamation, I cannot see the fairness or the force of the objections of Mr. Lawes to what he defines as " compulsory sale," more especially as he knows that other lands of equal value are in the hands of the local Government for substitution, in lieu of a usual payment in "trade," should the native landowners whose property is in question express a preference in the matter. What Mr. Lawes describes as a " compulsory sale " is precisely what it is now proposed to do in Ireland in order to set agrarian matters on a stable and equitable basis. Sacrifice of individual interests on a reasonably assessed value for public purposes and the general good is an admitted principle, as I understand it, in all forms of administration, and I see no hardship in applying it to British New Guinea, either in the case of European immigrants or a barbarous population who could not understand or forecast the advantages they must necessarily derive from contact with higher grades of civilisation and various public improvements. Mr. Lawes indeed admits the principle in the case of land urgently required for a cemetery, nor would he probably urge a serious protest against a road being provided to that point, whether or not the natives suffered some temporary dissatisfaction on the subject. I have dealt thus at length with the subject because I desire that your Excellency should not think I have avoided any difficulty which presents itself. This Protectorate, I need hardly say, is no exceptional point of the globe worthy to be jealously guarded in its primitive state. It is no scene where an innocent and united people dwell in conditions of Arcadian simplicity and peace and plenty, which should be sympathized with and respected. I believe the natives to be susceptible of improvement; but they have all the vices and customs of savages, and will require an extraordinary union of firmness and consideration in their management. Perpetual murders a.nd intertribal butcheries of the most revolting nature, arising from frivolous or superstitious pretexts, are of almost daily occurrence within the Protectorate. Were Mr. Lawes and his teachers all disarmed tomorrow, and Her Majesty's ships withdrawn from the coast for a year or two, it is hardly doubtful, to my mind, what the fate of the Mission would be, even after its fifteen years of association with the coast tribes at various points. A. Musgrave, Jun., Assistant Deputy-Commissioner.

Bxteacts from Lectuee by the Eev. S. McFablane, 29th January, 1886. * * * * * * * " He would tell them something that they did not write about at the time, and that was that the missionaries discovered gold there* in 1875. He was not such a fool as to write about the matter, or there would have been a rush of people there, many of whom would probably have lost their lives, and the goldfield might have been 500 miles distant. He knew a place where a nugget had been picked up on the beach, but he did not know where it came from. Gold was the most widely distributed of all metals, and the fact of their finding grains of gold did not prove that the. field from which it came was within hundreds of miles

* On the Maioassa Eiver.