The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1875-07-10

Lord Carnarvon having III the British Parliament
expressed his anxious desire to learn tine opinion of
Australia respecting the annexation of New Guinea,
the Sydney morning Herald devotes a column to the
subject. concluding as follows
The two chief reasons for annexing New Guinea
if annexed 1t is 10 be-appear TO be the commercial
and military ones. 1t win greatly contribute to the
profitable working of the Torres Straits mail to have
an intermediate port carrying On q large trade with
the mainland; and if so valuable All island as this
were occupied by an English settlement, such a trade
must necessarily arise. The military argument is
based on the fact that the island is midway between
the Indian and Australian territories Of Great Bri-
tain, and III time of war its great natural advantages
could be turned to good account by a Foreign Power,
as q base of operations, especially againt Australia.
If Sydney and Melbourne are valuable stations for
giving England the command of the southern sea,
then New Caledonia, Java, and New Guinea, in hos
tile hands, might become equally dangerous rivals.
Blu. wars a game which, were their subjects wise,
Kings would not play al.
Such wisdom. however, is yet far from being univer-
sal, and the political horizon of Europe is stormy
enough to justify precaution. From no European
Power has Australia anything to fear on her own &C
count; but she is part and parcel of the British
Empire; and if this should be found the most vul-
nerable part, it is here that the enemy's blows would
be struck. 1t is for the sake Of the empire, there
fore, and not for the sake Of Australia, that precau-
tionary measures are required. No one who consi-
ders the resources Of New Guinea and its central
situation, right on the route of our Indian, Chinese,
u auoLIdildu iEdOt, uUuDL 0 n I0OuSnL tQdt,
in the event of war between Great Britain and any
frst-rate Power, it will be far better for US to have
that island than to leave it in the hands Of our foe.
But if the danger is an Imperial one, the protection
ought to be Imperial, too. We have quite enough
on our hands in governing the continent already in
our possession. We have neither men nor money to
spare for the purpose of founding another colony;
and under no circumstances would our people consent
to taxation over the expenditure of which they can
have no control. Possibly, at no distant day, an
Imperial Parliamen. may assemble that shall fairly
represent every part Of the British dominions, and
then a general taxation for Imperial purposes will be
possible. Till then our own legitimate enterprises are
quite as much as we can understand; and our an
swer to Lord CarnarvOn must be that we think it a
capital thing to annex, not only the available portion
Of New Guinea, but also all Polynesia, on the essen
tisl conditions that the respective inhabitants are
willing, and that the cost of it fall upon the Imperial
exchequer. Whether the vigorous foreign policy of
the Conservative Government be equal to a task like
that, we must wait to see. So far, no one has pro-
posed to relieve the Imperial exchequer of the ex-
pense of colonizing New Guinea-if colonized it is to
be; and we cannot help the conviction that, without
some such proposition. the opinion Of Australia will
not count for much in determining the policy of the
United Kingdom.