Australasia / Eight Lectures Prepared for the Visual Instruction Committee of the Colonial Office

by A. J. Sargent

Ocean Island has for us a further interest. North-west of it lies Nauru, where also phosphates are obtained. Nauru belongs to Germany, and the dividing line between the British and German spheres runs between the two islands. If we follow the line south-west, we see that it cuts through the Solomons and then turns sharply west to New Guinea which it divides roughly into halves. Germany shares with the United States the Samoa Islands, north-east of Tonga, but her main sphere of influence is in this western area.

On our voyage to the Solomons we pass another curious island, or rather group of islands. This is Ongtong Java, where the people differ from those of the islands which we have visited up to this point. We are approaching a region where we know little of the character and origin of the natives, a region more backward and savage than any other part of our dominions in the Pacific.

The Solomons consist of a double row of long and narrow islands, with high mountain ridges and many volcanoes, some extinct, others still active. The largest island, Bougainville, at the north end, is German; the rest are British. They have long been known to explorers, but until recently their history tells chiefly of resistance by the natives against Europeans who have attempted to open up intercourse with them. Lately, thanks to the good influence of the missionaries, and perhaps still more to the better regulations made by the agents of the British Government for intercourse between the wild men and the Europeans, considerable advance has been made, and plantations of coconut and other valuable products have been established in many of the larger islands. Many of the tribes, however, are still head-hunters and cannibals. The islands are covered with great forests, and the plants and animals, as well as the natives, resemble to some degree those found in New Guinea. The people go naked for the most part, except for necklaces and bracelets of shells and teeth. Their houses are often built on piles, like those of the Papuans. Here we see 53 a group engaged in a war-dance, and here is one of their curiously ornamented canoes. 54

South-east of the Solomons we pass the Santa Cruz Group; the name, as do many other names in this part of the world, reminds us again of the early voyages of de Quiros the Spaniard, who at the end of the sixteenth century first discovered these distant islands. Spain has disappeared from this part of the Pacific, and the region of islands is divided between Germany to the north, Britain in the Solomons, and Britain and France in the New Hebrides.

Southward from Santa Cruz we pass almost at once the northernmost of the long chain of the New Hebrides, discovered towards the end of the eighteenth century, almost simultaneously, by our own Captain Cook and by the great French admiral Bougainville. Northernmost of all, in the sphere of joint Anglo-French influence, we pass the Torres and Banks Islands, great centres of the famous Melanesian mission. Next we come to Espiritu Santo, or Santo for short, at the northern end of which is the great Bay of St. Philip and St. James, within which, four centuries ago, Quiros built a town—a town which lasted but a few months. He rejoiced greatly because he thought that in that newly discovered land he had reached the beginning of the great Southern Continent which was supposed to extend thence to the Antarctic regions.

Here and there round Santo there are a few mission stations, and a few fairly prosperous plantations, some English and some French; but the natives in the interior are still very wild and occasionally raid the European settlements. Here we see a vast crowd of natives celebrating a feast. Now it is a peaceful 55 ceremony: it was far different in the past.

Next, still steaming southward, we pass between two rows of islands, until, about where the two rows join, we come to the Island of Efate, with its growing town of Vila, the centre of Anglo-French administration. Here is the seat of the Joint Court, and many buildings of almost European type have recently been erected for its use.

Still further south the New Hebrides reach, now in a single line, almost down to the Loyalty Islands and New Caledonia. These last two places are, however, purely French possessions, and we may pass them by.

From Vila the Governor in his warship would probably return eastward to Fiji. We may leave him at Vila and take either the French or the British steamer, which calls there once a month, and so make our way direct to Sydney. But before leaving the subject of the New Hebrides we may note that the islands of this group are largely volcanic, and the people are not unlike those of the Solomons, though perhaps rather less savage. Here we have a picture showing their 56 former method of receiving visitors. It was from these two groups that the brown labour for the Queensland plantations was largely recruited in times past. The New Hebrides are fertile, though not healthy for Europeans; and when they have been reduced to some order by white administration they may develop a trade with Australia in various vegetable products; since they are not limited to the coconut as are so many of the coral atolls. The picture before us with 57 its coral reefs, its forest and its background of volcanic hills, gives a very good idea of the scenery of these islands.