Volume 14 Australasia - dana ward's homepage

FEEXCH MELANESIA. 351tary post. Most of the ores are shipped at Caillou, on the Diahot estuary. Theroad from this port leads across themountaiu down to the historic village of Balade,the first sighted by Cook in 1774, and the first occupied by the French in ISoS.Kuuala, founded in 1859, may be regarded as the ciipital of the east coast ;itlies near a deep inlet, completely sheltered by a hilly peninsula, and is both amining and agricultural centre. The nickel of Kanala, Hoaailou and Thio,worked almost exclusively by Australian miners, who spread the English languageamongst the natives, is the richest and purest hitherto discovered in any partof the world.A few short railways traverse the mining districts ;but the general communicationsare still in a backward state, notwithstanding the fact that the governmenthas at its disposal over ten thousand labourers.The inhabited islands depending on New Caledonia—Art and Pott in the north,the Island of Pines at the southern extremity of the barrier reefs— have neitherlarge villages nor frequented ports. The last mentioned is a penal settlement,where the three thousand Communists, formerly working in the forest clearings,have now been replaced by Kanaka exiles, invalid or aged convicts, and otherscondemned to perpetual banishment.In the Lojalty group the centre of administration is established at Chepenehe,in the island of Lifu, a port frequented by traders from Sj-dney.Some 300 miles west of New Caledonia, a large atoll, comprising the islets ofChesterfield, Bampton and Avon, occupies the centre of the waters flowing betw eeuNew Caledonia and the Great Barrier Reef south of the Coral Sea. In 1878,France took possession of this group, though it had been discovered by Englishnavigators in 1793, and afterwards surveyed by British exploring expeditions.Great Britain and Australia have accordingly protested against this politicalannexation. Chesterfield and the neighbouring islets, formerly much frequentedby whalers, have some guano deposits worked by a few traders.Administration.Till 1860, New Caledonia was regarded as a dependency of the FrenchOceanic establishments, of which Tahiti was the centre. Now it is administeredby aGovernor assisted by a Colonial Council, comprising the chief local officials,two notables, and some municipal delegates. Noumea is the only communepossessing a municipal council, the colonists in the rest of the island beingrepresented by an elective Colonial Council, and in France by a special delegate tothe Colonial Office. The judicial system is the same as in France, the nativechiefs acting as magistrates for crimes committed in the tribe. The police, also,are recruited from the natives in Noumea and throughout the island.New Caledonia proper comprises the five circumscriptions of Noumea, Kanala,Bourail, Oubache and the North. The yearly budget varies from £80,000 to £120,000,and since the occupation the colony has cost France altogether £8,000,000.