A Journal For The

Pacific

LYING right at the front doors of Australia and New Zealand there are Island territories com prising over 200,000 square miles of mostly fertile land, and main taining about 1,250,000 natives, 30,000 Europeans and 80,000 Asia tics.

These Islands are of particular interest to Australia : because they offer an attractive field for Euro pean settlement, enterprise and the investment of capital; because, as they are developed, and settlement increases, and the natives become Europeanised, they provide a growing market for foodstuffs and manufactured goods; and because, as they comprise a vast semi circle of good posts and handy bases, paralleling our shores, their control by friendly powers is es sential to the future safety of the South Pacific section of the British Empire.

That is the British Imperial viewpoint. But there is another — the interests of the Islands com munities themselves. For a hun dred years, they have been merely nations—transferred helplessly to this administration and that, as the fortunes of the Powers waxed or waned. But they have grown, and to-day they can speak force fully and individually on their own account. Even as small units “there are 17 independent admin istrations in the Pacific ! —they compel attention; but if they can get together, to speak as one as sociation or federation on Pacific Islands affairs, no nation can af ford to ignore them. These terri tories are growing, and a move ment towards closer association, pawns in the hands of the great giving united action on matters of common interest, is inevitable— particularly among the British administrations.

The need for a journal that will try to serve the interests of the Pacific communities, while also giving Australia and New Zealand reliable information about the marvellous growth and wealth of the Islands, is apparent.

Mr. Ayson, Resident Commissioner at Rarotonga, had booked by the Tahiti; but he escaped that disaster because he became ill in Wellington, and had to cancel his passage.