“Stop Them!”

Model Colonists Not Wanted in French Oceania

rtE following references to the pro posed Briggs expedition, to establish a model colony in the Marquesas Is lands (in Pranch Oceania, in the Far East of Polynesia) occur in private letters recently received from Tahiti.

Prom an old resident of Papeete;— “I see that those crazy folk are still going ahead, as to the Marquesas. Can not you do something to stop the fools?

“Do they know that they have first to obtain the consent of the Governor, at Papeete, even to enter those isles, much more to colonise? It is highly improbable that he would consent—indeed I feel pretty certain that he would refuse. There is a very heavy fee for residence, lately put on to keep out undesirables.

“Those islands are best described as Isles of Desolation. Drought is constant, with direful results. A friend of mine has lately returned. He went, keen; he re turned, disillusioned. Pood was scarce and the price of purchased goods staggered him. Wi “Do try to stop a tragedy, which it would surely be if entry was allowed.

There is no glamour about those isles, save in travel books and the minds of the crazy.”

From our Tahiti correspondent: “I was informed to-day (July 5) by the secretary of the Governor that the Briggs expedition will not be permitted to go to or land on any of the Marquesas Islands.

No foreigner can even visit these islands without the express and written consent of the Governor of the Colony.

“The land in this colony is being re served for the natives—under the policy of the present Administration —and no plantation land is permitted to pass, by purchase or otherwise to Europeans.”