Link With Annexation
p. 66 · Read in the full issue
Of Papua
Letter to the Editor fIIHE paragraph appearing in October A “PIM” regarding the marriage of Miss Florence Scroxton to Mr. Neville Chester recalls the annexation in 1883 of Papua by the bridegroom’s great-grand father.
The proclamation to annex that ter ritory was made by the then Premier of Queensland on behalf of the Queensland Government, and Mr. H. M. Chester, then an official at Thursday Island, went to Port Moresby where he raised the British flag on April 4, 1883. That decisive action, described as statesman-like and far sighted, has no parallel in Australian political history.
The annexation was repudiated by the British Government but was reconsidered after Germany annexed the present Man dated Territory of New Guinea. In 1887, at the Colonial Conference, the Colonies of Queensland, New South Wales and Vic toria, pledged themselves to guarantee £15,000 a year for ten years towards the cost of governing the new territory, (which we now know as Papua), con ditionally upon Her Majesty’s sovereignty being proclaimed.
Thereupon the territory was formally annexed as a British possession and Sir William MacGregor, who subsequently be came Governer of Queensland, was ap pointed Administrator. He held office from 1888 to 1898 and was Governer of Queensland from 1909 to 1914. He died in 1919.
I am, etc.,
J.M.H.
Kelvin Grove, Brisbane, November 16, 1946.