239
from 1st June to the 31st December, and an estimate of probable receipts and expenditure from the 1st of January to the 1st June 1887, being the termination of the financial year.
I have, &c. (Signed) JOHN DOUGLAS,
The Right Hon. the Secretary of State for the Colonies.
&c.
&c.
&c.
(Confidential.)
Enclosure I in 20.
MEMORANDUM. (Extract.)
19.
GOVERNOR SIR G. C. STRAHAN, K.C.M.G. (TASMANIA), to the RIGHT HON. THK EARI. GRANVILLE, K.G. (Received September 20, 1886.)
Government House, August 7, 1886.
MY LORD,
I HAVE the honour to transmit to your Lordship copy of a communication which has been addressed by the Premier of Tasmania to the Premier of Queensland on the subject of the amount of the contribution of Tasmania to the expenses of the New Guinca Protectorate.
I have, &c. (Signed)
The Right Hon. the Earl Granville, K.G.,
&c.
&c.
&c.
Enclosure in 19.
GEO. C. STRAHAN.
SIR,
Premier's Office, Hobart, July 2, 1886. WITH reference to the draft proposals for the future administration of the Government of British New Guinea, as forwarded with your communication of the 3rd May last, I have the honour to inform you that this matter having received the careful consideration of the Government, Ministers are prepared to propose to the ensuing Parliament the appropriation of a similar sum to that contributed by Tasmania † during the last two years towards the expenses connected with the Protectorate.
I desire to add that this action is taken, not because Tasmania as any marked interest in New Guinea, but because the Government wish to act in a spirit of loyalty to the cause of Federation.
The Honourable the Premier of Queensland,
Brisbane.
20.
I have, &c. (Signed)
J. W. AGNEW.
JOHN DOUGLAS, Esq., C.M.G. (New GUINEA), to the RIGHT HON. EDWARD STANHOPE, M.P. (Received October 26, 1886.)
Port Kennedy, Thursday Island,
SIR,
September 1, 1886.
I HAVE the honour to enclose, herewith, a memorandum parked "Confidential,” on certain matters connected with the Protectorate, together with certain statements of accounts, showing the actual and probable receipts and expenditure for the current year,
• Word unintelligible.
† 6301,
REVENUE AND RESOURCES.
The immediate prospects of revenue are not encouraging, unless the waste lands are appropriated for that purpose.
A few hundreds a year may be collected by an export duty on cedar, and I have given notice that the granting of permission to cut cedar will be conditional on the payment of an export duty of Is. (one shilling) per 100 (one hundred) feet; but unless Europeans are encouraged to remain in the country by giving them some security in the tenure of land, I see but small chance of raising a revenue. The chief want of the Natives is tobacco, and everything is paid for either in tobacco or tomahawks. They attach very little value to calico or to beads. At Port Moresby they are beginning to like rice, and sometimes they prefer to be paid for work in the form of rice rather than in the form of tobacco. Trade tobacco, costing 1s. 3d. per pound, is the currency of the country. According to the best information I can obtain, 27,000 (twenty-seven thousand) ibs., or over 12 tons, of tobacco were imported last year into British New Guinea. It would be possible to tax this, and if a duty of 2s. 6d. per pound were levied in accordance with the Queensland scale, this would, on an estimate of last year's consumption, produce a revenue of 3,3751. (three thousand three hundred and seventy- five pounds). But this would just treble the cost of everything obtained from the Natives, either in the form of produce or of labour, and would be the most serious hindrance to trade which could be devised.
At
It has been suggested also that some revenue could be raised from copra in the form of tribute. But the production of cocoanuts for the copra is still very small, and will not be large unless cocoanuts are grown for the purpose. At present in the districts where coacoanuts are grown the supply is not much in excess of the local demand. the east end of the island, at Milne Bay, and possibly at Motu Motu on the Papuan Gulf to the westward of Hall Sound, a few hundred tons of copra might be obtained, but I feel satisfied that the present available supply would then be exhausted. It would be possible also to obtain a small contribution to the revenue from the Pearl Shelling and Beche-de-mer boats which frequent the coast. On the Tait River and at Katow, in the western portion of the Protectorate, there are a few boats already licensed under the Queensland Act, and chiefly fishing in Queensland waters. At Port Moresby less is now being done in Beche-de-iner fishing than there was last year, and indeed, the industry there is at present dormant. In the Louisiade Group, and at the east end, centreing at Teste Island, something is being done in Beche-de-mer, but nothing to justify the expectation of any considerable trade in the immediate future. One who clears
man,
out from Cooktown, has found good pearl shell near Joannet Island, and is doing very fairly well, but as yet nothing has been found to justify such a rush as that which has taken place in the fisheries on the north-west coast of Australia. It is evident, therefore, that the prospects of revenue from these sources are not great at present, and that if they are to be increased the industries from which they may hereafter be derived must be carefully nursed and encouraged.
The
A small contribution to the Revenue might be obtained from a gun inx. importation of arms for the use of the Natives is strictly prohibited, and as a matter of fact, the Natives do not possess firearms, though the Brooker Islanders are said to possess some Snider rifles, without ammunition. At the present time there may be
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