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 Owen Stanley (1848), Charles B. Yule (1864), and other British officers, including J. Moresby (1874). Among other explorers in this period the following may be mentioned: Nicholas von Miklucho Maclay in 1870, 1877 and 1879–1881, in the Astrolabe Bay district, &c.; the missionary, Rev. S. Macfarlane (1875, Fly river, &c.); about 1876–1880 the north-east coasts and adjacent islands were explored by the Rev. G. Brown and by Wilfred Powell, and in 1882 Dr Otto Finsch, whose name is well known in connexion with scientific work in New Guinea, made valuable explorations in the neighbourhood of Port Moresby and the Loluki river.

The surveys and reports of Captain Moresby in 1874 brought home to Queensland (and Australia generally) the dangers possible to her commerce were the coasts opposite to Torres Strait and the entrance to the splendid waterway inside the Barrier Reef to fall into the possession of a foreign power. By authority, therefore, of Queensland, the mainland of New Guinea, opposite her shores east of the 141st meridian, was annexed to that colony in 1883. But this action was disallowed by the British government as Yule’s and Moresby’s had been. Finally, however, in 1884 a British protectorate was authoritatively proclaimed by Commodore Erskine over the region “lying between the 141st meridian eastward as far as East Cape, with the adjacent islands as far as Kosman Island.” German New Guinea was annexed on the 16th of November 1884, when the German flag was raised in Friedrich Wilhelmshafen and a trading company was established on the north-east coast, and in 1885 the two countries agreed to fix their boundaries through the then neutral areas of the country. The result of this was the assignation to Great Britain of the portion now known as the Territory of Papua (British New Guinea), lying between the extreme limits of 5° and 12° S. and 141° and 155° E. To Germany were assigned all the territory and islands to the north of the British boundary under the name of Kaiser Wilhelms Land, while all to the west of the 141st meridian remained under its old flag as Dutch New Guinea.

The British Territory of Papua has an area of about 90,540 sq. m. and a population estimated at 400,000, of whom about 600 are Europeans. The Protectorate, as declared in 1884, with its seat of government at Port Moresby, was subsidized by the three Australian colonies of Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria, and lasted, under the administration of two successive special commissioners (Major-General Sir Peter Scratchley and the Hon. John Douglas), till the 4th of September 1888, when it was proclaimed by the first Administrator—afterwards Lieutenant-Governor—Sir William MacGregor, a possession of Queen Victoria. Its constitution was that of a crown colony in association with Queensland; but in 1901 the federal government took control of the territory and in 1906 a proclamation by the governor-general of the commonwealth gave it the name of the Territory of Papua. The lieutenant-governor is aided by an executive and a legislative council, and advised by a native regulation board. justice is administered by petty sessions in the six magisterial districts into which the possession is divided, with a central court at Port Moresby (which, however, sits elsewhere as necessary) having the jurisdiction of a supreme court, from which in certain cases an appeal lies to the supreme court of Queensland. Order is maintained by an armed constabulary force, under a European officer, of about 180, almost all natives from different districts, whose members are found to be very efficient and trustworthy. The expenditure is about £38,000 annually, and the revenue, mainly derived from customs duties, is rapidly increasing. Only £5110 in 1895, it was £11,683 in 1899 and £19,197 in 1905.

The German protectorate of New Guinea, so called after the island which contributes the greatest area, comprehends, besides Kaiser Wilhelms Land, the islands which are now commonly called the Bismarck Archipelago—viz. New Pomerania, New Mecklenburg, with New Hanover and the Admiralty Islands and the Solomon Islands (Bougainville and Buka). There are besides nearly 200 smaller islands and islets scattered among their greater neighbours. In 1884 New Guinea was absolutely wild, not a single white man living on what is now the German part. On the islands New Pomerania and Mioko only two trading firms had their establishments; and on New Lauenburg the Wesleyans had a mission station. After the annexation commercial enterprise set in at once, hand in hand with political administration. Now on the mainland and in the islands plantations have been established and tobacco and cotton have been successfully grown. Three German mission societies formed settlements on New Guinea, with a branch one on the Gazelle peninsula. The protectorate is included in the Universal Postal Union; each harbour has its post office, also a leading official with a number of assistants to control the natives and the revenue. It is divided into two districts with separate administrations, New Guinea and the Bismarck Archipelago; over both presides an imperial governor, the seat of government being Herbertshöhe in New Pomerania. A small police force of natives has been formed. In each district there is a registry of deeds and a court of law, and in New Guinea a court of appeal, of which the governor is president. A line of steamers plies between New Guinea, the Bismarck Archipelago and Singapore. A special silver coin of rupee Value has been introduced. The area of Kaiser Wilhelms Land is approximately 70,000 sq. m. It is impossible to speak with any precision of the number of the native population, but the white population in 1906 was 149.