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Rh formally refusing to sanction the act of annexation. At this time it was well known that Germany was meditating the project of taking possession of a part, or the whole of New Guinea; and yet Lord Derby affirmed that there appeared to be no reason for supposing that any Foreign Power harboured such a design. His lordship objected, moreover, to the unnecessarily vast extent, as he deemed it, of the territory annexed by Mr. Chester. The utmost that his lordship would concede was that possibly a protectorate might be established over the coast tribes, under the direction of the High Commission for the Western Pacific, but absolute annexation was quite out of the question.

Australian Colonists remonstrate.—This fresh rebuff, instead of paralysing the Australian colonists, only roused them to greater activity. Mr. Service, Premier of Victoria, was the first to move in the matter. He asked the Governments of the other Colonies to send delegates to an Intercolonial Convention, at which this and other questions would be considered. The request met with immediate and general compliance. Accordingly, the Convention assembled in Sydney in November, 1883; all the Australasian Colonies were represented, and the Governor of Fiji, Sir G. W. Des Voeux, was present, but did not vote. Resolutions affirming the desirability of promptly and effectually securing the incorporation with the British Empire of such parts of New Guinea as were not claimed by the Netherlands Government, were unanimously adopted.

Proposal of a British Protectorate.—To such an emphatic expression of the wishes of the Australian Colonists, Lord Derby could not be indifferent. In May of the following year his lordship addressed a despatch to the Governor of Queensland, intimating that the Imperial authorities were inclined to sanction the appointment of a High Commissioner for New Guinea, provided that the Australian Colonies would agree to pay a subsidy of £15,000 per annum towards the expense of a protectorate. At once the two Colonies of Queensland and Victoria offered to guarantee, between them, payment of the whole amount, and the other Colonies subsequently consented to pay each its quota of contribution, but upon condition that annexation was really intended by the Imperial Government.