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NEW GUINEA

Shipping and Communications.

During the year 1897 the total number of merchant vessels entered at the ports of entry as arriving in the colony was 103 steamers of 113,830 tons, and 26 sailing vessels of 10,298 tons. Of these vessels 119 were British, 3 Ameri- can, 5 Norwegian, 1 Tongan, and 1 French, Total tonnage entered and cleared in 1897, 248,015 tons.

Fiji is in regular steam communication with New Zealand, New South Wales, Tonga and Samoa, via Vancouver, the Islands are within 30 days of London.

The registered shipping in 1898 consisted of 8 sailing vessels and 2 steamers of, in all, 492 tons. At the end of 1897 there were 189 local vessels holding sea-going certificates from the Marine Board, with a total tonnage of 2,076 ; 73 of these vessels were owned by Europeans (tonnage 1,072) and 116 by natives (tonnage 1,004). There is also a subsidised inter-island steamer trading regularly in the Group. Steam launches run daily from Suva to Rewa and Navua (where there are sugar mills) and bi-weekly to Levuka.

In 1897 there passed through the post-ofFice in local correspondence 257,020 letters, 172,576 papers, and 29,084 book-packets; and in foreign correspond- ence 139,173 letters, 147,587 papers, 25,795 book-packets, and 1,047 parcels. A Money Order system has been established with the United Kingdom, Canada, and the Australian Colonies.

Moneys, weights, and measures are the same as in the United Kingdom.

Books of Reference.

Annual Blue Book and Colonial Office Report.

Allen (W.), Rotunia. [In Report of Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science, January, 1895]. Sydney.

Calvert and Williams, Fiji and the Fijians.

Colonial Government Handbook to Fiji. Suva, 1892.

Cooper {B.. Stonehewer), Coral Islands of the Pacific. 2 vols. London, 1880.

Gumming (Miss Gordon), At Home in Fiji. London, 1SS2.

£r«/d7ie (Capt. J. E.), The Western Pacific. London, 1853. *

Gordon and Ootch, Australian Handbook for 1897. Melbourne, 1897.

Home (John), A Year in Fiji : Botanical, Agricultural, and Economical Resources o the Colony. 8. London, 1881.

PritcharcHyf. T.), Polynesian Reminiscences. London, 18G6.

Reed (W.), Recent Wanderings in Fiji. London, 1888.

Seeman (Berthold), Government Mission to the Fijian Islands. London, 1862.

Thomson (Basil), Fiji for Tourists. [Canadian-Australian Steamship Line]. London, 1897.

Waterhouae, Fiji : its King and People.

NEW GUINEA, BRITISH.

This possession is the south-eastern part of the island of New Guinea with the islands 'of the D'Entrecasteaux and Louisiade groups, and all islands between 8° and 12° S. latitude, and 141° and 155 E. longitude. It is bounded on the west by the Dutch and on the north by the German possessions. The total area is 90,540 square miles, and the population about 350,000, of whom 250 are Europeans.

The government of British New Guinea is founded on the British New Guinea Act of November, 1887, and on Letters Patent issued June 8, 1888.