Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1913.djvu/972

 850 FRANCE : — AUSTRALASIA AND OCEANIA

Noumea, the capital, has a municipality ; other centres of population are locally administered by municipal commissions. The colony contains a penal settlement at Nou Island. Since 1896, however, no convicts have been sent thither, and the convict element in the population is quickly decreasing. Area, 7,650 square miles. The penal population comprised 6,741 men and 293 women; total 7,034; of whom 1,750 were convicts undergoing hard labour; 3,980 were freed; and 1,404 were simply relegues (banished). In 1912 the population was 50,608, of whom 13,138 were free, 5,671 of convict origin, and 28,075 black. Noumea had (1912) 8,961 inhabitants, of whom 5,207 were free. The immigrants from France are not numerous. Other immigrants are Javanese, Tonkinese, Indians, and islanders from the New Hebrides to the number of 3,000. Primary instruction is provided in public and also in private elementary schools, the latter being assisted by the municipalities. In 1912 there were 94 public and private primary schools with 2,018 pupils (987 being girls). There is a secondary school at Noumea with 110 pupils. Local budget for 1912, receipts, 3,969,630 francs, expenditure, 3,688,602 francs. The expenditure of France on the colony in ;the budget of 1913 was 2,869,443 francs, the greater part of which was for the penal establishment. In 1912 the military force consisted of 400 Europeans. Of the total area more than half is mountainous or not cultivable; about 1,600 square miles is pasture land ; about the same area is cultivated or cultivable ; and about 500 square miles contain forest which is being worked. The land is divided into 3 domains : that of the state (in which gratuitous concessions may be made) ; that of the penal estab- lishment (about 400 square miles) ; and that of the native reserve. The chief agricultural products are coffee, coprah, cotton, manioc (cassava) maize, tobacco, bananas, pine-apples. There are 100,000 cattle and about 5,000 sheep. Local industries develop slowly ; there are a grain storage and cleaning depot, a perfumery manufactory and meat preserving Avorks. About 199,798 hectares of mining land are owned and 97,660 hectares have been granted for prospecting. There were 32 mining concessions in 1910, employing altogether 3,521 workmen, mostly Japanese. In 1911 the mineral export comprised nickel ore, 120,059,297 metric tons ; and cobalt and chrome ore, 32,806,098. The value of the mineral export was 4,745,831 francs. The imports in 1911 were valued at 606,223Z.,_and the exports at 523,970^. The imports comprise wine, coal, flour, rice; the exports, minerals, coffee, copra, rubber, guano. In 1911, 117 vessels of 188,612 tons entered and 126 of 193,074 tons cleared at the port of Noumea. Noumea is connected with Sydney in N. S. Wales by a steamer sailing monthly, and by other vessels sailing irregularly. There is a mail service by steamer along the coast. A railway from Noumea to Bourail (90 miles) is under construction ; it is open for traffic to Dumb^a (about 10 miles). Harbour improvements are in progress ; a pier and a slip are being constructed, dredging operations are about to begin, and a wharf and a dry dock are contemplated. There are 580 miles of telegraph line and 115 of telephone line.

Dependencies of New Caledonia are :

1. The Isle of Pines, 30 miles to the south-east, with an area of 58 square miles and a population of about 600.

2. The Wallis Archipelago, north-east of Fiji, with an area of 40 square miles and about 4,500 inhabitants. The islands were placed under the French protectorate in 1887. There is a French Resident, and the archipelago is in regular communication with Noumea.