''GREAT BRITAIN.                          
  533

victorious party as domestic slaves for life. Under this government they
have been
allotted to work for a fixed period. asAfleld-hands,
  63. Commodore Goodenough has sent to the lords commissioners of the admiralty
a chart of the Fiji Islands, upon which all the latest information has been
collected by
Navigating-Lieutenant Henry Hosken, of Her Majesty's ship Pearl; the emenda-
tions to the hydrography having been taken from his own observations and
those of
Mr. Cox, commanding the Wesleyan missionary vessel Jubilee; and the greater
part of the topography from a map constructed by Mr. J. B. Thurston, from
his own
observations. We have shown upon this chart the places we have visited, and
we re-
quest that copies of it may be appended to this report when the chart is
printed.
  64. We have now given replies to the questions put prominently forward
in our in-
structions ; and, in conclusion,'we beg to assure your lordship that we can
see no pros-
pect for these islands, should Her Majesty's government decline to accept
the offer of
cession, but ruin to the English planters and confusion in the native government.
  As a crown colony, we think that Fiji would certainly become a prosperous
settle-
ment.
  In addition to the great advantages of soil and climate which we have enumerated,
the, geographical position of Fiji has caused it to be chosen as a place
of rendezvous
for the steamers performing the mail service from California to New Zealand
and New
South Wales.
  With the single exception of the beautiful and fertile island of Tavinui,
the coasts
abound in secure and admirable harbors, well known to the residents, and
only re-
quiring the continuation of an accurate survey to make them accessible to
strangers.
  We have the honor to be, my lord, your lordship's most obedient humble
servants,
                                                JAMES C. GOODENOUGH,
                    Captain and Commodore 2d Class, Commanding Australian
Station.
                                                E. L. LAYARD,
                                          lier Majesty's Consul for Fiji
and Tonga.
  To the Right Hon. the SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE COLONIES.




                               [Inclosure 2 in No. 590.]

                        [From the Times, Saturday, July 18, 1874.]

                                THE FIJI ISLANDS.
                                              HOUSE OF LORDS,, Friday, July
17.
  The Earl of Carnarvon, on rising to call attention to the report of the
commissioners
on the cession of the Fiji Islands to the British Crown, said:
  MY LORDS: I wish, in the first place, to make a sort of explanation in
reference to
what might otherwise appear to be an intentional departure from an engagement.
I
alsked a few evenings ago to lay the papers connected with this subject on
the table of
your lordships' house in sufficient time to enable noble lords to readithem
before I made
my statement. I promised to do so; but since then I have found that, owing
to some
mistake, they were not delivered to your lordships till this morning. That
being so,
however inconvenient it might have been to defer my, statement, I would not
have
proceeded with it without the consent of noble lords who have taken an interest
in
these islands. It is owing to their forbearance I now proceed to make a statement
to
your lordships, which I will endeavor to render as brief as possible. Your
lordships
are aware of the geographical position and character of the Fiji Islands
Their history
and preseift state may be shortly described. It is some twenty years since
they were
colonized by English settlers who had come from adjacent colonies. Some of
these
colonists bought land and set about improving the places in which they now
live;
but, as is sure to happen iC all such cases, jealousies sprang up and difficulties
were
experienced, and from time to time appeals have been made to this country
to take the
islands under its direct protection. The first formal proposal for a cession
dates back, I
think, to 1859. At that time Consul Pritchard, acting very much on his own
authority,
encouraged and indorsed a cession of those islands. I think Lord Jolin Russell
was
colonial1 secretary then, and he declined the offer. In the following year
Colonel
Smythe, a very distinguished officer, was sent out to inquire as to the advisability
of
annexing those islands. He drew up a report, which is now in print, and in
which, on
the whole, he gave his opinion against our accepting the cession. Two years
after, in
18632, the offer was definitely declined. Time passed, and in 1870 a conference
of
Australian colonies was held, a noble lord who took a great interest in this
subject
presiding over that. conference. The opinions then expressed were very favorable
to