pay
four francs postal dues.) The articles were, as I have said, very
charmingly written, especially the descriptive passages. But nearly
every person that the "Special Commissioner" met in the South Seas seems
to have been very energetically and wickedly employed in "pulling the
'Special Commissioner's leg".

The late Lord Pembroke described two classes of people--"those who know
and don't write, and those who write and don't know".

Let me cull a few only of the statements in one of the articles entitled
"The Trader's Prospects". It is an article so nicely written that it is
hard to shake off the glamour of it and get to facts. It says:--

"The salaries paid by a big Australian firm to its traders may run from
L50 to L200 a year, with board (that is, the run of the store) and a
house."

There are possibly fifty men in the Pacific Islands who are receiving
L200 a year from trading firms. Five pounds per month, with a specified
ration list, and 5 per cent, commission on his sales is the usual
thing--and has been so for the past fifteen years. As for taking "the
run of the store," he would be quickly asked to take another run. The
trader who works for a firm has a struggle to exist.

*****

"In the Solomons and New Hebrides you can start trading on a capital of
L100 or so, and make cent, per cent, on island produce."

A man would want at least L500 to L600 to start even in the smallest
way. Here are some of his requirements, which he must buy before leaving
Sydney or Auckland to start as an independent trader in Melanesia or
Polynesia: Trade goods, L400; provisions for twelve months, L100; boat
with all gear, from L25 to L60; tools, firearms, etc, L15 to L30. Then
there is passage money, L15 to L20; freight on his goods, say L40. If
he lands anywhere in Polynesia--Samoa, Tonga, Cook's Islands, or
elsewhere--he will have Customs duties to pay, house rent, and a
trading licence. And everywhere he will find keen competition and measly
profits, unless he lives like a Chinaman on rice and fish.

"In British New Guinea you can dig gold in hand-fuls out of the mangrove
swamps" (O ye gods!) "and prospect for any other mineral you may
choose."

Gold-mining in British New Guinea is carried out under the most trying
conditions of toil and hardships, The fitting out of a prospecting-party
of four costs quite L500 to L1,000. And only very experienced diggers
tackle mining in the Possession. And his Honour the Administrato