[Note: this transcription was produced by an automatic OCR engine]

I8 WITH NATIVES IN THE WESTERN PACIFIC

& Company, the great Australian firm which trades
with numerous island groups of the South Seas.
Their steamers touch the Lord Howe and Norfolk
Islands, stop for a few days at Vila, then call in a
four weeks’ cruise at nearly all the plantations in the
islands. They carry the mail and ply a profitable
trade with the planters; they also do errands for the
colonists in Sydney, procuring anything fromya needle
to a horse or a house. Being practically without
serious competitors they can set any price they please
on commodities, so that they are a power in the
islands and control the trade of the group; all the
more so as many planters are dependent on them for
large loans. To me, Burns, Philp & Company were
extremely useful, as on board their ships I could always
find money, provisions and articles for barter, send
my collections to Vila, and occasionaly travel from
one island to another.

The French line is run by the Messageries
Maritimes, on quite a different plan: it is merely
for mail—service and does not do any trading. Its
handsome steamer travels in three weeks from
Sydney to Noumea and Port Vila, visits about three
plantations and leaves the islands after one week.
This line offers the shortest and most comfortable
connection with Sydney, taking eight days for the
trip, while the English steamers take eleven.

The port of entrance to the group is Port Vila,
chosen for its proximity to New Caledonia and
Sydney; it is a good harbour, though somewhat
narrow.