New Guinea. By Charles Lyne. (Sampson Low and Co.)—Mr. Lyne
was sent as a special commissioner by the Sydney Morning. Herald to New Guinea, to furnish an account of the various incidents in the establishment of a British Protectorate over the Southern coasts of that island by Commodore J. E. Erskine in November, 1884. He has here published in book. form his newspaper narratives and descriptions. The story he tells is tolerably familiar, but his account of it will be very welcome. Mr. Lyne, while he never strains at too effusive or ultra." graphic" a style, is a pleasing writer and a painstaking photographer, and there is nothing of the nature of padding in his little volume. He says little, however, which is fitted to impress us hopefully in regard to the future of New Guinea, although he speaks highly of the valuable work done by Christian missionaries. Here is an observation by Mr. Lyne which deserves wide publication, even if it can be supposed to convey merely his own impressions:—
" The only prospect worth mentioning is that the island may, by the cultivation of certain products, be made another Java, with English or Australian capital and energy, to establish and maintain a large export trade in sugar, ceffee, tobacco, and other such articles. The cultivation of these products, according to the custom adopted in Java, would necessitate the employment of natives Then, if native labour were necessary, it is probable that it would have to be imported, for the New Guineans are not a hardworking people, and what work they do in the fields in the way of cultivation is so much confined to their own wants, that it is considered by those who know them to be hardly likely that they could be induced to toil for a certain number of hours each day for the benefit of others."
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