ce to them-
that of a mother. If Sir George had been supported, New Caledonia would
have entered the British nursery.

'I had,' that lost part of our history ran; 'regarded the New Caledonian
group as pertaining to New Zealand. Making a tour of the Pacific Islands,
with Bishop Selwyn, I visited New Caledonia. We had no representative
there, and three days before our arrival, a French frigate had put in and
hoisted the French flag.

'I protested against that, in an official letter to the French captain.
He declared his orders from the French Government to be specific; he was
to annex New Caledonia. I had an old brig, while he had a good man-of-
war. No doubt I could have spoken with more authority, if my vessel had
also been a man-of-war. However, as a result of my representations, it
was arranged that the French should do nothing, incur no expenditure,
which would interfere with the island being declared British, until we
had referred the matter to our Governments.

'This was about the time of the agreement, between ourselves and Louis
Napoleon, in reference to the invasion of the Crimea. It is conceivable,
that the French Emperor took advantage of the opportunity to lay hands on
New Caledonia. Anyhow, I feared that the alliance might counteract my
despatch to London. Most likely it did, for I was instructed that the
French were to be left in possession.'

While sailing the Pacific, Sir George also called at Norfolk Island, then
a prison house. The worst characters of the Australian penal settlements,
those to whom perdition beaconed, were drafted to Norfolk Island. The
whole scene shocked Sir George, as it rankled in his memory, a sombre
nightmare. It saddened him, to think that so fair a place should be one
of the black spots of the earth.

'Here,' he said, 'were nature and man meeting together, she at her best,
he at his worst. How beautiful we found Norfolk Island; how well graced,
with its pine and other trees! I suppose there is no tree, growing
anywhere, which for beauty could be given preference over the Norfolk
Island pine. It was an evidence of the bounteous garden, set by nature
amid a fresh, crystal sea, and wooed by a loving climate.

'By contrast, the convict settlement! The stricken creatures worked in
irons, and when evening came, they were turned into a great court where
they slept. The irons being, in most instances, removed, the quarrelling
and fighting began. I heard of a convict who had been t