his own race the privileges of freemen for the natives of
Papua.

In his youth he had seen the blessings that came with the
advent of British rule in Fiji; and here, in broad New Guinea,
upon a vaster scale, he strove to make fair play the dominant
note in the white man's treatment of a savage race.

Arrayed against Chalmers and Macgregor were conservatism and
suspicion founded in ancient precedent, and a commercial
avarice that saw in native exploitation the readiest means to
convert New Guinea into a "white man's country." Aversion there
was also in high places to embarking upon a possibly fruitless
experiment, involving generations of labor and expense for a
remote and uncertain harvest. Chalmers and Macgregor, however,
through the force of their high convictions and the wisdom of
their wide experience, won the great fight for fairness; for
civilization's cardinal victories are those, not of the
soldier, but of the civil servant who dares risk his reputation
and his all for those things he deems just and generous; and
when Papua comes to erect statues to her great leaders, those
of these two patriots must surely occupy the highest places, as
champions of the liberties of the weak. The noble policy of
Macgregor is still, and let us hope it long may be, the keynote
of the administration in Papua, which to-day is being ably
carried forward under the great governor's disciple, the
Honorable John H. P. Murray.

The proclamation given by Captain Erskine in 1884 declared that
a British Protectorate had become essential for the