LASSERRE J NOUVELLE CALEDONIE. Rapport à M. le Gouverneur de la Nouvelle-Calédonie et dépendances, sur la situation des tribus canaques du Nord et du Nord Est.

Interesting report written at the request of the new governor taking office. The author travelled through the region of the Quégoa copper mines, in full expansion, in the Diahot basin located between Oubatache and the fort of Pam.

He found the tribes peaceful and well disposed towards the new governor. He met the chiefs of the Arama, Fidelis and Amabilis tribes and invited them to visit the governor. He studied the points of friction between settlers and Canaques: the latter set fires to destroy grasshoppers, which bothers cattle breeders. These fires should be limited to the Canak territories, ‘but where their property begins and ends is anyone’s guess… no limits have ever been assigned to their possessions’. With regard to the Canaques, the author notes certain abuses by settlers who ‘like to exploit them and subject them to their demands and whims’.

In these remote regions, the district chiefs and military commanders rarely left their homes. An 1866 decree allowed them to impose fines and prison sentences on the Canaques ‘but no one thought of giving them the slightest authority over the colonists – the Missionaries are the only protectors of the natives in these areas’.

The author suggests not granting concessions to Europeans on the East coast, which is fertile and conducive to small Canak farms. Elsewhere, he proposed that ‘a sufficiently large area should be set aside around the tribe to enable the natives to live there free from all kinds of harassment. And to prevent any exploitation by the colonists, their land would be declared inalienable’.

A fine first draft with a few corrections and additions in the margins.