British New Guinea

Common card · No. 439882

British New Guinea (BNG) was a protectorate and later Crown colony within the British Empire from 1884 to 1902. It comprised the south-eastern portion of the island of New Guinea, largely corresponding to the southern portion of present-day Papua New Guinea, and bordered Dutch New Guinea to the west and German New Guinea to the north. A British protectorate was proclaimed over the south-eastern coast of New Guinea in 1884, in response to agitation from the self-governing Australian colonies to the south – notably the abortive annexation of East New Guinea by the colony of Queensland in 1883 – and to the establishment of German New Guinea. Initially falling under the authority of the High Commissioner for the Western Pacific, the entirety of the south-east was formally annexed in 1888 and placed under an administrator (later designated as a lieutenant-governor). British New Guinea held an unusual status within the Empire in that it was legally subordinate to Queensland. Funding for its administration...

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