The Matthew and Hunter Islands are a group of two small and uninhabited volcanic islands in the South Pacific, located 300 km east of New Caledonia and south-east of Vanuatu archipelago. Hunter Island and Matthew Island, 70 km apart, are claimed by Vanuatu (as part of Tafea province, and considered by the people of Anatom Island part of their custom ownership) and until 2007 were claimed by France (as part of New Caledonia).
Small, arid, without fresh water and not easily accessible, the islands had no interest for Britain or France during their colonization of the Pacific in the course of the 18th and 19th centuries. France officially annexed both islands in 1929. In 1965, the United Kingdom also claimed the two islands, as part of the New Hebrides. France conducted a symbolic occupation in 1975. In 1980, on its independence, Vanuatu claimed sovereignty, but made no occupation of the islands. In 1979, Météo-France set up an automatic weather station on one of the islands, and the French Navy regularly visits both of them.
Read more about Matthew And Hunter Islands: Matthew Island, Hunter Island
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““You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit worthy of repentance.””
—Bible: New Testament, Matthew 3:7-8.
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—Jean Baudrillard (b. 1929)
“Consider the islands bearing the names of all the saints, bristling with forts like chestnut-burs, or Echinidæ, yet the police will not let a couple of Irishmen have a private sparring- match on one of them, as it is a government monopoly; all the great seaports are in a boxing attitude, and you must sail prudently between two tiers of stony knuckles before you come to feel the warmth of their breasts.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)