THE FILIBUSTERING EXPEDITION.

Auckland Star, Volume II, Issue 448, 17 June 1871, Page 2

THE FILIBUSTERING EXPEDITION.

An " Anglo-Australian" writes :-p-Tb[e. telegram from Melbourne just pttblisned by the London press, to the effect; fchat th« Home G-OTernment bas warned the Australian colonies that " a filibustering expedition might be expected to attack them from America, and that they have in consequence takan some precautionary measures," conveys information hitherto not made public here, which, it is to be sincerely hoped, 'may prove unfounded. Some regard " the warning" as a practical joke played iipon our fellowsubjects at the Antipodes bj theQolonialOffice, and others as an indirect and Significant Hint of tha Imperial Q-orernment that Australia must look out for herself in the jfuture, and trust to her own armaments and resdurces to - defend Herself ugaii.ot, hostile -apgrpssion. In whateTerway it may .be abcep' ted, no great harm may perhaps ensue if Australians take the matter to heart, and determine not to rely too much :on the, mother country for military aid in the future. The doctrines of Golwin Smith on the' colonial question, it is true, hare not been uinversally embraced here as yet, nor are likely te be so for a long time to come, but there is a rulgar saying that " a nod is as good as a wink to a blind horse," and perchance the colonies may accept it in some such light to their own profit. Hot that it is probable that England—in ■• her present temper, at aU erents—would forsake them in the case of foreign aggression, but the warlike precautions will not be thrown away, even if not rendered absolutely essential to their existence as British communities by the course of e»ents.