The Dominion. FRIDAY, AUGUST 29, 1913. OUR BRITISH PARLIAMENTARY GUESTS.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1841, 29 August 1913, Page 6

The Dominion. FRIDAY, AUGUST 29, 1913. OUR BRITISH PARLIAMENTARY GUESTS.

The British Parliamentary party which is at present in Wellington is sure to receive a whole-hearted welcome from whatever part of the country the members may find it possible to visit during their short stay in New Zealand, It is to be hoped ■that, despite the little time they will spend with us, they will carry away some useful information as to the resources of tho country and the national characteristics of its people. With tho oontinual increase in tho i facilities for rapid and comfortable travelling, interchanges of visits among public men in various parts of the Empire are certain to become more frequent, and before long a visit-from a British Premier or other Cabinet Ministers will be regarded as part of the natural order of things. Indeed, it was announced ■not very long ago that his Majesty the King will probably make a tour of the British Dominions in this part of the world in the not very distant future. India gave him a wonderful reception a year or two ago, and possibly New Zealand could not equal the gorgeous splendour of those Eastern pageants; but we could give him that more homely and intimate welcome which only men and women of the same flesh and blood can give and receive. The Royal progress through India was made with all the pomp and circumstance befitting an Emperor; but his Majesty, who is known to us by the less splendid but- more' ancient'and historic title of King, would came here as the bead of the great British family of nations, and would receive a wclcomc befitting oile occupying that high and honourable position. The direct exchange of-ideas and the knowledge that is secured by actual seeing and hearing naturally make a deeper and more lasting impression than information gained from books and the Mcond-haud ac- ■ qbtaincd from .otfeer

however accurate they may be. Nothing can quite make up for the personal touch, and we never really know a man until we tee him face to face. Those British politicians who are-now the guests of New Zealand, as the result of their visit cannot fail in the future to take a keener and more direct interest in the many Imperial problems which affect Australia and New Zealand; and their presence among us lias also enabled some of our leading public men to get a few glimpses of ourselves as we appear to intelligent and sympathetic outsiders. The social and political problems of the day arc much the same in character in all British- communities, the difference being merely one of degree and intensity. It must, therefore, he helpful for British lawmakers to study some of our political and social experiments on the spot, and it is equally useful for New Zealand politicians to make an occasional trip to the Homeland and other countries iu. order to find out what to copy and what to avoid. Though each of the self-governing Dominions is developing- its own peculiar type of nationhood, we are still members of one Imperial family, and there is much that we can profitably learn from one another. It is especially gratifying that the section of the British Parliamentary party which has como to New Zealand includes the Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies (Lord Emmott), and it is of some significance that he should have remarked at Auckland that the visit'was going to be of great interest and importance to him. The problem of Imperial consolidation is at present compelling the most earnest attention of statesmen in all parts of the Empire, and Lord Ejimott is hopeful that such tours as the present, by increasing mutual knowledge, will not be without some effect in deciding the lines along which, the ultimate solution will be found. He was no doubt right in saying'that such questions must not be hurried to a settlement. The issues are too great to warrant any hasty step, however anxious we may all be to arrive at that stage of Imperial union which will enable'a fairer adjustment of the responsibilities of Empire, and which will also permit of the Overseas Dominions sharing more directly in the shaping of Imperial policy. The greatest danger that confronts the British Empire to-day- is perhaps that which threatens it from - the ranks of the most ardent Imperialists, who, in their anxiety to draw closer and strengthen the ties- which bind the Mother Country and her offspring, are liable to convert those ties into galling fetters. The closer association will come, but it must be by a gradual and natural growth which can be stimulated and encouraged by sound statesmanship and an earnest discussion of the problems involved, .but which cannot bo forced without risk of producing a rank and weedy growth, likely to wither under exposure to the. trials to which time must inevitably subject it. The closer and more intimate the knowledge the public men of the - Mother Country and the Overseas Dominions possess of the conditions prevailing in the various parts of the Empire the better equipped they will be to approach the task that lies ahead.