FEDERATION.

Evening Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2505, 25 February 1871, Page 2

FEDERATION.

To the Editor , Sir, —Dr Lang of Sydney has recently published a bulky pamphlet in London wh eh is attracting considerable attention both from the position of the author and the character of the work. The copy sent me by my correspondent has not come tu hand being evidently destroyed by the wreck of the Airedale. The pamphlet is entitled “ The Coming Event! or Freedom and Independence for the United Seven Provinces of Australia.” From notices of the book which f have read I glean that the Doctor warmly advocates the establishment of the United States of Australia in complete independence of Ci eat Britain as best both for the mother country and themselves. To the attainment of this result the principal difficulty in the Doctor s estimate is the diversity of opinion held by the seven colonics on the question of free trade and protection—three of them being banded together for the latter and New South Wa’es in favor of the former. Great stress is laid on the argument that Britain would be immensely relieved in the event of an European war from the task of defending the Australian, and that if the people of Australia desire to lire at peace with all the world for a century to onme the sooner they become free and independent the better, for in that event only would their trade and territory be effectually sate from foreign aggression. Regarding New Zealand wars, Dr Lang ascribes them to the unprincipled rapacity of English adventurers who have wheedled the Natives out of tracts of land of sufficient extent to constitute whole earldoms. There can he no doubt but the question of

our international relations wdl be discussed at the next meeting of the Assembly, and it would be well our representatives should carefully ponder the matter and to take an active part in this important question and not continue wrangling on matters of merely a Provincial character, which has too long been a distinguishing characteristic. The adoption by New Zealand of a selfreliant policy, signalled us out as the first Colony in which the experiment should be tried by Britain of leaving one of her dependencies to its own resources. In the midst of a serious war the troops were ordered to take no part in it, and ultimately were removed altogether. The Colony, instead of suffering by this policy, has been a great gainer. We have proved that without Home interference and support we can regulate and govern our own affairs ; and it is a fair deduction to make that if successful in combating internal disaffection, the further experiment might safely be tried first in New Zealand—viz., that of us into an independent State. The Colonial Minister boasted that England would protect her Colonies from foreign invasion with her last man, ship, and money ; but the difficulty is that before assistance could reach from Great Britain, every town and every interest in this Colony at any rate might be destroyed. We would be much better to be free from the risk of complication in European affairs, and be at liberty to prosecute without fear i of molestation the grand work of the colo- ( uist founding and developing the resources | of a ne.v country for the overcrowded populations of old ones. To sever the ties binding us to Britain, will no doubt to many be a severe struggle ; but sooner or later it must come, and in my opinion the time is not far distant. Yours, &c., Jas. M‘L\uok. February 24.