The Evening Star THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 1876.

Evening Star, Issue 4294, 30 November 1876, Page 2

The Evening Star THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 1876.

While a few of our local politicians, disappointed in obtaining what they have earnestly been striving for, have beenhastil/ advocating the extreme measure of erecting Otago into a separate Colony, hir Hercules Robinson, the ablest of Australian governors, has been taking the opposite course of urging on the people of Australia the advantage of union, and the absurdity of drawing an artificial line between adjacent tracts of country, otherwise closely allied in interests. That certainly is the doctrine which now rules the policy of the British Government with regard to Colonial affairs; and which has of late taken a strong hold on a large number of thoughtful minds in all parts of the world. Looked at in one point of view, it is the policy of expansion as opposed to narrow selfishness; and in another, the policy of freedom as opposed to artificial restrictions. Shall we, then, because the immediate realisation of all our wishes becomes impossible, hastily give up the pursuit of an ideal, the attainment of which we admit to be extremely desirable, and render that attainment more difficult by raising one new barrier to its accomplishment? That there is the slightest probability of Otago being made into a separate Colony very few believe, even of those who profess to desire it. But although the thing is utterly impracticable, there are some who profess that it is one strongly to be desired, and all the stock arguments about having the control of our own revenues and managing our own affairs in our own way, are urged as if they were final and unanswerable. So possibly they would be if that which was near and obvious were always the most important consideration, and the more remote consequences of no account. But State problems are much more complicated than this, and we need some general principles to guide us through a labyrinth of ideas and facts. The free interchange, upon which Sir Hercules Robinson insists, he interprets to be the imposition of customs duties for the more purpose of revenue on the smallest number of articles, and the corresponding imposition of excise duties on articles of Home manufacture to place them on an equality with imported goods. Holding the opinion that all duties, both customs and excise, are false in principle, unjust in incidence, and justifiable only on the ground of expediency, we differ from >ir Hercules I** nis advocacy of the levying of excise duties, while we agree with the general scope of his remarks. Free trade is essentially giving full liberty to purchase and sell wherever it is found the interest of buyer or producer t» trade. If protective duties are indefensible, any inland duty on manufacture tending to equalise Home and foreign produce is perhaps still more mischievous. The order of things which men ‘ call providence is founded en deeper principles than those of the protecitionists. The little dykes and dams which they raise up only produce fertility over small areas, and for a brief i period, at the expense of widespread and ■ a tw inundations, or equally disastrous 1 drou.j 1,’;,:, by am I- bye. Tut: fact >s that no ;man > ; V !vtdn<; ought-< calculate all tb- ; I Kssi. iut ; f. of p.-,r'..ic.aljr re - v>u-yv. • r ae:>KU.T .> rs* in a vast a aumnl.Jti.i - e vuloi.c- ; ‘ I: . ■>’ that every k mi. . i iL.ir.otivon carries with it effects that tend to t ct^ttutej-act the i&qrcdiatu good gained by it,

an d we may bow accept it as an axiom that the thing to be aimed at by every community is the utmost freedom of’Section. The smallest minimum of restraint is the mark of the highest civilisation, the largest and widest liberty of individual action, whether by way of trade or intercourse, is the condition which facilitates the growth of a vigorous and flourishing community. To restrict or to pamper by protective duties is to keep commerce in leading strings for life, and the result is fairly analogous to a similar state of things in the growth of the individual—a deficient physical and intellectual stature. Similarly, also, with regard to the size of communities and their variations of character, to produce the best results, number and variety are essential. A Colony all of one type of individual character soon becomes sleepy and unprogressive. It is difference and variation that produce emulation and originality, and cause new men to constantly strike cut new lines and avoid old “grooves.” So long, therefore, as there is some recognised standard of right and wrong to become a final appeal, wide diversity of opinion and sentiment may exist with advantage as serving to spur on each man in the community to prove his weapons and fight his little battle manfully. It is for such reasons as these that we do not think New Zealand too large to remain united, or too diversified in interests to be prosperous while thus united. Nor can we altogether give up hoping for that still wider community among the seven colonies which now form the Australasian group, and which is foreshadowed by the term Federation, The Australasian group, in which we include New Zealand, now numbers some two millions and a-half of British subjects, spread indeed over an enormous territory, yet wonderfully near to each other in the way of telegraphic and maritime communication, and wonderfully alike in aims, prejudices, virtues, and vices, yet so diversified in individuality of character and variety of products, that an Australian Federation would be a world in itself, capable of producing and interchanging nearly all that is at present produced and interchanged in every part of the globe, and needing but population and capital to develop its varied and unparalleled resources.. It seems a strange thing that barriers should be carefully erected between one and another of the rising States which would form this federation. It must take much time to overcome the difficulties in the .way of an Australasian “dominion,” but if we wish to hasten it we must learn not to fly apart from one another when we cannot agree on all points, like spoiled children. We must trust to calm and sober argument rather than to fits of ili-temper to carry us through great difficulties, and we must be prepared to postpone the present to the future, and our own individual good to the good of a great Colony, and ultimately of a great Empire, which is slowly rising in the Southern seas to astonish the world with its greatness or its follies. If our remarks have a text it is “follow after a great ideal,” and it is thus that we must reach forward to the time when

The common sense of most shall hold a fretful realm in awe, And the kindly earth shall slumber lap’t in universal law. If we are determined to have our own way in everything regardless of a great future, we may be partially successful, but the measure of our present success will be also that of our obstructiveness to future progress.