The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. GISBORNE, FEBRUARY 28, 1901 AUSTRALIA’S INVITATION.

Gisborne Times, Volume V, Issue 50, 28 February 1901, Page 2

The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. GISBORNE, FEBRUARY 28, 1901 AUSTRALIA’S INVITATION.

The invitation to send a thousand troops from New Zealand to Australia for the opening of the Federal Parliament, is meeting with some opposition. The Auckland Herald voices the sentiments of a good many people when it says:—“lt is always difficult to decline gracefully a. kindly and pressing invitation, but we are much afraid that our Government wi'l be compelled to refuse Mr Barton’s request to send a thousand troops to the opening of the Australian Federal Parliament. A New Zealand contingent, including Maoris,'took part in the Commonwealth festivities at Sydney, to show, our kinship and our fellowfeeling with our neighbours. We had thought that, the foimal proclamation finished with, their legislative functions would be matters of their own local concern, even though the presence of tho Royal pair will lend it unprecedented splendor. And now', it is proposed that a thousand men shall go across to Melbourne for their Parliamentary opening. As we have said, it is difficult to decline, and we would do much rather than seem discourteous and unkindly, the more so as the prospects of New Zealand joining the Federation seems faint indeed.” The journal then urges that the question bo carefully weighed, to avoid both the giving of offence and the assumption of unnecessary expenditure. We cannot see where there would bo offence in respectfully declining. There has been quite sufficient expense incurred of late, and it would be better if the Government now turned their attention more closely to the opening of the back blocks. There is much to be done in the roading of the undeveloped interior, and we hope that there will be no such wicked waste as the sending of a thousand men, or even a quarter of that number on a picnic to Australia. “We have had many unusual expenses of late, and the reception of tho Duke and Duchess of York will necessarily bo costly. A thousand troops cannot be sent to Melbourne under £IO,OOO, and may cost double. If it is necessary to send them to show goodwill to our neighbors, well and good. But is it ? We can hardly think that when all the circumstances are taken into consideration, together with our own preparations for the Royal visit to our own cities, that there should be any doubt of our . cordiality in the minds of our neighbours if we do not see our way to accept their proposal. Certainly we could raise the number of men, but not so readily as may be thought. It is easier to get men to go to South Africa for a year than to go to Australia for a fortnight.” We are sure that our friends in Australia would think none the less of us for declining the invitation. Just now they are getting in accounts to tho extent of about a quarter of a million for the New Year festivities, and it is probable that New Zealand would be admired, certainly not condemned, foxrefusing to incur the expense entailed by accepting the invitation.