English and foreign Items.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 15, Issue 760, 10 February 1870, Page 3

English and foreign Items.

SCHEME for ASSISTING NEW ZEALAND j WITH INDIAN THOOTS. ■ In consequence of the diminution de j ter mined upon of the Indian forces. ; Sir Bartle Frere, in a despatch to the; ; India Office, of November 8, proposes j the following conditions upon which I New Zealand might be permitted to < obtain the aid of the officers and men < whose services are so dispensed with * in India. * 1 -The Indian Government to en- i gage to give a free passage to New Zealand; Indian pay and allowances < lit the rates drawn the last mouth by | each during the voyage, and for three > months after landing in New Zealand; » service under these engagements to i count as service in India for .pension, i &c., to all entitled to it by their existing engagements with the British or Indian Governments. 2 -The British Government should engage to make th£ agreements for service in New Zealand in conjunction with the Indian and New Zealand Governments; to pay officers and men received from the Indian Government from the expiration of the three months after landing, debiting the amount as a loan to New Zealand*; to appoint in conjunction with the New Zealand Government a military dictator, with full military and ciffil authority under commission from the Crown to settle the Northern Island. 3-The New Zealand Government should engage to repay the loan ad vanced by the British Government, and to respect the engagements made with officers and men, to offer free or at reduced rates grants of land in proportions varying according to rank, to all officers and men, natives of India or China, as well as Europeans, who, after completing not less than two years’service under these engagements, may take their discharge from her Majesty’s service, and agree to settle in New Zealand. “A SAD CASE” Is the heading of a long letter in the Standard by Mr Walter Brodie, late member of the New Zealand House of Representatives, in which he comments bitterly upon the sad state of affairs in the colony, and attributes the whol§ onus of its present misfortunes to the home authorties; and goes on to say: —If it were not for our valuable colonist, Edward Wilson, and * also Sir George Grey and the penny press, I do not know what we should do. I did think that Sir Gore Browne would have come forward as well as Sir G. Grey, as he must pretty ; well know what the requirements of the colonists are —especially as I am 1 told “he did very well there.” NATIONAL DISINTEGRATION. 5 Mr E. Wilson, of Melbourne, in a , letter to the Times, dated Hayes, ’ November 8, discusses, in what appears

to be a spirit of fairness, the important question of disintegration. After telling us that he has no pecuniary interest in New Zealand and alluding to Mr Stafford’s utterances in reference to the Imperial Government and New Zealand, he proceeds to deal with the i question of “ Colonial Defence ” with i the confidence of one who understands 1 the question ;—“ It is now some years I since one of those gentlemen to whom < the control of colonial affairs is com- ( mitted by the chances of Parliamentary = conflicts enunciated the doctrine, in a t moment of happy inspiration, that 1 ‘thenceforward all British dependen- s ciesmust be responsible for the expenses r of their own defence.’ We may fancy r the complacent air with which the s author of this axiom rose from his ti actable discovery, what visions flitted 1< before his eyes of dirainshed arm a- a ments, national forces concentrated a and held well in hand, reduced Bud- s gets, and rising communities drilled r into habits of vigour and self reliance, s One feels the cruelty of the interrup-lf tion of such roseate dreams. But it isj( necessary to suggest to this inventor, I who so off-handedly undertakes to;c chop down all mankind to the conve- < nient height of sft. 6in., that there s are dependencies and dependencies; t and it might have occurred to him c that while there were some colonies ‘ to which this rule would not only be ( applicable, but distinctly advantageous, 1 there were others to which its applica- 1 cation could only mean a long course \ of bloodshed and disaster, culminating f in a result more or less humiliating to f all concerned. I profess to know 1 something of colonies and colonisation, t and I recollect very distinctly that my t first introduction to this brilliant new s idea acted quite as what our American s friends call, I believe in another sense, t an ‘eye-opener.’ I felt that in the 1 adoption of that policy there’was the t pregnant germ of future trouble of uu- t known magnitude ; and although one i could form but a guess of the direction t and the shape in which the mischief i 'would show itself, one felt that a false \ step had beer: taken, and that, from « bad seed scattered thus recklessly, t bitter fruits would one day have to be 1 gathered. With one modification, i probably scarcely any one would dis- ( sent from the recent discovery. ‘A s dependency should meet the expenses <: of its own defence’ —if it can. If it. < cannot do so, either the mother conn- < try must do something to assist it or ! the dependency falls away. We have j yet to learn how, and what eventually ; becomes of it; and probably the great discoverer to whom I have alluded is i about the last man who could assist us ] as to the later stages of his ex peri me nt I believe that New Zealand is such a dependency as I have described. She appears to be tasked! altogether beyond her strength. I have travelled there, and know some- i thing of her resources, of the pursuits of her inhabitants, and of the charac ter of the Maoris, whose dedication to an unnecessary extermination I (parenthetically) stigmatise as a heinous national crime. And while there, and in a period of profound peace, and with some experience of colonial finance, it was one of my puzzles how the two euds could he made to meet, with any decent margin for public works, the necessary outfit fur a new country. A protracted and expensive! war seemed absolutely out of the question ; and, so far from now coinciding in the common outcry that they have not done half enough to meet the difficulties of the situation, I declare ray astonishment at and admiration of the spirit that has led them to do so much. It is a country of considerable resources, but of rather gradual development. Apart from the goldfields, . which are things of recent days, and : still in process of development, they , have not a great deal out of which revenue can possibly be extracted. Their t yield of wool is insignificant compared ■ with that of the Australian colonies, i For their bulkier forms of cereals they - have no external market and probably i never can have any. The settlers j are usually struggling people, with - bills to meet and families to feed, and r with as little natural aptitude for def setting their houses and modes of liveiii hood to fight the Maoris as the tenant farmers of our rural districts or small traders of our towns. It is really only t those who have known the daily life of colonies who can appreciate the ’ trouble of such people, or the extreme

: cruelty of the cry to tax themselves, and fight like men, when, driven in from their holdings by dread for their wives and children, thej have to leave their stock and homesteads to the marauder, and clustering in the towns, await the passing of the storm. To tell men so situated to tax themselves is a wanton insult; The very sources of taxation, a profitable industry, are dried up: and as that form of love of country engendered by birth upon the soil has not yet had much opportunity to grow, we shall probably find the harassed taxpayers seeking other shores, and the possibility of increased revenue made still more hopeless by a rapid diminution of numbers. The sailor tells us that ‘the ship is the mother of freight.’ And those who know anything of the principles of taxation must be aware that the moderately prosperous citizen is the only possible sponge out of which adequate revenue can be squeezed.” After stating what is patent to all well informed on the subject, that the Horae Government is responsible for an imbroglio, out of which no human being can at present see his way, he points out that, in withdrawing the troops at a time when the fight is yet warm, the Government lays itself open to the charge of cruel and cowardly desertion. “ We may feel more or less obliged ” (he continues) “ to Lord Granville for his attempt to teach us that, after all, blood is very much thinner than water. But if Great Britain were first thoroughly informed, and then fairly polled upon the question, his lordship might probably be startled at the reply. But let us draw the curtain for a time upon this humiliating scene in our colonial history, with a sad misgiving that we shall soon have to haul it up again upon most appalling incidents, and turn our attention to the general question as aptly illustrated by what is passing in that illused and unhappy country. England thinks, we are told, that the time is come when she may enjoy any advantages derivable from the possession of colonies without ■ having to pay anything for such advantages. I believe this to be a pure' hallucination of the most transparent character. I cannot understand why a country should expect to possess colonies without having to pay something for them, any more than it should be able to enjoy without cost the luxuries of kings and queens, parliaments or judges, armies and navies, churches and police. In this hard mercenary world an individual does not calculate upon getting much without having to pay for it, and one is at a loss to see wh/ a nation should expect to be more fortunate. However, * pay your way and do not bother us,’ says the British statesman; and as those who look a little more deeply into details see that an iron law like this is utterly inapplicable, and that, if insisted upon, there is but one possible result, we are brought face to face with thegravequestion, ‘ Does England wish, or is she prepared, to part with her colonies ? ” This is the question that has been distinctly, and I think most injudiciously raised by recent deliverances from the Colonial Office, as has been well pointed out by the letter of Earl Grey; and, ; the question having been raised, it remains for us to deal with it from our s! respective points of view. To one circumstanced as I am, the question r presents a very troubled aspect from ; three separate aspects. I regret this ■ new-fangled policy as a colonist; I ' regret it as an Englishman ; I regret ; it as a sincere well-wisher of a Liberal . Ministry, the character of which is, I ■ think, likely to be grievously comproraised by what is being done. As a , colonist, I view the prospect of what i may turn out the premature separation ■ from the mother country with serious • misgivings. Probably, of all the : British colonies, Victoria—the one I with which I am connected —is about . the best able to eater upon the importj ant experiment of an independent ex* j istence. I have such confidence in her 3 resources, and in the reasonably ini teiligent direction of her affairs, that I 1 should feel inclined to look upon her - start into fresh phases of national life -in a very hopeful spirit. I believe t that under such kind of stimulated i vitality new forms of progress would / exhibit themselves, a higher tone would B gradually be found to animate our 3 policy, and that we should fora ward.in the march of nations with a

pore firm, more elastic, and more [masculine stride The risk of troubles jfrom without would seem likely rather £o dhninijb than increase, and many Matures of our young life would be ( Invested with new fornix of hopefulness ana" interest. I think such thing 3 Should happen ; but, oh the other band, we must remember they might pot. r J?he3e hopeful anticipations might jturn out fallacious, and national affairs involving the welfare of millions are jtoo solemn things to justify us in risk ing anything in mere probabilities. We are prosperous and happy as we are, and are sufficiently wise to ap preciate the policy of letting well .alone. As an Englishman, I look upon the destruction of our colonial empire as simply the most tremendous experiment that the world has ever seen, It might be a success; but. what if it turned out to be a failure ? W® colonists might fj.ud that we had .done wrong; but our sun would shine, pur wool, would grow, our vines would flourish, and in one way or other, we should manage to pull through. But what of England, with all that highly artificial organization which has lifted frer from her narrow limits and un genial climate into the employment of numbers incalculably greater than she can maintain from anythiug grown within her own bounds ? What of her if she should find that in wantonly parting with her colonies she had parted with half her trade, and three-fourths of her national prestige ? flow, then, would your shallow doc trinaire be detected as the mere lunatic who had tampered with the very foundations of a highly-elaborated structure, of the delicate constitution of which he had shown himself entirely ignorant! In dealing with the British aspect of the case, I will not enter upon the world of figures which so abound in blue-books aud statistical returns; suffice it that the colony with which I am best acquainted consumes, I believe, ten or twelve pounds' worth annually of British exports per head of the population, to the ten or twelve shillings' worth of the inhabitants of the Uuited States. The doctrinaire talks glibly of'the laws of supply and demand, and of buying in the cheapest and selling in the dearest market. But I have some reason to believe that by some mysterious process trade has a great tendency to follow the flag. And as an Englishman I have a horror of so hazardous an experiment as might teach U 3, when too late, that when we hauled down our flag to-day we should have been prepared to put up tlje shutters of our great shop tomorrow. But probably even a still better reason is to be found among the many accessible against Lord Granville's scattering poiicy. No one can help observing the tendency of business men, and of a- nation so composed, to narrow their sphere of observation and sink into a habit of looking at all things in a petty parochial sort of way. The petty interests of the day, of the immediate place, the dirty little details of the last transaction, are apt to exclude larger ideas. As perhaps the only corrective of this demoralizing tendency, the possession of a worldwide empire, 'in which, despite themselves, they are forced to take some interest, is of priceless value to our people ; and if we rashly deprive them of this stimulus to a larger and nobler train of thought, the loss to mankind will be irreparable, in the conversion of a community of liberal-minded and well-informed men into one composed pf nothing much better than the average vestryman. There is another point of very great weight, but, as it has elements of trouble in it which I would not willingly invoke, I will pass it by, although I see signs of its gradually struggling to the surface. As a Liberal, I feel grieved at the mismanagement of this affair, and at }he fresh cares and anxieties thus im posed upon our over-taxed chief. It to me that he has more upon bis hands than any man should have. And it must be the wi h, of every one who appreciates his viijue, and would wish to prolong his capacity for usefulness, rather to clear his path from BtumMmg-blocks than thus unnecessarily to encumber it. I (jo not think that the large and sympathetic heart of Mr Gladstone will bear, without emotion, the growing troubles of the Jifevr Zealanders. I do not think that would willingly rush upon the un|u.own future of England without her

colonies, Still the thing presses. The challenge has been thrown down by the Colonial Office, and however we may pity the man, the politician must answer for possible mistakes among his colleagues." Dealing with our colonial system, as worked out by the authorities of the Colonial Office, he says :—" The existing colonial system of Great Britain may seem to be an effective mode of administration, but it seems to have the slight drawback of never having been half thought out. Is it not rather surprising that it should have been left for Lord Granville, in October, 1869, to have discovered the insuperable difficulty in the direction of military affairs in a colony to which re presentative institutions have been conceded ? Again, we hear such communities constantly described as selfgoverning dependencies. I ask, 'What is a self-governing dependency ?' and I do not think there is a man in Europe who can tell me. The thing looks like a bull or an anomaly ; yet it is in an atmosphere of such bulls and anomalies as these that the affairs are managed of the greatest empire the world has ever seen ! Nay, while thus dealing with the radical principles on which nations exist, it may be permitted to ask whether the British Constitution itself is not fittingly described in the same terms, an inge nious piece of mechanism, but not half thought out ? Certainly, while its very mainspring—the Parliament —assumes the task of dealing with ten thousand different subjects, and ma nages to legislate tardily and imperfectly upon half-a-dozen, it seems as if further elaboration of the machinery were desirable. No one has better reason for asking such questions than ourselves, for in the crush of local subjects it is almost imposs'ble *to get a night' for the discussion of a colonial trouble, and even still more difficult to secure a decent quorum to take an interest in it; and, taking the last session as an example, does any one suppose that Lord Granville had not his attention far more directed to ' coaching ' the Irish Church Bill through the House of Lords than in learning something about his fifty colonies, or en deavoring to keep the peace between Sir George Bowen and Te Kooti ? Nothing is farther from my wish than to speak disparagingly of men like Lord Granville, the Duke of Buckingham, and others usually charged with colonial administration. I believe that we are ruled by very excellent representatives of the English gentleman, and there is a sincere desire to do what is right; but our complaint is that gentlemen wielding such tremendous power do not really know much of the colonies or colonisation, and that their usual sources of information are not judiciously arranged. Few among our colonial ministers have ever seen a colony, or been in any way prepared for dealing intelligently with the difficult problems occasionally requiring solution. And of the excellent gentlemen who constitute their permanent staff I can only say that, however accurately they may represent colonial ideas of twenty years ago, we have ample illustration of the fact that they are as little en rapport with the warm and lusty life of modern colonization as the busts and statues ol their forefathers. It must not be imagined that such of us as think that the day for the scattering of our colonies is not yet come are at all disposed to under-rate the difficulties presented by any other alternative. The position is, in any case, a very delicate one; and a general war might find out W'-ak places in our system which would startle us all. Least of all have we anv inclination to undervalue any possible relief that may be legitimately afforded to that hardly-used person—the British taxpayer. We have had occasionally too much trouble with our own Estimates to be otherwise than gratified with a satisfactory Budget. But there is a penny-wisdom in national as well as individual affairs. You may reduce a tax, and at the same time so diminish private income that men can still less afford to pay the remainder, Let us beware lest our lust for favorable balance-sheets runs into a disease. Let us sympathize as heartily as possible with the British taxpayer, but let us be cautious how we pander to the meanness of the British Philistine." TO BE CONCLUDED IN QUE NEXT.