ROYAL COLONIAL INSTITUTE.

Inangahua Times, Volume III, Issue 63, 12 January 1877, Page 2

ROYAL COLONIAL INSTITUTE.

[Standahd, November 23rd, 1876.] At the first ordinary general meeting of the Royal Colonial Institute, for »he ses- j sion 1876 77 held last evening at the Tall j Mall Restaurant, Regent«street, a p>»per was read by Mr J. Dennistoun Wood, on " The Benefit of the Coioaie3 of being Members of the Briiisb Empire." The Duke of Manchester occupied the chair. Prior to reading the minutes of the last meeting, the Hon. Secretary (Mr Frederick Young) said he fished to remote an impression which had gone fonb in some quarters that this institute had a preference for some particular colonies orer others. Th»t impression was entire'y erroneous. The institute desired to extend to every colony »11 the sympathy in its power, and was ready to take up al questions from &<1 colonies indiscrim - nntelj, provided that the subjects ram a within the scope of the programme (hear, ! hear). Tiie minu'e" 1 were then confirmed. In reply to Mr Prance, the Secretary said- that the Institute would only be to > happy to have India represented amongst them (hear, hear). The noble Chairman, before introducing the reader of the paper, said that there was already an Asiatic Association in existence, but there was erery reason to welcome any members representing India (bear, hear). Mr J. D. Wood then proceeded to read his paper, observing that during the pre« s^nt year an article had appeared in Fraser's Magazine the' purport of which was that " while Great Britain would almost certainly lose and certainly would not gain, either power or influence, or prosperity by dise-ignging herself from the colonies, the disposition of the colonies to remain within the empire was dis* Interested to the point of being gratuitously sentimental, seeing that their safety as well as their dignity woqld apparently he best consulted by their cutting lh« c nn^cti'in." The tit'e of the article was '• Ireat Brita'n and her Colonies, by ♦ A Victorian,'" The writer as-e-ttH -hit the colonies, if unconnected with Britain, would be, from their remoteness. unlikely ererto b# mroi?«4 m war. Wiutoyw

semblance of plausibility this argument possessed, however, ft was applicable not i to the colonies at large, bet merely to ft single group of them— the Australasian, Our North American eolouies were next door neighbours of a nation which potsessed both fleets and aroues. Believing, too, that our rule at present, whatever it might have sometimes been in the past, in India, Ceylon, and the West Indies wts of inestimable benefit to the coloared inhabitants, he would consider any man as their real enemy who should do anything to disturb its real foundations (hear hear). What other races thought of British rule was best proved by the history of soch islands as Hong Kong and Singapore, Our colonies in South Africa have upon their borders tracts of country inhabited by swarms of warlike garages. By confederation—which he trusted would, ere 1 ng, be not a scheme but a a accomplished fact— tbe dangers which threatened them from this quarter would, they might hope, be averted. Yet he believed that all South African colonists mast derive a feeling of security from knowing that in case of any dire emergency they would look, and not look in train, for military strength beyond that which their own soil could supply. Wjth regard to the West Indian colonies, they might, if independent, hare external as weli as internal enemies, for they were not so far removed from tbe United States as to be free from all risk of annexation. As regarded the Australaaion colonies, there might at first sight seem plausibility in the assertion of the writer that their alliance with Britain might be a cause of danger, and could not in any case conduce to their safety, sine* they bad no enemies within their own territory. Far away as Australia was however, French and American men of war did not draw so much more water than the peaceful ship of commerce as to • be unable to enter Port Jackson or Hobson's Bay. He contended that " A Victorian" bad entirely /ailed to show that the colonies would be safer if they were to set up as independent stages, and denied that the colonists were treated with disrespect. Going on to explain what he believed to he some of the principal advantages which the colonies enjoyed, from their connection with the mothr country, he observed that the Imperial connection preserved unbroken peace between the mother country a; d her colonies and between one colony and another, In the next place, the colonies felt that they were as safe from foreign sggressicn as was Eegtand herself, for, every state kner? that any outrage on a British colony would ba resented as if it were an oursge on an English country (cheers). If ihe colonies were fo become independent state* each of them, or at lea-t, each confederate group of them, would have to bear the expense of main" turning a diplomatic and consular staff, not only in the IJFnited Kinudom, but in every country with which this state or group of states had commercial intercourse. Many of tbe colonies were large borrowers of money for public works, and j was rery much to be doubted if they, could borrow on as favorable terms as if they were independent states. It wat something, too, for a colonist to be aware that the highest place* in the empire were open to ujm, however little any individual colonist might think of himself attaining them (hear, heir). The speaker then proceeded to answer the second proposition for which " A Victorian " contended, namely, that any attempt to avert the din integration of tbe empire by establishing federation between Britaip and her colonies was impracticable. Let them bear in mind that we lived in an age in which it was becoming more and more the ease that what was but yesterday a dream of the philosopher was to-day the policy of the statesman, and would be to-morrow the law of the land (cheers.) In that article it was almost hinted that the power and prosperity of England, if they were not already, would soon be on the wane, but he failed to trac» any symptoms of her decay. Mr. Wood concluded, amid hearty cheering, as follows :— " Whether the union between Britain and her colonies is more beneficial to the former or the latter is a question which it would be 'ungracious to ask, and which it would, perhaps, not be easy to answer. Suffice it that the great bulk of the people of the empire, whether they lire in Britain or I'eyond the seas, believe, in spite of all that is said to the former of the expense which they might save, and to the latter of the risks which they might aroid, by severing the connection, that it is a connection which is the source of strength and prosperity to both. May it endure for ejer."— A discussion followed, and a vote of thanks to Mr Wood for his paper closed the proceedings.