The Lyttelton Times. THURSDAY, DEC. 15, 1881.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LVI, Issue 6490, 15 December 1881, Page 4

The Lyttelton Times. THURSDAY, DEC. 15, 1881.

An nrlido of an amusing character has recently nppared in one of those English newspaper® which, written lor colonial readers, and on colonial topic®, are supposed, in certain quarter®, to represent colonial feeling. The some* what surprising content® of Iht® piece of literature wore to tbo following effect The Imperial Government, so we were told, had been considering the question of establishing a Colonial Peerage. Alter reflection, it had decided not to do so, on the ground of the unsuitability of an aristocratic order to the popular institutions of the Colonies. But, went on this well* informed journal, a t*ia media had been suggested, and had commended itself to the Homo authorities. This was to ennoble certain of those wealthy colonials who, haring returned to enjoy the comforts of leisured case in the Mother Country, were safely removed from democratic contamination or envy beyond the seas. Whether these glorified beinga were to be called to the English House of Peers, and take their seat beside the descendants of the great landowners or statesmen of former centuries, or the titled bankers and merchants of this, did not appear. Now, to come straight and at once to the point, this whole proposal strikes as as most sublimely, most ludicrously foolish. In the first place, we have no manner of doubt that the whole story of such a notion ever having entered the head of any member of the English Cabinet, is a canard originating in the fertile brain of the writer of the article alluded to, or in the aspiring mind of the plutocratic colonist who stood at his elbow. To the proposal itself, discussed on its merits as a mere suggestion thrown out at haphazard, there are innumerable objections. To begin with, it would place a premium on absenteeism. The Colonial nouveau riche, otherwise contented to dwell peaceably amongst his own people, would tod the prospect of a coronet an inducement for sell-expatriation. Well nigh irresistible to him, it would be altogether so to his wife or daughters. Left to himself, the good man might well rest satisfied, to attend to his acres or his interest—ten per cent or otherwise—his sheep or his shares. A seat in the Legislative Council, to be utilised for the purpose of checking hasty legislation of an agrarian character, is not without its charms; and the prefix of Honorable has been known to fill minds, by no means devoid of capacity, with placid thankfulness. But all this would quickly lade before the most distant prospect of a real, live peerage. For the Honorable Mr Cut* entale to soar as Lord Gridiron would be speedy reason for an immediate polling np of tent-pegs, a packing-up of traps, and a shaking off of plebeian dust from aristocratic feet. To say that an extension of absenteeism is neither desired nor desirable in the Colonies, is merely to repeat the moat trite of Australasian axioms. There is perhaps no moral obligation on a man to spend his money where he makes it. To accuse of moral delinquency those who deliberately change the dwelling-place of their declining years, from this side of the world to the other, would certainly be going too far. But there can be no doubt that the doing of all this is exceedingly detrimental to these young countries. It is not alone the absolute annual loss in mere money incurred by the spending in Great Britain of incomes that are drawn from the An-

tipodes. It is the loss of a resident class who are wealthy and might be cultivated, and who might do so much both by example and generosity to educate their leas fortunate fellows in all that makes life refined and beautiful; to remove in foot that vice of commonplace which is one of the most obvious drawbacks of colonial life. A land whose rich fly from her shores becomes a mere workshop, barren of art, backward in literature, unadorned in her cities, her country, and the minds of her people. Nor is it alone the Oolonies who suffer, and would suffer more, if the present state of things were directly encouraged. England would certainly be no gainer by the addition of such a class to her many castes. Wealth brought into a country, not by the fair exchange of commerce, but by adventitious causes, is not always a source of benefit. The gold of the Indies ruined Spain, the rupees of the Indian nabobs of the eighteenth century, sown in English soil, bore a crop of extravagance and corruption. A race of Colonial nabobs, elbowing their way among the English county gentlemen by dint of parvenu ostentation and parvenu luxury is no pleaeanc spectacle. A class in some respects similar, the Jews of Germany, have in the post been pursuing just such a course as this. We all know wbat has been the result, and whether the presence of such a social nuisance in England would be likely to re-act on the Colonies for good or bad, for popularity or hatred. After all, the nabobs themselves would be in the most pitiable case. An oak, says Ben Jouson, should not be transplanted at fifty, and no one who has spent that part of his life in which a man’s character and habits become petrified as a moneygetter at ibis end of the world, ought to bo foolish enough to wish to pose before bis follows as a money-spender at the other. The two rGles aro so essentially different. The one wonts native shrewdness and energy, a bard vigorous turn of mind and not too muoh delicacy of sentiment. The other requires the qualities of ease, polish, and graceful self-possession, else will

Ilia wonld-bt wlnßilf of all hearts ta* com® lbs laughiitg-atock of Ms neighbours high mad low. Again, an EngHulk Peerage {« something more than a personal distinction. It confers a political right and standing. Tbo Mouse of Lords represents the property of England, It bus a great past and possibly an important future. Its mombvrt ceasing to be a privileged caste, are becoming in n political sense hereditary national servants, lint a Colonial Peer, whose very title involved absence from his country, would represent nobody. He would bo an illogical entity; uaekss fur any purpose; bated in his old sphere, and despised In his now. The wildest schemer has not yet proposed to make bis title hereditary, and visit the sins of the father on the heads of his children. The best, then, that can be said for a Colonial Peerage as thus foreshadowed, Is that it would warp and make miserable the Uvea of one generation only.