The Manawatu Standard (PUBLISHED DAILY.) The Oldest Daily Newspaper on the West Coast. TUESDAY, APRIL 21, 1885. PROSPECTS OF PEACE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume IX, Issue 115, 21 April 1885, Page 2

Manawatu Standard (PUBLISHED DAILY.) The Oldest Daily Newspaper on the West Coast. TUESDAY, APRIL 21, 1885. PROSPECTS OF PEACE.

There .'is^reason to hope that the glooni'y War-cloud i« passing away; Nothing definite, at the time of writing, has reached us, but " putting this and that together," it is reasonable to infer that England and Russia will arrange some friendly adjustment of the Afghan frontier difficulty. It may be only a temporary pacification, and we greatly fear that is sill it will be; but, nevertheless, even 1 a postponement of hostilities is welcome just at present for many and ;obvious reasons. Had war broken out suddenly, new Zealand was m a sadly unprepared state, and any of the chief seaports must have yielded hut a feeble resistance to an enemy's cruisers. The Colony must not «gain relapse into a similar state of defencelessuess. It is not as it was some 20 years or even a decade ago. Within that period our commerce has developed immensely, our colonial wealth has increased ; and whereas years ago, no hostile power at war with England would bother about new Zealand, now our known resouices, and the gigantic strides we have recently taken would render hostile interference almost a certainty. In times of p«ace, we should be preparing for war, nnd we can depend upon it, that within the next decade, and possibly a shorter period, Russia will again have given cause for hostile pieparai tion- on England's part. Still more ■rapftl. will Now Zealand's progress have peen cfuring the n«xt decade, as ; compared- with the previous one, and «till more likely the probability of its ports being entered by privateers, or its ocean Kteaniers intercepted and annexed. Tho time is approaching, as few will deny, when an Australian naval fleet will have to he organised, for the defence of the Colonies. Year hy year these dependencies of Great Britain are becoming moreVittractive, and m one sense more vulnerable ; and at an early date, perhaps immediately, the various Colonies must i consider the advisability of becoming | a federate power for the p> otection of their ports, their mercantile fleets, and their commerce. We must not be beguiled into tranquility «hrl apathy because a temporal')' peace 1 is patched up. We must not relax out" vigilance, or allow our spirit of selfreliance to decay or diminish. ' From year to year we muxt go on strengthing our position, and training our youth m the arts of wai'on se.» and on land, and when again the alarm goes forth, as undoubtedly it will, the answer will go back to old England, if your colonies are ready to protect themselves, and to defend the Hag at home and abioad. We have bad our warning, and let us hope that when next the Russian Bear becomes aggressive, he will hesitate before sending out his cruisers to levy hlack mail on New Zealand, knowing that a warm reception will l-.e m store for them. In a word our motto must henceforth be " Ready, aye ready."