MANAWATU EVENING STANDARD AND POHANGINA GAZETTE GUARANTEED LARGEST CIRCULATION IN THE DISTRICT. THURSDAY, JANUARY 11, 1900. WHY CECIL RHODES IS AN IMPERIALIST.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 6594, 11 January 1900, Page 2

MANAWATU EVENING STANDARD AND POHANGINA GAZETTE

THURSDAY, JANUARY 11, 1900. WHY CECIL RHODES IS AN IMPERIALIST.

GUARANTEED LARGEST CIRCULATION IN THE DISTRICT.

I'Thosb who have read with any degree of consistency the " Character Sketches" j in the Review of Reviews cannot fail to I notice that amongst many other things Mr W. T. Stead is a hero worshipper of a very pronounced type. At various times he has made idols of men of such opposite temperments as the Tsar of Russia, Mr Gladstone, the German Emperor and Lord Salisbury; but of the heroes who receive his homage few are so ardently worshipped as Mr Cecil j Rhodes, who at the present time is helping to hold Kimberley against the Boers, and who appears to be a happy mixture of autocrat and democrat. As an expression of his admiration for the uncrowned Kings of Southern Africa, Mr Stead has recently published an article in appreciation of Mr Rhodes, in which, after dealing briefly with his early life, his business capacity as a diamond speculator, and his generous attitude towards the native race, he proceeds to show why it is that Mr Rhodes has devoted so much of his time, talents, and money to the spread of the Empire lin the southern portion of the Dark Continent. In the first place the versatile journalist points out that Mr Rhodes was always a man given to pondering over deep abstruse problems, even when he was in the midst of digging diamonds out of the bowels of the earth, and when he found himself still a comparatively young man with an abundance of wealth, and a large surplus of energy, he became greatly cencerned to know to what great purpose ha could best devote the fruits of nis life. His first thought was towards j the churches, but although born in a rectory, and educated at Oxford, like many more parsons' sons, he was not a devout churchman. . The divisions ' amongst #ie sects themselves, and the ' parochial nature, even of ihase-wjjojnade i the greatest claims td"catholicity, when compared with the vastness of the world, convinced him that the church was. an institution that could neitEer" kindle his enthusiasm or command his devotion. He, there- { fore, became an agnostic and an evolutionist. As to the existence of a God he, was neutral, negative on the subject of Hell and eternal punishment, and positive as to the principles enunciated by Darwin. To his mind the^-jyliple'jTOida presented on a giaat, sijale the process of the inferior orders slowly approaching a higher standard, and he failed to see how he could further this great work by binding himself down to the dogmas of the churches. Then he turned to politics, but here he saw there was nothing but a whited sepulchre. Often J.tlie**-vm=r-place without power, and-^afc the best there could be no power without a certain amount of pandering that was repellant to his nature. • Under these conditions politics could not ..give him the answer to those unsolved problems : —'? What is it that God—if there be ft God—is aiming at?'- What is the Divine ideal towards which all creation presses consciously or unconsciously ?•' He was, therefore, forced to fall back upon his accepted belief in the theory of evolution, which seemed; to him to be the natural method of lifting men and. things-f^to a higher plane. If he followed this theory to its logical conclusion, he should discover "the highest .thing in the world," and tp promote that would, he believed, give him a purpose upon which he could worthily devote the best energies of his life. In prosecuting bis search for the highest thing in th 9 world, he took as his guide the lives of the most perfectly evolved types of humanity that he badthe, opportunity of studying, and he fQunsr#Sat-.tbey _by r perj&lp., jwoijg ...moral pnnciples,"anaan^Tvin^|waTft-

key-stotae and-cornerstones of- a perfected society, and hVat once became clear toj Mr Rhodes' that by helping the race who were.- best - calculated to universalise these blessings he would be most likely to do something towards reaching his highest ideal,-and to act in concert with the Divine will. "Therefore," Mr Rhodes reasoned with himself, "if there be~a God,~and he cares anything about what I do, I think it is ! clear that he would like me to do what He is doing Himself, and as he is manifestly fashioning the English speaking race as the chosen instrument by which He will bring in a state of society based upon justice, liberty and peace, He must obviously wish me to do whatl can to giye asr much scope and power to that race as possibe. Hence, if there be a God, I think vthat. what He would like me to do is to paint as much of the map of Africa as red as I can, and do my best elsewhere to promote the unity and extend the influence of the British race." Here then we find the- secret of MiRhodes' Imperialism and the reason for the devotion of his life to the cause of Empire building in South Africa.