PROTECTION OF BRITISH COMMERCE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XII, Issue 98, 27 April 1877, Page 4

PROTECTION OF BRITISH COMMERCE.

The Pall Mall Gazette writing on thia subject says : — The whole matter ie purely one of insurance, though the amount at stake ia ao large that the coat of adequate insurance cannot be trifling under any circumstances. More th&n 7,200,000 tons of shipping sails under the British flag, and tbe exports and imports of tbe mother country alone average £650,000,000. The loss which we should sustain even in the first two or three months of war with a great maritime Power, if we were unprepared, would far exceed the coat of reasonable preparation. In the present uneasy state of feeling throughout the world we cannot afford to neglect such precautions altogether. . . . The time has now arrived for a wider discussion of the subject, and so good an opportunity for obtaining a general agreement between the different portions of the empire may not occur again. The Australian colonies have at length awakened to their defenceless condition, and New South Wales has now joined Victoria in an [application to the Home Government for a qualified engineer officer to advise with the different Colonial Governments as 'to the best means of protection. There is no difficulty, as we r narked the other day, in rendering Port Philip and Melbourne absolutely secure, and Port Jackson and Sydney can be even more easily protected against attack from the sea tt a very moderate cost. But neither of these great harbors or cities is in a satisfactory condition at present, while Adelaide, Brisbane, &c, lie open to a raid, as well as the New Zealand ports, and Newcastle, New South Wales, the great port of the Pacific— is entirely undefended. Under these circumstances the Imperial Government might very well oall upon all the colonies to confer with the Home authorities as to the best means of availing ourselves of the endless resources of the whole empire in time of war. Tbere now exists no general organisation whatever; and if war were to break out within the next few weeks we should, considering the interests we have to protect, be as unready as at any period in our history. Our colonies and dependencies are not called upon to contribute a shilling to the Bupport of the Imperial Navy, although Canada has the fourth commercial marine in the world, and the Australian shipping is growing rapidly. They ought therefore at leaßt to provide adequately fortified ports in which our fleets couid coal and refit, and we believe that they would be perfectly ready not only to do this, but to take any other steps which might be recommended after consideration with the Imperial Government. Canada, in particular, ;has deolared herself ready enough to provide for her own defence. Sir John Lubbock has done good service in showing the liberal manner in which we have always treated our colonies since our great lesson of the laat century; and in spite of occasional grumbling, the colonists are perfeotly well aware that they derive very considerable advantage from belonging to the most powerful empire in the world. The disinclination to guarantee any portion of the expense of annexing Fiji, which hos ce:tainly left the stigma of extraordinary meanness upon the colonies which declined Lord Carnarvon's proposition may well have arisen from other causes than that to which it was naturally attributed, and we must nos forget that until within the last few years a noisy and influential party was continually clamoring for Jho dismemberment of the empire. A great change has taken place since in the attitude of even Liberal statesmen towards our colonies; and the view now taken by all Englishmen of Imperial duties will certainly lead Colonial Governments to evince more interest in the preservation oi the Imperial connection, whether in peace or war.