(From the Daily News.)

New Zealander, Volume 5, Issue 324, 5 July 1849, Page 3

(From the Daily News.)

We are told that the colonial expenditure of Great Britain cannot bo wduced without severing tho connexion between the molher-countfy and the colonies ; and that tlie consequence of such a separation must be ■ t6 reduce oor country to » second or third rate power. A glance at the actual amount of out colonial expenditure, and the purposes fcr which it is incurred, may aid ut in estimating the validity of this argument. In the year 1833-4 (the expenditure of 1835-6, the lust yi'ar for which we hate a com|.lcte account, does not materially differ) the expenditure of Great Britain on account of the several colonies" was £2,40 1,703. There was an additional sum of £13,471, entitled " advances m aid of colonial revenue*," which swelled | the amount to £2,415,174. The repayment a from j surplus customs, and Pott-office collections in the colonies amounted to £50,865, leaving a net expenditure of £2,364 3. 9 This expenditure may be distributed into civil, naval, and military : Civil .. .. .. £431,241 Naval .. .. 50,173 Military .. .. 1,920 287 First, of the civil expenditure. The total disbursements by the imperial government in the year 1833 4 amutnted to £G30,2G9. But of this sum £'199,208 were defrayed out of the cu»toms and Post-office collections in the colonies, leaving only £431,211 paid out of the imperial treasury. Ihe itenu composing the giand total were as follow* : Passage allowance for governors >fee. .. £s. CiiO Transport of convicts .. . . . • 67,379 Provisions, &c, for ditto .. .. 38,765 Convict establishmtnts »• •• 71.816 Provision*, &c, for ditto .* .. 168,1)15 Colonial establishments (Including Indian department in Canada) .. 84,137 Ecclesiastic*! establishments .. .. 39,658 Civil works by Ordnance Department .. y,(JSO Miscellaneous from military chestt .. 3,211 Customs establishment .. •• .. 104,725 Post-office ditto 36,360 In this account we have £346,875 incurred for the transportation and maintenance of convicts. This is nqt properly a colonial charge; it is expenditure for (he enforcement of penal laws and prison discipline. It U incurred for the benefit of the mother country. We have no right to set it down to the charge of the colonies. Of the other items, the £39.658 for ecclesiastical establishments is one of which the colonies ' Woaldfiadly be*rid: it is not a contribution towards their religious inktrtlctionj but a gratuiy paid for the maintenance a of sectarian ascendancy in the colonies. The Indian department in Canada— an establishment maintained at • disproportionate expense, for the pur* pose of keeping a few tribes in their savage state— i* a fair specimen of the way in which the £84,137 for- * colonial establishment*" goes. The customs' establishment fails in consequence of our new commereinl arrangements.; and while it exuted the income derived from it wai £123.312, the cost of collecting this income was £104,725. The Po-t«oflice establishment is set down at £36 360 ; the levenue derived from it at £64,641. The colonies derived no advantage from cither establishment being administered by the mother country. One was a check upon their trade ; and both were sources of patronage to the home authorities — of government corruption. The only items by which the colonici could possibly profit were the £5,C40 contiibuted by tbe home government to pny the passages of governors ; the £9,659 for civil woiks executed by the ordnance department; «nd the £3,211 of advances from military chest-;. In &o far as the civil expenditure is concerned, the colonies havenothing to lose ty being left to pay their own expenditure. Making them selfsupporting in this respect will not alienate them from the mother country. The propottion of the general naval expenditure of the country attributed to the colonies in 1833-4 (in 18356 it is stated at £39,363) can be no object to them. Occasional visits from the men-of-war, cru6ing in their vicinity for the general protection of trade, is all that such a sum would cover, and all that is required. The main source of expeme alleged to be entailed upon this country by its colonies is the military. This amounted in *1833— 4 to nearly two millions. (In 1835—6 it was a trifle over two millions.) Under this head we find in 1833—4 : Gibralter £153,858 Malta 100,805 lonian Islands 97,690 Penal settlements 92,321 £444,674 That is to say less than one-fourth of the military expenditure on the colonies is incurred for our military stations, and for guarding the convicts whom we in fiict upon the honttt population of tome of the colonies. About a million and a half of it is incurred for the colonies properly so called. Now the expendituie of this million and a half is totally uncalled f"r. It is not necessary for the defence of the colonies against foreign enemies that large military establishments, should be kept up in them in

time of pence. Were we to go to war with tho whole of Europe to-morrow, there arc only three powers (France, Russia, jmd the United States) who could adopt the lyitem of aggression which was such a favourite with' the statesmen of this country during the eighteenth century— the wresting of colonies from us. And these countries have seen tkat we never made war with any result, till we abandoned that buccaneering system. The embarrassments and expense entailed upon us by the conquered colonies — all arising from the difficulty of governing an alien population — aie additional inducements for these countries to abstain from the stealing of colonies as a mode of making war upon us. In the event of war we are much more likely to be attacked in our merchant vessels and on our own coasts, than in the colonies. And great states like those we have named do not, and cannot, commence wars in su< h an impromptu fashion as to preclude the possihillity of placing the outposts of our empire in a state of preparation. For tiie purposes of internal police, or for guarding against uncivilised neighbours, flour colonies (with perhaps the exception of Ceylon, which would be much better if pluced under the same general government as the rest of our Indian territories), are quite able to raise and maintain any military force that may bo required. Even with regard to Nsw Zealand, a letter from an intelligent colonist is now before us, in which ])6 complains that any military force which Great Britain can maintain there is only calculated to awaken angry and jealous feelings among the natives, not to subdue them when thua iiritated. As for the other colonies, the letter from the Rev. Dr. Lang, which we published about a week ago, speaks their general sentiments. There is a tone of superiority assumed by the military in the colonies which in Hates the colonists not only against them, but the mother country which sends them (here. Theco'onists are, moreover, pretty generally aware that the military are sent among them less with a view to protect them against foreign ene« mies, than to support the officials appointed by the mother country in every unpopular course of policy they may adopt. By at once withdrawing all our troops from all our colonies (except the purely military stations and the convict colonies) a most important step would be taken towards reducing to a minimum the sources of heartburning and animosities between them and the mother country. The great truth cannot be too often repeated, that the 'only use of colonies is to supply additional markets to the mother country, and create a number of communities ready to »ide with us and rank themselves under the British banner, if ever we are unfortunately engaged in war. The less we interfere with them in the matter of government the better customers and the surer allies they will prove. Inherited tastes and habits will lead them (as it leads the people of the United States) to draw n>ost of their imports from this country ; and the ties of blojd and inter-marriagvwill render them proud of (he character of Biitish citizen*, so long as the inhabitants of the oid country do not insist upon domineering over them, and regulating ull their domestic affaire for them.