COLONIAL and INTERCOLONIAL QUESTIONS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 41, 4 November 1871, Page 2

COLONIAL and INTERCOLONIAL QUESTIONS.

[lndependent, October 31.] The present session will soon be brought to a close, and it is a subject of great regret that its attention has been so taken up with what herbert terms “ parish business,’’ or. acting as a court of dernier resort, that the Brogden contract is almost the only purely colonial question that has been debated to an issue. Yet the order paper has been kept crowded, Hansard has grown apace, and the piinting establishment has not been equal to the work of printing the necessary returns and reports. In the short space that now remains must be crowded the most important business of the session, and questions largely affecting New Zealand, not only as a separate colony, but as an integral part of Australasia, are yet to be discussed. Now it is that we must pay the penalty for the useless ♦iterations and reiterations of the ambitious and self-seeking members, most of them, too, the professed advocates of retrenchment, who, had they curtailed speeches which threw no light on the subject under discussion, and had they studied for themselves existing documents, instead of seeking new returns of a laborious and expensive character, so as to have “ knowledge made easy,” would have shown more real concern for retrenchment. “ ’Tis pleasant sure,” says Byron, “ to see one’s name in print;” but it is not pleasant for the rest of the colony to reflect that this pleasing object has been attained at the expense of much valuable time (not to mention the money cost) which otherwise would have been much better occupied. Mr Haughton wittily made allusion the other day to the Loct’ian Parliament, and the fate that there attended unsuccessful legislators. It is somewhat suggestive that the custom he referred to is ascribed to the Locrians, who are said to have been the first people who used a code of written laws, and on those who first introduced Hansard into our Parliament, rests by analogy the special duty of providing the halter. Leaving them to discover the most suitable deterrent, we proceed to notice one subject far more worthy of the consideration of Parliament than any yet brought before it this session. We refer to the subject of intercolonial reciprocity. The report of the Intercolonial Conference lately held in Melbourne is not very cheering, as the Hobart Town “ Mercury ” justly remarks to those who trust in a Customs’ union and uniform tariff as the principal remedy for the undoubted commercial depression from which the whole of the Australian Colonies are now suffering. Much of the manufacture and produce of a colony cannot enter into consumption beyond its own confines, without being subjected to special taxes and impositions by the Government of the con suming colony to an extent that cripples every industry affected, and makes it scarcely worth following. New South Wales, for instance, with Victoria on the ono side, and Queensland on the other, contrive to regard each other as foreign countries in every commercial relation, as much as Germany considers France. The Customs’ barrier between France and Germany is not greater nor more vexatious than is that between any of the colonies. Queensland’s sugars find no more encouragement with us than the crops of France and Spain ; while our grain is subjected on entering Victoria to the same exactions as that coming from California. Could we take only, or chiefly, Queensland sugar, or Victorian wines, there would be increased demand for labor in these colonies, while did they look to the other colonies for grain, the farmers of Tasmania, South Australia, and New Zealand, might be enabled to cultivate an increased area, and employ increased labor. The influence would, of course, be extended, shouldAjje trade between the wholeof the colonffS be as unrestricted as it ought to be ; many will say, as it will be, for a Customs union and uniform tariff are, they consider, looming in the near distance. The result of the Melbourne Conference bids us abandon all such hope. If Victoria and New South Wales cannot adjust their traffic, and come to terms as to the duties on that traffic on the borders between them, what hope is there of any common understanding in the trade across the

several borders and on what is ocean borne? Simply none. On the goods passing overland to the 30,000 of a population in Riverina, Victoria says she would be paying too high in allowing £40,000 and the costs of collection ; while New South Wales says she would be sacrificing her interest for the sake of amity were she to accept £IOO,OOO. We offer no opinion as to which colony has reason on its side ; the question is not one that affects us in that respect: but it speaks trumpet-tongued to us,, if we rely on any general arrangement under which an uniform tariff and equitable adjustment of taxation can be effected among the colonies. New South Wales and Victoria are equally selfconfident in the correctness of the position each takes up. They are equally sensible of the injustice their standing out will do those over whom they rule, but they will venture on that injustice rather than yield the one to the other ; giving us a very distant prospect of a general understanding. In fact they seem each to intensify such inconvenience as can be inflicted on the other, in the hope of compelling that other to give in. It is possible, however, that out of this “ dead lock” between Victoria and New South Wales good may come. Till wiser counsels prevail we must give np the the idea of a Customs union, and uniform tariff, and endeavor to connect ourselves if only one by one with those colonies that have with ourselves affirmed the principle of intercolonial free trade- These at present are only South Australia and Tasmania. New South Wales, it is true, has promised to introduce a similar measure, but recent events are not very re-assuring as to her sincerity. If the new tariff proposed by the Colonial Treasurer will give a filip to the movement by showing the absurdity of the present tariff schemes, it will subserve the great public end we should always keep before us; if on the other hand," it will have an irritating effect, and postpone the settlement of this great question, it will be much to be deplored. If we could only get a beginning made, the end could not be far distant. New Zealand once joined to any other colony, a third will soon seek to be included in the reciprocity. IJ> through a conciliatory and statesmanlike policy, New Zealand, New South Wales, South Australia, Tasmania, and Queensland were brought commercially to form one colony, the now haughty Victoria that will brook no contradiction, will come to no terms, and must needs dictate to all her neighbors, will be then obliged to come as a suppliant and ask to share in the blessings her wilfulness had deprived, her of. Here, then, is work for our statesmen, requiring at once much thought, deli cacy, and firmness. The relations of the colony to her sister colonies, and to her own sectional divisions, alike require a strong Government, while a feeling of greater confidence would doubtless be felt by the holders of our securities at home if they saw our great colonising operations inaugurated by a ministry formed in a spirit of self-abne-gation and patriotism, because this would give a promise of that continuity of action, which extending, as they do, over a series of years, is essentially required for their prosecution to a satisfactory end. From these considerations we suppose that the Ministry offered a portfolio to Mr Stafford. At all events, from these considerations we at the time anticipated his acceptance, and we regret that by his petty and petulant opposition the offer cannot now be accepted with the same honor and advantage. In the accession of the Hon. Mr Waterhouse the Ministry have secured a colleague, whose reputation as a minister in the Australian colonies is a sufficient guarantee that in the discussion of the great intercolonial questions we have referred to, the New Zealand Government will neither be wanting in special knowledge, prestige, nor diplomacy.