COLONIAL INDEPENDENCE.

Patea Mail, 7 January 1882, Page 3

COLONIAL INDEPENDENCE.

A point of vital importance, ventilated by Mr Acton (says the Home News), is the practical emancipation of the great colonies from our Colonial Office rule. Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa are large republics, capable really of exercising all the functions of sovereignty. Yet they have no such power. They cannot deal with immediate neighbors. Canada cannot treat with the United States upon commercial questions or border settlements, nor can Australia carry out any particular policy as regards Chinese immigration. If any of these colonies seek to address the great Home governing departments, the Admiralty as to increased naval protection, or the War Office as to the purchase of guns and stores, the Treasury for a loan, or the Postmaster-General as to improvement in the mail service, it must be done through Downing-street channels. Why should not independent Colonial Ministers transact Colonial business direct with foreign states or departmental heads ? Such a concession would afford immense relief to our overworked Colonial Office, wherein the multiplicity of affairs breeds difficulty, if not abuse. It lias to deal with 40 Colonial Governments, framed on many different lines, and with populations amounting to 10,000,000. Its administration, however admirable, is too complex and extensive to be altogether perfect, and it should be relieved whenever possible.