The Telephone. PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY, THURSDAY AND SATURDAY MORNINGS. GISBOBNE, TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 1888.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume I, Issue 11, 20 November 1883, Page 2

The Telephone. PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY, THURSDAY AND SATURDAY MORNINGS. GISBOBNE, TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 1888.

I’HE two great questions of the day are, undoubtedly, Federation and Annexation. Not alone has the Press <>t the Colony been largely exercised in this matter for some time past, but the whole of the European journals are also considerably employed in discussing the same subject, lhat the question is pregnant with immense importance to our future destiny is plaii ly apparent to the meanest capacity, but to the thoughtful man the question assumes gigantic proportions, inasmuch as the ramifications of its effects extend in so many directions and present as many varying results in their operations as the changing shades of colour to be seen through the prism. On looking at the map of the world and casting our eye over the insignificant extent of those small excrescences which lie on the north western seaboard of Europe, and known as the British Islands, it cannot fail to set the mind pondering upon the causes which have had the effect of spreading the dominion and power of that peculiarly mixed race, known in modern times by the name Britons, over the surface of the known Globe. No country has proved too remote ; no place too in.ignificant; no difficulty too great) no obstacle too formidable, to prevent the hardy and enterprising natives of these small islands from carrying their laws, their language, and above all their unconquerable determination to the remotest corners of the earth. The name of Briton has everywhere become synonomous with power and progress. Their watchword is ever Onward, Onward 1 The whole seqnal to England’s greatness is undoubtedly expressed in the word “ Annexation.” What would have been her position to-day had she not have carried out a liberal annexation policy ? Had she not her Canada, her New Zealand, her Australia, her Cape Colony, and other numerous dependencies, what would have become of those teeming millions who have left squalor, misery, want, and their inevitable concomitant, crime, to find a free, happy, and contented life

in one or other of her numerous Colonies; which will undoubtedly again, in their turn, in time to come, want some similar outlet for their surplus population P The importance of the question is beyond exaggeration, and is pregnant with immense results to unborn millions. The great argument at present put forth in favor of annexation of the Pacific Islands — viz., to prevent their being utilised as depdts for criminals, is, in our opinion, somewhat narrow, and irrelevant to the question. In the first place) what is the undoubted main ingredient in bringing about crime P We have no hesitation in saying that seventy-five per cent, of the crime developed in the large centres of Europe is solely attributable to poverty. Few of these men Would become criminals from choice, and it is merely the force of circumstances, brought about by penury and the grinding laws framed with a view to bring the larger por* tion of the population into a state of serfdom for the benefit of the minority—who live, in the majority of instances, worthless, idle, and profligate lives, utilising the superfluous means which they possess, aud which should go to make hundreds of povertystricken homes virtuous and Happy, in degrading themselves and pandering to their own vitiated tastes and habits—which cause them to resort to crime for a livelihood. We have only to turn to these and our sister colonies for confirmation of this. It cannot, for one moment, be denied but that a large proportion of the clever and most enlightened and enterprising of our old original settlers were, at no remote date, under the ban of the law. Upon previous occasions when this argument has been used, it has been met with the futile remark that these convicts were of a very superior description to the ordinary run of criminals, but we cannot possibly see any reasonable grounds for this assertion. We think the question of annexation should be viewed from a totally different and tnore comprehensive point than this. The question in one of its main and most important features resolves itself into the fact as to whether it is not necessary to secure these Pacific Islands with a view of utilising them for the same benificent purpose in the future as these colonies are now being used by England,—viz, to provide fields and pastures new for the exercise of those energies which are completely buried and rendered nugatory in overcrowded and aristrocratic ridden England. In centuries to come, when the unwritten pages of history are filled in, there is little room to doubt but that a vast and ever-in-creasing empire will exist here, and that the Britain of the South will then be in a similar position to her parent Northern Islands of the present day ; and should we fail to secure these Pacific Islands now, whilst they have merely to be taken possession of wiihout let or hindrance, and by the consent of the majority of themselves, in time to come their acquisition will become a necessity even at the cost of bloodshed. It behoves the Colonie.) in spite of the surprising aud incomprehensible indifference and opposition displayed by the Home Governmeet, to steadily persevere and to relax no effort until their endeavors are crowned with success.