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Southland Times, Volume I, Issue 28, 13 February 1863, Page 2

Mr Goldwis Smith and the Colonies.— The London Sj>c atoi- says on this subject: — "Mr G ) win Smith and his admirers have somewhat overlooked the truth, that the? amount of our co :mercc with any colony depends on its prosperity, and that if its prosperity were cheeked by emancipation, we should Jose an economica advantage. Could the United States, for instance withoutihe assistance of Great Britain, have supported the long and deadly struggle with the Red Indiana in which 1 lie . arlier colonists were involved? Can New Zealand, now, unaided, hold the Maoris ' check without any diminulic iof its productive industry ? "Wou'd an independent Canada be sale iroin invasion ? Yet a few years, and the States Ol' Australia might boinvolved in as fierce a struggle as th t which now divides the American continent, a strugg ' from which, it is permitted to Englishmen toliclieve the United States might have been saved by the moderating authority of the Crown, if, happily, the same measure of freedom which is 1:0 w granted to all our colonies had been timely conceded ' ; them. No doubt, the pride ofindepc idence nerves every people to more than ordinary exertion, but it cannot be relied on to effect everything. And while few now would be found to advocate the retention of our authority over any co'my by force, wo tnay yet well leave it to the colonists themselves to cleoide when tliO hour for ' separation hfla sounded."