THE COLONIAL OFFICE AND COLONIAL POLITICS.

Samoa Times and South Sea Gazette, Volume 2, Issue 67, 11 January 1879, Page 3

THE COLONIAL OFFICE AND COLONIAL POLITICS.

Fi .. In. S M. Elr.tU, X0v.210 '■ II lon, spunking tho other. ■!.... Nt Aberdeen on thu relations between ' the Imperial Government ami the eolouies, deprecated the eageiwss of the Colonial Office to avoid party questions, an calcu- ] lnti'il to render Governors careless ot tho interest! of the dependencies over which tlit.y preside. Thcro was a great deal of weight in tin- complaint, ana it is probable that the otfeota of this eager indifference on fall not only by colonial Governors, bat also by the people It' anything, could tend more strongly than a fussy and meddlesomo intorferoncs with colonial offairt to weaken thetioi tlmt connect tlia oolonies with the mother country, it would be mi ostentation! display of that Utter Want of syu [alhy

: which would suffer the best inl nof 1 community to be sacrificed by lb violence of party strife rather than In terpcKo to hold the halauco and t.. pre venl the straining of the law by part) But the worst thing that the Colonia Office can 1)0 in a sup] si avoidance 0 party question is to be te indirectly whethi: through ignorance or indifference by abstaining from th ■ exercise of its lo gitimatc powers, or by shrinking frnn plain spei ch, a supp at >r of party .-..-1 i-.• which ought to be discountenanced We can appreciate the embaiussmcnts oi the Secretary of State in dealing b; telegraph with colonial questions up 1 which he is impel-:',, v informed, llui there should be little difficulty when tin materials for a sound judgment are al hand ; and no amount of eagerness t avoid party questions could excuse ii faulty decision that arose in such a eas, from neglect of inquiry and consider*-

lion. The questions that are about to be thrust upon the attention of the Imperial Government by tho " embassy" from Victoria are n',t of a character to be answered nil-hand by'the plea t! I rhu\ belong to party politics, i'iiey can only ho tiuswer.il rightly upon the basis of a clear iinderstntiding of tlie situation : and it is well, then inn; that the Legi.sl itive Council is engaged in the prcparatioii oi a state nt of the facts for the information of the Imperial Government. The application for interference will bo most, unusual—probably with.,at any eolour of 1 ■(■ lent. To granl [it w mid be like the letting nut of water. It would be the introduction of a pn:c i ••• that would lead lo endless trouble and embroilment-. in tics,, party conflicts which the Colonial Office abhors : and the end could not po - siblybe fores 1, Every colonial .Ministry that set its In-art up in constitutional reform would he tempted to fly at the first cheek to England for aid. In view of almost ceilain consequences iike these, the Imperial Government will he hound t • s:: ; . '; 1 II vtol io or! , 1 1 tl'ls claim, amicus t<, tin- existence or uoii-cx-isteuce in the e linnv itself of sufficient means to disp ~- f the difficulties which it is asked ; , r-uiove. Having hj a 111 what Mr. lierry and his colleagues have t , say. the aulho.-iti.-s a: home will find in the t'ouneil's statement an ctf'ectivc reply, if ,be docuuieiit sh eild be substantially identic d with the draft alr.-ady j imblished. 1 'onstitntioual government has been established 1:1 these colonics, and any difficulties arising under i: should be , ured by constitutional, not revolutionary metle d-. ('• rlainly it is not for file S cretary of State to b'ei idle I in as a revolutionary age f when rotclit iti mal expedients remain untried.