OUR INDIAN EMPIRE.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 414, 26 October 1889, Page 5

OUR INDIAN EMPIRE.

Snt Lli'iil Guii'-iis", whose Indian cateer as> a political ofh'cei is well known, has been lecturing recently in London before the Royal Colonial Institute, on " The Native Fiinces of India and their Relation with the British Government " Rumours have frequently been heard of recent jearc about a " United India," "India for the Indiana," etc., and tome have gone so far as to teach that i he population of India i^ de\oted to usuathe princes, and that they aie looking forwaid to the day when united as one man they will be successful in shaking oft the | degrading yoke of the British occupation, ! and wie^t the Peninsula once more Irom their odious tr'asp. Sir Lepel Griffin places an entirely different complexion on the matter. He points out that the India we rule, so far fiom I being one and a united people, really cons sts of twenty or more great and small nationalities diverse from each other in language, religion, manners, customs and sympathies. That some of these races are I warlike and manly, some precisely the reveise. That till are equally corrupt, and j that it it were not for the restraining hand j and influence ot Britain, the whole land would be instantly given up to the stmggle I forsupremacyand plunder, which w oukl turn the country into a pei fee liell upon earth. He says, " Most of the native ruler© have as -much to tear fiom internal discontent as irom external aggression. They have personally no hold on the country, and are far more distasteful and alien to the people they i ule than aie the English. Hyderabad and Bhopal, Mahomedan families, tyrannising over Hindoo peasants ; the Maharajah of Casbir.eie, a Hindoo I'tince, grinding Mahomedans to the dust ; Scindia and H lkai-, detested by the Rajpoot gentry they ha\e ovei whelmed, and whom they fet ill daily persecute — all these would vanish fiom the map ot Hmdostan if .biiglaiid but rai.-ed her hand." The "Times" allows that the pictiu 0 drawn by Sir Lepel GtifNn is stiictly accurate and just. This being &o, ib wiU take the. majority of Englishmen by surptise. -As with Egypt so with India, the argument is used that as soon us either country is in a fctate to nuclei bake the conduct of its own affairs it would be a wise and ju?6 policy on the part of Britain to withdraw. As regards India, the .statement has frequently been made that it was time the was now out of leading strings and took her pioper place in the world as an independent nation, and that if this was not voluntarily accorded her, she would eventually, possibly with the assistance of Rusc-ia, take it by force. All this, according to Sir Lepel Griffin, is, under the actual existing conditions ot the country, utterly, entirely and hopelessly impracticable. There does not seem, thereforo, the leinotesb probability of India as a nation evei gaining her independence, and it will a 1 ways remain an integial part of the world -wide British Empire. Sir Lopel Giifh'n makes one rather remarkable suggestion, which, however, appears to have been very fa\ourably entertained, and that was, in order to meet the threats of Russian invasion to the northwest of India, that a British colony of about three millions of souls should be located in Cashmeie on conditions ot military &er\ice. He oiiys this proposal is not looked upon with .suspicion by the surrounding native .states, as Cashmere ib well undei stood to be peculiarly situated as the only portion of the Indian Peninsula where Euiopean& cojild settle and rear their families. The Kajah of that bbate has ruled in such an execrable manner that the Indian Government has lately lemoved him, to the great delight and increasod happiness of the people who weie subject to him, and his former rule is now vested in a commission appointed by British authority. The " Times," in summing up Sir Lepel Griffin's remarks, says : " This shows what value is to be attached to the figment of an Indian nationality which has been concocted by political pedants, and which has been turned bo account by intriguing partisans. Ifc also warns us that, although it may be wise on grounds ot policy, to mainbain stiictly our engagements with the native piinces, we cannot shake oil our responsibility, either in the sight of the people or in our own consciences. We are bound to bake care that the rulers who owe their power to our protection shall give their subjects something approaching to a decent and bolerable government." " Auckland Star," October 22.

The Enamelled Butter Package Factory of Pond and Co., Freeman's Bay, shipped 3,000 packages last week to New South Wales by the Mararoa, to which colony there are orders for 15,000 during the season. One thousand are being sent to r.he West Coast and various place 3 in the Middle Wand, part of the shipment going last week and the balance duiing next week. The sailor hat does not haimonise with faces over thirty, notwithstanding that many women are under the delusion that it doe?. '" 'Although novel and striking in many respects, M ill the autumn tailor fabrics as a uhole will lend great variety and 1 brilliancy to the sea&ou 5 co&tunun^.