Te Aroha AND Ohinemuri News AND UPPER THAMES ADVOCATE. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 24, 1895.

Te Aroha News, Volume XI, Issue 1733, 24 April 1895, Page 2

Te Aroha AND Ohinemuri News AND UPPER THAMES ADVOCATE.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 24, 1895.

, ' This abovo All—to ftb!na own self bo irno, and ife maßfe follow u tho nifiii the day . Thou oAbaft not) febon be fels® to any sues.' SUAKBSPBABK.

The question of Federation must come up for settlement before long, and' it is time that this community should begin to consider its bearings. Greece might have continued to rule the socalled civilized world, of its day, for a much longer termphad the, predecessors of Prides been wise enough and sufficiently fortunate, to have brought about successful federation. Unfortunately each .State so.ught selfish ends, in narrow and valuless supremacies, and the result was seen in subjection to Rome ; while that. State still recognised the subject nation as the intellectual leader of mankind.; Switzerland has sustained more, than six centuries her national independence; amid the snows of. her native and ja . measure of personal; . as well as cantonal freedom; by virture of well deVised federation, and in many respects She is an object lesson to Europe' to-day. Circumstances compelled the thirteen colonies of the United States to write for defence 1 against the tyrannies of Britain in the latter part of the last century, under conditions which did not favor careful federation,of the fighting State, and it was not until late, in the day, and under hard pressure, .that the needs of the Federal Government''were grudgingly provided- for. Probably the .terrible civil war which convulsed the threat Republic from: 1861 to .1860, might have-been . greatly mitigated; if not fended altogether, could the wise foresight of Washington, Franklin and Jefferson have; dealt in .the beginning of their nationality, with the interests of the the No slavery section, while the, Negro problem was in its weak and littler treasured inception, instead of'waiting "a 9 r cfi& wait*’ for settlement, until there; were four • mil--hoh slaves »to be fought for on the bloodstained battlefields.of the South. Franklin; represented the class in the Revolutionary colonies' which had no . property in human bondage, and. the twb great Presidents. Washington and Jefferson, although; they were touched by the prejudices of their State, Virginia, were neither of them, desirous Ho increase slave interests in their be-, loved country. The laxity of one century wan paid for-by; the blood and. the corruption of the next, for Tammany is after all a femanet from years of civil war. Happily: we have no such dreadful problem to Jtiand down to posterity, unless odlourd labour in Queensland majr prove to ;be the cloudno bigger than a man’s hand, and we * shall do well, to consider all issues with care and caution, before we legislate upon our share of Federation. Some few of our public men,appear .to believe that we shall do well to stand aside from the earlier negoiations, and., possibly they would not mind, though we remained out in the cold to

the end, but most of our readers will bring to their minds that the colony of Newfoundland, which declined at first to be included in the Canadian Dpminion, is nowsuing,informa paupers, for admission to the Union,;which she might at an earlier datehave .beneficially influenced by her prestigp and brain power. - This colony has much to gain from an extension >of its markets in the other colonies of Australian group, for the many manufacures and products in which it excels, and we shall be much surprised if it does not resolve to assume a leading and influential position in the labors, which must be undertaken by the high contracting parties, if the business ®f Federation is-to be well done. Not only all our personal gain, and Mercantial advantages demand this course at our hands, but the higher interests! of the race going beyond "the Federation'of the British Empire to the Federation of the English spealcingrace, embracing the Great American Republic; the abolition Ofmilithn^nf; the substitution of arbitration for-ytafi; the Congress of Nations, Which must come; and the leaving behind us for ever of the shameful vice called Conquest ; all wait upon Federation effort, as' the beginning of a glorious and Christ-like reign of justice, humanity and common sense. So mote it bo !