Te Aroha AND Ohinemuri News. THURSDAY, JUNE 13, 1907.

Te Aroha News, Volume XXVI, Issue 43104, 13 June 1907, Page 2

Te Aroha AND Ohinemuri News.

THURSDAY, JUNE 13, 1907.

Jhis above all —to thine own self be true, And it Must follow as the night the day 2hou canst not then be false to any man Shakespeare.

Reverting to the remarks made by Lord Milner at York, it is pleasing to notice by the late cables that Dr. Jameson, Premier of Cape Colony, has given expression to his satisfaction -at the cordial relations now existing between the Boers and British in South Africa. Coming from the leader of the famous, but ill-starred, raid into the Transvaal, it proves that the one-time feelings of hostility between the two races have now given place to one of amity and goodwill. This is very clearly the opinion of • Dr. Jameson, who says : “ Lack of , confidence in the Dutch was a thing . ■ of the past, and the British were pre--1 pared to work hand-and-glove with i them for federation. The feeling for a South African nationality whereof the earliest exponents were the Dutch | had come to stay as part of their ' greater British nationality:” Re- ‘ sponsible government having been | granted to the Transvaal, to be fel(lowed by a similar concession to the ; Orange State Colony, the desire of ‘ South Africans is that the various I States should be confederated into a | Federal Union, probably on the lines ’ jof the Dominion of Canada. Anyone | acquainted with the history of South . ! Africa, must be amazed at the marvellous manner in which that country has been mismanaged by the British Colonial Office, during the last fifty years. In 1859 Sir George , Grey, then Governor at the Cape, j proposed that the whole of South I Africa should be formed into a , Federal Union. His scheme vv as laid before the people of South Africa, 1 and met with the approval of Boer and Britisher, and the Orange Free State Parliament, especially, warmly supported his scheme. Sir George Grey met with rebuffs at the 1 hands of the British Colonial '. Office, but still he persevered, point- ! ing out the great benefits which r would result from the federation of South Africa.. Finally the Colonial ’ Office not only treated the proposals with ignorant contempt, but actually recalled him from his position of Governor for his presumption in suggesting the federation of South Africa! Like all great men, Sir i George Grey had the misfortune to , be before his time in his views, and consequently suffered from the ignorance of official incompetence. It is I pitiable to think of the thousands of human lives and the loss of hundreds of millions of money, which might have been saved had the Colonial Office only had the commonsense to ; help Sir Geo. Grey’s noble scheme, instead of treating him with contumely, and his proposals with contempt. Had his Federal scheme been carried out, there would have been no Maj üba disaster ; no handing back of the Transvaal, and no Boer war —with its many disasters — to re-take possession of that country. I The British Colonial Office has many blunders writ large in its annals, but j-it is safe to say that the greatest it j has ever made was when it re-called Sir George Grey from the Cape, and refused to carry his great Federaation scheme into effect in South Africa. — Waikato Independent.