The British Possessions.

Te Aroha News, Volume XXVII, Issue 4498, 2 December 1909, Page 2

The British Possessions.

OUR DUTY TO THE MOTHERLAND. London, November 30. Lieut. Col. Seely, Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies, presiding at a Complimentary Banquet to Sir J M. Taverner, Agent-General for Victoria, declared all in the Colonial Office recognised the great services to the Empire rendered by representatives of the Colonies. Lord Ranfurlv, replying to toast of “ The Empire,” said in all Colonies people even more loyal to the Crown than dwellers in the Motherland, instanced New Zealand leading the way with the Dreadnought offer, and other States doing all in their power to increase the Navy. London, November 30.

Lord Northcote, ex-Governor General of the Commonwealth, speaking at the Devonian Dinner, said both parties in \ Imperial life firmly determined to be drawn in a closer bond of union between Britain and overseas possessions The Colonial Office must rigidly and sedulously abstain from anything in the nature of interference. _ England was overcrowded and it was the duty of the future Statesmen to direct the overflow of population towards the great fertile spaces of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa, which were awaiting development. Increasing greatness or decline of Empire might depend upon by whom the Dominions were peopled. i