The Daily News FRIDAY, DECEMBER 11. COLONIAL PEERS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 298, 11 December 1908, Page 2

The Daily News FRIDAY, DECEMBER 11. COLONIAL PEERS.

In England, the Liberal Government have had their Licensing Bill thrown out in the Lords, and liicy have been constrained to abandon their Education ISill in the Commons; iwo of their great poliev measure- have therefore gone by the board. When, aboard ship, a mast g.ics, the usual conscciueuce is that the others are weakened, certain stays being missing. The Liberal ship has lost two masts, but the elVecl of the loss of the lirsl— the Licensing Bill—ought to have the result of vastly strengthening the mast thai remains—nainelv. the reiorni of the lloii,c of Lords. This Jasi mast li«„ been kept objured by the drawing sails on the masts that are gone, but now il is left fully exposed iO view. The going by the board of two masts ought to (onviuce the people that if any progress is to be made at all their only hope is in .lie third mast which yet remains. 'The House of Lords has sought in this regard to anticipate tie action of the Cabinet by the appointment of a committee--known as Lord Kosoben's committee—to consider the lines which reform ought to follow., and a brief abstract yf the result of tlie labors of the committee has been cabled. What wll be generally n cog lined -is one of the most striking features in this report, that in which it is proposed to bestow upon the Dominions of Canada and New Zealand, the Commonwealth, and Souih Africa—with regard to the taller there is already a proposal for unification or federation being discussed—is of peculiar interest to the people ill the States mentioned. It may possibly be remembered that the late lion. Cecil Rhodes dreamed of a time when there would come into existence one vast Anglo-iSaxoit federation which would include even the Vniled States-, but in his comprehensiveness the late South African magnate was exceptional.

In Australasia many leaders of public thought have vi'iiliuvd to foresee a time | when all the States of the Empire would i he drawn into one great and powerful political and social combination; few if tin-in, however, thought of using the House of .Lords as the lirst steppingstone. That stone lies in wnk'i's shallow and muddy; the great Hewing deeps lie beyond. The proposal is fully exposed to blasts of ridicule, but sensible men will be disposed to accept all they can get in any way likely to help them in the direction tiiey wish to go. The appointive lit of colonial peers for a term would give' to the outside dominions the very feeblest kind of voice in imperial affairs, but any .sort of voice : s better limn none ill all. A louder, more imperative voice, will assuredly cone.' with natural development and growth, and everything niust have a. beginning. Tho institution of our present representative and constitutional system niiiile a very humble start, ami no one then living could possibly foresee what the ultimate end would be. Possibly a time may come when the descendants of the young and sturdy States of _ the Em-pire'to-day in the great council of the Anglo-Saxon Empire of the future may he called upon to decide what steps may be necessary for the adequate protection of the motherland.