The Daily News. THURSDAY, JUNE 1. MATTERS OF EMPIRE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 316, 1 June 1911, Page 4

The Daily News. THURSDAY, JUNE 1. MATTERS OF EMPIRE.

It is perhaps natural and inevitable that the smallest nation under the British flag should seek more notoriety than any of the others at the Imperial Conference. What was considered locally to be a matter of vast importance—the suggestion of an Imperial Defence Parliament —remained unsupported at the Conference, the British Prime Minister, in a few terse, grave words, dissolving the sentimental structure erected by Sir Joseph Ward. Before the Conference sat, we took the liberty of suggesting the impossibility of the Parliament and its obvious uselessness, for it is certain that such a Parliament must either supersede the Imperial Parliament or be subject to it. Our representatives in London—or at least our representative and his adviser—presume to voice the sentiments of all New Zealanders. Prior to the disappearance of these gentlemen the people were in no way taken into their confidence. In fact, tVere was marked secreey in all matters pertaining to the errand. Dr. Findlay has less right to speak for the people of New Zealand than his chief. If the cable news concerning Dr. Findlay's speech in a London tabernacle is reliable, it is evident that the eminent K.C. presumes to speak for New Zealand. He remarked that what was happening at the Imperial Conference showed that Xew Zealand was anxious to make sacrifices for closet' union. How did Dr. Findlay discover this alleged anxiety? New Zealand has not given Dr. Findlay any authority to make such a statement, nor has it ever indicated what sacrifices it is willing to make. We are united kidissolubly to the Mother Country by the simple and efficient means of the "J.0.U." Nothing could be more binding. Dr. Findlay said that New Zealanders were looking forward to the day when great statesmen would take the elements of federation and mould them into an organic whole. He may have been able to show what the elements of federation were, but the cable was silent on the matter. Without a guide as to what these elements are, the phrase is meaningless. Speaking for everybody in these islands, the eminent K.C. asserted that the growing sense of Imperialism was even greater in New Zealand than in Britain. On the one hand, the speaker spoke for a country containing a million people, 1 and on the other for the "mother of nations" containing fifty times as many people. Perhaps in his hurried trips through Britain Dr. Findlay bag been able to eee

what lies at, the buck of the English brain. And when a colonial statesman makes ''odorous" comparisons in the alleged interests of this precious unity that lio one lias yet explained (the suggestion being that there is at present no ltnitvj lie should he less an orator than a (Iradgririd. As no one has yet explained to New Zealand the basis of the vague i lea of closer unity it is impossible for the country to understand what these eminent.- are driving at. Whether or not the basis of the argument for "'unity" lies in the constitution of (lie Colonial Office, it is at least certain that Sir Joseph Ward has proposed a reconstitution and an elaborate scheme "for the hotter organisation of Imperial affairs generally." The common view that Imperialism is a matter of speechmaking has given rise to the constant allegation that colonial people are doin? more for the Empire than their relatives at Home. Tt is perhaps because British 'sacrifices" are not so well advertised as smaller overseas sacrifices that creater loyally is presumed. And at any rale "sacrifice" is synonoymous with "safety.'' A man does not call it a "sacrifice" when he erects a barb-wire fenae to keep cattle out. Tie calls it "necessity." Nations, as a matter of fact, do not make voluntary sacrifices. The sacrifices are machine-made, forced and inevitable. National sacrifice should be a matter of ability to) make it—bint never is. As for national sentiment, it always exists, but is always dormant until the necessity for its exhibition arises.