COLONIAL INDEPENDENCE.

Temuka Leader, Issue 911, 31 January 1882, Page 3

COLONIAL INDEPENDENCE.

A point of vital.importance, ventilated by Mr Acton, is the practical emancipation of the great colonies from, our Colonial Office rule. Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa are large republics', capable really of exercising all the.functions of sovereignty 7 . Yet they have no such power. They cannot treat with the United States upon commercial questions or border settlements, nor c m Australia carry out any particular policy as regards Chinese immigration. If any of these colonies seek to address the groat Home governing departments, the Admiralty as to increased naval protection, or the War Office as to the purchase of guns and stores, the Treasury for a loan, or the Postmaster-General as to improvement in the mail serv’de, it must be done through Downing street channels. Why shoulu not independent Colonial Ministers transact Colonial business direct with foreign Slates or departmental heads ? Such a concession would afford immense relief to our overworked Colonial Office, wherein the multiplicity of affiirs breeds difficulty, if not abuse. It has to deal with forty Colonial Governments, framed on many different lines, and with populations amounting to ten millions. lis administration, however admirable, is too complex and extensive to be altogether per feet, and it should be relieved whenever possible.—Home News.