THE Temuka Leader. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 1894. SAMOA.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2741, 22 November 1894, Page 2

THE Temuka Leader. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 1894. SAMOA.

I Lord Rosebery has evidently put his foot in it in reference to Samoa. Nothing but gross ignorance of the history of the negotiations between Samoa and New Zealand could have tempted him to make * ;i statement which was more or less iusulilng to the Government and people of this colony. These negotiations have been going on for ten or twelve years,<v d the people of Samoa have frequently expressed a desire to be annexed to New Zealand. On the 19th of November, 1883, Kh)g Malietoa addressed a letter to the Quean, paring ‘‘for the British flag to bo put up in out* ’>.b)gdom the same as you have done in Fiji,” Sii4 the 7th of December, 1883, the Parliamout oi gajnoa unanimously agreed to petition tfc® j Parliament of Sew Zealand to be annexed to this colony. In October, 1884, another letter, addressed to the Queen, and signed by the King of Samoa, the Vice-King, and 52 chiefs, complains of having received no answer to the previ ms letter, and says <s it is entirely at the disposal of Your Majesty as to whether it is better for us to become an English colony or to be annexed to the Govern mem. oi Now Zealand.” In February, 1885, tha Parr liament of Samoa passed an Act annexing the country to Now Zealand, and it was on this memorable occasion that the Hinemoa was kept in readiness for several days for the purpose of proceeding to Samoa with some of the Ministers to take possession of the country. Sir George Grey, Sir Harry Atkinson, Sir Robert Stout, and all the leading politicians of New Zealand have always favored the annexation of Samoa, but they have always been thwarted by the British

Government. The British Government have undouoteßly shown great weakness in dealing with this matter. The Samoans have for years been praying and petitioning to be taken under the British flag, yet the British Government has not had the courage to accept the offer, because Germany was interested, and for this reason in 1885 Sir William Jervois, the Governor of New Zealand, received a cablegram prohibiting New Zealand from annexing Samoa. So far as we are concerned, we have never been able to see any good to be gained by Samoan annexation, but at the same time when the vast majority of the people ,of Samoa and this colony are satisfied to throw in their lot together it appears to us that they ought to be allowed to do so. Germans, of cousse, hold an interest in Samoa, and the-best thing that could be done with them is to buy them out. There are altogether in Samoa 225 British subjects, 90 Germans, 20 Americans, 15 Scandinavians, and 15 others. The British subjects are, therefore, greatly in the majority, and it appears to us that it would not be very difficult to buy out their Samoan interests altogether, and let the Germans return to their “Fatherland.” Be that as it may, these facts will show that there was nothing presumptions in the action recently taken by the present Government and Parliament of New Zealand, and that Lord Rosebery’s comments thereon were insulting to the whole colony. No doubt Lord Rosebery did not know what he was talking about, and hence the ridiculous position in which he has found himself. It is not calculated to raise him iu the estimation of either the people of England or this, colony, but probably the whole affair has taught him the lesson that even Prime Ministers must know what they are talking about or hear the ridicule which most always attach to ignorance iu high places.

THE HERALD ON MR EARNSHAW. Mr Eabnshaw has suddenly sprung into a position of eminence. He is the lion of the hour ; he indulged in Billingsgate at the expense of the present Government in Dunedin recently, and for this he is being deified by the Conservative Press throughout the colony. As the poet Moore says;—

Unprized are her sons till they learn to betray, Undistinguished they live if they shame not their sires. And so it is with New Zealand Liberal politicians. So long as they remain true and loyal to the cause at first espoused by them, no language is too foul, too filthy, or too vulgar to apply to them, but the moment they turn traitors and betray the trust reposed in them they are beslobbered with fulsome adulation. The object, of course, is to tickle their vanity, and it frequently succeeds. But of all the papers that have supported Mr Earnshaw none has gone so far as the Timaru Herald. That paper in dealing with Mr Earnshaw and his speech has exhibited utter ignorance of the subject. The first mistake made by the Herald is that Mr Earnshaw broke away from the Government during the present session. This is not true. Mr Earnshaw was a faithful supporter of. the Government until Sir Robert Stout was elected after the death of Mr Ballauce in 1893. During that session ho became so unmanageable that he was refused admittance to the Liberal Whip’s room. Mr Earnshaw is a vain, conceited little man, who has lost his head through having been flattered by Sir Robert Stout. The Herald says that Mr Earnshaw “ attacked the Government in a vigorous fashion, but in no direction more strongly than iu the matter of finance.” This is wrong. Mr Earnshaw only repeated like a parrot Sir Robert Stout’s summing up of the money borrowed, but only a fool or a rogue could call it borrowing. The Herald asserts that if the country knew the financial proposals of the Government it would never have been returned to power. The country did know it. The country was told by Ministers that they were going to borrow in England cheap money for farmers, that they were going to buy native and private lands for settlement, and that they were going to issue paper money through the Post Office. Did the Herald think the Government could do all this without money ? Really the idiotcy which characterise the criticism of the finances of the Government is painful. Nothing could be more impudent than to call cheap money for farmers borrowing, yet the Herald has the audacity to do so. Then money spent on buying land for settlement is not borrowing in the ordinary sense in which we have hitherto understood it, and consequently only the money spent on making roads alone can be put down as borrowing. But it is no use arguing with Conservative newspapers ; they are shameless in their exaggerations, Mr Earnshaw’s attack on the Government was not chiefly financial, as the Herald would lead us to believe. Mr Earnshaw accused the Government of corruption, but we notice that not even 1 *ha Timaru Herald has attempted to endorse K ’ 8 remark ® on that head. No one with any uphold Mr Earnshaw’s lying “tataments. One thing people may as well bear . Ml mind. The Bill authorising the Government to borrow cheap money for farmers has already brought down the rate of interest by 2 per cent. This is the Bill that the Herald and Mr Earnshaw have condemned as borrowing, but when its effect has been to make cheap money all at once, wo doubt if the country will condemn the Government whoso policy has produced so desirable a result.