THE Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILEY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. TUESDAY, JULY 15, 1879.

Thames Star, Volume X, Issue 3296, 15 July 1879, Page 2

THE Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILEY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. TUESDAY, JULY 15, 1879.

Ah important question was recently brought before the Home of Commons, which deserves more attention by the Hew Zealand Press than it has yet received. It will be remembered by all those who take an interest in Polynesian politics that the present Attorney-General of Victoria, Sir Bryan O'Loghlen, was, within a comparatively recent period, elected the member for Clare to represent that constituency in the British House of Commons. It will also be familiar to the class of our readers we have indicated that Fir Bryan was disqualified from taking his seat in the Imperial Parliament because " he held a place of profit under the Crown " in its Victorian dependency. But it is not with this aspect of the question that we have any intention to deal, but the expression of opinion that was made manifest in the debate which ensued on the report of the Select Committee on the legal status of Sir Bryan O'Loghlen, to the effect that it was expedient that the colonies should have some form of representation in the Imperial Legislative Chambers. Mr W. E. Forster, who durthe last few years has taken a warm and intelligent interest in colonial affairs, was zealous in the advocacy of the wisdom of such a course of conduct being adopted, feeling ctnvinced of its tendency to make the Empire more closely cohere, from the information colonial representatives would be enabled to afford to the Home legislators of the wants and prospects of the colonies they represented, and the consequently mor* intelligent legislation that would ensue from such information being afforded. The impression appeared to prevail among many of the speakers that the gentlemen representing the colonies in Great Britain would do well to represent constituencies in the Mother Country besides attending to their colonial duties ; and the story spread abroad through the Press, that Sir Julius Vogel intends to contest Truro in the Conservative interest at the next general election, would intimate that he purposes attempting to follow the precedent of Messrs Childers, Jenkins, and Boebuck who held seats in Parliament while acting as agents for the Colonies. There is no benefit that can accrue from reticence on- this subject, and there is no reason whatever why hesitation should be manifested in freedom of utterance. If .the Home people wish the Empire to stand without the fear of future dismemberment, colonists must have a voice in the chief council of the

State : of this fact there can no doubt be entertained. Our Victorian neighbors have had, not long since, to go to England to state what were iho wishes of the majority of the colonists in the portion of the Empire where they dwelt; and the complications which hare arisen botween the Governor-General' of Canada and his Exeoutire have induced him also to appeal to the powers at Home for guidance. The Agents-General resident in London (it was maintained in the debate) are certainly' entitled to hold seats among the , Commons from the magnitude of the; interests they represent—interests requiring their, in our opinion, undivided attention, without having to attend to the wants of an English or Irish constituency. Those who think one questions for themselves, feel and know that our New Zealand system of Government, with a representative of the Crown in our midst, affords us no adequate representation or influence in Great Britain. Our Governor is simply the first subject in the Colony, and a Viceroy in no other sense than a social one, and our Agent-General could exercise far more influence in the House; of Commons for the f#eal of the colony,' than any Governor we could possess. The Agent-General is the servant of the New Zealand people, while our Governors are too apt to consider themselves the servants of -the Crown, ignoring or forgetting the fact that our present dynasty was placed in the position it has long occupied by the representatives of the people. A.nd it is of the more importance that this view of our position should be earnestly and zealously^advocated from the new creed of Imperialism that is now so popular and fashionable in Great Britain. An apostle,, of imperialism—no otn.er than Earl drey—bewails, in a late number of the Nineteenth Century, the fait* that. Colonial Governors, " when ap-' pointed, are practically powerless, and unable to perform efficiently the duty that properly belongs to them, of checking those abuses of powar into which colonial administrations Ire sometimes lead by the virulence of party spirit." He cannot see either how the Empire is to be preserved unless tti% Imperial Government is enabled to exercise such if measure of authority as is necessary in order to insure due regMfl in the measures of the several Colonial* Governments .to the general interest of the whole empire. It will from our foregoing remarks appear that there are two methods engaging the attention of statesmen in Great .Britain of preserving intact the unity of the Empire. The one is to give colonists representative influence in the Imperial Parliament; the other is to increase the power 8t authority of nominated Colonial Governors.#JEvery colonist of course knows which of the methods is preferable; and the time seems to be near at hand when the people will have to state in plain terms to the Crown their wants and their will. We cannot consent to the governed from Downing street, but we have a right to be heard in all Imperial affairs. A writer in "the Colonies and India," after advocating the admission into the British Parliament of the AgentsGeneral of the various great selfgoverning colonies as an experiment, states very cogently on all powerful reasons, why such a course of action should be adopted. He says: "At Home let us never forget that whatever be the future increase in our population, it is estimated that in another half-century the population both of Australia and Canada will perhaps equal the number at present inhabit* ing the Old Country, while probably that of South Africa under British rule may not be far behind. We shall deal with the question again in another issue.