THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. FRIDAY, MAY 17, 1907. NOT WHOLLY FRUITLESS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8444, 17 May 1907, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. FRIDAY, MAY 17, 1907. NOT WHOLLY FRUITLESS.

The failure of the Imperial Conference, remarks the Auckland Herald, • on the preference question, though a cause of deep disappointment to the colonies, has been set off by gains in other directions, which we may reasonably hope will ultimately prove of immense advantage, and even tend to bring about a change in the views of the anti-preferentialists themselves. In spite of the spread of information among the people of Great Britain concerning the colonies we are convinced that an immense amount of ignorance still prevails. The people as a whole have no conception at all of what the colonies are. They know nothing of their extent, of their resources, of their vast potentialities, of their marvellous progress and growth. Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow, Dundee, Belfast and Cork are to them concrete things—great cities with whose history, and trade, and characteristics they are familiar. But the great cities of the colonies — Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Auckland, Wellington, Durban, Capetown, Montreal, Ottawa, Quebec — are to them merely names, conjuring up nothing. Their remoteness from the Mother Country leaves them beyond the range of the common vision. Linked though they are by means of cables and telegraph wires and numerous steamships they are still too distant to affect the daily lives and thoughts of the mass of the people. And while this condition of things exists it is almost hopeless to expect any change. It was no doubt his consciousness of this fact that led Sir Joseph Ward to suggest cheaper cable rates and a faster service of steamships. With the un-

;rring instinct of practical statesmanship, he saw that the only hope of jringing the colonies closer to "the aosoms and businesses" of the people af Great Britain lay in that direction. And should his suggestion be acted upon, as seems likely, the Conference of 1907 will be remembered as the starting point of a new order of things. To bring New Zealand within a three weeks' voyage of the Mother Country, and to reduce the cost of cabling to sixpence a word, would completely revolutionise the relations of the two countries. The great object to be aimed at is to make the colQnie3 better known at Home. Once that is accomplished many of the difficulties which now stand in the ' way of a complete understanding' would disappear. And we believe that nothing is more likely to hasten this result than the establishment of faster steamship services and the cheapening of the cable rates. The latter alone would have an enormous effect. It would bring the colonies and the Mother Country into social touch and promote a close and intercourse which could not fail to be productive of the highest good. We earnstly hope, therefore, that Sir Joseph Ward's eminently practical suggestion will be followed ; by a strenuos effort to carry it into effect. In other ways, too, tho Conference has not been wholly fruitless, though the fruit may be some time yet before it ripens. The views of the colonies have been set forth with a force and directness which must have deeply impressed the British public. That impression may in time fade, but something will always remain. The colonies have been talked about and written about from one end of the Ignited Kingdom to the other, their desires and aspirations have been discussed by millions, their delegates have been listened to by thousands. Thought has been set going in multitudes of minds. All this is a distinct gain, although it may not be possible to estimate its advantages by tangible results. These will come later.