NEW ZEALAND'S OFFER.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3191, 17 May 1909, Page 3

NEW ZEALAND'S OFFER.

SPEECH BY MR BALFOUR. BRITAIN'S SE\ SUPREMACY. DUTY OF THE MOTHERLAND. "I know nothing more moving, more magnificent, than the immediate response, the unsolicited response, made by New Zealand, by that great sister State, to the reeds of the country." Thus Mr A. J. Balfour in a speech last month, at the Argiculrural Hall, Islington, when, to one of the largest audiences ever gathered in London, he made a slashing and thoroughly Imperialistic speech, half of it being devoted entirely to New Zealand. "New Zealand, you all know," he proceeded, "has come for ward when she could only have had a telegraphic summary of what has gone on in the House of Commons, and offered a Dreadnought to the Empire. (Cries of "Bravo!" and cheers.) Do you realisa what the population of New Zealand is about the same as five out of the 28 London boroughs which surround this hall. The population of New Zealand is about onefifth of London; it is less than onefortieth of the United Kingdom, and the contribution which New Zealand has offered to Imperial needs is a contribution which in capital figures would relatively amount to a great deal more than the annual taxation of this country. (Cheers, and a voice, 'When are you going tu give it preference') I will come to that presently. I say, learn a lesson of genuine confidence and optimism from what [one of the smallest of our sister States has done; learn not to despair of what British patriotism has it in its power to do, and what British patriotism, when the occasion arises, will roost assuredly accomplish, whether it be at the other side of the world or across the Atlantic or in the two islands which we inhabit. (Cheers.) GREAT IMPERIAL IDEAL.

"I have to admit, while no words that I can command adequately express the sentiments with which I regard this practical self-sacrificing tribute to a great Imperial ideal, that I am not so satisfied at the reception which it has met at the hands of the Government. (Hear, hear.) The Government seem to have taken this Dreadnought as a relief to the British taxpayer—not so much a3 an addition to the British naval strength as a diminution of the burdens that fall upon the taxpayers of ihis country. ('Shame' and 'That will not do.') I do not deny that the taxpayer in this country has-had to Day and will have to pay in correspondence with the Imperial obligations falling upon the Mother Country; but Ido not believe it is beyond our power to do ho. The time, indeed, may come when the relative population and the relative wealth of Great Britain, as compared with the sister States of the Empire, may have undergone some profound alteration, and we shall have to look to them to a degree which up to the present time we have not been obliged, to look to them to help us to carry the great and growing responsibilities of the Empire. But in my opinion that time has not yet come; and while I most gladly and joyfully accept every aid which the sister States can give, let that aid be given in addition, let it be a superadded precaution —(cheers) —let it be something which is to guard against the unknown, the unexpected, the incalculable, and thi unforeseen. Lst it not be part of tha ordinary provision of ordinary times —(cheers) —and ht us not dsal with -the splendid and patriotic libsrality of a relatively small community like that of New Zealand, merely as a subvention to' our own pecuniary necessities, but let us meet them in the spirit in which t!iey have come to us, a.»d let us accept i,'tieir magnificent ufu-r as an additional guarantee, that whatever happens, whatever, comes, whatever be the policy cf this or that great military country, the supremacy of Great Britain on the seas shall be undisputed and indisputable. (Cheers.)

COLuNIAL PREFERENCE. "I have but one further observation to make, and that is suggested by an interruption, a perfectly courteous interruption, which I think I caught from the gallery opposite. I think I heard a voice say, 'What about preference?' (Cheers.) Surely that interruption was not an irrevalent one. Here we are accepting, and joyfully accepting, this immense boon, this gift which, compared with tha resources of the giver, is of enormous magnitude. We are accepting it. with gratitude. Are we going to give anything in return? (Cheers). We find the Government in their reckless financial career making it obviously more and more impossible, whatever your fiscal views may be, to collect the revenue of this country upon the old lines. More and more plainly does the ' necessity show itself for adopting a scheme which, be it good or be it bad, our fathers had not to resort to. We shall have to resort to it. (Cheers.) Even supposing that you are wrong, and that I am wrong, or those who believe in the expediency of a great fiscal change—supposing we are all wrong, be it expedient or inexpedient, it is going to De necessary. (Loud cheers.) You are going to accept f-om New Zealand a gift which in a year amounts to more per head, I believe, a great deal more per head, of the population of New Zealand than our whole taxation in a year amounts to per head of the inhabitants of the Briti h Islands, and you are going to refuse to New Zealand that which New Zealand, Australia, the Cape, Canada, the whole constellation of the sister States have asked steadily, psrsis- ' tently, patietly, year by year. You j cannot imagine an Empire on these I lines. (Loud cheers.) I "However dull your imagination, | however hidebound by your economic \ theoiie*', there surely are situations I wheh will break through even the ' most obstinate and narrowest tradii tions. And if anyone could bring j home to the imagination of our ' countrymen what it is to be the leading state, the leading community, in this great Imperial organisation, surely it is New Zealand coming to us in a moment when, by the admission of the Government, as well as by our own contention, a new era of responsibility, a new era of cost, nay, a new era of national peril and responsibility is upon us. I say wo have the sight of New Zea-

land coming before us in that crisis with the magnificent generosity which ahe has displayed—(Cheers) is there a man with heart so cold, a man of imagination so hidebound in tradition, who does not see that, putting aside all other and all narrower considerations, the responsibility lie* now and henceforth on every Government controlling this great country to see that we do meet the colonies wherever we can, remembering that we are but the centre of the Empire to which all, the sister States belong; and that we have duties to them as well as to ourselves?" (Cheers.) Mr Balfour's speech was listened to with rapt attention.