"TRUTH" ON IMPERIAL FEDERATION.

Waikato Times, Volume XXX, Issue 2454, 3 April 1888, Page 2

"TRUTH " ON IMPERIAL FEDERATION.

By the way, talking of the colonies, I am glad to find that Lord Brasscy's views seem to bear out my notion, often expressed in these columns—viz., that Colonial "loyalty" is a somewhat spurious article :— "Wherever I went in Australia (says Lord Brassy), I found the most enthusiastic exuberance of expressions of loyalty; tint even in the midst of the jubilation of the jubilee, I was conscious of the presence of a certain undercurrent of opinion in the opposite direction, which untoward circumstances might make predominant." The Prime Minister of Victoria led Lord Brassey into the secret of the loyal higli-faluting of all persons in authority in the colonies :—" We are so empathatie iu our demonstrations of loyalty because we never forget the existance of that other party. We have to assert ourselves the more emphatically, the more conscious we are of the presence in our midst of men who are disposed to an opposite way of thinking.' The watchword of those men.it seems, is " Australia for the Australians." Now, my opinion is that " Australia for the Australians," "Canada for the Canadians," " New Zealand for the New Zealanders." ftc, arc cries of which we. are likely to hear a deal more. Lord Brassey and men of that kidney (Imperialists I believe they call themselves) think that a lot of money spent in the Colonies, and the Prince of Wales or a Royal Duke sent over now and then, would quiet these cries ; but I don't. I think Australia is bound to be " for the Australians " beore long; and. therefore, as a British taxpayer, I object to spending a penny on fortifying the towns or defending the coasts of what is quite certain to be in a very few years a foreign (but I trust friendly) country. Let the Australians fortify their own towus if they want them fortified ; and, if they want a Royal Duke or a Prince, let them manufacture the article, or get it out from Germany direct. The manifest destiny of Australia is to become the " United States of Australia." If we go to be 1 and get up early, wear flannel next our skins, and keep our feet dry, we shall most of us live to read the " Declaration of Independence." For my part I should be glad to read it to-morrow, and to see Canada, New Zaaland, and South Africa follow in the same line. These places would be, as independent nations, just ai useful to us as they are now ; and they would, moreover, involve us in no danger, and cost us nothing. Furthermore, these countries would be a great deal more easy, more comfortable in their own minds (to say nothing of safe from the consequences of our European quarrels), and more free to posh and mind their own business, if they were not tied like little (or, rather, big) children to Britain's apron-string, A colony is a very one-horse concern, and every man in it feels and knows that ho and his country are in a very second-class style of business. This damps his ardour, and keeps him down, and his ' country,' which he feels is only half a country, down with him. As for those lunatics, at home and abroad, who talk about " The Federation cf the Kmpire," I believe them to be quite harmless, and one or two of them I know to be respectable.