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" Fearing that Great Britain's departure from the original proposal would delay and thus defeat the Pacific cable, British Columbia offers to contribute two-eighteenths of the cost, in addition to Canada's five-eighteenths." It is a mistake to suppose that a Pacific cable is greatly required by Canada for purely Canadian purposes. While it is necessary to Australasians and their correspondents in the United Kingdom to have an alternative line in order that correspondence may be facilitated and never interrupted, it is not so indispensable to the Dominion. It must be recognised by all that Canada is mainly moved not by local or narrow selfish considerations, but by her zeal for Imperial unity. The joint ownership of the cable by Great Britain, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand would be a unique co-partnership unparallelled in history—it would be an object-lesson to the modern world. To throw this co-partnership overboard at the last moment would be a momentous step backward in the movement which we had hoped would bring into permanent alliance Great Britain and her great self-governing daughter nations in both hemispheres. Sandford Fleming. Approximate Cost of Paper.—Preparation, not given; printing (1,445 copies), £38 14s. Od.

By Authority : John Mackay, Government Printer, Wellington—l9oo. Price Is. 6d.]