CORRESPONDENCE.

Auckland Star, Volume XXI, Issue 4126, 24 September 1883, Page 3

CORRESPONDENCE.

Mr MossonAnnoxatio.i,

(To tho Editor),

g IR) _I rea d your article on annexation yesterday with much interest. Few deny that the extension of French influence in these seas is undesirable, and all would regard with abhorrence ;my extension of their convict depots. Hasty attempts to guard against these ills by annexation may, howover, bring upon us other ills even graver and more permanent in character. If Franco determine to annex any of the Islands w« cannot, single-handed, prevent her. "We must look to England. If England do not see tit to act, we have the consolation of knowing that in peace timebarring convicts—French settlements will not bo° an unmiicd evil. In war time they could only weaken France so faraway and unsupported. If the war were with England, France would be tolerably sure to lose thorn by capture. If tho war wore with any other maritime power, she would probably bo glad to relieve herself of such distant burdens and sell them to Australia if Australia wished it, just as tho great Napoleon in the height of his power was glad to uell Louisiana to the United States. If Franco persist in sending eoiiTicts tp bo a nuisance and a danger to her neighbours, no Treaty engagements with England can prevent the Australian Colonies from putting all French possessions under moral quarantine. A stringent non-intercourse act would bo our best and most cil'ective retaliation. It is not likely that France would persist in tho face of a protest from England backed by tho certainty that lior scattered colonies would be thus isolated. Nor would sho then bo long in discovering that islands, like tho New Hebrides, with a tropical climate in which Europeans cannot do outdoor labour, with abundanco of fever and dysentery, and with a superabundauoo of untamed cannibals, aro not likely to bo profitable as stations for European convicts, their families, and their guards. Commerce with the Islands is assured to us by our position and climate, without annexation. Financially, annexation—if with confederation —must involvo the remodelling of our revenue system and the abandonment of many duties, especially those on sugar, tobacco, spirits, and probably coffeo and tea. The retention of those duties would involro a difficult and vexatious excise in the islands in which the articles were produced. If instead of confederating wo troat tho Islands as dependencies, we shall avoid tho revenue difficulty, but must bo prepared to maintain a considerable armed force organised specially for serrico in tho tropics. We must also be prepared for a serious dorangement in our domestic polities. Ministers would require new powers and would liavo very much greater patronage. Wo should add to the Civil Service a powerful class of ablo men, united by a common interest and a common sentiment, ever ready to aid In destroyiiig the political equality which is the living foundation of our present democratic system, but of which men accustomed to the goTernment of subject races aro always peculiarly intolorant. In a Military sense theso scattered islands would bo to us a source of weakness. In no way can they bo necessary for our defonco or add to our safoty. Even to England the colonies have been a source of military difficulty and weakness, only atoned by tho outlet afforded for her teeming millions. Wo have noithcr England's strength nor the teeming millions to consider. Commercial, financial, and military considerations are, however, but of passing moment when compared with the political effect of adding to our small population many hundred thousand people whom wo cannot admit to equal rights of suffrage and of representation. This is the dithculty which is now trying tho South African Colonies so severely. It is the real problem which our delegates to tho Conference will havo to solve. If they fail to solto it satisfactorily wo shall assuredly do bettor to remain as wo are, with a people able to goyern itself completely, and with a country which Nature ha» so fortified that the next generation ought to bo able to hold it against any aggressor, como whence he may. Peril this self-government in the least degree, and wo run a terrible risk— the risk of degi-ading large masses of our own people and of doing a great and enduring wrong to those who come after us for many generations. No possiblo gain in commerce could atone for this. A deep sense of its imminence has placed mo, in this matter, in opposition to some in tho Assembly whose opinions I valuo greatly and with whom I havo always cordially actod ; but I am far from alono in regarding the political aspect as the most important in tho tonsideration of this quostion. I venture to think that it is tho aspect which the people of New Zealand, who have deliberately excluded Chinese and who want no native labourers from the Islands, should keep most carefully and constantly in view

Yours, &c, F. J. Moss,