The Evening Star: WITH WHCIH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News,and Echo. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 21, 1900. THE DEPENDENCE OF THE COLONIES.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXI, Issue 68, 21 March 1900, Page 4

The Evening Star: WITH WHCIH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News,and Echo.

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 21, 1900. THE DEPENDENCE OF THE COLONIES.

For the cause that lacks assistance, For the wrong that needs resiatanco, For the futuro in the distanca, And tho eoo'J that vo can do.

So Car aw we here in :Vew Zealand art1 concerned, almosl no interest attaches to (he career of the Australian Commonwealth Hill which is now under tin? consideration of the Crown law officers in (lie Old Country. Itwill be remembered I hat though the measure excited enormous enthusiasm in Australia when it was before the people there, ihe attitude of New Zenj landers towards it was one of complete indifference. Nor have we yet come to recognise the identity of our national fate with thai of the great continent in such a fashion as to make the instrument of federation the ob- • rjeet of our close attention. We do not feel concerned with The criticisms of ; the I'ill which the Federal Delegation, now shepherding the measure, has had to meet and argue We do not pretend to follow, from the brief te.le- ; graphic reports of the interviews which have taken place, all Ihe objections raised or what they may involve. One thing1, however, we feel competent to judge of. even at this distance, and that is the spirit in which the 1 measure has been received and the arguments of the delegates considered by the Home authorities. 11 is evident that in their treatment of the measure* the latter have displayed a determin- . atioiv to humour (lie desire of the? Australians to the utmost. Probably the .13111 contains many IhiJig* that ill i accord with the existing- traditions of colonial policy even in these advanced days. Evolving1 under the most democratic conditions imaginable, it is very likely to savour strongly of the independent atmosphere in which it was born, if we mistake not, it is to this spirit, as embodied in one clause particularly, that the Imperial law officers take special exception. That clause practically excludes the Com- . monwealth from appeal to the Queenin" Council, and gives the Commonwealth Parliament right to limit other appeals. The ground of objection to i the clause is, we learn, that it impairs the Queen's prerogative and destroys ' Ihe uniform appellate jurisdiction. The immediate effects of vesting- such power in the Commonwealth Parliament are such as only jurists are competent to discuss; but it: is open to laymen to question the effects of any step that, in a marked manner, would seem to do away with one vestige of Imperial suprcm:wy. For that reason alone the Crown law officers might reasonably insist on their objections to the clause. It wotdd he impossible to conceive of dependent communities brought up in a spirit of more absolute independence than these colonies have been. We have been conscious of the imperial authority only as a child is conscious of a kind mother's protecting' arm. From the Mother Country we have inherited our free institutions: we have drawn on her for the millions that have enabled us to develop these, lands: we have, been at liberty, under the shelter of her power and prestige, to prosecute in peace and undisturbed • the work of nation-building: we have found in her markets customers for our produce. In short, we have waxed . rich and strong and mighty through her favour. 1! is, perhaps, not unnatural in young states that they should forget the hand that raised them to the height of prosperity they have attained, and take credit to themselves for their elevation. There, is a tendency in.1 these colonies to-day to assume that to ourselves we owe all, or nearly all, we have achieved. Even at this moment, when loyalty to the, Mother Country is on every heart and ion every lip, our devotion is sometimes tinged with a touch of self-esteem that destroys its beauty. The note of selfassertion is heard even in our most loyal declarations. To us it seems a i great pity that this should be. The I future of Imperialism, to our mind, 'does not lie in the.cultivation of an independence on the part of the colonies which will weaken the ultimate jparamountcy of the Home authorities. England must always remain the centre of the Empire, and there must reside the power to which all final appeals, of whatsoever nature they be, shall be addressed. Even little endeavours tf> detract from that central authority may often be calculated to weaken the fabric of Empire as a ! whole; and the accession of independence a colony might seem to gain to |itself by such steps be. indirectly to its detriment. We must guard against j the insidious forces of. alienation. It has often been said that even had the American colonies not been driven into revolt last century by the stupidity of the British Government, the

chances are greatly in.favour of their having,seceded later on. A thousand ' ■natural causes would have worked to that end. It ■is not 'to be argued, however, from the. case I iof the Chi ted States that dis- i .severance from the Mother Country is ' the final destiny of these colonies. , ; They have grown up under new con- , |. ditions, and have reached the adoles- < j cent stage at a singularly fortunate j time; at a time when the meaning of ["Empire is understood as it never was ( j before in the history of the world. ( i The forces at work are of a eonsolidal- ! 1 ■ling, not v disintegrating character.!' i But there is still a certain danger of an | | unwise appetite for independence en-; dangering the strength of those Tm-'.< perial bonds under which we have 0 attained our large measure of free-i' dom. We look to see Australia, grow! I great indeed as ti Commonwealth; !, | but she would assuredly gain little p if in achieving federation she did any-|! ! thing to render less .intimate the >* (union between herself and the Mother', Country—a union, one important fac- < tor of which ]> the supremacy of the i j latter. j