The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORTED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo. WEDNESDAY, MAY 29, 1901. OUR GREAT AFRICANUS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXII, Issue 126, 29 May 1901, Page 4

The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORTED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo.

WEDNESDAY, MAY 29, 1901. OUR GREAT AFRICANUS.

FO7 the causa tbat lacks asslßtaue?, ?or the vrrang tbat neods reaistance, ?or tie future lv the dlstanoa, and tho good that wo oan do.

Africa lias not always been the grave of great reputations. The noble Roman, Scipio, was famous in youth before lie went there. He returned in triumph ;is "The Great Africanus." The soldier, ancient and lcoderu, is not alone worths' of this title. It was

freely given, within our remembrance, to Dr. Livingstone, the great pioneer of African civilisation. It prudence. courage, self-sacrifice beyond many, make men great, then Sir Alfred Milner, even at the present stage ol! his ■unfinished work in Africa, may be safely welcomed in London us another great Africanus. His exaltation to the

peerage by his grateful Sovereign is in harmony with the mind of the vast majority of the I-Jmpire. Lord Roberts

is to) good ami wif?o to gTudj^e the African statesman a full share of Imperial honours."* However splendid the record of the Communder-in-Chief in Africa, he must live in history inseparably linked to India. Rcipio Asiaticus can rejoice in the triumph of his ( brother Africanus in the. chief city of the Empire. Oxford University, envious at times of the greater success of Cambridge in turning oul really q-real men, must vvdc.nne back ono of the finest classical scholars of Baliol as a statesman of highest attainment and promise. The. Tuner Temple Ear will not forget his brief connection with it. London journalism- cannot, be otherwise than jubilant. Morley, though differing in political policy from his late lieutenant of the "Pall Mall Gazette," cannot fail from Milner's literary power to be truly proud of him. His able volume on our Imperial policy in Egypt, as well as his commanding correspondence with the Colonial Secretary, are too impressive to be overlooked by his late journalistic comrades. Salisbury and Chamberlain waited upon his arrival and conducted him "into the i presence of the King, prepared to bestow the honour agreed upon by the |r.ritish Cabinet.

British statesmen recall the solid reputation Milner built up t'oi* industry, as well as for skilful finance, a:s secretary for the Chancellor of the British Exchequer, and as Undersecretary for Finance in Egypt. His five years' patient work in the chair of the Board of inland Revenue are not forffotten. His reputation, like that of not 8, few great men, lias not suffered in Africa. He has satisfied the highest expectations of the British Government, and has never wavered in the wise and firm policy he openly advocated.

Milner saw clearly the issue between Boer and Briton. Tliey could not both be supreme rulers in South Africa. The refractory spirit of the Boers and their secret preparations of a vast kind to strike for the complete domination of the colony made him feel all peaceful negotiations . worse than useless. British statesmen should not pltty into the hands of the enemy by indecision and delay. However terrible the prospects of: a campaign in South Africa, the Government should face it. The future of the loyal colonists, of the native races, and of British supremacy and liberty, far more than the success of gold and diamond mines, lay upon the anxious heart of the British Commissioner

The strain xipon his mind and body must have been serious during the terrible discipline of the. long campaign. Milner has well earned a holiday, even before peace has been restored, with all the honours Throne and Empire can bestow. Immense labours still await him in restoring the colony to the blessings of peace and unity. Lord Milner has borne with magnificent spirit the reproach of friends and foes. His head, like that of Lord Cromer, in Egypt, is too firmly screwed on to be turned by his exaltation to the British peerage. Though not born in the purple he does not spring from low estate. His father was a physician, and his grandfather, by his mother's side, a Major-General and Governor of the Isle of Man—famous before the romantic pictures of it by Hall Came. Lord Milner has therefore the blood of the soldier and Governor, as well as of the physician in his veins, wherewith to subdue, command, and restore to health and prosperity the people of South Africa. We rejoice, with the vast majority of the Empire, in the high reward of our great Afrieanus. Capable of victories of peace, greater than that of war, and

grander than the Roman Seipps ever (dreamt of. Milner, we may be certain from his past history, and from jthe many years restored health may i give him. has. if spared to the 15mpire. not reached the summit of his usefulness, power and honour.

To men of his highly cultured and Imperial type, and of his wide experience of all conditions of men, the Empire must learn to look for help in times of strain and trial. Less ami less to party politicians and glib talkers in Parliament, in her desire to find capable statesmen for posts of high responsibility in Home, foreign and colonial government.