THE ANCHORITES OF CONFEDERATION.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXII, Issue 155, 2 July 1901, Page 5

THE ANCHORITES OF CONFEDERATION.

The determination of New Zealand and Newfoundland to "go alone" is explained in the "Chron.cle" by "A Colonist," who recalls his chat on the subject with Mr Seddon in Jubilee year and a more recent conversation with Mr Bond, the Premier of the latter colony. The "Colonist" points out that a Xew Zcalander is not an Australian, nor a Newfoundlander a Canadian, and predicts that in spite of all temptation towards Australianation New Zealand will continue to "go on her own."

"So far,*' he says, 'from diminishing the' interest and enthusiasm for the Mother Country, the island's se!fexclusion from the Commonwealth has had the effect, seemingly, of drawing the people nearer to English thought and sympathy than before, and nt the same time increasing the self-reliance and national pride of the New Zen landers. Mr Seddon's views on Imperial Federation and representation in Imperial Councils are well known, and are much stronger to-day than they were in ]597. when he said, "I can hardly see that the sacrifice of our separate entity under the flag will be compensated for by anything we can gain by joining a purely local Confederation like Australia. * If it were a pan-Britannic Confederation, of course, that would be another question altogether.' "

Formerly, Newfoundland's poverty prevented her from joining the Canadian Confederation, which declined to pay off a debt of seventeen million dollars. Now the island is courted by Canada for her iron ore, which is an essential to the prosperity of the growing steel, industry at North Sydney, in Nova Scotia. But Mr Bond* told the "Colonist" emphatically that Newfoundland would preserve her independence, and is satisfied to remain "a very good balance wheel to British North American possessions- Loyalty and allegiance to Great Britain cannot involve senarote alliance with every adjacent part of the Empire. While thc_ Confederation of Canada and Australia seems to have rendered the members more in sympathy with the central and Imperial authority, "Colonist" questions "the usefulness of going beyond the natural frontiers of such groups of States or provinces in order to annex that which is already properly a eohei-ent unit, and already a part, both in fact and sentiment of the Empire."

_At the same time, when Confederation of the Empire comes, the representation of the component Darts of the Empire in a Federal Council would be much simplified by the division of the Empire into a few large units such as the United' Kingdom. Canada, Australasia, Africa and India.