The Auckland Star. WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. FRIDAY, JULY 11, 1919. COLONIAL GOVERNORS.

Auckland Star, Volume L, Issue 164, 11 July 1919, Page 4

The Auckland Star. WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

FRIDAY, JULY 11, 1919. COLONIAL GOVERNORS.

« I For the extHtr that lack* asaistanet. For the wrong that needs For the future in the dislance, And the good that ire can do.

The Government of Victoria has made to the Colonial Office representations about flic appointment of the State Governor that affect all the States of Australia, and open up tlir wholo i|iie--tion of the appointment of representatives of the Crown in the Dominions. It■ ■ is probably not generally known that Australia is the only federal Dominion in which each State ot province had a ■ Governor appointed by the Imperial. Government. In Canada the system of local appointments ha- long obtained. The Governor-General is appointed by the Imperial Government, and has alway? been a person from the I nited Kingdom, Mis the link? between thej Crown and the provinces, railed Lieil-i tenant-Governors, a rank Uelow that of Governor, are. local men appointed by the Canadian Governnii'iit. In South Africa there i- I'm the whole L'llion a Governor-General appointed by the I r.nvn. and the province* have local ailm:ii!-ti:itor- appointed by the I iiion Government. Aur-lralia, however, i-hose, when erecting .ts Kederal Constitution. to retain tlie -\ stem of State Governors appointed by i he Crown, a deei-ion thatj whs compounded of jreiiuine sentimental! attai limeni to the Crown and the Dlil i oinitry. snobbishness, and rivalr) be-; tween tin- ~M e-tui-Lsiied State- and the new I umomvealUi. Tlli« is one oi the; item* that dwell Australia's organisation of trowrnmen: to the point oi making it something of a joke t>> out-idc observers as well as to many Australians. This l country, with les« than tin- population ofj Greater London, not only ha* seven. Governments—not counting tlie local, administration in the N'orthcrn Territory —every one of which has two legislatures, but maintain- se\eu repre.-enta-; lives of the Crown appointed by the Imperial Government from amonjl titled persons at Home. Besides the GovernorGeneral in Melbourne, there i- in every State capital a Governor with a large, or at least a comfortable salary, maintainJ injj an establishment In mui-h the same style a- prevailed in the days before the Commonwealth wns founded. The Lien tenant-Governor "f Ontario manage* to live mi £1.000 a year, and the Lieu-tenant-Govrrtor of on •£2.000 a year, but the (Governors of Vcvr :>outh Wales and Victoria. States with populations much cmallcr than those of these Canadian provinces, are paid £">.ot:o a year, and maintain a more pretentious establishment. Australians h.-ive rome to realise thati thi* state of affairs it no> necessary. There is a ,:r"<>w;n~ feeling thnt one ilirect link with the Crown is gnfikient for Australia, and tliat now the Commonwealth i« firmly established, it is an absurd anachronism to ma'ntain six State Governors in the social style of the old duys, when the state liad no Kederal Government between it and the Colonial Office. They feel that what Canada ran do, Australia can do. Labour has for some time made the abolition of State Go\ernors a plank in its platform, hut ii is significant that the present Victorian Government, which has just proposed to the Colonial Ofliee that local Lieutenant-governors be appointed, is not a Labour Administration. Bm there are other, and perhaps more important causes of the growth of this sentiment. There is n eoiiviction that multiplication oi viee-regol offices and e-tablishinents is not jrood for a young and democratic community, in that it fosters snobbery and chiss distinctions. The thinking Australian does not see why he should pay thousand* a in two cases a salary equal to that »f the l'rinie Minis-t.-r of Kngland— to e-tahlish a sort of Court on aristocratic lines, when the work can tie done jusi a.s well--and mii deed is now actually done from tinnIto time-by a local citizen of repute. I The Secretary of the IVjlonii-*, i..ji<l Milner. vvb.i is a keen student of imperial problems, lias expressed hi- personal opinion tha: l.ieutennnt-< lovernors would meet the needs of the States, and (ioubtlc-'s the Imperial Cabinet "ill accept tiiis view, and do what Victoria wishes. \Ve believe that considerations .-.imilar to some of those that have led to this movement in Australia will work for more important changes in tiic Domin- ■ ions penerally. While not nejikenins ' ii! their for and their allegiance !to the Crown, the Dominions will demand J a share in the selection of their GuvcrI nor*, and a higher sUuulanl in the ranI diilates f,ir ollice. They will not be J satisfied with undistinguished men from i Uritain. of mediocre attainments, who i owe their appointment to l> , it considi cralions. c-jiccially if the < men coni-|>.-l't tllCill:-! :i CS ill a<l VitlK'■■! il'MlUicracics '• ,'. ith why. U n'ljectionaW.' in the manners and i'leals of the British aristocracy. Tic link with the Crown :- valuable, lvi: it may be vveakene-.l rather than stre:ifrllieued by an uiipopul.ir IJ.iVevnor. The Dominion* have become nation*, an.! in this, n- in other ;liey will a>U to l>e treated a- iiiilions. I; tlie .-ystem of aiipoilltitip outsider* is ;.. be inaintained. they will wish not iiiily to have men nf real distinction, Im: al-u - Xi c voice in their -election. The Dominion- ui'l it 1— • rrij-iire that such Governor- siuili :ry to undoretami and coniorru to colonial scutiuicnt and

conditions. A development that occurs to iis as possible is the interchange of distinjruished public men between the Dominions. General Smuts or General Botha might go to Australia or Canada as tlovernor-Genoral; the late Sir "Wilirid Laurier would hare made an ideal j representative of the Crown in another | Dominion. AYe need not, however, go . into the details now; the point we wish to make is that public opinion in the Dominions is prowing more critical of the King's representatives, and that the present system of appointment cannot toe. considered permanent. I ■ I