A LEGISLATOR ON FEDERATION.

Evening Post, Volume LX, Issue 104, 30 October 1900, Page 6

A LEGISLATOR ON FEDERATION.

Mr. B.- Thompson, member for Marsden, expressed the other day to a press representative in Auckland some strong opinions on the subject of Federation. "I think," he said, "that we have missed our best opportunity of federation with Australia, if the Premier had allowed the question to be brought up in the Hiou&c last year we could, have got into the Commonwealth as one of tbe original partners, instead of coming in, if at all, on much less favourable terms than those then obtainable. T am a strong believer in Australasian, federation as really forming the Stouth Sea, Islands confederation, which, from its in£uence and power, would soon settle the unsat-' isfactory state o{ things existing in the New Hebrides, where our tractors are hustled out, and our trading * interests imperilled by the violation of thie spirit, if ,not the letter, of the Angl'a-French Convention. The Empire in matters concorning the South Pacific would not venture to run counter to the in'/erests of the Commonwealth. Had such a federation been in existence in former years, the colonies would Inwe been saved the annoyance of having the French in New \ Hebrides, or a German New Guinea, or German Samoa. It is too late to erv over spilt milk, but such a blunder would be impossible of repetition on the part of the Imperial authorities. I attach very little importance to the annexation of the Cook group, or coral atolls, and guano islands in the South Pacific. New Zealand would siill enjoy her osutosjomy under Australasian Federation, outside the Federal conditions covenanted, namely, defence, postal union, and Cuntomx, all of which services could be more effectively and more economically conducted under one central authority. I am for one tariff, one system o{ defence, and for one flag, one aspiration, and one destiny. In the troublous times before us in the Far East, the question of defence will overshadow uvery other. A South Seas confederation, of nearly five millions of Anglo-Saxons, would secure' a complete defence against foreign aggression, and would indeed commaiad the respect of the wor'.d."