DEMOCRACY IN DANGER, TO THE EDITOR.

Evening Post, Volume LXVIII, Issue 97, 21 October 1904, Page 7

DEMOCRACY IN DANGER, TO THE EDITOR.

Sir, — I read in the Evening Post that at the recent caucus of Government supporters the Premier was persistently pressed to say whether the proposed appointment of High Commissioner for New Zealand in London was intended for himself, or for somebody el^e? Now what sort of a caucus can that caucus be, which requires information on the subject? Either the caucus doesn't read the newspapers, or else it doubts the de-

liberate utterance of the Premier, and Euclid, if living, would prove either alternative to be absurd. It is but a few days since Mr. Seddon himself, in the presence of hundreds of people, declared that he would not accept this office; his love for and devotion to New Zealand being such 'that he must give these islands the benefit of his residence within them as long as he lived. That is definite enough ; and surely tho links binding a man (to cay nothing of a Premier) and his word together are not yet utterly severed; surely something approaching to Gospel truth is still uttered when the head of the Government of a British colony step 3 forth to address the populace? However, I merely mention this curious caucus obliquity in order to 6% that it is fortnnate that Mr. Seddon is not to be High Commissioner— things being quite bad enough without him." For high jinks, high Jingo jinks, are in train in the great metropolis of the world, and it is just as well that tho appointment should be conferred on some smaller Jingo 'figure. One gets a . little light on what is going on from Mr. Chamberlain's organs just to hand. St. Jamss's Budget, of 2nd September, deplores the fact that there are fourteen Agents-General of British colonies now occupying quarters and offices in various parts of the cifcy, and refers with approval to the "proposal" to erect an immense edifice, and locate all these agencies and embassies under one huge roof, together with an. audience hall "capable of seating one thousand persons," in London. The xeasons given for this ominous change are that under the existing order of things "the great Imperial side" of colonial xepresentation is dwarfed; a disjointed view is obtained by Londoners and visitors of the magnitude of the Empire; and, thirdly, that "parochialism is encouraged among the various colonial communities." You will notice that any actual benefit to the colonies themselves ia not even suggested. It is all "Empire," from beginning to end. The Budget, be it observed, does not yet call these colonial representatives "High Commissioners." It rdeis to them ' as "Ambassadors," or "Agents-General." But, of course, if New representative is to be a High Commissioner, the representatives of the remaining thirteen territies, most of them fur older, more populous, raid infinitely more important than we are, will also 'claim to be High Commissioners. Some of the Agents-General endorse this crafty scheme. The AgentGeneral of Natal, Kir Walter • Peace, rather lets the Chamberlain cat out of the colonial bag by remarking that "if the Empire is to be united in the manner advocated by Mr. Chamberlain, the proposal is highly desirable." This letter is already too long, and I must hasten to run over what certainly is iv store for us, if we are not awake and active. Wo shall have increased and totally unnecessary expense- in all directions. We< shall have this Coloaial Parliament of High Commissioners sit> ting in London dictating to us, and inteimeddling in all our affairs. Our policy will be suggested to us over a distance of 13,000 miles. We shall be toW what taxes we should levy, and informed thut our military and naval voles are quite ridiculous. We shall be advised to tax the' food of the people of the Motherland—that land in which two million human souls are always hungry and always famished ! In short, we shall gradally, but surely, lose our grip over our own affairs, for (he High Commissioners, having little else to do, and being all more or less Jingo, won't be able to "let us alone, even if they wished lo do so. And we have lost so much already that we cannot afford these serious losses, even for Empire's sake. We have lost our free Parliament as it is. We have lost our Second Chamber, or worse — for wo have converted it into a House of Pantaloons. Freedom is gone in a hundred directions: a considerable portion of our once free press now sacrifices the interests of the people to the self-adver-tisement of a man. And have we not lost utterly that integrity, rectitude, and regard for truth which distinguished all our Parliaments, Governments, and politics, up to the death of John Ballance? We have lost enough, and cannot afford further losses; and although we love our country quite as much as those who murder the King's English and commit other depredations while shouting "Hempire!" we love Freedom and Feraland better still-! But, anyhow, we now see what this High Commissioner business means. — I am, etc., H. RTCHARDSON RAE. Wellington, 15th October.