"NATIONAL COLONIALISM."

Evening Post, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 95, 19 October 1909, Page 8

"NATIONAL COLONIALISM."

THE NEW IMPERIALISM. ASSISTANCE ~BY THE PRESS CONFERENCE. Nearly seventy members of the New Zealand Club assembled to-day at luncheon, at which tho chief guests wcro Mr. Gresley Lukin (editor of the Evening 'Post), and Mr. M. Cohen (editor of the Dunedin Star), who were among NewZealand's representatives at the Imperial Press Conference. Mr. J. G. Harkness (vice-president), who was in the chair, said he believed that tho delegates to the conference had riveted a little stronger the links which bound the Empire together. Mr. Lukin, referring to the immensity of Canada, said it was the new country of big things, and not tho least of these big things was the Canadian Club. This institution was a great influence in tho affairs of the Dominion, and he was impressed with the magnificent patriotism with which it was instinct. He described the astonishing industrial progress made by Canada, and had glowing praise for tha enterprise and perseverance of tho Canadian-Pacific Railway Company, which, in his opinion, ha-d put the Dominion half a century ahead. After ! threo dayt, in tbs stupendous Rockies tha I travellers were carried through nine hundred miles of prairie, rich black soil of a quality to need ploughing only once in two years ; harrowing sufficed in the intermediary years. On these lands would be created a population which, from the physical and other points of view, would be the best among the English-speaking nations. The typei wero already being formed, and they were the counterpart of the best of tho young mou in the temperate region of Southland. The Canadians were big in their enterprise, big in their ambition, bioad in their vision, ! indomitable, big in every way. He believed that Canada, excepting, possibly, Australia, would be Hie greatest of the territories yonder tho Union Jack. Though Canada's courtesy and hospitality, continued Mr. Lukin, exceeded | all expectations, this gracious treatment, | paled into insignificance by comparison with the' reception given to the delegates in. the Mother Country. The envoys soon found that the extensive programme of kindness would involve the leading of the strenuous life. Here was a typical day in. his experience — U o'clock, breakfast in Downing-street, with representatives of the War Office; 9.30, a session of the conference,, addressed by Sir Edward Grey, Lord Morley, and Mr. T. P. O'Connor (tho wellknown "Tay-Pay") ; 12.30, a drive, by motor car, to an express train for a run into the country to an. old English mansion, where the press delegates were the ; chief guests in an' assembly ,of threo j hundred of England's brightest people ; j 8 p.m., dinner with Lord Milner and i Lord Charles Beresford, followed by a < reception at the mansion of Lady Salisbury. The first immediate practical object of the conference, declared Mv Lukin, was the cheapening and expediting of all cable communications between all parts of the Empire, and th& delegates achieved it. They not only secured the promise of an immediate 25 per cent, reduction, but set down the ba*o linos of a plan which, when developed, would completely revolutionise the whole system of communication by cable between th* Dominions Overseas and the Old Country. ( The larger and greater work, in his view, was the colonial delegates' courteous insistence on the fact that the relationship between the parent country and the offspring must be improved. "We made it clear that in out view," concluded the speaker, "the days of colonialism had passed, and that natipnal colonialism had begun. T!it> Britons met the delegates half-way. They heard us say : 'The days of dependence are done, and the days of alliance have begun,' and they said : 'Well done.' " With that insistence on the part of the States on being masters in their own houses, there would always be allegiance and loyalty to the Mother Country as long as their lives would last. (Applause.) Mr. Cohon was' also invited to address the gathering, and his response was necessarily by reason of the time limit brief. After returning thanks for the compliment paid him, ho expressed himself very forcibly in favour of an improvement in the present press cable service. He would exert himself to his utmost in assisting to secure an allround betterment.

Confirmation of the by-laws for conduct of the Wellington Public Crematorium will be moved for at the meeting of the Wellington City Council on Thursday next. Wonderland will bo opened to-morrow. To-morrow afternoon Messrs. Thomson and Brown will sell by auction a 10roomed residence, and two-story workshop, stable, and coachhouse, at Nowtown. At 1.30 o'clock on Thursday, Messrs. Harcourt and Co. will hold a sale of furj niture at Nos. 21 and 23, Thorndon-quay.