Evening Post. THURSDAY, AUGUST 24, 1911. THE RETURNING PREMIER.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXII, Issue 47, 24 August 1911, Page 6

Evening Post. THURSDAY, AUGUST 24, 1911. THE RETURNING PREMIER.

The Premier and the Attorney-General return to New Zealand to-morrow, and may be sure of a hearty welcome. They have been away on a publk mission, in which they havo been representing not a political; party, but the whole of NewZealand. 'Riey shotdd, therefore, be wel. corned' to-morrow in the same representative capacity' without any suspicion of partisanship, and we are sure that they will be. From Uelt week until the poll in about three months' time party warfare will find ample scope, and feeling is likely to ran exceptionally high, but i^ has no legitimate place in to-morrow'e proceedings. This normal requirement ol good taste will be the more easily observed because the business upon which Sir Joseph Ward and his colleague have been engaged raises no party issue at all, aad has been discharged on the whole in i a very satisfactory way. The Coronation itself does not touch party politics in the remotest degsee, and the work of the Imperial Conference is in a practically indistinguishable position. In the latter case it might possibly be better if the detachment tras not qttite so complete. Though it would be an unfortunate thing if Imperial affairs trere tangled 1 ap with, party politics, their present immunity is largely doe' to the lack of any active public interest in them aJh all. How is this lack to be supplied wrthont plunging int6 the other extselrie? We certainly do not desire to make Great Britain ow model in this respect. In his interview with our London correspondent, which. We published' on Ttiesday, Sir Joseph Ward referred to the fact that "naval and military matters are mixed up with parochialism in the Old Country." The | interests at, stake are, as he says, equally •Jlwee of the Old Country and of the Oversea Dominions, and. vre eirtiiriyapße* j with htm that to «ffect-as far a» pose*We -the detachment of Imperial issues from •local politics is^ajtnost=deßirafcle»coarse. Hefe, however, ! &te proWem w not -show to effecfc-tW«oHadimeatH='foT4ha.t, •as we have eaid, already exists, but 4iow to arouse »n aotive-and intelMgent 4ntere*t in tihd targer rsswe* vpon which ijasry Aragrtto quens4on, J&de#Dg tta-

very existence of New Zealand ac the home of a free, -white community, depends. On this problem Sir Joseph Ward's eiatement to our correepondent throws no light. It chows, on the contraTyj that hie experience ffifc the Conference has Hot advanced his education rA this reftpecfc a single inch. Afiked -whsl-her, in view of what took place at \kt> Cohfrrenoe, he did atot think tliafe it WOtlld be better in, figure for the Ntew Zealand Parliament to discuss the agenda., the Premier repeated the same loose and pointless improvisations with which ho j \r&a justifying the Government's plain breach of duty six monl#ie ago. "I j don't really think it matters," he said. "It would, of course, be) 1 a great advantage to have the vievis of members of the New Zealand ParJia-mefrt, bttt it would take the best pact of a session to enable Parliament to -Aebate the questions for the Conference agenda paper, Afld I doubt ■frhether members would be agreeable to let mashers of considerable local importance stand aside so that they could discuss Conference questions fully." This i*es«K>rang is So pitiably weak that it can, hardly have convinced Sir Joseph Ward himself, and Certainly can never ' convince anybody else. It amounts to fchis : that tho questions which are of supreme importance —which are, indetsd, matters of life ,and death— both Uk the Empire aa a whol« and for ev«K;y portkm of it, are too big and too difficult aad itoci Uninteresting to be A'iscussed by oUf Parliament. New Zealand h to continne through it» uninetrueted delegates to the Conference to- endeavour to lead the Empire along new; lines of Imperial development, but ita Parliament and ite people are to h& religiously screened from diacuseiflg the issues involved. To a further question whether the discussion in Parliament would not hays strengthened Ms hands at the Conference the Premier replied "No ; I hardly think co. This result would have beea t>he same." The result TCmsb undoubtedly have been the same, so far a* getting the Conference to adopt an ambiguous and highly dubious resolution mainly supported by arguments directed at ft still mote ambitious and alarming project. But on© effect of a preliminary dieettssion mtist have been to put the resolution in « more acceptable shape, for, as wee stated as soon as it was published, it fieemed to have been framed as though deliberately •designed to excite a maximum of suspicion and antagonism. Aftothel result of such n, discussion would have been to clear up the Premier's own ideas oft the subject and to give them a representative weight. Aa'it was, he leit New Zealand with the slenderest possible equipment, and picking up something far better than huTmi&ty resolution on the way to Sydney he was glad to malkei the Tunning with it instead from thftfc time onwards, Thus it waa that, without a shadow of representative authority, he blossomed out in Sydney and, at the Conference as a fall-blown Imperial Federationist. Imperial Federation i 9 still a long way off, but it as a great ideal, and it is only to be brought nearer by discussion. Sir Joseph Ward has rendered a great service by initiating that discussion' aad by doing so along lines wHeb, give it pi coßnparatively practicable air. Foreign policy and de fence are the two supreme and closelytelated questioas which, demand a much j closer co^oneratioii of the different parts i of our scattered Empire, aad w© believe j that it is in, the direction' indicated by Sir. Joseph, Ward that the Empire must I move if it is to hold together. In | his advocacy of this ideal, and in, his [ insistence upon* defence as the urgent need of the hour, New Zealand's Premier haa made a v&lttafole contribtrtdoa |to the imperial cause. The service will* i be indefinitely increased if he will so put both matters before the people of New Zealand aad so keep them there I that he or his successor may, at the next Conference, represent an. enthuekd tio and unanimous public opinion in urging a closer approach to organic unity for the two objects mentioned. j