COLONIAL AFFAIRS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XXIII, Issue 1364, 23 February 1865, Page 6

COLONIAL AFFAIRS.

{From the Times, Dec. 19.)

Since the great debate of last session we think we can observe that the interest which used to be felt in questions of purely European politics has greatly declined. People will not give them selves the trouble of mastering questions which have in the first place to be extricated from the obscurities of a foreign language, which involve tedious historical research and troublesome inquiries in geography and chronology, unless they see some prospect that out of all this labour will arise something likely to remunerate in a tangible form those who undertake it. If England is heneeforth to remain a stranger to those Continental quarrels which used to occupy so large a share of her attention, it follows that the subject which has been first in the public mind ever since the war in the Crimea will have to make place for others which have a more practical bearing on the politics of the day. Thus it has happened that, in proportion as foreign questions have receded into the distance, colonial topics have assumed greater importance, and gradually occupied their place. The only exception has been the American war, and that exception is only apparent, for the great interest which that struggle has excited in this country is mainly due to its close connexion with our domestic affairs, so far as it influences the supply of cotton, and to the momentous import of what is passing on the future destiny of our American colonies. In such a state of opinion it is very agreeable to have something like an authentic and authoritative statement of the present position of colonial questions, and no one connected with the Government deserves to be heard with more attention on such a subject than Mr. Chichester Fortescue, who has so long served as Under-Secretary for the Colonies, has been intrusted for so considerable a time with the management of the department in the House of Commons, and has uniformly discharged his duties, in a position of no small responsibility, with temper, moderation and good sense. Whether an essay on our .colonial policy was exactly the thing for the sake of hearing which the Essex Liberals met together we cannot pretend to determine; possibly topics less novel and more exciting, which appeal to local sympathies and party feelings, might have met with more enthusiastic applause; but the world—for there is a world beyond the outside of Essex —will feel grateful for the information. Mr. Fortegcue begins with that which is, no doubt, nearest his heart at the present moment—the state of New Zealand. He cannot repress some natural disappointment that things arenot further advanced, but he is sanguine, as he is of course bound to be, that the present campaign will make an end of the whole affair. We heartily wish we could think so; but we confess that, when we consider how easy it is for the natives to obtain any amount of supplies from treacherous European traders, how few of them seem to make an army, and how impossible it is to get at them, we are hardly inclined to draw so snaguinea conclusion. When we speak of a war in New Zealand, we ought to picture to ourselves Switzerland overgrown with forests and thick fern, a kind of place in which war may smoulder and linger, as it has done in Circassia, for long years after military operations have beeu terminated on a large scale. Mr. Fortescue speaks, as he is bound to to do, fairly aud handsomely for the colonists, and seeks to protect them from the accusation of trafficking in the war for their own benefit by pointing to the immense injury in men and in property which they have undoubtedly sustained. It is not, however, quite certain that this injury was foreseen when the war was resolved on, nor has any balance-sheet been presented sufficient to show that up to the present time this conflict has been to the colony a losing speculation. No doubt when the regulation laid down by the Home Government, which requires the colonist to bear the principal weight of the military expenditure, comes into effect, the speculation of a native war will have lost its attractions. But that has not yet affected the question. Mr. Fortescue thinks it necessary to defend the occupation of New Zealand some flve-and-twenty years ago by two considerations— the first, that a number of British subjects had settled there before the colony was established; the second, that we were, in fact, running a race with France for the occupation of these beautiful islands. It is not fair to try the Government of that day by the notions of the present time, nor to blame them for not foreseeing the full effect of what they did; but we hope, at least, for the future that our Government will not feel itself bound to follow with our fleets and armies any number of English subjects who may choose for their own gain, and without any reference whatever to imperial interests, to place themselves in any prominent and exposed position. Our faults, Mr. Fortescue thihks, have been principally those of omission ; that is to say, we had not the means of enforcing the theory in which we started, that the natives of New Zealand were, like ourselves, subjects of the Queen, and like ourselves,.bound to submit implicitly to law and order. We really do not see that we were to blame for this. The theory, or ideal, as Mr. Fortescue happily calls it, was "in itself, right and just. Our failure to 'give effect to it was, like the failure of most other ideals, a simple question of money. It would cost a great deal to civilize New Zealand, and where was the money to come from ? It could not be extracted from the colonists, it was not possessed by the natives, and Parliament had no idea of furnishing it. You can no more wage a peaceful than a military war against barbarism and ignorance without money, and in this case money was not forthcoming. We probably committed an error in the premature establishment of responsible government in the Northern Island, which has undoubtedly thrown the native question into a state oi hopeless confusion. We should not, probably, by the light we now possess, commit a similar error, but it was a generous one, and incurred in no selfish or narrow spirit. Could we begin again, we believe the wisest policy would be to follow the example oi

the settlers in Ireland, and to establish a pale within which law and order should be maintained at whatever cost, and without which the bold adventurers who chose to penetrate must do so at their own pefril.

Mr. Fortescue turns from New Zealand to Western Australia, and if the persons who have been subscribing to send back convicts to this country are capable of shame, they must, we think, blush when they read the gentle and tolerant reproof with which their foolish enterprise is met on behalf of the Home Government. Great sympathy is expressed for the natural aversion of these young settlements to convicts, and care is taken to exonerate the local Government from any blame for the proceeding, while an unchanged resolution is avowed not to allow the misconduct of individuals to alter the determination already arrived at. Perhaps, however, the part ot Mr. Fortescue's speech which will be read with most interest is that in which he speaks of the new Confederation about to rise in British America. He disclaims all jealousy on the part of this country of the power and prosperity of those colonies ; he wishes to see an independent, self-reliant, and distinct Power arise in North America. The relations of the confederated colonies towards the Crown and the mother country will remain unchanged, only they will be better able to defend themselves, and become one confederacy instead of many, the government of which will be worthy the ambition of our greatest public men. Passing from this topic, Mr. Fortescue endeavours to define the tie which binds the mother country to the colonies; it is no longer a question primarily of interest, but rather of duty. Having acquired them, it is our duty, he thinks, to keep them. In so doing we do not forget our interest; we secure for ourselves Customers, allies, and homes for our population. The question, of course, is so far as interest is concerned, what we pay for these advantages, and whether we cannot obtain them without" paying for them. That question we will not now discuss, but merely express a hope that means will shortly be found to make our duty in this matter less burdensome, and our interests a little more clear and obvious than it is at present.