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Lyttelton Times, Volume LII, Issue 5804, 2 October 1879, Page 4

Thebe is a phrase which was current in France after the conclusion of the Franco-German war, which it would be well if we ia New Zealand could impress on our minds. The phrase was aurtout point de Hague. It is difficult to translate the word Hague into English, for we have no exact equivalent for it: hut the nearest approach to it would he to use a Colonial vulgarism and say, “Above all, no gas.” We have lately seen, however, a very good specimen of Hague in. a contemporary published in the North Island. Writing of the; proposal to limit the power of . Colonial, borrowing by Imperial legislation, our ) contemporary Bays “If the Imperial' Governinent be not prepared to become responsible for Colonial debts, then we say that no; free Colony, such as New Zealand, ; will tolerate for an instant the interference of the Mother Country, or any other country, in her local affairs. „* ♦ * We do not choose to be tied to the maternal apron-string. * * * We will not brook being treated as wayward children, whose every footstep has to be guided. * * We will suffer no dictation from her or anyone else. * * ■ * .The Imperial Parliament must mind its own business.” And much more to the same effect. Now, this we call a very good example of Hague, The population of New Zealand ft not more than equal to that of Manchester, or Liverpool, or Glasgow; it is not equal to that of many suburbs pr parts of London hardly known even by name to many of our readers. Fancy any of these places setting up its back, and threatening separation, 'because the Imperial Parliament limits; its borrowing powers. Not one of them can contract a loan for any purpose without the sanction of Parliament, and none of them have borrowed one quarter of what we have borrowed. Suppose we declared our independence, how. long should we he independent P Just so long as it would take the Germans or the Russians to send a fleet into these waters to take possession of our seaports. We have no means of resistance, and it would only be necessary to seize our ports to bring the whole Colony under the dominion of a foreign power. Now both Russia and Germany, and the , latter especially, are hungering for a colony in the South Pacific, Germany has evidently been trying to get hold of the Samoan Islands. She is blustering about some claims on Fiji. It ia said that she holds a considerable portion of our debentures. An excuse for a war between the wolf and the lamb ia easily made by the former, and the lamb finds it a very unequal fight. The sort of rubbish we are criticising will do us no good at Home. Those who were in England in 1870 when the last British forces were withdrawn from New Zealand, can well remember the very placid indifference with • which the threat of .separation was then received. It will be received in precisely the same way now. The current of public opinion is well indicated by an article of Earl Grey’s in the May number of the Nineteenth Century, in which he clearly points out that the present relationships between England and her responsibly - governed Colonies cannot continue. He proves that they are of no advantage to the Home Country, and that the course of their legislation, showing no favour to her, and even infringing in some instances on her treaty engagements, is injurious to 'her. Her frontier is extended, and, in the event of war, her fleet, which she would require to defend her own coasts, would he dispersed all over the “world. These views will commend themselves to the common sense of the majority of the British public at Home, and the recent acts of the Canadian Parliament in establishing protective duties, the protectionist policy of Victoria, and the strong movement in favour of the same policy here, are all likely to add to the disfavour with which Colonies which are of no assistance to the Mother Country, and might be a great burden to her, will be regarded in snob times as the present, when every part of the population is suffering such distress from the refusal of other States to adopt the Freetrade policy to which she is irrevocably committed.

Let us look the matter calmly in the face, and examine it in the light o£ recent events. Who interfered in the affairs of Egypt, when Great Britain and France had given up the struggle with the late Khedive P Germany. And whyP Germans held a considerable portion of the Egyptian stock. Now, suppose a career of reckless borrowing results in our making default in the payment of interest, does any one imagine that an ambitious and aggressive power like Germany will meekly fold her hands, and tell German bondholders that she is very sorry for them, but cannot possibly interfere P Hardly so ; she will look to the Mother Country for redress. How, the Mother Country will have to do one of two things,—either pay the money, or compel us in some way to pay it, by sequestrating the Customs’ duties and

devoting theta to the payment of interest. British taxpayers will not like the former, and we shall not like' the latter of these alternatives. But the money will have to bo paid somehow or other. No wonder, therefore, that when the Imperial Government finds another five million loan in the market, she begins to think of what the end will be. We are not the first Colony that has brought itself into difficulties by reckless and extravagant expenditure. Several of the smaller Colonies have done so, and become actually insolvent, but their liabilities being small ; British Parliament has come to their relief. But twenty-seven millions is no trifle even for Great Britain. Borrowing money is a very merry little j game while it lasts, but it cannot go on for ever. We have been spending so lavishly that five millions seem a mere bagatelle to take out of the pockets of European'capitalists, but it is regarded in a very different manner at Home. Look at the discussions on the ten million loan to British India ; the papers have been full of it; it has been Written about as if tbe bankruptcy of that country were imminent. And yet India contains two hundred millions of inhabitants, and has the richest and most fertile territory in the world, inhabited by an intelligent and industrious people. No wonder then that a loan of five millions to a population of less than half a million makes the people at Home open their eyes. It is all very well for people who came out of some little country town in England, straight to New Zealand, and have never seen any other place but the one they were born in and this Colony, to talk about the natural resources of New Zealand. Those who have seen other countries know that there are millions of square miles of the earth’s surface with as great natural resources as New Zealand, which do not now carry a population that could pay the interest on our loans, and maintain our scale of expenditure in other respects. The fact is that large numbers of us have not been content to go plodding on as the early colonists did, suffering hardships, and subduing rugged nature by severe toil, in the hope of a moderate competence at the close of our lives; we have indulged in dreams of rapidly acquired wealth, of, making ,a fortune by lucky speculations, of gaining here by the labour 'of others, what in old countries men only expect to acquire by a life of diligent attention to business, careful .thrift, and steady persevering industry. Men look with horror on a life id the bush, such as the early settlers had;' but expect to be solaced by, comforts and luxuries they never hoped for. We shall find out some day that a country like New Zealand, rough and mountainous, with a fine climate, but by no means an extraordinary .fertile soil, can only, be made rich and prosperous by. the practice of those old-fashioned virtues which are but little regarded by some amongst us.