THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. MONDAY, MARCH 29, 1880.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XVII, Issue 5729, 29 March 1880, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. MONDAY, MARCH 29, 1880.

It is not so many years ago that we had this southern world almost to ourselves. Little else was heard but the English tongue, little else seen than the British flag, and the people of Now Zealand and Australia hoped and expected that the Imperial Government would vigilantly watcli to preserve to them tho advantage they possessed in having no foreign settlement in their vicinity which could be utilised for aggressive purposes. It was repeatedly urged on the Colonial Office tliat it should take a leaf out of the American book, and enforce, in a modified form, its Monroe doctrine. The sole desire of these colonies was to keep at a distance those who might have the power, and at some time the inclination, to harm them.

Thus when an effort was made to induco ] the United States to tako possession of Fiji, and later, when a similar appeal was made to the German Government, these colonies enforced on the Imperial Government the necessity of anticipating the adoption of thi3 course by either party, and the islands were annexed, not so much, we fear, on this account, but because of what was termed the " blackbirding " —the seizure of the natives of other islands for labour purposes at Fiji. Thus, too, the Australian colonies have repeatedly advocated the annexation of that portion of New Guinea not claimed by the Dutch, and especially that part in the immediate vicinity of Northern Australia. Over one part Captain Moresby did raise the British flag ; but the proceeding totally inadequately represented the aim and object of these colonies. Up to recently there were no other foreign settlements in our vicinity than those of the Dutch, which could not be regarded with any feeling of anxiety, and, besides, had precedence of the settlement of these dependencies. The first infringement of the principle, the maintenance of which is essential for the security of NeT Zealand and Australia, was that of the occupation of New Caledonia by the French, which has been utilised for a purpose no less obnoxious than the formation of a military and naval station, for the detention of some of the worst criminals of France. And it lias to be understood, in connection with this matter, that the forcats include so large a number of soldiers as to be as threatening as mischievous. The soundness of the objections raised by these colonies to the formation of foreign settlements in their vicinity ia proved to a demonstration by the fact that a number of Frenchmen who had been deported to New Caledonia have arrived in Auckland, of whom nine, at all events, were sent out for other than political offences, and twenty-four more have arrived of whom seven have been amenable to the criminal law of the couutry. The colony has no legal means of forbidding their entrance, and the Imperial Government has thought fit not to go further than to request the French Government to request the Governor of New Caledonia not to liberate convicts for the put-pose of their transmission to New Zealand. Should the French Government politely refuse, this colony will have to pass an enactment to keep them out, from which the Governor would be almost certain to withhold his assent till instructed by the Colonial Office ; and during the time that would lapse the Governor of New Caledonia, with his stock reduced to a trifle, might blandly smile. With the assent of the Crown —an assent surrounded by international difficulties—it will be possible to keep out the mass of the convicts, but not to prevent the occasional evasion of the law; and should the Imperial Government refuse to sanction such legislation, then a difficulty would arise between it and its dependency, which would not be likely to tolerate becoming the cesspool for foreign criminals, when the Cape and "Victoria had actually forbidden the landing of criminals who were their own countrymen. Because the foresight of the colonies was not responded to by the Imperial Government, an evil has arisen, the full extent of which, or the consequences that may ensue from it, it is not possible to gauge.

The Imperial Government, had it been on the alert, might, if it had not been disposed to prevent the acquisition of territory in our vicinity by foreign powers, at least have insisted that it should not be used for the purpose of exiling criminals. It had its own experience to teach it, the necessity of yielding to the insistance of Tasmania that it should cease to be the receptacle of convicts. The policy that it felt incumbent on it to accept with regard to its own dependencies it should have enforced with respect to any other nation. It has been stated that Germany contemplates the formation of convict colonies at Samoa and elsewhere. That is an insufficient representation of the facts. The course has been decided on, the assent of the German Parliament is to be asked —has probably been asked before now. The free colonies of England have therefore pleasant prospects before them, with French criminal settlements in ono direction that are, and German criminal settlements in other directions that are to be. Russia has a large outlook, would be very ready to render herself disagreeable, and make a penal settlement the nucleus of a military colony ; and so, since the Southern hemisphere has come to be regarded as possessing climatic advantages for persons whose moral constitution is weak, we may be hedged in by any number of foreign criminal settlements. If the Government of the United States may take exception to the preponderance of Fronch influence with regard to such a matter as the Panama Canal, it can be no very outrageous thing for these colonies to take exception to that portion of this hemisphere which is in their neighbourhood being made the depot for the stalwart ruffianism of Europe. Wo have a right to expect that the Imperial Government, which owes to us a duty corresponding to our allegiance to it, should make the strongest representations to Germany against its intention to form convict colonies in these seas, and should they prove insufficient—and they would scarcely be so if made sufficiently resolutely—then disregarding the international question, authorise the colonies to protect themselves by legislative enactments. Is it to be said that public security is to be jeopardised amongst freemen because of international law, —because foreign countries, regardless of what liapperts to us, provided they get rid of their criminals, expose .us to their debarcation on our shores 1 Let the Imperial Government not interpose or withhold from us the right of self-defence, and the first serious crime committed by a foreign criminal will arouse such a storm of popular indignation as will seriously imperil the relations between these dependencies and Great Britain.

We have referred to the possibility of Russia following the example of Germany, as Germany is following that of France, but what if tho settlement just formed of Italians and Spaniards in New Ireland should prove successful 1 Then the Italian Government will be compelled to recognise it, though it now refuses to do so, and as surely as France has a convict colony in these seas, and as Germany is to have, so certainly will it follow suit, and send its convicts to New Ireland. . A timid humanitarianism, or imbecility in the guise of sentiment, could alone regard this question as otherwise than of the utmost moment, and if the Imperial Government will not prevent territorial acquisitions by foreign powers in our vicinity, —if it cannot or will not prevent the formation of foreign convict settlements, it will as grossly neglect its duty as it will show a most dangerous imprudence, if it does not promptly intimate to us its acquiescence in our right to pass a law excluding all deported felons from our shores.