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New Zealand Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 6965, 14 March 1884, Page 4

No change in public sentiment for many years has been so startling, as that which has recently and suddenly come over public opinion in England in relation to these colonies.- Instead of a patronising contempt, or a desire to shake them off as encumbrances from the Empire, which was the prevalent idea within the memory of the present generation, the colonies are now treated with" a consideration and even an effusive eulogy that would make them blush if they were capable of exhibiting sucli outward evidence of the modest emotions. In some recent and very interesting articles, the London Times has been dealing with the Australian federation question, and it is valuable and instructive to see it viewed from such a standpoint. Referring to the Federation Bill proposed to be submitted to the British Parliament, the Times speaks of it as "a Bill beside which the measures to be introduced in the approaching session for the administration of these islands appear Lilliputian," and goes on to speak of it as affecting " a whole continent, and more than a continent-;" and adds "legislation for Australasia, with' its Imperial acreage, is legislation

for a future nation of fifty^fliSlT» and referring more speci/caUy °T work of the delegates wsJ?* 8 "Last December wftnTssed^fib 7 ' of the first stone of a dominion & Pacific,.free to shape its own and unconf med in its possible coSl' to an extent to which history 3?* no precedent.» All this is very H" reading, an.d very flatten «'"«"• Without questL- nt for a moment the corS?'J - the 'horoscope, we cannot but « ' that the proceedings of the Confe J**' have loomed up 80 prodl °^ the mental,eye of- and people appear to have taken 1 granted that federation is an accom phshed fact. The Times reflects,k prevalent idea, but it i s ~ enough to see the difficulties -still in rl way. " Federation," it say-, " f\, n. 9 thing to be forced. When the colon,* are ripe for it federation will com,?. and until they are, any federal svst* ' that might be constructed w ou 'ld u artificial. Federation must be upon felt community of interest? n . upon any scheme for making J?" colony subserve the ends of anoU,* But, even -were there no such adll*' barrier, the geographical conditions of the colonies are such that there can 1, no pressing need for federal action 1 Federal Government deservino- t u name would have nothing to do'unle. 6 it usurped functions much better charged by the local Parliaments; and it is wholly contrary to the "pnius ot th race to construct machinery iuantici Pa . tion of wants which are not yet felt ' This is £i calm and dispassionate view of the position, and it is singularly ln contrast with the tone in which many colonial journals, and especially in th* colony of Victoria, attempt to spin"' away the difficulties that lie thickly in the path of the complete federation of the colonies. It is the absence of a pressing want —of the urgency of necessity—that makes the case of the Australasian colonies different from that of the Canadian province s . 'l| le frontier of British America bein" coterminous for thousands of miles with that of a great and powerful rual which at any time might develop into an enemy, was an ever present reminder of the loose and disjointed condition of r,he British possessions; and selfpreservation, the first law of Nature it was that imposed the necessity o! their realising in their constitution the fact that union is power. And it was similarly necessity that welded the colonies of America into federal States. It is idle to say that there is any such influence operat- ' ing on the colonies of Australasia. It is true the difficulties over the deportation of French criminals to the neighbourhood exercise an influence m the direction of favouring concerted action ; but actual trouble arising from this is too remote to have any very great influence, and in point of fact the federal feeling in the colonies has scarcely gone beyond the sentimental stage; and as the Times says, with a very correct appreciation cf the actual condition, "it is wholly contrary to the genius of the race, to construct machinery in anticipation of wants which are not yet felt." _ But the writer, in tl'-> Times lays his finger on the position as well as tfio negative defects of the scheme when he says that ,: a federal government deserving the na>ne would have nothing to do unless it usurped functions much better discharged by the local parliaments." There we haye the rift in the lute that mars the harmony of the intercolonial concert. It is the fear of this usurpation of functions that has paralysed the movement arnoDg the people of the colonies. It was all very pleasant among the delegates, who being all men of light and leading, naturally felt that in their hands the dearest interests of local self-government could be safely reposed. But in the absence of an imperative necessity the people of the colonies naturally ask themselves what are the benefits they are likely to receive in return for the surrender of the rights and power of managing their own affairs through the hands of their representatives and on their own territory. No amount of sophistry will lead us to believe that these functions are not " better discharged by the local parliaments," and yet there are few colonists so stupid as not to see that the surrender or usurpation of such functions would be an inevitable necessity to the complete federation of the colonies. With that singular incapacity for estimating the bent and direc tion of public opinion, for which the leading Melbourne journal has at all times enjoyed pre-eminence, we arß informed that " in realitv the opposition which is here and tncie offered to 'federation is of a frivolous and factious character,, dictated by a spirit of petty provincialism." So far from this beinjj the case, it is a fact which time will prove, but which any intelligent man can forecast 'from "the signs of the times, that the sentimental spirit has spent itself, and that men everywhere —and in- this colony most decidedly— are soberly balancing the advantages and, disadvantages of federation with Australia ; and so far from the opposition being " frivolous," it will be found that the supposition is but the flippancy of frivolous writing.