SIR GEORGE GREY AND FEDERATION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVIII, Issue 8487, 11 February 1891, Page 5

SIR GEORGE GREY AND FEDERATION.

(FROM Tirr: SYDNEY M ORNISH herald.) j Sin Georef, Grey occupies ft unique posij tion, and has had unsurpassed opportunities j for forming views of colonial questions from ! various standpoints. A scholar arid a statesman, he has been for many years in close correspondence or personal intercourse with many of the most distinguished "men of light and leading" of the age, while as a practical colonial administrator in a great variety of positions, he has had rare opportunities of putting abstract theories bo the test of real life. His early prevision of the future of the Pacific has been wonderfully realised, and had his representations and remonstrances, made to the Home Government many years ago, been attended to, neither New Caledonia, nor New Guinea, nor New Hebrides, nor Samoa would have been floating now a foreign flag, or been a cause of chagrin or anxiety to Australia; bub without opposition or cavil on the part of foreign Powers, they would have been each and all, since years ago, as much a portion of the British Empire as Australia itself. Sir George, it is known, is a strong exponeub of the feeling entertained largely in New Zealand, that that island colony should not form a part of the Australian federation, but carve out a destiny of its own ; but, after expressing the cordial sympathy and good wishes of the New Zealanders for the success of the federation of the Australian colonies, he is coming over to assist in the approaching Federation Convention ; and there is little doubt that his experience and counsel, as well as his great ability, will be warmly appreciated by the delegates assembled. Sir George Grey does not believe in the feasibility of that close and formal political union which is advocated or hoped for by the Imperial federationists, but favours rather " a loose federation of the English-speak-ing peoples, instead of a regular standing Federal Council with regular date of meeting and specified public questions ;"%and his idea of the modus operandi is, that the several Anglo-Saxon communities should appoint representatives whenever a question arose which was considered to be of sufficient, importance. This would certainly be the irreducible minimum of federation, but though it would fall very much short of the apparent ambitions of the Imperial federationists, it would at least be more within the compass of possibility than the more fixed and inflexible form of union which they seem to affect. Sir George Grey is commonly spoken of by his opponents as a vissionary, but in this case at least his visions are of a more sober cast than others which have become the fashion in high and leading circles, and the fact that a man of his boldness of conception and advanced thinking favours such a moderate measure of unity as alone practicable, is a notable contribution to the discussion of a question which has of late been attracting considerable attention, especially in the mother country. Sir George Grey seems amply justified in looking away beyond the view of any nearer union being formed between these colonies and England through the drawing closer of the ties of dependence, and in contemplating, rather, the mutual attraction of great and independent powers drawn together by oneness of language, jind institutions and traditions, and' all the sympathies that come of " kith and kin." It is noedless to say that the form of bond which Sir George Grey outlines is open to many objections, and that such looseness of cohesion would differ bub little from absolute independoncj r . It would, in fact, bo little more than a league for offence and defence, to be moved to action only as occasion or necessity arose, and with provision for adjusting internal differences as they occurred ; but as the meeting of the council of administration or control would only take place when necessity called it together, the Council would cease to be a tangible entity, and the union would only exist as a moral force, if itexisted at all. Probably this was all that Sir George Grey intended ; and, though it will possibly not satisfy the sanguine—and it certainly falls far short of the anticipations of . the labourers in the cause of Imperial Federation— yet, as the views of a statesman who lias brought to the question a wide experience and matured thought on problems of government, ib will commend itself to the sober-minded as a possible, if not the most probable, evolution of the political and social forces that, are moving in all countries occupied by tlio English-speaking race.