ON BRITISH SUCCESS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 10079, 14 March 1896, Page 1 (Supplement)

ON BRITISH SUCCESS.

[BY colosus.]

The rapidity with which British extension of influence has been proceeding is a won der to other nations as well as to ourselves. It is not) merely in the acquisition of territory—for that might come of fighting strength, or. tlio moral forco that has dormant fighting strength behind it—but seemingly without any national effort the influence goes creeping on ; and for many generations not only have territories been dropping in, but they arc as promptly converted into organised parts of the national system. Other peoplos do not spread so, and when they acquiro territory there is something exotic-like about the additions ; and if these do not drop off, they merely hang on like things grafted, without either drawing sap and life from tho trunk or developing any independent life of their own. There is something so different in thosfl experiences of colonial extension that WO are inclined to look for the cause of it either in the character of the peoplos or tho difference in their methods. Possibly it is in part attributable to both, but so far its personal character is concerned, wo '!§ not see any material differences between Britons and people of other nationalities, when thoy come side by Hide as workers, in the common field of our colonial life. A Frenchman, or a German, or an Italian in business as a merchant seems to proceed pretty much on the same lines as a Briton, and generally with equal succcss; and some, of foreign nationalities, as tho Germans, are admittedly as settlors among the very best of our colonists. There is certainly nothing deficient in the national character that we can see. of the members of nationalities which have not been successful in extending national outshoots in tho form of colonies, and we seem shut up to the conclusion that it can bo only in their method* of national extension that the cause of difference is to be sought. hut if we look to those methods wo see at once tho wide divergenco of the linos of colonial extension on which the nations have been accustomed to proceed, the occurrence of individuality, or the utilisation of private effort being a striking factor in the way in which British power .has been advanced.

Whether we look to earlior or later times the tame feature is predominant, private enterprise opening the way, and generally forcing the hand of the Government, which follows up to merely accept the conditions which had been already made.

In some cases conquest may have preceded, but in almost all cases the principal occupation and advance of settlement have been attributable to the indomitable enterpride of pioneers, who performed the real conquests that laid the of urbanised communities. To this spirit the principal plantations of America owed their being, forcing forward the conquest of the wilderness in the lace of hostile Indians—some of the settlements, as those of the New England States, being indebted not to the favours, but to the relentless persecutions of the State.

To the Hudson Bay Company, tho now great Dominion of Canada can (race in large part its extension westward to tho ehoros of olio Pacific, tho enterprise of private individuals overcoming all the real difficulties in extending the limits of the Empire. The Indian Empire furnishes, perhaps, tho mostnotablecaseof.ili.itsprincipulconquests of territory, and the founding of British institutions and British power in the country, having been effected by a chartered company without any original intention on the part of the Imperial Government to annex territories, which only in our own lifotime have boon taken over under direct Imperial control.

In the history of the Australian colonies we see the same marked feature of individual or private energy doing all the principal part in founding empire. _ It is true that the planting of ft penal settlement on the shores of New Holland was the work of the Imperial Government, but the convict element soon ceased to be a factor in the extension of British institutions, which have so spread their ramifications under the Southern Cross as to make the British the destined dominant power in tlio Pacific. The offshoot) of Victoria was the outcome of private enterprise, which, in the face of authority, maintained its right to organise itself on British models, subsequently endorsed and ratified by Imperial orders. Private enterprise pushed into the wilds of Moreton Bay, spreading over to the vast I plains and downs of the interior till followed up by law and order and nettled institutions, subsequently crowned by the Imperial authority erecting the vast territory into the colony of Queensland. The province of South Australia vtrs founded by private enterprise, Imperial authority lending its sanction and its recognition of the fitness of the people to govern themselves and the territory as an integral part of the British Empire. And though Western Australia owes its origination to a penal settlement planted by the Imperial Government, that was but an infinitesimal factor in the wonderful progress it has been making since the penal regime gave place to free self-government, under which private effort and enterprise are pushing the country into prominence as one of the most wealth-producing of the group. And as for our own New Zealand wo know that it was not the intention of the Imperial Government to make of it a colony, till the hand of authority was forced by the restless and irresistible impulse of settlement. And even though the colonists, becoming involved in war, were followed up and aided by Imperial troops, it' was not till those troops were withdrawn and the colonists were thrown 011 their own resources, that they rose to the occasion, and attained the triumph of independent enterprise. ,t Indeed, the present position of those colonies with their three or four millions 01 people holding millions of square miles ot territory without a solitary soldier of the Imperial forces among them, sound in their loyalty and prepared to fight for their territory and for the empire, presents in the most vivid light the socret—if it is a secret-of Great Britain's success and progress and proatness in colonisation, which seems to be nothing more nor less than relitiiiCQ 011 private energy and enterprise. . / , And this should reconcile us to what ac the present hour is the subject of so tierce denunciation, not only among theonamios of England, but among thousands of British^people, namely, the methods by which the British Empire is being extended in Africa. Whether for good or ill, they are the lines on which British progress has hitherto been advanced, and though past usage is not necessarily a rule for future conduct, we have yet to learn whether the old method of stretching out the tentacula of private energy and enterprise may not bo the safer method of advance—the flaK following the trade, instead of waiting for the trade to

follow the dug. , The Royal Niger Company, and other prirjite enterprises have for long been steadily advancing British influence in Central Africa, but keener interest lias been awakened respecting the operations of the South African Company, by the prominence given to it through the .Jameson raid.^ Apart from that episode in its history, which was an evident blundor, the work done by that company in pushing forward British interests and influence into the far interior of Africa, is one that would not have been achieved by Governmental action foi generations to como. It may bo a blundering, perhaps a costly way, but it has been effective y and probably no other race on earth could exhibit the picture of a man, a millionaire like Loeii Rhode*, not takinir away his hoards to spend them in l'aris or Berlin or other centres of life and pleasure, but devoting his wealth and his talents to pushing forward the bounds of empire ovor new lands. It is, of course, primarily for private interests, but so has it been in all the history of the expansion of British rule, the utilisation of private enterprise being the great factor of success. _ , Anyway whether we approve or not, it is herein the difference lies between British and other colonisation—trade and commerce, settlement and industry preparing the way, and supplying the basis for tho founding of British institutions. Other nations iound their outposts and make thorn strong, and wait for settlement and trade to follow. Tho re°tlpss impetuosity of the Anglo-Saxon race pushes forward and creates the nccossity for Imperial authority following. . In tho one case tho march ot tho Hag is over faith and hope j in the other the advance is made over ascertained results, and British colonisation in consequence does nob go buck. Whether it is that British institutions have the tendency to devolop individuality and selfhelpfulness, or whether they are of the' genius of the race, certain it is that pioneering seems to come naturally to tho people, and the universal spirit of Independent privato cntorpriso is the secret of British success in colonisation.