SPECIAL INTERVIEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 11587, 27 February 1901, Page 3

SPECIAL INTERVIEWS.

HON. W. ROLLESTON'S VIEWS ON AUSTRALASIAN FEDERATION; As the Hon. W. Rolleston is at present in Auckland, attending the sittings of the New Zealand University Senate, a Herald representative called upon him at the Northern Club, where he is staying, to ascertain if his views had changed on the question of Australasian Federation since he ■was last interviewed on the subject by a Hkialij representative, two years ago, at Wellington. Mi. Rolleston expressed his willingness to state his present views on the subject.

" Are you still, Mr. Rolleston, adverse to New Zealand going into the Australian Federation or Commonwealth?" queried our representative. " There has occurred nothing," replied Mr. Rolleston, " since I was last interviewed by a Herald representative, to materially alter my views in respect to Federation. The onus of proof of the advisableness of going into it rests with those who advocate it, and I have never seen any sufficient proof of the advisableness of it. On the question of the Customs tariff: If the Australians want our goods they will have them, and the consumer will pay for them. In a case of dearth, the protected colony of Victoria has taken our goods, if I am not mistaken, to as large an extent as the free trade colony of New South Wales. This is a matter which will no doubt form part of the efforts of the Commission to ascertain by accurate statistics. As to obtaining the opinion of the public by means of the referendum or otherwise than through the representatives of the people, it is worth little, compared with absolute facts. To me it lias been a great matter of regret that the Federal Council Bill, which was promoted by clear-headed, able men like Sir Frederick Whitaker, lias never had a fair trial. The effect of the Commonwealth Act is rather a unification or amalgamation of State Governments, than a federal tie in matters of common concern, which would link the States together without interfering with their autonomy. My own belief is that the referendum was a pool way of arriving at an intelligent view of the merits of the proposal. Ido not believe myself that any large proportion of the intelligent population of Australia had read, considered, or understood the bearing of the different provisions of the Bill. I was present at the second reading of the Bill in the British Parliament, and I question whether even there the provisions of the Commonwealth Bill were thoroughly understood. There are very few men, even lawyers, who could explain the exact meaning of the compromise arrived at with reference to the appeal to the Privy Council. The one thing which is plain with regard to >the question is that the compromise, was to a certain extent a limitation of the rights of British subjects in the Australian colonies. There are a class of subjects common to Imperial and Australasian Federation. The first of these is the great Federal obligation, which has obtained from very early ages, in respect of defence. As time goes on other obligations and other interests in respect of trade and otherwise will he dealt with as a matter of Federal concern, both locally and in connection with the Empire. We have not advanced far on any other subject than that of defence. The enormms importance of that, alike to the colonies md Great Britain, gives it the most prominent place. A beginning was made in another direction in respect to the great Judicial Department by tie appointment of Chief Justice Way o'\ the Judicial Committee of the Privy Co.mcil. That idea has had a certain amornt of check, and has yet to be further developed. The common interest of trade has scarcely been touched. The Australian Crmnionwealtb will be violently exercised upon the question for some years to come. It will probably be dealt with Imperially in the future by some form of representation 011 the Board of Trade. Councils of' Advice will arise 011 these subjects, as methods of dealing with them suggest themselves. But I do not think that any of the plans that, have been ventilated of Parliamentary representation or of any hard and fast system of Federal Government will work out. at any rate for the present. The real Federal tie has been more established by sympathy of feeling, of kinsmansliip—the community of interest, language, thought, and traditions, that have been so much to the fore in the past year, especially in connection with the war—than by any other means. As time has gone 011 I must confess I have become more and more averse to the idea of New Zealand entangling itself in proposals the circumstances of which do not commend themselves to my mind, and I cannot think that the issue can depend upon small questions of trade, which I think cciv.mon sense and expediency will determine, apart from the larger issues. I hold uyself, as an old Provincialist, strong opinions* on the evils of centralisation, and I do not feel assured that even in Australia itself the Government which has been created will be in sufficiently close sympathy with the interests of the. people over that vast Continent. With me the Federal tie with Great Britain is before everything else, and I am not at all sure that the Australian Commonwealth Bill will tend in the direction of Imperial Federation. My desire is more to be connected with the Mother Country, which has its roots deep dqwn in the past, than with any new nation which may be built up, and may possibly get into conflict with the Mother Country. It seems to me at the present time that the tendency of democracy to centralise power is against real government by the people, who must be in close touch with their rulers. It is hard to see what is coming. As Lord Rosebery said, " Plutocracy is the most detestable of dominations." I can conceive of an Imperialism which may degenerate into an evil form of militarism. My hope and desire for New Zealand is to see the Government of the colony tempered by a large and more liberal development of local ft govenimcnt. We are going great lengths in the way of centralising power. The first and inmost step in the establishment of a healthy check upon this centralism is the creatibn of a more powerful and more extended self-govern ment in connection with the large centres of population. Great social questions are at present being made subordinate to the retention of inscrutable factions in power. | The lifeblood of the country beats through the heart of these large centres. But there is not sufficient attraction to secure the services of the best citizens if their powers are to be cramped and interfered with by the central power from clay to day." THE FIJI PROPOSALS. "What do you think of thij Federation proposals with regard to Fiji?';' " I may say that I do not quite understand what the proposals are. j I have always held it was a matter of' regret that the Imperial Government did not see the advisableness of annexing at an, earlier date islands some of which have now passed under the control of foreign Powers. But the question of what the relations of New Zealand should be to these islands is a different matter. Ido not see. any advantage in their coming under the representative system of p. free colony. The annexation, territorially, of •these ,i.si«uids 'Is a totally different thing from bringing them under the protection of the Imperial authorities, and preventing their becoming ,a locus standi for foreign nations. lam only speaking from memory, but it seems to me that- Lord Ranfurly made this perfectly clear in his proclamations; but as I recollect the resolution of both Houses of Parliament here, it contemplated a territorial and Parliamentary connection of a different character."