CLOSE OF THE CONFERENCE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13490, 17 May 1907, Page 4

CLOSE OF THE CONFERENCE.

The close of the Imperial Conference finds the relations" of the colonies; and the Mother; Country nominally much the same but actuallj' closer than ever. '■■; ■■■ ; It has alwaysi been as impossible for foreigners to master the secret of the British Constitution as for them to conquer the ;:■ idiomatic intricacies of ; our grammatically simple tongue, and every attempt to formulate a similar constitution by admiring and imitative States has invariably failed. For the British Constitution was never made; it "broadens slowly down from precedent to precedent." And i in a : kindred . fashion an Imperial Constitution is growing under : our eyes. ; During the past month little seems to have■ been i accomplished, but in reality much has been done. The Colonial Office'has tacitly conceded to the colonial. Governments the right to be consulted: upon all matters affecting their localities, and steps have been taken;

to form a consultative body which contains the germ of a future Imperial Council. The defence question has been placed upon a sounder I footings' through the fuller assumption of local responsibility. Mailcarrying . has been recognised as of Imperial importance. And there has ■ been sounded the first ■ emphatic note of that commercial agreement among the British States of:. the world by which some day they will differentiate in favour of one another against the foreigner. Most particularly noticeable is the tone taken by the Colonial Premiers, strong in the knowledge that their colonies are behind them and that the United Kingdom has listening and not unsympathetic ears. Canada with its six millions of . colonists, Australia with its four millions, New Zealand and South Africa with their million or so a-piece, are claiming the full privilege that their inherent loyalty gives to them. Because their future,lies within the Empire, by mutual freewill and common consent, they are instinctively claiming ; the right to help in the moulding of; its destinies. The acceptance of! ' this claim by the Mother Country ! was a feature of the , Conference and establishes a precedent which must have important and far-reaching ; results. .- . ; i