N.Z. MAIL PUBLISHED WEEKLY. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 1887.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 779, 4 February 1887, Page 16

N.Z. MAIL PUBLISHED WEEKLY. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 1887.

Impebiali Federation has now been so long before the public, claiming to be a great and momentous national movement, that it is surely time some--thing was known more definitely as to its precise aims. The principle of the movement —if we understand it rightly as an effort to consolidate the British Empire in every practicable way—is beyond question a good and sound one. An uneasy feeling has manifestly been steadily growing up at Home of late that- the persistent neglect and contempt with which the colonies were treated by the Liberal party during their long tenure of power has had a tendency to weaken the links that bind the colonies to the Mother Country. New South Wales’ offer of military aid in the Soudan did much toward opening England's eyes to the importanceof her Australasian Empire, and no doubt the splendid display made at last year’s exhibition did a little more. But for some time past English politicians have been steadily awaking to the fact that England’s colonies were no longer burdens, and possessed the capability of being very useful, even from a military viewpoint. And so it has become a fashionable fad to devise means by which the bonds between England and the Colonies might be drawn tighter and tighter, until at length the whole should constitute one homogeneous Empire, somewhat after the fashion of Germany—perhaps a little “ more so,” perhaps a little “ less so.” Here differences of opinion will be found, albeit at so early a stage. And] the farther onward we advance with the movement the greater variety of views will be met with, if —that is to say—we seek any precise definition of aim ; so long as we are content with mere frothy declamation as to the general advantages of being a “ band of brothers ” and so forth, it is all right enough. But, as we said before, it is time now that some definite plan should be placed before the world. A movement of thin kind cannot pass by absolutely without leaving a trace of effect. It cannot resemble those inert substances which may b 6 introduced into the animal frame and eliminated therefrom without leaving behind the faintest symptom of having been there at all. The mere collapse of such a movement would mean more than its simple failure. It would convey the impression that it had fallen through owing to an essential lack of strength in the links which unite England and her colonies; a weakness in the cohesive power of the Empire. This would be unfortunate in itself and injurious in its influence alike on the Mother Country, on the colonies, and on foreigu nations. Yet, undesirable as the failure of the Federation movement must be, it does not at all follow that its success would be an unmixed blessing, or, indeed, that it would not be a very serious disaster. That would depend entirely .on circumstances. The Imperial Federation movement is capable of being an instrument of much and permanent good, or of being perverted into a means of serious evil. Or it may degenerate into the mere dream of the political theorist. To us it appears, at the present time, to be trembling in the balance with a regrettable tendency toward the last alternative. This is due entirely to what Mr Mathew Arnold so earnestly deplores in the present age—the “ want of lucidity.” In other words a clear, precise, definite statement is needed, setting forth the practical aims of the movements, the specific shapes which it is proposed that it should assume, and the detailed means by which it is proposed to carry it out. Columns of eloquence about the advantages of co-operation, the “ strength ” of “ union ” and the blessings of unity—touching allusions to the old fable of the man and his sons and the bundle of sticks; impassioned appeals to the loyalty of “ Briton’s sons across the wide blue sea ” and all that sort of stuff may be pretty, but it is mere platitude and “ padding.” Nobody disputes it: everybody knows it all by heart ; nobody wants to hear any more about it. That sort of “ pap ” may be excellent food for political babes and may satisfy those who do not care two straws about the whole thing save as a means of puffing themselves into prominence or notoriety, but if any

substantial result is ever to accrue we must have something before us far more definite and practical than anything yet put forward. The practical difficulties in the way of anything beyond the most shadowy and unsubstantial form of Federation are enormous, although we are far from saying insuperable. To the theoretical and gushing F'ederationist they seem so slight and trivial as to be absurd in their flimsiness. One of the earliest troubles must needs therefore be to instil into these latter enthusiasts a due sense of the magnitude of the undertaking as regards the difficulties to be encountered and overcome. Look at the very small step in the direction of Federal action now under negotiation—a provisional and partial arrangement for concerted naval defence. Hitherto no concerted action has proved feasible. Take again the still smaller question of cable telegraph rates. So far that lias proved incapable of settlement by mutual agreement among the colonies interested. Nay, let us even come nearer home, and recollect how hard it is to get the different provincial districts —once quasi-independent provinces of this Colony to work together without mutual jealousies, or conflictof interests. What, then,might we expect when such serious and irritating matters as, for iustance, Federal taxation and representation, Customs tariffs, and reciprocity came up for settlement ? Let us not be misunderstood. We are not opposing Imperial Federation or arguing against its possibility. On the contrary, we cordially support it —as against mere Colonial Federation, which we deem an undesirable and cumbersome half-measure - and we believe it is feasible if approached and taken in hand in the right way. But everything depends on this, and as yet there has been but little indication that its importance is adequately realised by the propagandists of the movement. To them, therefore, we once more say emphatically—Make up your minds what you really mean ; propound a practicable scheme, and do so without any longer delay. Then we shall know what to think about the movement. Until this shall be done it is mere froth and vapour.