MR. T. BRASSEY AND COLONIAL FEDERATION.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5420, 10 August 1878, Page 2 (Supplement)

MR. T. BRASSEY AND COLONIAL FEDERATION.

(From the Home News, June 20.) That patient and indefatigable spirit which Mr. Thomas Brsssey has already displayed in metering naval details, and which promises to land him some day at the Admiralty in very high place, has not foiled him evidently in his recent visit to the Antipodes. The owner of the Sunbeam, who with his master’s certificate was both able and entitled to navigate his own yacht, made something more than a mere pleasure trip round the world. Ho saw with shrewd eyes and conned closely the le'ssons offered him. Not the least valuable of the impressions he has formed arc his views upon the rising importance of the colonies. He does not hesitate to affirm that with their progress and prosperity the future of England is indissolubly bound up, and that she will continue In the forefront of the world only so far as she realises the term Empire'in its broadest sense, and-not os narrowed within the limits of the British Isles. Mr. Brassey is a warm advocate of a modified form of Imperial federation, and trusts that directly the Eastern Question is settled satisfactorily, the attention of British statesmen will be devoted to the policy of ■drawing the mother country and the colonies more closely together. The mutual advantages to be derived from such a rapprochement need hardly be insisted upon. The adoption and successful development of what Lord Boacpnsfield has called the policy of Imperial consolidation would place the English nation far above European complications, and make it as safe as it would bo strong.