EDITORIAL NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXIX, Issue 10781, 1 June 1911, Page 1

EDITORIAL NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Ahe up. as a nation, grown up?- In other Words, arc wo The Question of . ripe for partnorsliip - Adolescence. with the- Mother Country? It lias become* tho fashion of. late' years, to .say,! that•■**«• are. . -J3ut thoracis are against us. The latest proof to. that effect is the withdrawal'. by compulsion of the resolution introduced by . Sir Joseph Ward, at the Gonfeibriee: : Isy the way, a -milliner of; ''able editors"- seem to he unable to take.a broad view under ih-.-.-e f-iiriTiiistaiices.--. They forget that Sir Jo.'eph if the representative of the • !).-T.r.»-1.-»p.■ who. as such, -.advanced.a, coruiin proposition and had to rotfe-at, anil ib entitled to -help in the covering of -thai retreat.- But -theso* "able editors" fire- into the -flanks- of the column of their own house; as it retreats to (Armor ground. We. need only sav that we are always beingVreminded by" individuals that there, is too much nieanness of the-:;potty order amongst us to justify.-any immediate «xpecta-|. tio'n 'of the. Villemiium;:*' Those small souls taiav discover presently, that others have failed in •this iproblem of- more eloselv uniting the -Empire, .before Sir Joseph undertook, not the settlement, but +he reasonably practical treatment •of- the-problem, i Foremost of -these was •?.r'r JftF.<-nli Chamberlain, who tailed three -times -mireeSßively—at .-thft COll-. torences of 1897, 1002; .aiidflOOK On -the first- occasion he asked the knMcrence to affirm the principle, of closer union and to give more money for the navv, but the-'Conference affirmed thai; the' then connexion -was quite close enough for all possible purposes, and there was hot a cent forthcoming tor the navv, in.the way of oxtra--Pubscrn> tioii. The second time Mr Chamberlain asked for more money -again/ and did not dare to repeat the demand for closer union. ■• He sot Some of the r.ibnev. but he was hopelessly out. ot toiieh as-leader. In 1907 he was not present; but he inspired tin? procecdinc/s Tw his policv of tariff-reform, and asked for the Conference, to declare tor r>r"ference and. to decide that the way of federation lav through'the'ciiil 'situation. ' The Conference saw the preference resolution withdrawn in vuite of the support of the Australian members, and so far from -taking the commercial road to' federation: it declared that the ideal road lay through the territorv of constitutionalism, with •i ba<is for the federal union of five mtioiis under oiieflag. No failure-'-was ever I-uli" so complete as Mr Ghamber-l-iin's Hut no one ever ventured to t'-U hi Mi that he had "failed ignomin- ] ei.-iv." It is the : sort of thing that . ( T; tnr'- reserve for the • men of- their I ~»-,. household.. It is another of the ir.-mifs we have that we are not yet L-i-ov.-n up- Another proof is the column et r"-_a;res brought, forward by Sir .T..s-r,h Ward to show the strength o« the representative powers of the various states in the proposed federation: \\ ith 207 for Britain and nothiny; overtwo fi-ures far' any other state of the I-(.deration it is.too much like- '-'Eclipse. nv*. tho rest, nowhere"' to look like eny "feneration. . Federation does -not mean the nbrolute equality of aji tn? jjirl'ies- tnilv. but it 'means nothing so T"iy badlv proportioned as th-.t. "When we ""row "upthere will be a better balo.n<e"of tlie nirures.- The fourth proof i* the thing that hanpencd when the IVme Ministers met the Council of Defence and were astounded to Team the q«crets of diplomacy. Every man re*;irnr/l {'hanks devoutly for the favor n::d the honor, but lie did so with a -n;v evident admission that he had no Me- how verv ignorant lie had been and' how utterly futile would be the ini.-rferenee of anything colonial in the .-.(fairs of Europe. It is an affair of the Triole Alliance against the Triple Eii,,,,,'t,—Germany, Austria and Italy •-- France, Britain and liussia. In the hullabaloo between'these mighty what can the "whelps of the 1i.,,,-' do to help? What, indeed? \\"«h these-four-proofs we ought to be cnteiit that we are far from hoing ■■rowii nn. Xo man ever thinks of inking his sons into ..partnership until tlnv are full grown, aiid whoever arranges for a partnership between ?!\voml bovs and one man. starts bv calling , the parhiershiD a-school, and there the authority of the master is absolute as it is uiifiuestioned.' It is.- for us to he <dad that- Britain relaxes the rule and attends to our wishes-to the extent she doe*. -But, it'will be many a long day Ivfr'e-e we. shall lie able to take place on ehu?l -terms. VeThis for .material considerations; With the.-legislative experiments of-the. .progressive policy .it. is different. There .the overseas hare .iAvcii ? .wractic'al -lead which is begin-, niii" to be acknowledged-in the right ouartors. It only: proves that a boy iliav iia<-e -t-. verv good head without di'-iuii.ing the relations whose balance depends on the-superior physical force : ,f (he elders-. - -