THE COLONIAL SOCIETY.

Otago Witness, Issue 878, 26 September 1868, Page 2

THE COLONIAL SOCIETY.

We learn with much satisfaction that a number of noblemen and gentlemen have instituted a "Colonial Society" in London "to occupy as regards the colonies the position [filled by the Boyal Society -with regard to science, or the Royal Geographical Society with regard to geography ; to open, as soon as the funds of the Society will allow, a lecture-hall, a library and reading-room, and a museum of science, industry, and commerce, where the natural products and resources of the colonies -will be exhibited ; to afford opportunities for the reading of papers and the holding of discussions upon colonial subjects generally, and to undertake those investigations in connection with the colonies -which are carried out in a more general field by the Royal Society, the Society of Arts, the Geographical Society, and by similar bodies in Great Britain." This is a goodly programme, and if the work done is at all commensurate with the promises, very great benefit -will be conferred on the colonies. What the splendid liberality; of the Council of India has been doing for the industrial resources of that country, through the India Museum and the exhaustive scientific and commercial reports on its contents, by the " Reporter on the Products of India 5 ' — Dr. T. Forbes Watson, we may now, through the labours of the Colonial Society, hope to see done for the products of all the colonies of Great Britain. It is not to the credit of the various Governments in the colonies, or to the Colonial Office either, that the material interests of the colonies i have hitherto been so little cared for by organised representation at home, that it has been and is next to impossible in London, the commercial centre of the j world as well as the capital of the Empire, to obtain accurate information upon colonial subjects, while the Indian bureaucracy has done so much and so well for the country it governs. No one who has not personally sought for information in England on colonial affairs or products, can conceive how meagre and utterly unsatisfactory ia the information to be obtained on these subjects. Several of the colonies, as Canada, Victoria, New South Wales, and New Zealand, have wisely and moßt beneficially instituted Colonial and Provincial Museums and Botanic Gardens, employing scientific men of some distinction to report on and elucidate their mineralogical, botanical, and other resources ; but valuable as have been their labours, the results have been only local, as they were seldom to be had elsewhere; and they have not been illustrated, as are the Indian Reports, by a Museum in London. Most colonies have also had Emigration Agents, and have published Emigration pamphlets, each with more Banguinely coloured statements than its predecessor, until the very title has become synonymous with exaggeration, if notwith suppression of the truth. Yet " good wine needs no hush," and most of the colonies possess material resources that, when propjefly made known, -would s.ecure the earnest attention of the migratory capital and labour iof Great Britain. A Museum, then, which shall illustrate the industries and commerce of the colonies, will be worth a thousand times more than all the Emigration pamphlets ever written ; and when the collection has been made under the auspices of men of such standing and influence as thc-jne who have initiated the Colonial Society, we may rest assured that the praotical results of the Indian Government's exertions will not long be unrivalled. Fertile as they are in resources, teeming with wealth and ani- , mated by great public spirit, the colonies have hitherto wasted their energies &om lack of combined, and organised efforts ; but # they rally round and support this Society, they will, whilst securing a common gjjpund and direotion for their own labours, ensure its success. Organisation lin London of all the scattoxed coloniali elements there, has Jong been needed, and though tfhis Society expressly excludes.

.politics from its objects, yet we hope that into which, through its means, 'those interested in the colonies will be_ brought, will lead ere long to the formation of another Colonial Association^ the special object of which shall be to inform and guide public opinion and public men at Home upon colonial politics. With a proper organ to disseminate amongst all classes the information thus gathered, and to correct those errors and misconceptions which abound in Britain upon colonial matters, there would soon be a marked decrease in the present apathy and ignorance, which would be felt by the colonies in increased immigration, lower rates of interest for loans, new public works, a general rise in the value of property, and the thriving condition of all classes of colonists. Great Britain, with a redundancy, greater every year, of capital and labour, and a paucity of land, needs but to acquire confidence in the climates, the resources, and the vast waste lands of the colonies to pour into them those fertilising agents in which she abounds and they are deficient. As the overflow of the Nile to the desert lands of Egypt, so would the flow of British capital and labour be to the waste lands of the colonies. And as assuredly as railways have approximated values and the cost of living throughout Great Britain, so will the facilities presented by increasing steam communication produce an approximation between values and prices in the mother country and her colonies. It will take time, but it must come about, and Mr Fitzherbert's new 5 per cent, loan at 97 is proof that we are even now reaping the benefit of the change in progress, and that the days of high rates of interest are passing away. We hail, then, with great interest the founding of the Colonial Society, through whose labours we confidently hope that much of the present ignorance and prejudice will vanish; for we believe that when the colonies are understood they must be appreciated. We earnestly commend its objects to the attention and support of all colonial governments ; and as the General Assembly is in session, we hope New Zealand will be amongst the first to aid the Society, by sending, for the museum and library, through oar able Director-General of the Geological Survey, a coDection worthy to represent the resources of the colony, with full and faithful official, scientific, and general information to illustrate it. A moderate money vote would be well expended on such a purpose, and the financial difficulties of the country are not so great as to render so small and promising an expenditure objectionable in the eyes j of the most rigid economist.