[All Right Reserved.] rHE BRITISH EMPIRE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2325, 22 September 1898, Page 44

[All Right Reserved.] THE BRITISH EMPIRE.

,£¥ THE RIGHT HON. SIR CHARLES W. DILKE, iiart., M:P. Author of " Greater Britain," &c. VI— NEW ZEALAND. New Zealand is a «olony of extraordinary interest from a great number of different ' points of view. . It has wondrous natural beauty, fiords finer than those of Norway, snowy alps rising from the sea and sending 'glaciers down to the region of the giant ferns, volcanoes, and lovely lakes. The great length of the islands from north to south produces a wonderful variety of climate ; the north part, lost in the seas, being but 34deg from the equator, while the extreme south is within the range of the winds which sweep the cold seas of the Antarctic region. Then, too, there are protected islands .which carry the New Zealand Government into 59deg south latitude. The isolated position of the country prevents great extremes of heat or cold. New Zealand has i one of the finest of aboriginal populations — \ '.• fall of eloquence, but with a practical busi--ness side well developed. It is, as regards -■white settlement, rapidly advancing in num- { Jters and prosperity. New Zealand, although J largely settled by the younger sons of good ' families from England, has seen the trial of the most democratic labour legislation existing in the world, and it has shared with South Australia that adult suffrage of which < afc has made a far longer trial. New Zealand is better off than any other colony as regards books about itself, and a whole library of volumes has been written upon the colony. ! Kg scenery has no doubt proved the attrac- i ition to authors which has brought about this result. ; To those who woufd learn the story of ■New Zealand's past there may be recommended that colonial classic " Old New Zealand," by a Pakeha Maori ; and, to those ,who would learn about its present, the speeches, pamphlets, and a little book of j *he present Agent-general, the Hon. W. P. ' 'JBeeves, lately Minister for Labour. I New Zealand has been longer ruled by a ! Radical and Labour Government than has foeen the case with any other colony, and the Seddbn Administration, continuing the Balilance Administration, after the death of Mr ißallance, has given a considerable uniformity *o the legislative proposals of the Govern- - saent for a great number of years past. There has been all along, from the earliest days of jthe< prominence of New Zealand Radicalism, much prophecy of evil from the large ] Sir George Grey, after being the J famous Captain Grey of Australian explora- / 'tion, and the still more famous Governor | y of ithe Cape and of New Zealand, retired from ' the Colonial Office service and became Prime . 'Minister of the island colony in which he '• had previously represented the mother country. His teaching aroused the New j Zealand democracy, whose interest soon j came to be watched over by men of a ruder j type. Mr Seddon had himself represented \ the 'miners of the west coast of the South ' Island, and well knew then- wants. He .would, perhaps, hardly have been capable x>i expressing them in well thought out legislation? but for the assistance which he received from men such as Mr Reeves, the con- ] 'tinner of the spirit of Mr Ballance. Although the democratic legislation pointed to has been sweeping, the prophecies of evil have not . come:true. There has been a marvellous increase even in those classes of production ,which represent the great industries based on capital. The export of wool and of meat lias increased at a gigantic pace, and gloomy predictions as, to the discouragement of the investment of capital have proved fallacious. f At thejafame time the immense efforts which have been made to promote small farming have led' to a wonderfully Tapid development? of agricultural cultivation. ! A good deal of the legislation of New Zealand resembles legislation which has been •proposed in other colonies, but New Zealand lias adopted a far greater proportion of the total stock of. Radical propositions than has been the case, elsewhere. Its temperance ■legislation connects itself with that of the Dominion and of some of the Australian colonies. Its school legislation is closely connected with that of Australia and of the Dominion Province of Ontario. But in its t land legislation, and especially in compulsory measures with a view to the acquisi- ( tion of great estates and "their sub-division, Ifew Zealand has been imitated by Australian colonies-, which have not as yet attained .the success in these experiments . which their initiator -has met with. j It must not be supposed that there is j any close resemblance of conditions be- [ tween New Zealand and Australia. The ' 'distance between them is considerable, being almost that which separates the Channel from Gibraltar ; but the climatic differences are far greater than, wight be ex-

pected from even such distances. The I heated interior of Australia, the absence of j 'high -mountains, the consequent want of water, are all of them conditions entirely I opposite to those which exist in New Zealand; and New Zealand is certainly far more like Japan than it is like Australia. \ Tasmania and a portion of the Gippsland ! peninsula in Victoria, alone of the other ' South Sea colonies, in" the least remind ! us of any parts of the islands of New Zealand. The labour legislation of New Zealand has ieen so frequently described that it may perhaps be enough to say that New Zealand stands in advance of most other countries in her factory legislation — especially its provisions against sweating, and in her shops and shop-assistants legislation. New Zealand also stands in front as regards her merchant seamen and shipping legislation — especially in the existence of a manning scale, unknown elsewhere except in Norway. In reference to the last-named subject it may in these days, when the decline of British seamen is being noticed, and the British shipowners are being urged to carry apprentices, be worth pointing out that by New Zealand law sailing vessels engaged in intercolonial trade have to carry apprentices or boys ; so that provision is made for young seamen learning their trade, such as is not made in the mother country, and such as does not, as a fact, exist in her enormous merchant fleet. The land legislation of New Zealand has also attracted a good deal of attention, and is fairly familiar to those at Home who take interest in such matters. " - The colony of New Zealand has gone much further than any other in the direction of recognition of the principle of State ownership of the. soil, with tenancy rather than freehold in the occupier under the State. The Crown lands are disposed of on long lease, the State reaping the advantage of unearned increment, through a progressive land tax. By an act of 1832 small farm associations were established, and these aie often confused with village settlements under Mr Ballance's act of 1886 — which has been imitated in South Australia, and now in Queensland. A new system known as that of the improved farm settlements is now taking the place of both the others. The size of the holdings under the new system averages about 100 acres, and these small farms are let on lease in perpetuity at a rental which covers the cost of clearing the land from forest (which is done by the State employing labour directly) together with a fair rental for the land. In 1892 New Zealand commenced the system of purchasing large estates from private individuals, for subdivision ; and in 1894 these powers were made compulsory. Advances are made to settlers at a low rate of interest, and have had the effect of bringing down the rate of interest generally on mortgages in the colony. In spite of the interest with which the labour and land legislation of New Zealand has been viewed and the attention which jhas been excited by the functions of the State being regarded with more favour in New Zealand than even in those Australian colonies in which they had been previously the most wide, the working of adult suffrage in New Zealand is probably the matter at present connected with that colony which arouses most interest in other portions of the world. In the mother country and in several of our, greater colonies proposals have been made at various times since Mill moved his famous amendment on Disraeli's Reform Bill to give to some women a limited political franchise. In 1869 I suggested the restoration to women of the municipal vote which by the Municipal Reform Act of 1835 they had lost ; and this was carried. An impetus was thus given to proposals for conferring upon women a parliamentary vote similar to the municipal vote which had been re-created in their favour. Ever since the beginning of the 1892 Parliament I have brought in, year by year, a bill which would confer the suffrage upon all grown ; men and women — the very bill which has recently become law in South Australia. But there are few persons in this country who are as yet ready to frankly accept the principle of a really universal franchise. The same was the case apparently in all the colonies for many years. Proposals were made there, as here, to give the franchise to certain classes of women, but a franchise narrower than that conferred on men. ' These proposals never in any case 1 became law. Suddenly, in 1893, in New 1 Zealand, every grown person resident one year in the colony, and three months in one I district, was enfranchised ; and the Maori women were at the '.aras time enfranchised for the election of tlio Maori members of the House. It is .a remarkable fact that all opposition to this great change instantaneously disappeared. Close upon 90 per cent. ! of all the grown women of New Zealand are ' electors, and in the majority of tlie larger towns the women voters outnumber the men. They vote in almost as large a proportion as the men, and in three out of *>he four largest towns in New Zealand at j&e last

election, greatly more women than men went ! to the poll. Of those •who supported and those who opposed the reform both classes have been surprised. It has failed to bring about any marked change in the political circumstances of the country. The Tern- | perance party forced on the change, but they have not been, much pleased by its results, for the women have voted pretty much as their men folk voted before, and the Conservatives and the Liberals opposed to prohibition have received as much proportional support from the women voters as have the prohibitionists. On the other hand, there can be no doubt that the interest of women in politics has been aroused, that a great impulse has been given to the education of fjfemen, and to their participation in public affairs, the conduct of which they have improved. In New Zealand, as in "South Australia, the enfranchisement of the women has not helped that alliance of churches — the Church of England, the Roman Catholic Church, and the Wesleyan Church — which has worked against the secular education system of the colony. Just as the Dominion of Canada best illustrates the triumph of self-government and of the liberal principles applied to our colonial system by the wisdom of modern times, and just as Ceylon best illustrates the enterprise of men of our race in a tropical colony, so New Zealand may Stand with these two, on at least an equal footing, as showing what can be done by the British people under favourable conditions of climate and of soil for the development of an admirable modern community. The Administration which has carried the greater portion of the recent legislation of New Zealand may be upset by the so-called Conservative forces of the country, but their work will not be undone. On the contrary, it will be continued by their successors. Many of what at first were looked upon as daring experiments are now thoroughly rooted in the land ; for example, the Life Insurance department of the State, the Public Trust Office, and Compulsory Industrial Arbitration. The enterprise which the colonists showed when, after the failure of the mother country to put down the great native rising, the Imperial troops were withdrawn, and the war handed over to the colonists, who soon brought it to a peaceful end, has been steadily continued throughout the later history of the islands. New Zealand has been fortunate in the constitution of her irace. The settlers were perhaps a better amalgam than those of the Australian colonies. The race is thoroughly good ; education now universal ; the average of wealth perhaparthe highest in the world ; the absence of immense fortunes complete. In an outdoor climate the British New Zealanders lead an outdoor life, and their horsiness and their athleticism have perhaps been one main cause why their mari vellous scenery has not as yet developed among them either literature or art. , New Zealand will have to work out her future for herself. She is too remote from and too different from Australia to be brought into Australian federation, and is consequently inclined to closer direct ties with the mother country, although not actively excited in favour of any modification of her present political position. Chables W. Dilee.