COLONIAL STATESMANSHIP.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 10691, 15 May 1906, Page 4

COLONIAL STATESMANSHIP.

(To the Editor of the Herald.) Sir,— With your kind permission I should like to say a few words on the above subject. It was with regret I noticed among Saturday's cablegrams one informing us of cable messages having been sent by Messi* Deakiu and Seddon to Lord Elgin, making "strong representations against any interference by the Imperial authorities in the affairs of a selfgoverning colony, and suggesting serious consideration of the 6tep proposed to bo taken." This no doubt looks quite proper on the face of thiug6, but when we consider that nothing whatever was said when a similar interference took place in British North America by a Tory Ministry (instead of a Liberal one) the matter can be viewed in no other light but that of a complete farce. When three acts of the British (3olumbian legislature, relating, to the influx of Japanese into that colony, are annulled on the ground that they clashed with Imperial interests, we in Australasia are to remain silent and inert, but on another occasion a totally opposite course is enjoined upon us. The imposition of a poll tax upon the natives, in addition to the hut tax ig (it is almost impossible to believe otherwise) a- gross injustice, and it is therefore not very surprising, that they are discontented, and tliat in a dispute over the collection of it one or two European lives have been lost. The intended interference of Lord Elgin with the sanguinary retaliation of the Natal Government was not without at least some justification. When we take into consideration the general tone of tlie policy pursued by the Australasian Premiers during th elast seven or eight years, in regard to external affaire, it must surely occur to those even moderately given to reflection, that it is certainly not one that is in keeping with the traditions bequeathed us by the late Mr Gladstone and John Bright. And yet notwithstanding this, fact, our leading politicians call themselves Liberals. A national or Imperial policy need not be weak, but should it not be "benevolent? All honor then to the memory of those statesman who have given expression to a humane view of their responsibilities, whether tliey were Tories, like Harley and St. John, *in the reign of Queen Anne, or Liberals like Gladstone and Bright, in the reign of Queen Victoria! — I. am,' etc., J. G. COX. .