The Southland Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Luceo Non Uro. WEDNESDAY, 12th MAY, 1886.

Southland Times, Issue 9214, 12 May 1886, Page 2

The Southland Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Luceo Non Uro. WEDNESDAY, 12th MAY, 1886.

Mr Stout's letter to the Rev. T. R. Cairns, of Sjdenham, which we pnb- ( Jiehed yebterday, and his telegram to the Premier of Victoria, which we publish this morning, are extremely unsatisfactory. Tie New Hebrides, he saya in effect, should be handed over to France with the greatest alacrity in exchange for the assurance, to be ratified by treaty (which would doubtless be broken), that no more French convicts shall be deported to the Western Pacific. Some other considerations are also to be thrown in as a sop to England and the colonies, but the keeping out of the recidivistes — I what we may call the fruits of Frencji philosophy and freethinking — is the t thing which seems chiefly to have taken Mr Stout's faney — if it be not that he acted merely as Sir Julius Vogel's secretary in writing the said letter "and telegram. Be this as it may, the opinions expressed in both are decidedly antagonistic to those- held by the people of New Zealand, just as the action, or at anyrate the leanings, of the Jennings Ministry in the same matter are contrary to the wishes of the people of Kew South 4 Wales. :.i,Mi,-.: woy> be said without the slightest fear of • contradiction that the colonists of Australasia unanimously

condemn the proposal to allow France t\ annex the New Hebrides. Bat, says* Mr Stout, if you don't permit this] France will deluge the Pacific with her) criminals. That, however, is taking quite too much for granted. Tt is in fact to yield the very point which has been for some years in debate between France aad the, colonies, Tho latter said to the former, " You must stop sending the fruija of .your philosophy into our neighbourhood. ■ We do not object to your wines, or your dried plums, but these other' fruits are not at all to- our taste, and we repeat that you must either keep them' to yourselves or stop producing tbem," And the point was almost yielded > when that old discredited Foreign Minister, Earl Granville, was foisted by Mr Gladstone, who has never shown much affection for the colonies, into the Colonial office. France, if we remera- | ber right, had distinctly promised that after a certain not very distant date, she wbuld deport^no more recidivistes to the Pacific. The colonies were thus almost victorious when this venerable muddler appeared upon the scene, and, so to speak, went over to tho side of France : for the proposals to which we have referred are said to have come from England. France has accordingly taken heart of graced and practically refuses to atop exporting her precions fruits unless she gets these long-coveted islands. But what should have induced the StoutYogel Government to take up the cause of France too, we cannot even conjecture. Mr Stout's letter and telegram throw no light on the subject, The Australians understand the whole question in all its bearings a great deal better than the Premier, and they must be highly amused at hie nervous anxiety in their behalf. "What a greenhorn that New Zealand j Premier must be" will doubtless be the remark on their lips as they read his telegram in to-day's papars. The conclusion of that telegram is not a little ludicrous, and as it is uncommonly like Mr Stout, we readily give him credit for the peculiar manner in which it is expressed. He says that before seconding the proposal the Government think the consent of the Presbyterians should be obtained, " their mission having been formed on the faith of denationalisation," whatever that may mean, and that he h«d addressed a letter to Gbristchnrch " recognising the magnitude of the sacrifice they would make, but appealing to them not to stand in the way of the white population of Australasia obtaining a priceless boon in the stopping of convict deportation to the Pacific." The proposal will, certainly never be seconded by our Government if they decline to do so without the consent of the Presbyterians, and we are not a little surprised at the extreme ignorance shown by Mr Stout of the fixed opinion and determination not only of the Presbyterians, but of the per pie of New Zealand as a whole on this most important matter. Their opinion is that if the New Hebrides belong of right to any nation it is to Great Britain, and their determination is that they shall never belong to France. And we may add that this is also the opinion "and determination of the great body of the Australians, who do not require to be taught to suck eggs, if we may use the expression, by Mr Stout. They have every whit as great a horror of the frnits of French philosophy as he himself has — perhaps even a greater horror — aEd they have certainly a vast deal more magnanimity than the Government of \ which he is nominally the head. It is infinitely to their credit that they have indignantly refused to bribe the French authorities to cease from perpetuating an intolerable wrong, with the sacrifice of the New Hebrides. Can it possibly be sympathy with the peculiar spirit of the French Government that has moved Mr Stout to plead with such breathless vehemence for such a preposterous proposal ? But he will to all appearances have pleaded in vain. A London telegram which appears in another column says that " a despatch received from Victoria has impressed Lord Granville J (favourably of course) . who at present is quite unpledged to France in the matter." The firm attitude of the Victorians has, in a word, saved^the New Hebrides from the very worst fate that could have befallen tbem — annexation by France — and the New Zealand Govern ment will have the pleasure of discovering that their efforts to hand over those islands to that country have been as fruitless as their efforts some time ago were to snatch Samoa from the grasp of Germany,