The English Mail.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 671, 18 July 1870, Page 2

The English Mail.

The following is from the Argus London correspondence: — NEW ZEALAND MATTERB. While these controversies were going on in public, another contest was being waged in secret between the New Zealand Commissioners and the Home Government. Their attempt to induce Lord Granville to recall the order for the withdrawal of the last regiment of Imperial troops completely failed ; but after several interviews and animated discussions, the magnates of the Colonial Office were induced to propose to the Cabinet the concession of a Government guarantee to a loan of one million sterling, to be expended upon road construction and other works : of public utility, and in the direct promotion of immigration. Lord Granville strove hard and long to limit the amount to half a million ; but the commissioners were firm, and conquered. The Standard has exhumed from the latest JBlue Book on New Zealand affairs a singular episode, illustrative of Earl Granville'a extraordinary impertinence in lecturing the New Zealand Government. Just at the time when all England was horror-struck at the tidings of the Maori massacres, and when the decree had gone forth that the Imperial troops were to be withdrawn, and the colony left to its own resources alone, his lordship coolly writes a despatch condemning the proclamation offering a reward of £1000 for the person of the sanguinary monster Titokowaru, as contrary to the usual laws of war. There are unmistakable signs that the policy which is being carried out to the bitter end in New Zealand, is being also tentatively applied to the Cape colony. From the correspondence between the Colonial Office and Sir P. E. Wodehouse, which has lately been published, it is obvious that the Cape settlements are to be gradually taught to "go alone." The Imperial garrisons are to be reduced by degrees, and after 1872 the colonists will have to rely upon a defensive force of their own. organisation. To facilitate these changes, the Cape people have been prompted from home to demand the boon of self-government 5 but hitherto, owing to the official antagonism of the Governor, the colonists have evinced a strange reluctance to accept the perilous liberty proffered to them by the Colonial office. But it is merely a question of time ; ere long they will be forced to claim the privileges and responsibilities of political manhood. : The Spectator of April 23 contains a remarkable letter, addressed to Mr Tennyson', from a Canadian gentleman of some literary mark, which describes forcibly the suspicion and hatred which are gradually being generated under Lord Granville's colonial policy. For a long time there has been a wilful disbelief in the possibility of England's dotage and decrepitude to that extent that her people would, without reason or npcessity, break up the immense empire which it has been her

aim and policy for centuries to acquire. But ere long, the writer fears, the feeling of regret and incredulity may, by a natural re bound, turn to indignation at the threatened cowardly abandonment of the colonies, the end of which would be fatal to English supremacy here and elsewhere. "We say to one another, ' These are only the ideas of a few visionaries ; the people of England will never be so insanely untrue to themselves and to us.' And so we wait and wait for the turn of the tide, and a change in the aspect of the times." Complaints having been made in the House of Commons of the delay in issuing the medals promised to the officers and men of the navy employed in New Zealand, when their military brethren had been wearing the decoration for some months, Mr Baxter explained that there had been a difficulty in Obtaining correct lists from the ships' books. All the names have, however, at length been sent to the Mint, and the first instalment of medals for distribution has been received at the Admiralty.