OUR LONDON LETTER.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 6551, 3 August 1899, Page 4

OUR LONDON LETTER.

ANGLO-COLONIAL NOTES. [From Our Correspondent.] LONDON, June 23. MR PERCY ROWLAND ON COLONIAL LOYALTY. An ingenuous letter from Mr Percy F. Rowland, of Canterbury College, Christchurch, New Zealand, appeared in last Monday's "Daily Chronicle," in which the writer expressed dismal doubts as to the permanence of colonial loyalty. Mr Rowland assures "Englishmen that colonial loyalty is not the matter of course which they imagine. * Australia for the Australians 'is still a popular -cry ; the ablest Australian journal, the only one circulating widely in every colony, is frankly and avowedly anti-English." " New Zealand," our pessimist friend continues, " stands out of the Federation, and is at present certainly the most loyal of the Australasian colonies, but New Zealand, ! though perhaps the most promising, is only one of seven, and who shall say if the lovalty even of New Zealand will stand another generation of English colonial policy such as thafc we have been lately expeiiencing ? I say nothing about what is known in Australia as the ' New Guinea land-grab ' ; on that subject there may, perhaps, be room '. I for difference of opinions. But there are l three occasions, it seems to me, within the > last few months in wliich England has gone j out of her way to neutralise any good results of her courtesy at the Jubilee." These three injuries are (1) the imposition of the duties on colonial wines ; (2) the action of the Imperial Government in the matter of the Pacific cable; (3) England's indifference regarding New Zealand's splendid lovalty in offering to send troops to Samoa. The third matter Mr Rowland evidently considers the most serious. He .says : — "When, news reached New Zealand of the recent critical state of affairs in s Samoa, she made a prompt and most public-spirited offer to send troops to tbe seat of action. I do not believe there was an Englishman throughout- the colonies whose heart did not thrill at such an instance of ready and serviceable patriotism. Now, Ido not complain that the offer should be refused. That may, for all we know here, have been necessary to English policy. But that an offer so courteously and promptly made should meet with no* reply at all for more than a week seems to me one of those blunders that are worse than crimes. Not that I would have it supposed that the New Zealand Press (whose loyalty is unimpeachable) did not accept even this rebuff with admirable self-restraint. Every excuse that could be thought of was made for the Imperial Government. The English Ministers wero holiday-making, the Cabinet was scattered ; Mr Seddon had received a reply and was suppressing it. So far from the last explanation being the true one, the New Zealand Premier was obliged to repeat his message before any answer was returned. I ask any fair-minded Englishman, is this a fit return for colonial loyalty? I have no wish to magnify the importance of these facts. Bufc I think they all clearly point in the same direction. England finds it difficult to believe that five millions of men are more worthy of consideration because they Jive in Australia than because they live in Yorkshire or in Lancashire. "She does not realise that it is because these men are the destined ancestors of a nation which before another century is out may well be worth twenty times its present wealth, may, for all we know, vie, as America does now, even with the Mother Country. ... If the English Press would afford to colonial subjects one-tenth of the space which it at present devotes to reporting divorce cases, I cannot but think that the solidarity of the Empire would gain far more than by occasional ebullitions of sentiment, and that such instances of neglect of colonial interest and feelings as those, to which I have had the temerity to call your attention would be free from all danger of repetition." _ There is nothing specially new in the perspectives of the native-born Australian or New Zealander (who has not travelled) being ionorantly distorted. We all swear by our own little Pellingtons till we leam better. I confess, however, I am surprised to 'find a graduate of an English University who has presumablv learnt, geography and "globetrotted " somewliat, writing rubbish of the above description. Such a one ought surely to understand the significance of the word "Empire." New Zealand is but the merest fraction of the British possessions, and really ought not---fairly speaking— to loom larger than Jamaica. But it does. So far, indeed, from tlie Australasian C°hmies being ignored by the Home Press, their affairs get attention out of all proportion. Canada, India, China and the. Straits Settlements might perhaps complain of not securing proper attention with - some justice, but scarcely Australasia. What, for 'example, are amongst the leading topics of to-day (as ever is) in the London papers— Australian federation, Australian cricketers, the Australian starting machine, and the New Zealand'dinner. ■A ROMANCE OF THE MAORI WAR. If New Zealanders generally, and Aucklanders in particular, do not derive much edification from Mr Rolf BofcUrwood's romance of the Maori War, just published as " War to the Knife," they will certainly get some amusement from the extraordinary manner in which he has jumbted up past and present. I read nearly a quarter of the ' book beforo I could male, out where I was-'. : The pvents were the events of the rixi-le*. h\y. j the persons and localities belong, d to IS 13. ] The hero arrived at Au.ikhv:i-'l in. a Shuw, j Savill or New Zealand Sli'pping Company'. ! steamer direct fr.m Enghtini. ivA put up afc j the Grand Hotel, the wa'.a'ii on; vi-'-v from ; which, i: ti uthfully txtdUd. '.'! ">m en- i gaged "Rotorua" Warbrid: i ; 'Uraej . under the thin pssu-10-nvm oi A"-- Wur- ; wick) to take him iwcnnul up um;:!.;y. l wondered why they didn't- start by" train till I began to. rcahs. wc had somehow or other got bade in the s.'xiies. Wavbrick figures prominently in tho story, and a very fine picturesque figure he would make, if Mr Brown were not prosy tad stodgy to a degree. Some colonial critices complained that Mr Marriott-Watson had not done justice to his subject; in the "Web of the Spider," but that, at least, was a story that carried you along. "War to the Knife" is largely linked dulness, and trivialities long drawn out. j PERSONAL AND GENERAL. i ■■ The Agent-General was lecturing at the Browning settlement last Sunday night. Those who raised -such -a hullabaloo about his mixing in politics while Agent-General will be relieved to know that the settlement is not a nest of Socialism, nor a hotbed of Radical politics, but a purely philanthropic undertaking, and that Mr Reeves ! discoursed on no more dangerous a subject . ! than Imperialism. The Hon R. Oliver, M.L.C., and his wife have arrived in London from the Continent, -where tbey have been touring since completing a very pleasant voyage from Australia in the German liner Konigen Louise, at Naples. Mr Oliver, by the way, speaks very highly of the comfortableness of the Konigen Louise, the excellence of the table, and the unfailing kindness and courtesy of the officers. The travellers spent a few days in Naples and Caprivi, and then went