Colonial Extremes.

Waipawa Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 2501, 4 September 1890, Page 3

Colonial Extremes.

(Saturday Review.)

Onr two colonies which are furthest apart, alike in place and age, are both at tnis moment illustrating, in different ways, the difficulty of governing the British Empire. Newfoundland the oldest of them all—is learning what inconvenience there may be at times in belonging to a monarchy which is very ancient,has had many and varied relations with its neighbors, has seen many fortunes, and. though it has been amazingly successful in the main, has not always been governed with entire wisdom and foresight. One result of forming part of such a State is that you ate inevitably bonnd and and burdened by the past. It may happen to the colony to have to suffer for the mistakes of the mothercountry, and for the mother-country to find herself responsible for the doings of the colony. In Western Australia, again —which, we suppose, remains tbe yonngest colony, the territories of the African Companies being Dominions—we are learning that we are bound by our own policy in the past uO accept, with the best grace we can, what we feel to b 9 a somewhat disagreeable necessity. The chronic Newfoundland dispute has not progressed further, though the pamphlet published by the colonial delegates and the Blue-book of the Foreign Office have added to the evidence available for proving how complicated it is. The arrival of the Newfoundland Premier is perhaps a sign that we have got at last to the making of a serious effort to secure a settlement. It is a hopeful sign that he, speaking, we conclude, io the name of the colonial legislature, seems inclined to do his best to persuade us that the anger in Newfoundland is less than it has been said to be, more especially by our candid friends in New York. Seeing with whom we have to negotiate, this moderation may be in vain ; but it is at least certain that no settlement is possible unless the colonists do frankly recognise the fact that, do what they please, they cannot get rid of the encumbrances they have inherited with the rest of their estate, except by paying them off. It is disagreeable, bo doubt, to be burdened with a mortgage, but there it is. The Western Australia difficulty is of another kind. There we have met with a demand from a handful of English aod Scotch settlers, occupying a vast territory, to be allowed to exercise over it all powers which are less than sovereign only in name. It is not wholly pleasant to have to accede to the request. Some delay and opposition was natural ; for, with the guidance afforded by much recent colonial egislation, we may well hesitate to hand over a vait territory, which might fairly be reserved for the general good of the Empire, to a small community which may very possibly regulate its conduct by a strict regard for its own narrow interests narrowly understood. The danger is possible ; bat, if it were certain, could it be avoided ? We very much doubt whether it could. It is now so long since we have recognised the right of free-born Englishmen to self-government, and we have so thoroughly accepted the principle that these rights entitle every community of the Queen's subjects which can show that it occupies a definable territory to possess an elective Chamber with wide egislative powers, that we cannot now refuse to admit what we have always admitted before. The facts that the community is small and the territory great do not affect the principle. AH colonial communities begin by being a handful in a vast territory. There was, therefore, nothing for it but to accede to the request of tbe Western Australians. Besides, the question was not purely one between us and them. To no small extent it interests all the Australian colonies alike. They are all jealous of the retention by the mother-country of direct control over any portion of their continent. The feeling is sot a pleasant one to think of, and must cause shrewd twinges of doubt to the good people who believe in Imperial Federation, if they do ever wander from the contemplation of their hazy ideal to a cool estimate of facts. There it is, however, and it must be taken into account. The enquiry whether the mother-country has not thrown op the reins too Boon and too completely for the good either of herself or her colonies is a purely academic one. The done is done, and cannot be undone. It must be accepted, with all its consequences. One of these is that, when a community of about the size of a small country town insists on being supplied, not only with all the apparatus of representative government, but with the right to exercise power over a country capable of holding millions, there is no ground of principle on which it can be denied its wish. The grant of a Constitution to Western Australia was, therefore, a matter of coarse, as soon as tbe Constitution was asked for. The opposition which the Bill has met io the House of Commons was equally futile and undignified. We do not know that it was the more respectable because tbe motive was rather a desire to embarrass the Ministry than to keep the colonists waiting.