The Western Star. (PUBLISHED BI-WEEKLY.) SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 1884.

Western Star, Issue 899, 22 November 1884, Page 2

The Western Star. (PUBLISHED 81-WEEKLY.) SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 1884.

By far the ablest debate of the last Parliamentary session was that which took place on the last night before the prorogation, and had reference to the annexation of islands in the Western Pacific and the Federation of the Australian colonies, New Zealand inclusive. The speeches of the Premier, of Sir George Grey, and of Major Atkinson, though widely and different in tone, were all three admirable in point of capacity. And the subject itself was well worthy of the oratorical display, for it is one which is gradually attracting more aad more attention in the minds of the thinking colonists, and will very soon be seen to be the great political question of the day. It is obvious at a glance that—to use Mr Gibbon Wakefield’s illustration in his “ Art of Colonization ” —if we could discover a vast quantity of unoccupied virgin soil attached to o:ue extremity of our own land, it would be of immense importance to us, arM would tend largley to increase our national wealth. There in the great island of New Guinea and in the smaller islands of the West Pacific we have such an addition of land which might easily become ours, and would furnish profitable settlements when the comparatively narrow territory of New Zealand had been all of it taken up. This of course would be under any circumstances one motive for action. But it has not been by any means the strongest one. So long as mere individuals or small parties of adventurers chose to run the risk of settlement, we were quite willing to let them take their chance in these islands, as we have elsewhere in our usual haphazard way. But a new (element, and a most important one, was introduced. The French nation, which has latel} been seized suddenly with a fever for forcible colonization iu remote places in ordnr to add territory as a compensaitiou for ignominious defeat nearer 'home, determined iu an etil hour for our peace, not merely to settle the islai ids of the Western Pacific, but to make convict colonies of them—iu fact to establish & gigantic moral manure dopo: in our neighborhood, where all tho worst of the thieves, burglars, prosti tutea, <fec., of France should be located, “relegated” as the French Mj/nistry stgled it, as ticket-of-leave jpeople, ■BRrat any real supervision from the |Hkfirst. We objected, and proceeded Bpt possesion for Had

France, Germany, or any other country sent out to this part of the world settlers of the ordinary _ kind—for the most part, decent and industrious people, people like our own colonists, — we should hare had no reason to object. But when it was found that these Pacific Islands were wanted as naval stations in time of war and convict settlements with no pretence of strict supervision in time of peace, all the Australasian colonies dici object most strongly, and forwarded their several protests to Lord Derby. That nobleman, the latest of a long series of aristocratic wooden-heads who have been placed on account of their political influence at the head of the English Colonial office, after much deliberation, wrote back that if the various Australasian colonies united themselves under a Federal Government, England would condescend to back them up, even in opposition to France, but not otherwise. Such being the case, it seems to us that we have no alternative but to establish a Federal Government of Australasia of some kind. The only question is of what kind it shall be. If not, we must expect demoralisation of the worst kind in time of peace, and in case of war breaking out between Great Britain and France, a war also on our shores, in which our mere handful of volunteers, and the custodians of our few forts, gunboats, and torpedoes, would have to make what stand they could against the organised armies, navies and war appliances of one of the great crack fighting countries of the _ world. If this is wbat we are left to it would be far wiser for us to disband all our regiments of volunteers as worse than useless collections of popinjays, only calculated to provoke an enemy, without being able to offer the slightest real assistance. Should any optimists assert that we have given no offence to France and therefore are not likely to receive any from her, we can only reply by asking in return, what offence had Madagascar given ? or Tunis ? or Tonquin ? what, but the fact of having territory and yet not possessing the means of retaining it ?

By Federation with the Australasian colonies we shall at least gain two very important advantages; we shall at least gain at once the pledge of assistance from countries numbering with ourselves more than three millions of inhabitants instead of depending on what isolated stand we could make with the military representatives of our poor half millions of human beings. In the suppositious case also, we could well appeal to Great Britain for the assistance of her diplomatists in time of peace and of her navy in time of war. The fear conjured up by Sir George Grey that under Federation the independence of our colony would bo gone is idle, for two very excellent reasons. The first of them is that it is distinctly provided that we shall only enter the confederation on the express agreement that in all matters concerning this colony alone we shall be entirely free to take whatever action we like ; and the other is that as the jealousies between the various Australian colonies of one another are ten times ove r , and of necessity, greater than their suspicions of New Zealand, we may make ourselves quite easy on that score, Federation of some sort seems to us a necessity, and the only question is what precise kind of a federation it should be.