81

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the groups nearest to this colony, should be lost, and lest, through the disinclination of Her Majesty's Government to extend its responsibilities, and so not only that the probable commercial advantages accruing from political influence might be forfeited, but that foreign Powers might establish naval stations in positions which in the future might be disquieting if not hazardous to the colonial communities, whose future is estimated at a high rate by themselves. 11. It is now considered certain that the Government of the United States have accepted the tender of the Protectorate of the Navigator (Samoan) group, and especially the concession of the excellent harbour of Pango-Pango as a naval station, which the' chiefs had previously offered to Her Majesty's Government, an event which can hardly bo regarded otherwise than as a misfortune by this community. 12. In the scheme with which I am desirous of fully acquainting your Lordship, there are undoubtedly concerned the same motives which have constantly actuated the people and Government of this colony, and which perhaps are characteristic of the nation to which they belong. It is not surprising that the spirit which has so widely extended the British Colonies, which has led our fellow-countrymen to settle upon many shores, and now, as in North America, to bind distant settlements together in a strong and united Dominion, should be displayed by those who have planted so deeply in this hemisphere the roots of British power. 13. In the great British Colonies of North America, commercial undertakings have not been free from political features; and in the material assistance which the Mother-country has afforded, by means of the Imperial guarantee, to the intercolonial railways, their political and strategic importance have been expressly recognized in Parliament. If, in the scheme now in question, similar considerations are contingent, it may not be improper-to remark that any Imperial liabilities which may be anticipated are only such as are involved by the extension of British commerce, which ever entails possible claims upon the protection of. the Imperial forces ; but that to discourage such extension upon that account, would imply disapproval of those national tendencies which have contributed so largely to the national power. 14. I would beg leave to remark, also, that, for the development of these colonies, spontaneous growth cannot be relied upon. Such colonies, at least in their early stages, as leave their supply of labour, their public works, their commercial undertakings, to follow naturally the demand, are stagnant or slow in their rise; while those which stimulate their own progress by energetic if welldevised measures, advance by rapid strides. In one sense, much of the present prosperity of New Zealand is artificial. It has been found, for example, that active agencies and liberal inducements are required to divert the stream of emigration from seeking the nearer shores of America. The means of internal communication are only constructed by the direct agency of Government, or by its guarantee of profit to contractors. Shipping companies must often be promoted, and submarine telegraphic companies subsidized. The assistance or encouragement of a trading and shipping com.pany in the Pacific, by the Colonial Government, is only thus a fresh extension of a system under which the progress of the colony is already rapid. 15. In the hope that in the measure in which the present scheme will be embodied, notwithstanding the avowed aspirations with which it is supported, there may be no provisions which will render it my duty to reserve it, I nevertheless desire to make your Lordship fully acquainted with its history and scope, having regard to its possible bearing upon the policy of Her Majesty's Government with reference to other kindred and pending questions, at such an early period that I may receive any directions which you may desire to give before the Bill has arrived at the stage at which my decision will be required. Ido not anticipate the commencement of the Parliamentary session before the beginning of July. I have, &c. James Fbegusson, The Eight Hon. the Earl of Kimberley. Governor. i

111-Trading Companies,

Enclosure. Memorandum for His Excellency. I have never felt any desire to see New Zealand constituted an independent State. On the contrary, it has been a hope I have long cherished, that the British possessions would, in course of time, be consolidated into a mighty Dominion, and the British Colonies become, not Dependencies, but integral and inseparable parts of an Empire owning a naval force so irresistible as to practically afford to its outlying portions full and ample security from the effects of any wars of other nations. Still, I have not been able to disguise from myself that, were ISfew Zealand independent, she would not have stayed her hand from attempting to civilize, and to attach to her in peaceful connection, the islands of the Pacific. . New Zealand's natural relations to the islands may to some extent be gauged from the fact that the country wag peopled from the islands adjacent to Australia; whilst, so far as lam aware, there is no trace of the islanders having established themselves in any part of the island continent. It is remarkable how the prevailing winds make New Zealand and the islands mutually accessible. They proclaim New Zealand as the natural head-quarters of Polynesia. It is singular how Polynesia is being divided. It would seem, to those who think of the enterprise of Great Britain in earlier days, when colonization, in the absence of modern facilities, was infinitely more difficult than at present, that the country which 270 years ago acquired Barbadoes, would not suffer the fertile islands of the Pacific to escape her. The late Admiral Washington, in a letter to the Colonial Office, in 1859, wrote : —" I have been much struck by the entire want, by Great Britain, of any advanced position in the Pacific Ocean. We have valuable possessions on either side, as at Vancouver's and Sydney, but not an islet or a rock in the 7,000 miles of ocean that separate them. The Panama and Sydney mail communication is likely to be established, yet we have no island on which to place a coaling-station, and where we could insure fresh supplies . . . .; and it may hereafter be found very inconvenient that England should bo shut out from any station in the Pacific, and that an enemy should have possession of Tongatabu, where there is a good harbour, within a few hundred miles of the track of our homeward-bound gold ships from Sydney arrd Melbourne. Neither forts nor batteries would be necessary to hold the ground. A single cruising-ship would suffice for all the wants of the islands. Coral reefs and the hearty good-will of the natives would do the rest." Meanwhile, the islands of the Pacific have been objects of attraction to other countries. Holland, Spain, and Prance, and recently the United States and Germany, have not disguised their interest in them. To these nations, 11—A. 4.