H.—l7

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GEOGEAPHY. 1. Write a short geographical description of that portion of New Zealand which is bounded on the north by the Eivers Hurunui and Teremakau, and on the south by the Eivers Waitaki and Ohau. 2. Name the seas and branches of the ocean washing the shores of Europe, with the principal rivers flowing into each. 3. What do you know of the following : Brindisi, Liege, Callao, Mocha, Hue, Hatteras, Alaska, Biafra, Widdin, Ears? 4. Draw a sketch-map of Further India, marking on it the chief divisions, with their capital towns; also the principal rivers. Make notes as to the form of government of each division, and by whom administered, with any other facts that strike you as interesting. 5. In what counties are Snowdon, Dartmoor, South Downs, Cotswold Hills, Wolds, Ben More, Loch Maree, Lakes of Killarney, Bog of Allen ? 6. Going by steamer from New Orleans to New York, what towns, mouths of rivers, and capes would you pass ? Give them in order as you would pass them. SHOETHAND. Passage for Dictation. I quite agree with the noble lord who spoke last that this is a motion which it is eminently desirable that we should attend to with absolute unanimity and without the introduction of any controversial matters. It is a motion to which the members of the Government can entertain no objection, because it is one approving of the course which they had thought it right to advise Her Majesty to take; and for that very reason it is obviously a motion which we could not have initiated, its chief importance arising from its being the expression of an entirely independent feeling on the part of the members of this House. If the motion had been likely to lead to any discussion of a controversial character, I certainly should not have advised or encouraged the noble lord on the cross-benches to bring it forward, and I think that he himself would have been animated by the same feeling. Although the motion is in its terms an expression of approval of the course taken by the Government, I consider the compliment involved in the words of the motion to be only in form addressed to us, and to be really intended, as we all know, for those colonies whose patriotic and public-spirited offers we are all anxious to recognize. We have only had to accept those offers. We have done it willingly, and we have in both Houses of Parliament endeavoured—l myself in your lordships' House, and the Eirst Lord of the Treasury in the other House, in far more eloquent language than any I could command —to give expression to what I believe is the unanimous feeling of every party and every class in this country—namely, our cordial gratitude for and admiration of the display of loyalty and public spirit made by the colonies. This motion only confirms and emphasizes the language held on the part of Her Majesty's Government. The noble lord touched very lightly on an expression of regret that somewhat different answers were sent to different colonies. On a former occasion I explained—and I would explain it again if it were necessary—that that difference in the answers arose simply from the different conditions on which the various offers were made. I do not think it is necessary that I should refer now to what the noble earl on the cross-benches said as to the existence of a school whose object is to get rid of the colonies. I have heard a great deal of denunciation of that school; but, having sat for a considerable time in this and in the other House of Parliament, and watched the progress of opinion on the question, I cannot say that I ever remember to have heard that sentiment expressed by any person of the slightest importance or consideration. What I know many people did say thirty years ago was that they believed that, were the more important colonies, which had obtained free institutions —and there were not many such then—unwilling to remain in the Empire, it would not be our duty or our interest to retain them by force; but I never heard any one in this or the other House of Parliament say that it was our duty or our interest to turn out of the Empire colonies which desired to remain connected with it of their own free will. We have seen that the effect of the grant of those free institutions, and of leaving those colonies to manage their own local affairs in their own way, has not been, as some predicted it would, to weaken, but rather to strengthen, the ties between the colonies and the Mother-country; and Ido not believe that there was ever a time when they were more closely connected with or more warmly attached to the Empire than they are at this moment. Neither shall I go into the very interesting question of federation to which the noble lord alluded. "Federation" is a word of many meanings, which is used by different speakers in different senses. We have proof of that in what we have heard this evening; and no one who has paid any attention to what has occurred at public meetings can fail to have noticed that when men express their wish for federation on the one hand, or their disbelief in federation on the other, they are talking of quite different things, and that they have no one definite plan before them. If "federation" means only a voluntary co-operation for the purposes of defence—which is the interpretation put on it by the noble lord opposite—then I agree with him that we have it now, and I hope that we may have it for long. If, on the other hand, it means a system of federal union founded on fixed and settled rules such as those which exist in the case of the United States of America, then I think that we had better wait to discuss propositions of that kind until we have them before us in some practical shape. Expressing my own personal and individual opinion, I do not think that that will be very soon. I will not go into the subject, but an obvious difficulty in the way of any scheme of formal federation lies in the immense disproportion between the number of inhabitants of the British Islands and the number in the colonies. In these islands you have a population of some thirty-five to thirty-six millions, whereas there are only eight or nine millions in all the English-speaking colonies; and if you form an Imperial Council —call it by what name you please—and if in that Council every part of the