FORTY YEARS OF THE COLONIAL OFFICE.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLII, Issue 20, 19 May 1909, Page 56

FORTY YEARS OF THE COLONIAL OFFICE.

There was a time, within the memory of present-day officials, when the Colonial Office looked upon the affairs of the co'onies as rather a bore, and carried out its duties in regard to the oversea possessions in a most leisurely and casual way. Sir William Baillie Hamilton, who has just retired from the Colonial Office, after forty years’ service, tells in the current “ Nineteenth Century ” how they used to “ take it easy" in the days before the electric cable linked up the colonies with London. Mails were few and far between, and when they did start they took months to reach Australia and ths East. Nobody hurried, nobody troubled their heads very much about colonial affairs. On one occasion a Colonial Office clerk offered to make a bet that if he were allowed to choose his day between mails, he would undertake for that day to transact the whole business of the office himself, beginning with the opening of the first despatches or letters, the registering and minuting of all papers, the drafting and copying of any dispatches or letters that might be required in answer, the interviewing of all callers, and in short, the carrying out of every detail of work dowyi to the posting of the last letter. But no one eould be found to take the bet. The hours for junior clerks at the Colonial Office in those days were from twelve noou till 5.30 p.m., and the work mostly took the fenu of copying out letters and tables which probably nobody would ever wish to refer to again. They had two monti s’ regular leave each year, and as much more in the way of occasional holidays as they could get. Even then time hung heavily on the juniors' hands, and Sir William Hamilton remembers playing many a game of fives in a deserted room underneath Downingstreet! The chiefs were equally casual. One departmental head was allowed to live away from London altogether, and do all his work at home. Another highlypaid official n ver appeared at the office at all during the daytime, but would drop in at night to perform such work as could be found for him. He had been there for years, but nobody in the office ever referred to him as more than a chance acquaintance. The Colonial Oflii* began to wake up ■with the coming of Sir Robert Herbert in 1871, but it was to Mr. Stanhope first, and Mr. Chamberlain still more recently, that the present- importance .aid high position of the Colonial Office is due. Sir William Hamilton pays an interesting tribute to the work of Mr. Chamberlain as Colonial Secretary:— “It Is no reflection on others to observe that what may be called tha great “ boom ” of the Colonial Office was unquestionably during the administration of Mr. Chamberlain. It has been said of him that he raised the dignity of the position of Colonial Secretary to the high level at which it now stands, and I should certainly be the last to contradict this. It is only necessary to note the extraordinary enthusiasm with which the mere mention of Mr. Chamberlain’s name is received at any gathering of Englishmen who are in any way interested in. ot connected with, the colonies or the colnial service to realise the extent to which this feeling is entertained; and, whi'e it is only fair to others to bear in mind, as I have already pointed’ wut, that this elevating process had already commenced, there can be no question that it reached, its climax under Mr. Chamberlain. The incident of Queen Victoria’s Diamond’ Jubilee in 1897 gave, under his guidance, an enormous impetus to the interest taken in colonial matters, and the tragic occurrences of the War in South Africa kept the Colonial Office continually before the publie.” Even to-day, however, declares Sir William Hamilton, the knowledge of colonial geography and affairs is not nearly »■ close or so general as it ought to be.