WHY FEDERATION IS NOT DESIRABLE.

New Zealand Illustrated Magazine, Volume I, Issue 7, 1 April 1900, Page 503

WHY FEDERATION IS NOT DESIRABLE.

I By W. Hutchinson. |

r *i~N a late issue, a paper on Federation /^) I appeared, by Mr. Mahon, which, like jjr~^ many other papers and speeches on the subject, commenced by shewing what Federation had done in other countries, but I have carefully noted that the countries which do not shine as " beacons " for the federating wayfarer to steer by are studiously avoided, and kept in the background. We have had the union of England and Scotland given to us as an object lessoii for Federation, but it has been rather a matter of surprise that the union of England and Ireland has never been quoted, or why there is such a vast difference to be explained. In one case there has been prosperity, and in the other terrible sufferings and adversity — a country devasted and depopulated, -with harrowing details of cruelty that make any fair-minded Englishman blush with shame as he reads of the wrongs of Ireland, as an unwilling partner in her federation with Great Britain. Other instances can be quoted, which shew that Federation is not an unmixed blessing. The United States has been quoted as an example of Federation, but the terrible Civil War, with the loss of hundreds of thousands of lives and hundreds of millions of money, just because of a difference of opinion as to the election of a President of the Republic, brings us face to face with the fact that a federated union is one that must lead to civil war, or bloodshed, before any separation can take place between the federated states. In Norway and Sweden we have federated states leading an unhappy life, borne only because bloodshed alone can bring about a . dissolution of the two. Germany, forced into a federation by the "blood and iron" Vol. I.— No. 7.— 59.

Chancellor, is not truly happy. It was bound together, and is kept together, by militarism. Austria and Hungary are constantly on the verge of civil war, which must culminate in disaster and separation with tho death of the present Emperor. These are instances that go to shew that National Federation is not a panacea for all tho ills that flesh is heir to. With respect to the word itsolf, like that blessed word, " Mesopotamia," it is being constantly rolled over the tongue as a word to conjure with ; but it must not be forgotten that had there been no secession of Colonies in Australia from the mother Colony of Now South Wales, there would never havo been any necessity for tho word Federation to be used, and the question of New Zealand becoming part of the Commonwealth would never have been mooted. When looked at in this light, it will bo seen at once on what flimsy grounds the argument for New Zealand federating with Australia rests — that because the Australian Colonies are going to join together as one indissoluble whole, from which they ought never to have boon separated, there is going to be no safety or prosperity for New Zealand unless sho joins in with this glorious Commonwealth. This Colony has made rapid progress — a greater progress so far, since she was cut adrift from New South Wales in the " swaddling clothes " time of her history, than the sister Colonies — and has held her own, has led the van in political reforms— copied and made law by the various neighbouring Colonies ; and yet, all at once, we are gravely informed that unless this Colony falls into line, and sacrifices her national existence as an entity, and becomes an

outlying province of Australia, dire disaster is to be the result — we are to be the prey of the nations, who are ready to swoop down upon us, as.soon as the Australian Federation is an accomplished fact, and we shall regret but once, our blind indifference, and that will be forever. Some of the ultra-hysterical party, who have been howling Federation until they seem to be now pretty well exhausted, told us at the beginning of their campaign that if we did not federate the " Japs " would come down on us, and take us. When we remember for one moment that we are debtors to the British nation of nearly £47,000,000 sterling, the idea that our great creditor is going to allow the " Japs " or any other Power to take possession of these Islands is simply unthinkable, and I suppose for that reason we do not hear that kind of argument made use of at the present time. Mr. Mahon hints about navies, as others have done, of the Celestial, and Japanese, and other Powers being strong in these waters, as a menace to us; but if Federation is required by us for protection, and we are not satisfied that Great Britain is able to afford, by her immense sea power, the requh-ed protection, then, I say, by all means let us federate, but let it be with the United States, and not with Australia, for the great Republic could and would afford us protection as a federated state, while Australia would be but a broken reed to lean upon. Shortly, I propose to traverse the views commercially, nationally, and for defence. Quotations have been made as to the volume of our trade with Australasia, and, finally, a great deal has been v made of the fact that in oats and potatoes we are large exporters to the sister Colonies. When this has been said, all has been said in favor of Federation ; but when we are assured by a financial statesman, the late Sir Harry Atkinson, that federation with Australia would mean an annual financial loss of £400,000 to this Colony, it surely cannot be said that our export of oats and potatoes is worth that loss if we never exported another bushel of the one or a sack of the. other to

the neighbouring Colonies. This large annual loss has been more than substantiated since. It has been estimated that if the imports from the other Colonies were " free," it would mean a loss to the fiscal Revenue of over £300,000 ; and on the authority of a Sydney paper, the estimated cost of serving the Commonwealth, irrespective of any of the services now in existence, and quite outside of them, would amount to £500,000 per annum ; this taken on a population basis would cause us to pay as our share £100,000 per annum, for we should become third on the list of contributory states — but very far behind that in our political voting power, it will, therefore, be seen at once that the loss of £400,000 per annum is fully accounted for. The question of having our Customs and Excise revenues handed over to the Commonwealth is oue requiring serious consideration, but which we will not stop to investigate in this paper. Commercially, Federation spells ruin for New Zealand manufactures, and in saying this, I feel I am on sure ground, and not a sentimental one. Some gravely inform us, that surely we should not bo afraid to compete in open markets with our brethren in Australia, but, unfortunately, that is not the whole truth, for we should have to compete against Chinese labour. This is no myth, for an ounce of fact is worth any amount of fiction. It is possible to produce evidence of a French polisher in this Colony, who worked for one of the largest firms of furniture manufacturers in Melbourne, he could inform you that, at times, in that factory not a stick of furniture was to be seen, and on the. following morning the factory was full of unpolished furniture, brought in during the night from the Chinese dens, slums and shanties of Melbourne, and polished in the Melbourne factory, and then sold as English-made furniture. Would any patriotic New Zealander wish to see his fellow-countryman compete against this kind of labour ? To prove that this is no fiction, I may quote a conversation with a gentleman from Australia, .who was a fellow-traveller with me down the coast recently. We were

speaking of Federation and its effects on New Zealand, and he confessed that he was afraid, from a rnanufactirring point of view, that it would be disastrous, for he said : "I saw Chinese furniture, manufactured of Kauri, and sent from Melbourne, offered for sale in your shop windows in Queen Street, Auckland ; and when I considerod that the Kauri grew in New Zealand, was exported to Melbourne, manufactured there, sent back to New Zealand, and paid 22| per cent, duty, and yet competed with the home-made article, I felt that Free Trade would not be a boon, or a blessing, to New Zealand artizans." The Colony of Victoria is our greatest competitor in the butter industry, and all the older Colonies in the frozen meat industry. They can manufacture on better terms than ourselves, and can import at 33 per cent, less freights than New Zealand, which is handicapped through having so many ports of call for the " ocean tramps " in order to secure a full cargo, necessitating a considerable amount of steaming and consequent increased expenses. Melbourne and Sydney, on the otliev hand, are the only ports for foreign trade in the two Colonies. This is the outcome of steamship combinations, and there is nothing on the face of it to prevent Sydney importing English- made goods, remarking them as of colonial manufacture, and sending them across to New Zealand at a less cost than we could import the goods direct from Europe. American prison-labour goods have already found their way into this Colony, and of course, as long as the goods pay cost of material that is all that is looked for. It seems rather rough on our manufacturers that, although every state in the American Union has barred their own prisonlabour goodsf rom being sold in the States, and thus competing against " free labour," they are imported into these Colonies to the detriment of the Mother Country and our own manufactures. Now, as we are at present we can place a prohibitive tariff against these goods, but as part of the Australian Commonwealth there is nothing to prevent Sydney introducing these goods, and ship-

ping them across to New Zealand as a free port. The cheap labour goods of Japau are going to be strong competitors against British trade with the Colonies, and must tend to make the toiler's lot in the Old Country harder than at present. Already our merchants are importing Japanese goods, and specially Japanese matches, to the detriment of the match industry of this Colony, and they find it necessary to do this in order to competo against the goods " Made in Germany." Not to dwell ou tho question of commerce, the Commonwealth would control the army and navy in theso waters, and tho Comman-der-in-Chiof of tho Army and Admiral of the Navy would reside at the capital of the Commonwealth. Those who remember the troubles they endured as soldiers in New Zealand under the control of military authorities in New South Wales, when somotimes six months elapsed before replies were roceived touching military matters, would not willingly caro to be controlled from that quarter a second time, notwithstanding that wo are now in touch by cable, which in war time might bo destroyed, and are only four days' steaming from headquartors. If any trouble arose, it would be quite possible for disaster to come upon us through want of communication with Australia, as it did at Nioolson's Nek the other day, when 1,500 rncn had to surrender owing to inability to make known their position at headquarters at Ladysmitli, only a few miles distant. In naval matters, however, 1 consider that we should suffer more severely as part of the Commonwealth. That Australia wants to control a navy in those waters, is evident from the effort being mado to establish a Naval Reserve. This idea is scouted by tho Times and other papers in Great Britain. The conditions existing in these Colonies arc such that a century must elapse before we could have a navy, however small, brought to the state of discipline, efficiency and effectiveness that now obtains through constant instruction at Whale Island of the best men out of a large navy, who, in their turn,

become the instructors of squads on board til© vessels to which they are appointed. It is an open secret that the gunnery practice in Manila by the American Navy was largely due to the fact that a number of gunners in the British Squadron at Hong Kong managed to desert conveniently just as Admiral Dewey ■was leaving for his attack on Manilla. It does not detract from the bravery of the sailors on the various foreign navies, American included, when we state that none of them could withstand equal numbers of British vessels of equal tonnage and guns, owing altogether to efficiency, constant practice, and the extreme accuracy of our naval gunners. To confirm this we have only to look at the present war in South Africa, and see that at Ladysmith the greatest damage is done to the enemy by the splendid service and extreme accuracy of fche naval contingent working their batteries. The fear exists that the Commonwealth, with a desire to look " big," and suffering from " swelled head," might lead to a persistency of having an Australian Naval Squadron in these waters, run entirely by the Commonwealth, in which event the Imperial Government would naturally withdraw, keeping, perhaps, a small cruiser for the South Sea Islands' police work. At the present time New Zealand is to be made a second naval base for the South Pacific Squadron, and Auckland is to be the headquarters on account of its superior dock accommodation. As part of the Australian Commonwealth, the expenditure now being made in the Auckland Harbor for dock accommodation would be thrown away, for it goes without saying, that though we might have some of the Commonwealth Naval Squadron occasionally visiting these waters, never, on any consideration, should we expect that squadron to be docked here, so long as the Commonwealth had docks in Australian harbors, and a majoi'ity in the Commonwealth to control affairs. This is only natural, and the outcome of purely political organizations, where the majorities invariably rule. Not to make this paper too long, I would shortly state what I consider

would be the effect upon this Colony, so far as I can grasp the question, and from my point of view. I am well aware that it is impossible for any one to prophecy what would be the outcome of New Zealand federating with Australia. The sanguine ones harp on the fact that four millions of people would be open to receive our produce, but this is just the trouble ; the four millions of people in Australia do not want our produce. They produce themselves the same produce that we do, and in larger quantities, and at less cost than we can hope to produce. New Zealand would never recover her prestige if it became a province of an Australian Commonwealth. Every interest of our Colony would suffer, present and prospective,, and our best interests are opposed to the proposed alliance, which means neither absorption nor protection, but would only mean an embargo on our political, social, and economical development. Let us stick to our insular independence and work out our own destiny, and together with Australia as a Commonwealth, strive after the larger federation that will embrace all the English-speaking nations in a bond of unity without uniformity, but all making for the peace and prosperity of the race. In conclusion, I would shortly shew by our Year book of 1899, which is the richest and best customer of our Colony. The value of the total trade of New Zealand has advanced from £13,431,804 in 1886, to £18,748,555 in 1898— nearly half as much again in 1893 as in 1886. The total amount of exports from New Zealand to the United Kingdom in 1897, was £8,168,123, while Victoria, with a population of 1,175,490, and New South Wales, with 1,346,240, against 743,463 m New Zealand, only exported to the United Kingdom £9,559,249 and £8,728,828 respectively. In other words, New South Wales, with nearly twice the population of New Zealand, only exported a little over half-a-million more to the United Kingdom, and Victoria nearly one million and a half more than the Colony of New Zealand. In our imports also from the United Kingdom we shew the amount of

£5,392,738 against £7,557,069 for New South Wales, and £6,004,798 for Victoria. I think this shews that we are the best customers of Great Britain, and they take more of our produce than from the other Colonies in proportion to population. A closer tension between Great Britain and New Zealand would be the outcome of a federated Australia, and this Colony working out its own destiny without being entangled in a bond which might hinder her progress, and lead to strained relations rather-

than to closor ties. What wo require to strive for is an Imperial Zollveroin — a commercial union between Groat Britain and lier Colonies and dependencies, under the moat favored nation clause, which will strengthen the bond of unity moro effectively than the mere sentiment of patriotism, or united defence, and in which case a federated Australia cau stand, shoulder to shoulder, with a free and unfettered Now Zealand in a closor bond of unity than federation with Australia could possibly produce.