III - COLONIAL GOVERNMENT

Summary

TO THE EDITOR OF THE “DAILY NEWS.”

Sir,—I have just read the speech of the Duke of Newcastle, the Secretary of State for the Colonies, at the Australian Anniversary Dinner. He enters into a defence of the present connexion between the Mother Country and the Colonies; and whether we look to his office or to his character, the importance of his words on this subject can hardly be overrated. We may be sure that from him we shall have the truth.

The Duke dwells upon the greatness of the Colonial trade as triumphantly proving that “the Colonies are still of some advantage, even in a low pecuniary aspect, to the commercial welfare of the Mother Country.” But, as has been said before, arguments drawn from the amount of the Colonial trade prove nothing, unless it can be shewn that the prosperity of the trade in some way depends on the continuance of the political connexion. The immense increase of our trade with the United States since the severance of their political connexion with the Mother Country proves that the reverse is the truth. The defenders of the system of dependency seem always unwilling to face this fact.

To prove that our dominion over the Colonies is real and effective, not a phantom of self-deluding pride, the Duke mentions one instance in which a Colonial legislature altered a money bill on his “venturing to express an opinion, without interposing the authority of the Crown, that it would not be wise or just to pass it.”