The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE. Published every Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday Morning. Tuesday, February 11, 1890. THE FEDERATION CONFERENCE.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume III, Issue 415, 11 February 1890, Page 2

The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE. Published every Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday Morning.

Tuesday, February 11, 1890. THE FEDERATION CONFERENCE.

jnat and fear not j Let al) the ends thou ftim’ift at be thy oonnt?y*B ( Thy God's, and truth’s.

This morning wa publish a full report of Sir Henry Parkes' speech at the opening banquet of the Federation Conference. From a sentimental point of view the speech is a glorious one, characteristic of the great mind of the man who gave utterance to it. But when it is analysed as to. practicability it is surprisingly weak. There are too many empty platitudes contained in it. and too little of that knowledge which is most wanted. As a nation he says every colony will be better off, and we will be able to command the respect of the world. All that sounds very nice, but those who are inclined to take a practical view of things will see little more in it than the mere beauty of the sentiment. From an argumentative point of view Sir Henry Parkes is very weak, and if nothing better can be said in favor of Federation, and nothing offered as compensating advantages for the difficulties that would be encountered, New Zealand may well be content to hold aloof from the movement. By what method of reasoning Sir Henry Parkes concludes that if a scheme of Federation is not accomplished at once it never will be accomplished does not appear plain to us. Those who do not allow themselves to be carried away by enthusiasm over such matters are not likely to forget that Sir Henry Parkes was himself the person who did most to nullify the work of the Federal Council appointed some time ago, and his new-found zeal seetns strange in the circumstances. We quite agree with a contemporary which makes the following comments on the general subject When enthusiastic Australian Federationists are asked what they will do when they have their Federal Parliament, they sometimes reply “ Have a fleet of our own.” It seems that contributing to the maintenance of the British navy has something about it esteemed degrading by these aspirants for “ National feeling.” No doubt the possession of a fleet sounds very glorious and imposing-. Unluckily, a fleet now-a-days cannot be got for nothing. Indeed it costs so much more than nothing that it is a luxury small nations cannot afford. The Navy of Great Britain costs more than ten millions a year merely to keep up, the French Navy more than eight millions, the American three millions. And then the building and fitting of a single ironclad costs the best part of a million sterling. To take four at a random from the list of the British Navy—the Trafalgar cost and the Inflexible, the Victoria, and the Benbow more than ,£BOO,OOO apiece. The other day the Admiralty offered The Shah as a present to the New South Wales Government on condition they paid for a new set of fittings for her; and these fittings alone were to cost £240,000. It will be apparent, therefore, that a vote of ten millions would not go very far to create a first-rate navy for Australasia. One of the most dangerous aspects of Federation is the certainty that it would quickly lead to greatly increased expenditure on defence by land and sea. The taxpayers of New Zealand, who cannot afford to throw money into the ocean, should remember this. It supplies one more reason why they should be wary of being entrapped into a Federal Union.