PROBLEMS OF EMPIRE.
Office, subject to the more or less imperfect scrutiny of Parliament. We all know that a Government office will do almost anything to avoid inconvenient questions in the House of Commons, and its action is largely governed by the principle of ‘let sleeping dogs lie.’ The Colonial Office is no exception to the rule. Colonists have no constitutional way on ordinary occasions of making their voices heard. If they make representations to the Colonial Office, the Colonial Office will turn a deaf ear until a powerful agitation is got up in the colony interested, until an immense amount of ill-feeling and disloyalty to the mother country is aroused, which has sometimes culminated in the hauling down of the national flag by an excited populace. There have been instances of this in Australia, South Africa, and North America, in the last few years, and in South Africa and North America in the last year. By the time the agitation reaches to the height of lowering the national flag, the attention of Parliament and the electors of this country have been aroused, and the Colonial Office has been convinced that some action must be taken. Many instances could be quoted to show what I mean. One which I often quote, because I happened to be in Australia when the feeling on the subject was at its height, is the way in which the Home Government dealt with the annexation of New Guinea and the transportation of French convicts to New Caledonia, whence they escaped to the mainland of Australia. The feelings aroused at that time in Queensland have rankled ever since, they have borne fruit on more than one occasion, and it will be many a long year before they completely die out.
Newfoundland.There is an excellent illustration of the way in
