believe that centuries will elapse before an army is able to obtain even a footing on its shores. I believe that we are continually advancing to a position which I have always held we should advance to, the virtual government of the Pacific.”
The old man was on his favourite theme. His mind was full of empires and dominions. He again saw a great nation arising out of the Pacific, and New Zealand taking rank among the Powers of the world. There was no limit to the flight of his fancy. He asked that the colony should restore the Provincial Councils. “They were schools in which statesmen might be raised in all parts of the colony, and we might send our governors and legislators to all the distant islands of the Pacific, to unite them by our common system of education, by our common form of government, by one class of habits. We could found as great an Empire as the world has seen, giving employment to every class of our population, our seamen, our merchants, and our farmers. From among our young men we could send lawyers, legislators, physicians, and governors, under whatever name they might go, to these countries. I believe that you could thus awaken the life of a nation here, and put it in the fairest possible position to attain success.”
A committee appointed by the House reported that it considered that it was the duty of the British Government, in the circumstances, to take steps for the establishment of its rule over all islands in the Pacific which were not already occupied or protected by a foreign Power. This proposal was received with little favour by many members. They asked, “Will it pay?” The aspirations were considered too high for a young colony. The proposal was venturesome, and there was dread that the craving for dominion would result in disaster. There were members who asserted that Great Britain had no need to extend her dominion beyond the countries already occupied, and that there were plenty of burdens on the British taxpayer as it was, without adding to them; and Sir George Grey’s schemes of Empire were not adopted.
Mr. Seddon was not a student of literature. Newspapers, Blue Books, Budgets, and Parliamentary papers afforded him most of the reading he desired at this period of his career.
