The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1888-12-28

them as the Australian colonies; !"
and the British naval squadron,
cruising around these dependencies,
is always spoken of as the "Austro-
lian squadron" not Australasian
because the shorter word expresses
the same idea. New Zealand was,
less than fifty years ago, depend
ency of New South Wales, an Aus
tralian colony.
Australians next paragraph states
that "seem not to know that West
ern Australia and Fiji are not con-
stitutionOl but crown colonies. If
he will refer TO lines and Z from
the top of my letter he will find that
l expressed this fact very plainly.
Paragraph a of your correspon-
dents letter states that | imply that
the government of Queensland OBJ
jected to the appointment of Sir
Henry Blake because he had been q
draper's assistant, and not q noble
man. There is no such idea ex-
pressed in my letter further than an
opinion that, such q reason was pos
sible on the part of Queenslanders (;
but l distinctly statedt that "the text
of the objections had not been pub
lished," and that therefore the true
reason was unknown.
Paragraph 5 relates to the vene-
ration (not craving) of Australians
for lords as governors. This pro-
position Australian says is "abso-
iutely false" In matters of opin-
ion, such as this, / can only re-af-
firm my former statement against
his dogmatical contradiction.
Paragraph 6 states that Austria
lians ''have long had home-rule with
all its freedom and responsibilities,
excepting protection from foreign
foe." 1t is pretty cool for English
men to be told by an Australian
that the mother country has nothing
to do with Australia farther than to
"fork out' millions of treasure to
afford them the needed protection.
The facts are, however, that the
mother country has still an Impe-
rial control of all matters relating to
Australian legislation, and appoints
q viceroy OF governor to each of the
colonies to see that nothing
is done in opposition to I'm
perial interests. These govern
ors, appointed by the British
government, have full power to null
lily all acts of the colonial legisla-
lures, or to submit the mea sures for
Imperial sanction before he attaches
his signature, without which no le-
gislative enactment can become law.
The reins of power are thus in the
hands of the British-appointed gov
ernors; and if this is "home rule
with all its freedom" / fail to see it.
At the same time the colonies with
constitutions have restricted home
rule, and its character was explain
ed in the first paragraph of my let
ter.
In the last paragraph of "An
Australians" letter he denies that
the Australian immigrants "are
nearly all from the British Isles"
but he admits they are mainly from
thence. 1 am surprised, consider
ing the tone of his letter, that he
even makes that admission. He as
serts that in South Australia ''im-
mense tracts are occupied entirely
by Germans, and that Danes and
Norwegians form an important ele-
ment of the population" L deny
that there is any truth in these as
sertions, and l make the counter
assertion that in South Australia the
Germans do not exceed per cent.
of the population; while in all the
Australian colonies combined, the
three nationalities named do not ex-
ceed in number 3 per cent. of the
total inhabitants. In influence or
wealth they are very far short of l
per cent.
The absence of convenient statis-
tical information, that is reliable,
gives "An Australian" the advan-
tage of making the widest kind of
assertions regarding his country (;
but / hold that visitor to Austria
liza, who goes for the purpose of see
ing and knowing the conditions OF
the country, can arrive at truer con-
clusions and form more correct i'm
pressions of the Australian regions,
than can an Australian native o1
similar intelligence. The stranger
has the power of wider comparison
while the native can only compare
one part of Australia with another
| am sorry that "Australian" does
not have better knowledge of hi:
country than he seems to have.
A. B.