The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1901-04-04
WHAT "CRowN COLONIES" ARE

| The Boer Refusal to be Administered
as Such Seems Natural After Reading
This Account.
What is to be the form of government
/ granted to the Beers after the military
interragnum? Mr.. Chamberlain has
| told us that it is to be Grown colony
administration" the bureaucratic rule
| which prevails in British crown colo
MES. Those colonies, although they in
clude some of the oldest of our posses
sions abroad, are almost unknown.
Their system of government is obsolete
and the colonies upon which it is in
| ficted are seldom heard of except in
connection with doles and deficits The
Beers should, it is only fair, be inform
ed of the class Of government in store
for them if the colonial secretarys
counsels prevail. Crown colony gov
eminent obtains throughout the British
West India colonies, the British possess
sions in West Africa, Ceylon, the Straits
Settlements, Nautilus, and in half
dozen others 1t is the system of gov
eminent meted out to plantation colo
MES" in which the vast majority of the
inhabitants are Hindus Malays or ne
groes, looked upon as unfit for the
rights of free men, and wherever 1t is
applied in it's unadulterated form
there, as a rule, we find distress and
discomfort. The distress prevails among
the natives whose burden we have talk
en- up and find too heavy, and the dis
content among the British merchants
and planters whose affairs refuse to
prosper under crown colony rule. The
h,,r, no
miserable huts OF the natives are mulct-
ed in the attempt, seldom successful, to
make revenue balance expenditure.
This distress and discomfort can be
traced directly to the misrule under
which they languish. The crown has
entire control over all legislation, and
the government" consists of a COVER
nor an executive council of officials,
and a legislative council composed of
a majority of the officials, the remain
der being nominees of the governor,
who presides over the sittings of both
councils. He need not follow the ad-
vice Of the executive council and he |
directs the legislative body through his |
officials. In few crown colonies there |
is CHASTITY or representative govern !
ment in the form Of an assembly, the |
members of which are nominated by
the governor, and sat upon by the ex-
ecutive. Such an assembly has no
real power over local affairs, and is
merely arranged for the sake of appear
ance, In a crown colony Of the regt-
lation pattern the government is car
ried on by the governor and the ex-
ecutive council with a few officials. a |
lawyer, and customs collector thrown |
in. They look for guidance in the man
agement of the coony's affairs and for
promotion only to their superiors in
London. They keep their eye on Down
ing street. That gives them their APP
pointment and that alone can take
them away. The other Britons in the
colony accept them and their delbera-
tions much as they do the solar sys-
tenn. They are all on good terms be-
ing of the same blood and language, and
are quite ready to admit that the Off
Gals would be ready to help them if
only they could. Meanwhile trade goes
from bad to worse. Deficits continue.
The natives threaten pillage; praedial
larceny becomes more and more preva-
lent. Then petitions are drawn up; the
local papers are filled with complaints;
public meetings are held, resolutions
passed and duly transmitted to Down
ing street.
The colony's officials, in a cold, meth
odical and extremely proper way, in
dorse the colonists' complaints; but the
sources of redress are beyond their
reach. They cannot touch them ex-
cept through the imperial parliament,
and that is too busy to deal with coun-
tries and interests not represented in
the house of commons. Parliament is
even satisfied with the stereotyped re-
plies to any question which may be put
The secretary of state and the parlia-
nentary under secretary have no
knowledge of these colonies except
through the permanent officials. These
AXE upon themselves all the load of I
governing crown colonies; but they
nave none of the resnon sibilities of rul- 8
as. One crown colony has petitianed
he colonial office for a railway for fif
cen years and cannot get it because
Downing street, with it's crown agents,
insists upon impossible terms and con-
litions. The agents consist of a single
irm, and all business in London on be-
half of forty and odd colonies must ,
PASS through their hands. The white
people of a crown colony are not allow
ID to determine what kind of pier, har- :
Tor or railway they require. The crown !
igent decides all this for Them The
gents naturally favor the heaviest
Ind costliest class of public works.
Where the colonists know that they can
'ulld railway for $4,000 a mile, the