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PUBLIC

RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

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C.O. 885

5 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

SIR,

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No. 6.

J. W. ROBINSON, Esq. (NATAL) to SIR H. T. HOLLAND.

SUBJECTS FOR DISCUSSION.

The United Hotel, St. James's, March 31, 1887.

I HAVE deferred replying to your confidential letter of the 19th instant in view of the possibility that the South African mail, which was delivered this morning, might bring me some communication from the Government of the Colony I have been chosen to represent, bearing upon the object of my mission. No such communi- cation having been received I at once proceed to acquaint you with the subjects more particularly referring to Natal, which, I have reason to believe, it is the desire of the Legislature and people of the Colony should be brought under the attention of the Conference. Before doing so, however, I desire to assure you that the Legislature and the community at large were deeply sensible of the compliment paid to the Colony by the invitation of Her Majesty's Government to it to nominate a representative to the Conference which is about to assemble.

As regards the Colony of Natal, there are three classes of questions that havo to be considered, namely:-

1. Such as concern only the Colony and the Home Government.

2. Such as concern the Colony in its relations with the rest of South Africa.

3. Such as concern the Colony in its relations with the Empire at large.

I take it that the only class of questions which comes within the scope of the Conference is the last, to which I therefore proceed to address myself. I should like to place before the Conference-

a. The peculiar position of Natal as the northernmost portion of Her Majesty's possessions in South Africa, with a frontier practically conterminous with that of a European Power.

b. The particular exposure of Natal as the most easterly Colony on the South African sea-board, and the nearest therefore to approach from Mozambique and Madagascar on the eastward.

e. The great importance, therefore, to the Empire of the land-locked port of Durban which promises in a year or two, when the present works are completed, to be accessible to vessels of any tonnage.

d. The not less grave importance of the fact that this harbour is now connected by rail with a terminus only 15 miles distant from the edge of a vast coalfield of proved commercial value.

c. The fact that the Empire thus possesses half way on the great ocean route to her Eastern and Australasian possessions a calling place, and coaling station where an unlimited supply of steam coal mined on her own soil is ever and easily available.

f. The steps that have been taken by Natal to improve this harbour and connect it

by railway with these coalfields.

g. The defensive resources of the Colony as regards both land and sea.

h. The necessity of class legislation in exceptional cases where coloured races are

concerned.

i. The expediency of a reduced rate of ocean postage.

j. The high rates of charge by ocean cable and the risks of interruption in war time

to which the present cable systems are exposed.

k. The inter-colonial difficulties that arise out of the existing prohibition of

differential duties.

1. The inadequacy of present methods of representing the Colonial view of local or Imperial questions to Her Majesty's Government or the Imperial Parliament. These are the principal points that occur to me as being germane to the objects of the Conference. Questions more purely local I shall perhaps have an opportunity of bringing forward under other auspices.

I have, &c.,

(Signed) JOHN ROBINSON, Representative of the Colony of Natal.

The Right Hon. Sir Henry Holland, Bart., M.P.,

Her Majesty's Secretary of State for the Colonies.

No. 7.

OPENING SPEECH of the PRESIDENT, SIR H. T HOLLAND, on Monday, April 4, 1887, with explanatory tables appended.

1. I must in the first place express, however imperfectly, what I feel sure is the sense of the meeting, and thank Lord Salisbury most cordially for his kind words of welcome; for his expressions of hope for the success of this Conference; and for the wise and statesmanlike remarks which he has made bearing upon the relations of the Mother Country and the Colonies, when questions of an international character, and questions of Imperial foreign policy arise. With every desire to support and uphold to the full the interests and rights of the Colonies, it may be necessary at certain times, and for reasons of Imperial policy, to call upon a Colony for the general good of the Empire to make some concession, or to forego some object which it may have desired to attain.

The considerations thus referred to by Lord Salisbury will, I feel sure, have due weight with us in our discussions at this Conference.

2. Many plans have been devised, many suggestions made, for fitting memorials of Her Majesty's Jubilee year: quot homines tot sententiæ. In this country we have heard

of an Imperial Institute, a Church House, hospitals, free libraries, and so forth. But I assert, without fear of contradiction, that the assembling together in this country of leading colonial statesmen and representatives of Greater Britain, to discuss matters of Imperial interest affecting alike the Mother Country and the Colonies, is the fittest of all memorials. I can take no credit for this. The credit must be shared by

Mr. Stanhope and Lord Salisbury of initiating the Conference, but I should be sorry ⚫ not to recognise in the fullest manner the credit due to the Colonial Governments for giving a ready and loyal assent to the scheme, and for their efforts to make it a success.

3. And with reference to this celebration of the Jubilee year, it is impossible for me to Progress of refrain from pointing out in a few words, and with a very few figures, the extraordinary Colonies in upward progress which the Empire has made in the last fifty years, especially in the case

of the great Colonies whose representatives we now see before us.

4. Take the case of Canada :

In 1837 there were two provinces of Upper and Lower Canada. These were united in 1840, and responsible government was granted. In 1867 came the creation of the Dominion by federation of Canada, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, soon to be joined by British Columbia, and later on by Prince Edward Island.

It is unnecessary to point out what weight and dignity have been added to the Empire by the creation of this great and flourishing Dominion, increased as it has since been by the addition of the vast North-Western territory, through which now runs that remark- able achievement of British enterprise, the railway which has bound together the Atlantic and Pacific shores of the Dominion.

50

years.

Canada.

5. As to Australasia, we may say in the words of a writer in the Quarterly Review, Australasia. whose words I am glad to quote, as that writer was my father, that in the last fifty years, "a nation has been created out of a wilderness, and a people have been ennobled by the gift of institutions which the struggle and experience of centuries have won for ourselves." Let me add that in no part of the world have the best features of our British institutions been more successfully reproduced, nor is there anywhere a warmer loyalty than that which adorns the independent self-reliance of the great Southern Colonies.

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6. As to South Africa we have to note in spite of troubles and constant native wars, South Africa, the successive additions of territory to the Cape Colony, and the creation of Natal and Bechuanaland. The grant of responsible government has gradually and steadily im- proved the material welfare and the domestic administration of the Cape Colony; and at no previous time have its relations, and the relations of Her Majesty's Government with the neighbouring republics and with the native races been more satisfactory or more hopeful.

7. I find with respect to trade, taking the period 1837 to 1885- That in the American Dependencies—

Imports have risen from 5,200,000l. to 25,700,000%. Exports have risen from 5,000,000l. to 21,500,000%. In Australasia—

Imports have risen from 1,500,000l. to 63,500,000l. Exports have risen from 1,300,000l. to 52,000,0001.

A 4

Increase of trade,