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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

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The actual revenue of the Colony for 1885 was 662,9157., so that the Colony in that period devoted over 11 per cent. of its income to defensive purposes.

In addition to these annual charges, considerable sums have been spent by the Colony from time to time in the erection of laagers" and magazines for the use or protection of the country districts.

It seems appropriate to state, in conclusion, that the loss of life in action borne by the Colonial forces during the Zulu war was at the rate of two to every thousand of the population.

These facts and figures will, I think, serve to show :—

1. That the position of Natal, politically considered, is one of great importance to Imperial interests in South Africa.

2. That the position of the seaport of Durban is one of high strategic value to the 'naval and commercial interests of the Empire.

3. That the Colony has done, and is doing, its best to provide for its own internal defences and to contribute to the defence of its own seaboard.

No. 88.

(Signed)

AUSTRALASIAN DEFENCE.

J. ROBINSON,

Delegate for Natal,

GENERAL and COMPARATIVE STATEMENT, with TABLES.

THE discussions in the Conference, and the various papers laid on the table on the subject of defence, have supplied a large amount of information respecting the present state of the military and naval defence of the Australasian Colonies, their forces, armament, and expenditure. But this information is scattered through so many memoranda, despatches, and reports, and is so completely without uniformity in method, that it is not easy to realise the general results that have been attained. Yet these are certainly striking in themselves, and it may be desirable to bring them together before the Conference closes, so as to give a general idea of what has been done.

The action of these Colonies may for the present purpose be said to date from the general scheme devised in 1879 by Lieutenant-General Sir W. Drummond Jervois, in concert with the late Sir Peter Scratchley. That scheme was followed by the recom- mendations of the Sydney Commission in 1881, and these again by the exhaustive Report of the Royal Commission, under the presidency of Lord Carnarvon, in 1882; then by the Admiralty proposals of 1885, and the negotiations between the Colonial Governments and Admiral Tryon in 1886; and now by the agreement come to in this Conference, subject to the assent of the Colonial Parliaments, by which a partnership will exist between England and the Colonies for defence purposes, a step assuredly destined to have a far-reaching effect in the time to come.

But while each Colony was thus striving to do its part separately, little count was being taken of what was being done in the aggregate, and hardly anyone knew of the changes that were taking place, or the effective preparations that were being made. The Conference will have learnt with satisfaction, and perhaps not without some surprise, that, taking the periods before and since the removal of the Imperial troops, the Colonies have spent altogether 14 millions of money on their defence, and that there is now in Australasia a force of 34,000 men and an armament of 600 guns. Nor does this force represent the full numbers that are being trained to the use of arins, for 5,000 young cadets are being regularly drilled, and many thousands of men are enrolled in rifle clubs, so that a much larger number than the one included in the official returns could be put into the field in case of war. The public schools in several Colonies are also drilled, and cadet corps as well as rifle clubs are multiplying everywhere. It will not be, many years before the greater part of the adult male population of Australasia will have been either regularly trained, or at any rate accustomed, to the use of arms.

I annex a statement which shows the military and naval forces, armament, and defence expenditure of the several Colonies. It has been compiled from the various returns and statements laid upon the table, but I have not found it possible to give a perfectly accurate account of the strength of each Colony, because the returns are all made up in different ways, and in some cases the figures of a particular Colony are

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not consistent with other figures given by the same Colony. The uniform method for compiling annual defence returns devised by the Colonial Defence Committee, and sent out by the Secretary of State to the Colonial Governments to be filled up at a given date, will be of great value hereafter.

I take the opportunity of also annexing statements showing in detail the Imperial and Colonial expenditure in New Zealand for the periods prior and subsequent to the removal of Her Majesty's troops.

I feel sure that a consideration of the figures contained in these statements will strengthen all that has been said in the Conference as to the expediency of some Imperial organisation of the aggregate forces of the Australasian Colonies, and in favour of legislation to regulate the status of the force belonging to one Colony when in the territory of another.

Mr. Stanhope frankly told us at one of our meetings that this country had not fully realised what we had done and were still doing. I am encouraged by this to refer to a matter to which I do not remember attention being directed, before the New Zealand delegates were desired by their Government to bring it before the Conference.

In considering the contribution made by Australasia, not only must the expenditure within the Colonies themselves be taken, but also the sums either directly or indirectly contributed by them to Imperial taxation in England. I annex a statement showing that under the single head of stamp duty upon their loans, the Australasian Colonies have paid the Inland Revenue nearly 600,000. But a far larger item is their con- tribution to the Imperial income tax, which has been estimated by the New Zealand Government as being not less than half a million a year. I am not aware of the basis on which that particular calculation was made, but it probably rests on well-known statistical estimates relating to English investments in the Colonies. The Economist, a paper of high financial authority, made an elaborate investigation about three years ago into the extent of those investments under various heads; and allowing for the increase known to have since taken place, it is certain that the following figures are nearly correct:-

English investments in Australasian Government loans In railway and harbour works

In banking and other financial enterprises

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£ 150,000,000

10,000,000

120,000,000

280,000,000

The interest derived by investors in this country from these classes of investment alone was also carefully estimated by the Economist; and applying the same methods to the present aggregate total, it is certain that a sum of more than 14,000,0001, is now received in this country every year from Australasia, upon all of which Imperial income tax is paid. Nor does this take any account of income tax on profits from English capital embarked in land and in trade all over Australasia, of which (so far as I know) no reliable estimate has ever been made, but which certainly make a large addition to the amount I have just mentioned. These contributions to Imperial income tax not only amount in the aggregate to an immense sum, but are constantly augmenting with the increase in the aggregate total of the English capital embarked in Australasia.

On the whole, it will be acknowledged that Her Majesty's subjects in Australia and New Zealand are doing their part in the national duty of defence; accepting their share in that duty not as a transient obligation, but as a permanent one belonging to each Colony as an integral portion of the empire. They have known perfectly well all along that any disaster to which they would be exposed by a European war was not one that could ever arise from any wrong-doing of their own to a foreign power, but only from the international relations of England, and from a foreign policy in which they can have no voice. They have cheerfully accepted this penalty of empire, because they do not choose to give up their rights of citizenship. And when the proceedings of this Conference become known, and the strength of Australasia for defensive purposes is better appreciated, the general results that have been attained up to 1887 will not be without encouragement to the friends of the Empire, nor without significance for those who might one day be its enemies.

Westminster Chambers,

May 9, 1887.

F. D. BELL.

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