20 JANUARY 1950, Page 18

"Tilt spectator," 3anuarp 19t1), 1850 In the howling wilderness of

our Colonial Empire there is one bright and happy spot ; an oasis of good government, prosperity, and satisfaction, in the midst of a wide and hot desert of suffering, complaint, and disaffection. nistracted Canada may prepare to separate from England ; government in the pauperized West Indies may consist of a perpetual stoppage of the supplies and incessant general elections ; South Africa may triumph in a passive rebellion ; Ceylon be despotically ruled by a Lord Torrington, and the Mauritius by a parcel of hungry strangers ; the Anstralias may reject our convicts and the queer constitutions we make for them, and may be getting ready, rebels at heart, to make their own constitutions with a vengeance: All this may be true ; but, on the other hand, Lord Grey and Mr. Hawes and Governor Grey have, in one colony at any rate, put to rights alt that Lord Stanley and Governor Fitzroy had done wrong: New Zealand, whatever you may say of other colonies, is in a marvellous state of perfection ; there, if there alone, the present Colonial Office has done and left undone exactly what was right. Grumble as you will about other colonies, but pray do look at New Zealand. Thus boast, though more at length of course, the hangers-on of Downing Street in the clubs, society and the press