It was announced on Wednesday that the Cook Islands had
been annexed—they have long been under a protectorate —to the British Empire, and will be placed under New Zealand. It is also stated that Suwaroff Island will soon be formally annexed and joined to New Zealand. We trust that this may be the beginning of a movement which will make New Zealand the head and centre of a Confederacy including Fiji and other British islands in the Pacific. We would rather see New Zealand work out her destiny in this way than join the Australian Commonwealth. And for this reason. If New Zealand were to come into the Common- wealth, it would prevent Australia developing as a great homogeneous nation, and would keep her a Federation, for there cannot be an incorporating union with an island divided by nearly a thousand miles of sea from the rest of the State. New Zealand, however, with her incomparable moun- tains and lakes, fiords and rivers, and enjoying one of the best climates in the world, may fitly be the Queen of a Pacific Confederacy. She knows, too, how to deal with a native population, and BO need not fear responsibilities of that kind.
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