New Zealand's attitude to imperial affairs 1870 - 1911

Abstract

The title, "New Zealand's attitude to Imperial Affairs", immediately begs the question. Nobody realises more acutely than I do how seldom New Zealanders publicly considered issues of Empire, how varied were the opinions they occasionally did express, and how anonymous were the leader-writers in newspapers. Yet for all the uncertainty, and however unsatisfactory that uncertainty is, it does seem important to find some sort of answer. How much were these feelings in keeping with official policy, how much at variance? Were they the airy dreamings of closet-philosophers, or strongly tied to realities of politics and economics? Who held the ideas - what class or classes of the young society? Did they cut across party lines, or were they part of party platforms? Why were they relatively plentiful at some times, and almost completely absent at others? Was there any public opinion developing, shaping perhaps the policy of statesmen, or did these leaders act as sufficient unto themselves, without much consultation with the country? Were New Zealanders reticent because they felt their country to be a very small drop in a very large bucket, because economic forces largely beyond their control, and in any case for the most part fairly favourable, effectively silenced most criticism or suggestion?