Integration or Separation? Attitudes to Empire in the Antipodean Press c. 1880s–1930s

Abstract

In May 1920, on the occasion of the visit of the Prince of Wales to the Antipodes, Wellington’s Evening Post took the opportunity to reflect on the nature of the relationship between the Dominion press and the Empire. It noted that it had played a significant role in ‘binding the Empire together and promoting good understanding between the many and most varied parts of the King’s Dominion [and that] the best traditions [of the British press] are followed as closely as possible here, having regard to local circumstances’.¹ It concluded that: ‘As there is but one language, so there is but one great press ideal – the welfare of the British Empire and its peoples as a whole, even though different papers may express themselves in different terms.’² Whilst the paper boasted the strength of imperial unity at the time of a royal visit, it nevertheless was capable of demonstrating a rather different attitude towards the Empire, which was founded on more instrumental factors, such as defence and race. In 1908, for example, a year when there was neither a royal visit nor an evident imperial crisis, the paper contemplated both dimensions. In May 1908, for example, it had considered a series of articles issued by the British Board of Trade. In its articles, it noted the absence of what it called the ‘Imperial Idea’, since the prevailing sentiment appeared to be ‘the main chance of improving British business and increasing British profits’.