366 THE BRITISH APPROACH TO POLITICS

Australia and to other Dominions, will be a larger element in

British policy than heretofore. Meanwhile, the Australians are

anxious to maintain a "White Australia'* policy, i.e., to prevent

Japanese and other Asiatic peoples from settling in the Continent.

Unless the white peoples can develop the area themselves, it will

become increasingly difficult to resist future demands from

Japan; but the Australians not unreasonably claim that they do

not wish their standard of life lowered, nor their problems of

Government complicated by the growth of communities living

at the low standard now prevalent in Japan itself. This aspect of

the Pacific problem causes Australia—and New Zealand—to

take a special interest in foreign policy and Imperial Defence.

Both Dominions have outposts in the Pacific; New Zealand

obtained Samoa as a Class C Mandate, and Australia administers

in like manner the former German possessions south of the

Equator.

NEW ZEALAND.

Shortly after Australia began to be colonized, further settle-
ments were established in New Zealand. In the i86o's there
were disastrous wars with the Maoris, a brave and intelligent
people whom the colonists found in possession of the islands.
Since then, more regard has been paid to their rights; they now
form five per cent, of the population, and live separately but on
friendly terms with the whites. While both the history and size
of Canada and Australia made a Federal Constitution desirable,
New Zealand has a Unitary form of government. Until 1842 it
was a Dependency of the Australian State of New South Wales*
Since that date it has had its own Constitution, the essentials of
which were defined by an Act of 1852. Executive power belongs
to the Governor and his Executive Council, modelled on the
British Cabinet. There are two Legislative Houses, a Legislative
. Council, whose thirty-eight members are appointed for a term
of seven years by the Governor, and a House of Representatives,
containing eighty members, elected for a maximum period of four