NOTES OP THE DAY.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1428, 1 May 1912, Page 4

NOTES OP THE DAY.

It is difficult to understand why the Government has nothing to say about the Imperial Commission on Trade. There must be in the Government's possession some information about the time when the Commission, all the members of. which had been appointed weeks ago, will start work and about its general programme. Our representative is in Australia just now, and the last thing he said was that he is not going to quit New Zealand politics. In a Manchester Guardian just arrived, its woll-informed London correspondent referred to some Unionist complaints about the British Government's delay in appointing the Commission. The delay, be said, was not attributable to the Government. Soon after the conclusion of the conference, he explained, communications were addressed to the Governments of the self-governing Dominions and the Crown colonies informing them of the nature of the inquiry about to bo undertaken, and requesting them to nominate representatives to serve on the contemplated Koynl Commission. Some of the Governments replied promptly, while others had to be reminded more than once. A few days after this statement it was announced in Britain that Sir Joseph Wabb would 'probably bo the New Zealand representative, and Renter's Agency said that the headquarters o£ the Commission would be in London and that visits would be paid to the various self-governing parts of the Empire. The British Government is not in the habit of delaying when business is decided upon, as the dispatches printed in the Appendices every year abundantly testify. It is true* that 51"- Mackenzie told the public something about the arrangements thai have, ben rfiintnULiicill.cd Jo bju, It would Eoeoi that Bus

Joseph Ward can hardly be a member of Parliament and a member of the Commission at one and the same time.

Perhaps it would be wrong to suggest that the Mackenzie Ministry, collectively and individually, is rather short of ideas. Indeed, it is much move likely that their real trouble is the possession of a fascinatingly various medley of ideas which'they simply dare not breathe to a soul, publicly anyhow. So it is that they are as it were, in vacuo. It was entertaining at first, but quaintness is a volatile thing, and there is no more any quaintness in the daily Ministerial suggestion i that what the country wants is just good government, an end of quarrelling, and all that. To-day's turn is Mr.. Bi'xton's. In Wairnate on Monday night ho said that "personally he desired to forget the Ward versus Massey element in Parliamentary life," and he went on to say that thnre was "little between the Liberal and Kcform parties,'' and that he "preferred tho laying down of a policy by the present Ministry and standing or falling by that policy. , A very good preference. But the elimination of what Mn. Buxton calls the "Ward versus Massey element of Parliamentary life" would mean the elimination of the salt of national life; since "Ward versus Massey" was simply bad government against good. No truce is possible on the fundamental reform issues; and the country would be in a bad way if a truce were possible. That is to say, that while there are many men in' the "Liberal" ranks who are at one with the Reform party so far as the general aims of legislation are concerned, the Reform party cannot, and will not, budge .from its determination to have administrative and financial reform. 'We trust that Mr. Buxton will press his colleagues to bring down that policy which we are all very anxious to see but of which nobody has yet been permitted a glimpse.

There appears to be a very general feeling both in Australia and in New Zealand that reciprocal tariff agreement would be a good thing for both countries. So far, however, no very definite ideas have been put forward as to the particular products or manufactures which it would suit both countries to extend favourable treatment to. In a recent issue the Sydney Morninr/ Herald, discussing the question, said:

As a matter of fact there are various directions in which substantial results would bo secured )>y reciprocal trade concessions. If, for instance, mutual advantage is certain in respect of manufactures peculiar to New Zealand, and limber, wines, or fruits peculiar to Australia, no effective Teason should exist for continuance of the common barrier against both. And no effective reason should exist in respect of the many other commodities, exchange of which would soon be found to l>6 mutually profitable. Thero is a reason, of course, in that complete submission to the tyranny of a tariff which sonic scientific protectionists regard as the only trno fiscal faith. In both countries, indeed, far-fetched adherence to tariff calculations down to their last detail will have to bo considerably modified if the proposed arrangement'is to come to anything. Our own Commonwealth tariff is ft very Rood specimen of that scientific fiscalism which may have its concealed benefits, but which certainly has obvious drawbacks in its cost to "the neoplo per head. The New Zealand tariff also is n formidable? borrieado auainst every import worthy of consideration/ It was pointed out recently, indeed, that the cost of the New Zealand tariff is so f«r in excess of the wages paid in Hie industries it is supposed to ijrorec.t. Hint all the workers in (hose industries might be pensioner! off on full nay. and the people of Hip Dominion would still bo savin** ,£516.000 a year.

This is all very well, no doubt, but so far there has been nothing more than generalities and expressions of goodwill. What are the special New Zealand manufactures that Australia is prepared to admit on special terms 1 It is possible that definite proposals will be brought before Parliament during the coming session, but at present things appear to be very much "in the air."