The Dominion. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 23, 1912. NEW ZEALAND AND TARIFF REFORM.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1634, 28 December 1912, Page 4

The Dominion. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 23, 1912. NEW ZEALAND AND TARIFF REFORM.

One of to-day's cable messages illustrates very clearly how difficult British- Radical unfairness makes all frank arid non-party discusS.itSn of .intra-Imperial questions. Wheri it lias.suited them, the British Radicals have professed abhorrence .of the practice of introducing polonial .opinion and colonial legislation into' British party' warfare.. Arid yet they are very ready, when it. suits them,- to deal injuriously with the colonies or to use them as weapons against their local opponents. In this respect they are very like the. Radicals iri this country, and in all countries) for in politics the 'Radical is by his nature too often unable to understand sportsmanship or even common fair-play. _ For our own part, we lay no claim to any special Virtufe,, but we have' always censured both sides in British■< politics when they have attempted to involve the colonies in their quarrels; We cannot recall that any of our . Radical friends have ever had anything but applause for the British. Liberals when these have clone, precisely what it was right to blame the Unionists for doing. The other day we found it necessary to 'enter an immediate protest against Mr. Bonar Law's decision to make tariff reform contirigerit, riot upon a referendum, but upori the verdict -of ari Imperial Conference, arid several of our metropolitan contemporaries took roughly the same line. To every word we said 1 then we adhere, but really there is almost more to be I6st than gained if frank treatment of intra-Imperial issues is to be immediately perverted for. party purposes by the British Radical press; Tho Daily GMoiiicle. which has apparently been furnished with, the New Zealand newspaper opinions upon Me. Bonar Law's speech at Ashton-under-Lyne, declares ' that these opinions do not provide Mr. Bonar Law with any encouragement on the. Unionists' preference proposals. It'.is the business of the Chronicle, of course, to persuade its readers that tho Dominions are solidly hdstile to Tariff Reform. It is riot its business, apparently, to let its readers know that what New Zealand objects to is the transference to the colonies of the duty of approving any British party policy. . > Iri point of fact, it is Idle to deny that most pebplo in all the Dominions do believe in t-h6 principle of tariff reform. One may deplore or rejoice over this fact, out there the fact is. In this country there are a good many newspapers which discuss British politics regularly, if rather loosely, and amongst them are several which condemn the British Unionists arid all their works almost as heartily as they hate the Reform party here. In their zeal they sometimes allow themselves to appear as enemies of Tariff Reform, ridiculous as it is for them to do so. For there is not one of them which is not strongly Protectionist, and very firm in upholding Protection as the fiscal policy of New Zealand. Perhaps it is as impossible to look in the_ sharp and complex gamo of politics for consistency as for frankness, but it is deplorable that the sharpness of tho British Radicals should expose to misunderstanding every frank statement in tho colonial press upon the overseas attitude towards tariff reform. When Mr. Bonar Law made his remarkable speech he made his first mistake since he took up the leadership of tho Unionists. Here and there in the colonies want of information arid lack of study resulted in his being abused as a bunglor. But,, tunco ho succeeded Ma- Balsqub, the position of hia

party has onormously improved; the by-elections show that. Ho substituted a positivo for a balancing leadership • he made war and _ no compromise his policy maxims. Even on the difficult Ulster question ho scored a triumph by ie-in- 1 troducing the old Chamberlaln attitude—"What I liaVo said I have said." But that he made a tactical error in his speech at Aslitoh-under Lyme is clear enough. For the moment ho forgot, that the referendum had becomc something like a part of Tariff lie form polity; Had ft referendum never been mentioned, Mil. B.ONAh. Law coiil'd haVo said \vitli perfect propriety that he would make Tariff Ecfovm contingent upon tho judgment of an Imperial Conference. He inignt have offended the extremists on his side had he donfi so in such a case: they would have rebelled against Tariff Reform being made contingent bn anything excepting a Unionist majority. But, Unless the cables havo Been misleading, the Unionist leader gave the necessity for awaiting the judgment of. tho Dominions as tho roason for not Offering a referendum to the British people. lie was. not required, in any case, to defend his refusal to tag a referendum clause to the Tariff Reform policy, for both he and Loud Lansdoavnb had made it clear that prior to the next election tlie electorate would be told precisely what duties would be imposed, and that no extension of the tariff would be made without a fresh popular mandate. The fact probably is that Mb. Bdnah Law was thinking" more than he ought, and more than was needful, .of the views of the Dominions. Ho conceives Tariff Reform, as' we noted in our last article on his speech, as something more thafi a British . isSUe—something to. bo determined, of. course, by the British electorate, but yet a policy , that he must not become responsible for excepting with the advice of the Dominions. In any event, the British' people' must decide what party it will choose to govern it. If it puts Me. Bonar.Law in power, it will have done so after hearing precisely the limits of. the tariff reform that he will introduce. There can thus in no 'circumsfcaiiods be . aiiy defrauding of the. British public, [The Dominions, howe.ver. must not,' and will not, | be pl&cea iri the position of -even recommending a fiscal policy to Britain. Mk. SEDDONj it is true, was rather inclined to demand tariff reciprocity, and so was Me. Deakin, and the colonies always recommended reciprocity when a vote was taken. It has yet to be shown that Tariff Reform, unless, it is very. strictly delimited, will- be good for Britain, however" advantageous it may. bo for the Dominions. But common honesty requires it to be denied that any such interpretation as - the. Daily Chronicle's can be placed upon New Zealand's unwillingness to have anything to do' with the settlement of Britain's fiscal system. Moreover, it is only the' petty- and very shortsighted ' partisan \vh6 caii pass without repi'oof the readiness ol the British Radical press .to misrepresent' overseas opinioin as the Daily Chronicle has chosen to do.