LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1666, 5 February 1913, Page 6

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

TARIFF REFORM. Sir,—My letter re Mr. Bonar Law's speech on food taxes did not ask you to consider any analogous ease. The policy under discussion is that of the Dominions and tho Motherland conferring as to tho dotails of each other's tariff. Your leader of tho 29th seemed to approve- of tho idea, much to tho surprise,' I daresay, of most of your readers. To solve any doubts as to your ..attitude on this interesting question, I submitted what I thought was a concrete examplo from tho New Zealand side, but you shirk my inquiry, and de-i nounce it as absurd, and suggest that I am not amenable to reason. Well, that is a poor style of argument, coming from Tirr. Dominion; but surely you have come to a sad pass when you havo to resort to tho old device of dragging in a "red herring," in the shape of what you call "tho true-analogy."* How could your analogy ever arise hero when you know very well that neither Mr. Massey nor any other New Zealand statesman would bo so foolish as to ask the electors for a mandate to discuss and settle tariff details at an Imperial conference. It requires a Bonar Law to commit a folly of that kind. You tell me to refer to , tho London "Times" again if I think it condemned the Imperial-conference idea; Well, I have done so, and find tho following:— "When Mr. Chamberlain .first promulgated his policy, an Imperial Conference was. generally looked forward to'as the proper method for co-ordinating pur tariff and that of the Dominions in tho direction required. That idea, wo venture to say, is absolutely impossible to-day."— 1 am, etc., i ,' _ '/. , 'J. A. REICH. . . Wellington, Febpary 1. . [Tho whole point of our, correspondent 9 first letter was his request that we should consider the analogous case. Wc stated the true analogy, and if it confounds our correspondent.wo cannot:help that]