MR SEDDON AND THE CRITICS.

Gisborne Times, Volume VII, Issue 397, 23 April 1902, Page 3

MR SEDDON AND THE CRITICS.

By Telegraph—Press Association— Copyright London, April 22. Mr Seddon, in the course of an interview, implied that ho could not reconcile Australia’s position in regard to Fiji with the settled policy of a White Australia. New Zealand, having Maoris to deal with, had no need to talk of a White New Zealand. Mr Barton, replying through the press, said he did not think Mr Seddon s contention affected tho marrow of the question. New Zealand had Maoris as Australia had Aboriginals. The Sydney Morning Herald, commenting on Mr Scddun’s preferential scheme, says that two main reasons against any general adhesion to the movement suggest themselves. The first is that it has been opposed to Imperial policy throughout to grant such concessions; and tho second is that tho Federal policy of tho Commonwealth and New Zealand being antagonistic to the Mother Country, neither has any claim to concessions. The Daily Telegraph, referring to Mr Seddon on Fiji, says as far as the Pacific Islands are concerned, both tho difficulty and conditions aro the same in Now Zealand as in Australia, that tbero is a problem involved in future relations between tho colored peoples of tho Pacific and the white peoples, who apparently must absolve thorn for Governmental purposes. It would bo useless to deny that a scheme will have to ho dovised to keep the colored people, and to an extent their products, apart from white sottled communities, and at tho samo time to preservo tho confidence of the natives.