A PREFERENTIAL TARIFF.

Gisborne Times, Volume IX, Issue 898, 22 May 1903, Page 2

A PREFERENTIAL TARIFF.

.UP. CHAMBKHLAI.VS SI'EKCII

OPINIONS E X PIIE SS E D

By Telegraph—Press AssociationCopyright:. LONDON. May I"

Mr Grainger, Agent-General mr .South Australia, in a letter to the Daily Mail, says that there were about three hundred articles on which a concession ought long ago to hate been made in favor of Australia. The Empire League, Ottawa, enthusiastically endorsed Mr Chamberlain s declaration of policy. The Times ‘ Berlin correspondent slates that the German newspapers eagerly parade with ceremony every scrap of English and colonial Press opinion adverse to Mr Chamberlain.

The Ml. .James's Gazette says that the fears of Australia are groundless. She will not Iu asked to remove protective harriers from British goods She is perfectly welcome to manufacture ati she can. No Slate will he asked to do anything except, of it.own free will.

SYDNEY, May 21

The Daily Telegraph says that the natural question to ask is whether Mr Chamberlain, the magnilicenl. opportunist, is a sincere disciple of the preferential doctrine. Another question is, has his Government assented to the new policy ? There is no satisfying light from the alleged immediate cause of AH Chamberlain’s outburst. Great Britain s benefit from the Canadian prcfeienee is infinitesimal. Ought it tfien to lie within the power of an outlying province of the Empire—Canada or any other colony—to compel ihc Mother Country to radically alter the fiscal system with which she has been associated for the last, half a eentuty ! It would be a marvellous development in order to defend that province against. a foreign tariff the hostility of which it- had deliberately excited. I’rufcrenl ialisiu does not wear the alluring aspects to Australians that it dues to many, Canadians and .South Africans.

Sir William .McMillan, in an interview, said that Australia ought to pause before committing herself to preferentialism. Our trading destinies were not 'identical. On the other hand, Sir .John See, Premier of New South Wales, believes that alt Chamberlain's proposal will save the Empire from disintegration. MELBOURNE, May 21.

The Age says that the Australian States are not likely to lie moved by Mr Chamberlain's speech to Die same enthusiasm as the Canadians. We view this preferential policy very cautiously, almost indifferently. So far any endorsement of it has been more for the solidarity of the Empire and benefit of England than Horn any idea of reaping great, advantage from it ourselves. No one in Australia would dream of altering our tariff to give English exports a preference in our markets while the Mother Country maintains her present attitude of stolid indifference to Imperial reciprocity, but a very different feeling might be generated with the suddenness ot an electric spatk were English statesmen to make a definite proposal for reciprocity. What wc might do, and that quite willingly, would lie to increase duties so as to exclude all but imports from Great Britain. But free trade within the Empire, if Mr Chamberlain lavors it, is for the present only a dream. Australia has her own . industrial development to look after, and not even the sentiment of Imperial reciprocity will induce our people to depart from this principle. Consistently with that, Australia will he delighted, whenever Great Britain seriously wishes it, to negotiate a scheme of fiscal preference to flic Mother Country.

Berlin, May 21

The Kreuz Keitung says the Government should strengthen relations with Great Britain by the rapid conclusion o: commercial treaties.

The Kalrusche Zcitung says there are more important issues at 9take than the German-Canadian trade. British Imperial union is obtainable only by abandonment of free trade. Mr Chamberlain is ready to take the step, and Germany must bear it. London, May 21,

Viscount Cranborne, in the House of Commons, stated that communication passed between Groat Britain and Germany regarding tko duties on Canadian goods and the interpretation. Received 1.10 a.m., May 22. Sydney, May 21.

Mr AVise, in an interview, on Mr Chamberlain’s speech, said that while it must be remembered that the trade of Britain with foreign countries is very much larger than tbo trade between Britain and her colonies, he felt convinced that it was possible to take some steps towards closer commercial union of the empire without either exposing ourselves to any more active hostilities on the part of foreigners than exposed to at the present, and without making any great disturbance of British commerce, or without interfering with the right of component parts of tho Empire to preserve in essentials their own fiscal policies. He could not help noticing how difficult it was to discuss questions of closer union when the means of communication were so needlessly difficult. Did we spend on cable services subsidies which we spend on mail subsidies we should have cable rates so reduced that Mr Chamberlain’s speech would have been presented verbatim on the morning after it was delivered.

ARGUS COMMENTS.

By Telegraph— Press Association —Copyrigbi Received 10.13 p.m., May 21. Melbourne May 21.

The Argus says that Mr Chamberlain s speech comes with some element of surprise, He clearly regarded the colorless resolutions passed at the Premiers’London Conference in regard to preferential trade as of little practical value. The paper adds : We can only conclude that it is the exigencies of British, rather than Imperial, politics that raised it to such prominence in his mind. He wishes to distract attention from domestic matters which are not proceeding altogether satisfactorily for the Government, and disperse it over the empire. We can well conceive a policy | of Imperial free trade, with duties of some sort against outside nations. We can quite understand free traders being prepared, under certain circumstances, o waive a narrow technical interpretation of free trade which would prevent that consummation, that is _ the system avowedly Mr Chamberlain personnally wishes to establish. But it is a sjstern protectionists of the outer Empire will never consent to. Wha national outlook will ever inspire the chilled hearts of Australian protectionists, or widen their narrow horizon t They welcome with rapture Mr Chamberlains vague utterances, but if he were to offer to .ake them into Imperial free trade they would be the first to shriek out in alarm and dismay. But they need not be alarmed. Lo one knows better than Mr Chamoerlain that the Empire is not yet ripe for the reception of his Imperial views at present He is evidently using them in the humbie function of the red herring drawn across the trail of the domestic political hunt.

OUR rRU.MII'JR'S OPINION,

Per Press Association. AUCKLAND, last night

Speaking at the Rotorua banquet,, the Premier stated that lie had read the remarks of Mr Chamberlain, who seemed at- the richl time and in the rjirht place to point out to his touting ami to the statesmen ot Kuropc, the lines which the Mother Country could follow with advanta.ee. During the last twenty years, while the trade of the Mother Country bacf increased 07 millions, the trade of America had increased six hundred millions. America was making strides in trade and commerce so rapid as to he almost .starUinc. in J3US the imports from America to New Zealand were about four hundred thousand pounds. Last- year they were -£l,-JUU.OUU. There was a falling off in ’their imports relatively from .Great Britain.- Germany .was .aljQ

'datively increasing her trade, the business methods of Germany being More up-to-date than those of Great, Britain. They manufactured just v.'imc the public wanted, whereas the British manufacturer turned out hjs ■vork according lo a standard now obsolete, lie was glad to see greater trade with the colonies, and he 'va- proud to see Mr Chamberlain '■lying they must go on the linelaid down by New Zealand.