FISCAL QUESTION.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIV, Issue 1942, 26 November 1906, Page 2

FISCAL QUESTION.

PRESS ASSOCIATION - COPRIUGHT Melbourne, Nov 24. Mr Deakin, referring to the cabled sum, mary of the British Tariff Commission’s report, says it had simply studied the British situation from the British point of view in the interests of British producers, and had arrived at the conclusions probably without taking into account the reciprocal benefits that were certain to accrue from tariff requirements of the kind here suggested. . It was highly satisfactory to see that men of business on the other side of the world, thinking only of their own and local interests, should have arrived at conclusions, which, if adopted, would be I beneficial to all the great agricultural dominions, such as Australia, Canada, and New Zealand, The findings of the Commission whre certain to have great weight with the thoughtful, open-minded electors of the Motherland.

Mr Ramsay Macdonald declared that the Tariff Commission’s findings would have no influence and excite no interest. A duty on colonial wheat would inevitably mean a dearer loaf, the only people benefiting being the English landlords. Britain would have first of all to protect her own farmers, and the latter were not going to allow Australian, New Zealand, and Canadian farmers to cut them out of their market. No preference was required to encourage the frozen meat trade, for instance. So far as he could see, it would only increase the profits of the Australian I landowner and consequently his political power. The Labor party, he was sure, was not going to authorise any such thing here to injure the party’s prospects. I