The Chronicle. PUBLISHED DAILY. SATURDAY, MARCH 20, 1910. A PLEASING PORTENT.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 26 March 1910, Page 2

The Chronicle. PUBLISHED DAILY. SATURDAY, MARCH 20, 1910. A PLEASING PORTENT.

Ttik latest cablegrams concerning the political situation in Great Britain indicate that ther<? will be put before. the people, in the pending election, a clear-cut issue of .Freetrade versus Protection. It would be of little if any profit to discuss in New Zealand the relative advantages or disadvantages that Freetrade or Protection, would confer upon Great Britain. The point can be best left to the British elector; but it is pleasing to notice that there are proofs to be seen that no such begging of the real issues will take place, this year, as those which confused the last general elections. When the Unionists, as last Thursday's cablegrams intimated, are seen disintegrating themselves over the great fiscal point, and disputing as to whether or not that point is really paramount, good evidence is afforded that no inconsiderable portion of that party is convinced that the fiscal issue is the chief one. On the Liberal side, it has been clearly shown, a goodly proportion is prepared to fight to the last ditch in de-fence of Freetrade; find between the two sets of fiscal predominants there should be sufficient power to force this great subject into the forefront where it deserves to be continually kept. The Budget proposals really constitute tlie Liberal Government's reply to the Preferential Traders' contentions that without an increase of import duties Great Britain could not multiply her revenues to enable her to meet necessary extra heavy expenditure on defence. It was an absurd contention, but one seriously made and maintained; and; had the late election been confined to this point the llikelihood is that a much more effective majority than that now possessed by the Asquith Government would have been secured for it. Tlie incidental attacks upon the Lords, however, and. the tactics of those iv.ho preferred rliodomontade tg

reasoning, had the result of swaying many constituencies away from the Freetrade or Protection question' tlnat should have been the crux of every elector's decision. For this the nation is paying a heavy price at present in the form of financial unrest, and also in the unavoidable turmoil that is before her consequent upon the second general election.