Rangitikei Advocate. SATURDAY, MAY 11, 1907. SECOND EDITION. EDITORIAL NOTES

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXII, Issue 8810, 11 May 1907, Page 2

Rangitikei Advocate. SATURDAY, MAY 11, 1907. SECOND EDITION. EDITORIAL NOTES

tfHE following, which we take from the Evening Post, appears to us to describe the position with regard to the proposals put forward at the Imperial Conference with remarkable insight and sympathy:—" There has been no such poor 'man's Government, and no Government of any kind supported by so overwhelming a majority in the Mother Country as that which is now in office. In its general domestic programme it has i the hearty sympathy of the colonies, 1 and there is probably not a single one of the Premiers now assembled in London who would not have been fighting under its banner if fate had cast his lot in Britain instead of colonial politics. Yet while as Liberals and champions of the poor the British Ministry are pledged to maintain a system which in their opinion and in the opinion of a vast ( majority of the electors is essential to the maintenance of a cheap food supply, they are besieged by all the Colonial Premiers in varying degrees of insistence with requests for concessions to the prosperous democracies beyond the soas which could not be granted without violating those pledges and exposing the millions of people in Great Britain who are always hovering just above the starvation line to the risk of being plunged beneath it. Is it consistent with the.dignity, the patriotism, the humanity of the colonies that their representatives should appear as suppliants for favours before those Who have far less to spare than they—nay, even as sturdy beggars who are prepared to treat a refusal as a "ground for active resentment, or oven for permanent estrangement? Such is the case as it presents itself to the average freetrader of Great Britain, and whether ho is right or wrong, we regard it as deeply to be deplored that tho colonial attitude should admit of any such construction. Tho bull-at-a-gate politician has, of conrso, a ready answer. ' All statements about the dear loaf,' says Sir William Lyne, 'are absolutely moonshine.' To freetrade economists of at least equal eminence they are solid fact; aud who is to decide the issue? In its present bearing the question is really one, not of fiscal theory, but of constitutional practice. We cannot give Imperial currency to any economic doctrines of one school or the other, but we can—and if tho Empire is to hold together, we must—maiutain with the utmost jealousy the right of each self-gov-erning part of the Empire to determine all such questions for itself. Has the British elector chimerical fears of an increase in the cost of his food as likely to result from a preferential tax on corn? Those fears, though economical moonshine, must be accepted by the other units of the Empire as political facts. Are the colonies impoverishing thernselvesjby a protective system which violates the most fundamental axioms of Adam Smith and the Oobdeu Club? That is a question on-which the decision of the colony concerned must be accepted as final, and even the certainty that the Old Country must bo injured by the blundering selfishness of a colonial tariff gives her no right to intorfere. It was the second of these propositions which our fathers found it hard to learn, but we are iu danger of ignoring tho first. Having secured absolute fiscal autonomy for themselves, the colonies are coming very near to threatening that of the Motheraud. "

MARTON Borough Council appears to have sot to work in a businesslike manner to deal with the finances of the Borough and the improvements necessary to keep the town in the van of progress. The footpaths in Marton have long been a disgrace to the town, and ratepayers will shortly have to decide whether they prefer to raise a loan sufficient to put the paths and roads once for all in good order or whether they will continue the old system of spending small sums on repairs and upkeep all over the Borough, without producing any results of a lasting nature. The problem to be decided is whether it is better to spend £4OO or £SOO a year in work which leaves roads and footpaths as they are at present or to borrow the amount required to provide roads and paths that will be negotiable in all weathers. There will bo plenty of time for ratepayes to consider the matter before any practical steps hare to be taken. We published yesterday an analysis of the gas works accounts, which owing to the exigencies of space was not displayed as fully as we could have wished,' still it was porfectly intelligible to anyone who took the trouble to look into the figures presented. The Mayor is to be congratulated on providing a statement wine"; -'";:>ws the exact state of the finances if the gas works Avith proper allowance for depreciation, interest, and office expenses. There appears to be no doubt that a loan will be necessary for. increased storage accommodation for gas owing to the increased consumption.

AFTER the flood of eloquence that has been poured out at the Conference on the decay of British industries the Board of Trade returns for April come as a refreshing change. Imports, wo learn, wore 9)a millions greater in April, 1907, than in the previous April, and the exports were 7}£ millions jrreater. The increase of imports was due largely to increased demand for raw materials, C>}4 millons of the advance coming under this head. Similarly, exports were swelled by a large addition to the value of articles described as wholly or mainly manufactured. Under such circumstances as these we cannot blame British statesmen for doubting whether freetrade is such an absolute failure as is often alleged.