Rangitikei Advocate. WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 11. 1907. SECOND EDITION. EDITORIAL NOTES

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXII, Issue 8918, 11 September 1907, Page 2

Rangitikei Advocate. WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 11. 1907. SECOND EDITION. EDITORIAL NOTES

THE spectacle cf a number of persons, who are supposed to bo representatives of constituencies, apologising for voting according to their convictions was not edifying, nor did they add to the dignity of their position by explaining why they had. for once, acted as free men. rather than as bond-slaves of party. They appear to have become bewildered in their temporary escape from thraldom, and some of them were apparently frightened at their own rashness. "Wo observe also that some of the Ministerial organs are jeering them, and alleging that the Premier still holds the position. One of them puts it as follows “The amendment on the tariff carried against the Government simply meant this, that mining machinery was struck off the list of articles paying a duty of 5 per cent; but that was only half a victory for the mining representatives. The necessary corollary to that victory was to move and carry that mining machinery should be placed on the free list; for (and hero is the point) until that' additional motion Jis carried mining goes under the ‘not otherwise enumerated’ category, and pays a duty of not 5 but 30 per cent. The opportunity for moving each an amendment has not yet arrived, and in the meanwhile it is evident that the Premier lias gained

full control of his party, and can do What he likes in the matter. There , are two courses open to him. Either ho may recommit the clause on which he was defeated and replace mining machinery in the 5 per cent list, or ho may use his power (it it is sufficiently great) to prevent mining machinery being placed m the free list and leave it subject to a duty of 20 per cent. The question is practically one for the Premier and his colleagues to decide. After { what took place between Sir Joseph I Ward and the members who pleaded j I guilty to ‘in and out running,’ it is | ! most likely that the party will do | i what ho wants. His decision, it is , | understood, will not ho arrived at | yet—probablv not till next Tuesday. I j Meanwhile the representatives _of , ! mining districts are wondering i ; whether it is not possible that under 1 certain conditions a victory is worse 1 than a defeat.” It seems to o taken for granted that representatives of the people should not bo free to ivote as they please on questions affecting the public interest, and that a Premier would not “do wrong if he used his position to punish the people because some of their representatives had voted according to their convictions. [Since the fore? going was in typo the duty has been dealt with, as will be seen on reference to the Parliamentary news.]

IT would bo noticed from our cable news that the Imperial Government are>ot likely to much longer allow some of tho colonies to phrsue tho policy of exclusion without protest. The Loudon Times has already declared that “there is a point beyond which precaution becomes prejudice, and tho .adequate passes into the unreasonable. ■’ ThS .dangers of such, a policy have often been pointed out, and they affect not only the colonic*, but the whole Empire, about sixsevenths of whose subjects are barred from entry into these portions Of it. The Briton claims the right to travel wheresoever ho will over the surface of the planet, and his practice has been to force entry where free ingress has been denied. If it is contended that the coloured peoples have no human fights, and that the white race alouo have inherited the earth, then the colonial policy is right. Wp observe that even tho Times, when -protesting against tho treatment,of Indians by tho colonies, alludes to the latter s ff splendid heritage,” showing that the idea Is fixed that the white race have the 'right so seize lands peopled by the coloured races, and claim them as heritage instead of spedIt may bo that the -white race will £.!.one survive in the final struggles of humanity, but, considering its decreasing birth;rai/e, and the fertility of tho other races, the uad.s are not at present in its favour. Many w the white race, however, hold" firmly to tho opinion expressed by one of Holmes’ characters la “Tho Professor at tho Breakfast Table,'' ih*P the coloured people wore merely pro.yislonal races, created for the purpose of exhaling carbonic acid ior tho use of plants. But if the white people are to become the permanently dominant they must >aako themselves worthy to hold the position, and perhaps fight strenuously for it. Tho worthiness Is pot indicated by H. .craven fear of the competition of tho other races, and devices to exclude them by legislative moans, at any rate until tho others begin to . use force. In all the countries where the coloured races are the major!lithe whites have proved time and ■again that they can utilise the services of the others with profit, and that a mere handful suffices to beep them iu subjection, and there is no reason to fear that similar results could not he attained iu those colonics.