BRITISH POLITICS.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIII, Issue 9111, 2 April 1908, Page 5

BRITISH POLITICS.

IRISH UNIVERSITY BILE. Press Association. —Copyright. London, April 1. Leave was given to introduce Mr Birrell’s Irish University Bill by 807 to 24, and the Bill was read a first time amid loud cheers. Itjproposes t o create by Royal Charter two new universities, one in Dublin and the other in Belfast. Dublin University comprise three colleges, the reconstituted Qneen’sl Colleges, in Cork and Galway and a new college in Dublin. Belfast University will consist of one college only. There Will be no religious tests for profes - sors or students, though Mr Birrell thought at first that the President of the new Dublin College ought to be a Catholic layman. £20,000 a year from the Irish Churches Fund, now allocated to the Royal University, will be divided equally between these two new ■ universities, which will receive £BO,OOO from the Exchequer instead of £36,000 granted to Irish University education. Apart from the Church Fund, Belfast will receive an annual endowment of £190,000, the new Dublin College £32,000, Queen’s College £320,000, Queen’s College {Cork) £IB,OOO, Queen's College (Galway) £12,000. As building grants Belfast receives £60,000, Dublin £150,000. Mr Birrel affirmed that the new universities ' would be undenominational, though that in Dublin might have a Catholic and that in Belfast- a Presbyterian

complexion. Messrs Balfour, Dillon, O ’ Brien, Butcher, Carson, and Wyndham expressed general satisfaction with the scheme, and applauded the spirit in which Mr Birrell had approached the problem. Mr Balfour declared that, broadly speaking, no better plan could be devised. The Government was wise iu leaving Trinity College alone. He questioned the prudence of handing over the whole of the tutorial patronage to the Senates. The Times says that if Mr Birrell carries his scheme he will have deserved well of Ireland, and though Mr Dillon states the scheme will be acceptable to the Catholics, the Times says it would be well to await the opinion of the Irish Bishops. A TARIFF DISCUSSION.

Mr Mond’s resolution was carried by 280 to 91. It affirms that any attempt to broaden the basis of taxation by placing small import duties on a large number of articles would be financially unsound, uneconomical, harmful to industry and commerce, likely to raise prices and tend to the imposition of high tariffs as in protected countries. Mr Balfour ridiculed the phantom of a strange, extravagant system of taxation. The inevitable, not distant, and only course open was to increase the number of ( customs duties, which would be desirable ’on financial grounds alone, and doubly welcome if it afforded a chance of making arrangements with the Colonies, which would strengthen the Empire, increase our manufacturing powers, and enlarge our markets beyond the seas. Mr Kunoiman declared that Mr Balfour was committed to a general tariff. Mr Balfour explained that he was only committed to a very wide extension of the basis of taxation. Mr Runciman insisted that Mr Balfour was committed to Colonial preference, and, through that, to taxes on food. THE PREMIER’S HEALTH. Received April 2, 8.15 a.m. London, April 1. Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman slept well. His general condition is more favourable.