THE FISCAL QUESTION.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XXXXV, Issue XXXXV, 11 December 1903, Page 3

THE FISCAL QUESTION.

A CANADIAN PROTEST, OTTAWA, Dec. 9. The Hon. Clifford Sift on, Minister for the Interior, lias protested against Canada being pictured as a squalling- infant, clamouring for preference, ami saving that unless- .she got it she would im-ak ihe family peace and leave the Kinpire, but would hot support anything |iiot mutually advantageous: PRESS CRITICISMS OF Mil SIFTON: LONDON',. Dec. 9. The Standard sa.Vs that Hon. Siflyn is uvl patriot and Uiut Lis scli'-assertiveness Is clue to passing irritation over the Alaska award. " The speech ii significant," continues the paper, " reminding us of the gin erning fact that if colonists are subjects of the Empire they are also, and in the first place, Australians, South Africans, and Canadians, and that to make their own states a nation complete in all points is the main pbject of their politics.. We cannot blame them ; but is their deliberate purpose to restrict any competition ikely to thwart the development of their own manufactures consistent with that preference in our favour hekl out as compensation for our proposed burdens."

THE CONTROVERSY IN EISfGLANB

LONDON, nee. 9. Mr J. L. Wanklyn, M.P. for Bradlord, says the ranks of the Free Fnoders include but few commercial men. Sit- Michael HicksBeach claimed that he was a great .Imperialist, yet 80 years ago he declined to buy the Pelagoa Bay territory, which was obtainable at a very small cost. Further, he point blank refused in ]896 to find the money to meet Lord Lansdowne's requisition to bring the Army up to date. Sir Michael Hicks-Beach :vas cursed with a provincial mind, and had always thwarted Mr Chamberlain's colonial policy. The Free Food League was permeated with an aristocratic prejudice against those very democratic communities—our self-governing colonies. That feeling of casite produced friction during the war butv.een sone English officers and some colonial officers, but it could not be permitted to hamper Imperial Federation. He defied Mr Winston Churchill to prove that Mr Chaniheiiain'>s proposals increased the cost of living. At the Hoyal Colonial Institute the»e was read a paper by Dr. HilHer on preferential trade. Sir Xevile Lubbock presided. He said that Mr Chamberlain's proposals were those of the minority report of a Royal Commission twentyyears ago. Free Trade meant the absence of artificial interference with natural conditions ; henre he, as a Freetrader, opposed Mr Chamberlain. Speaking at Oxted. Lord Burgihllere said that under Mr Chamberlain's plan either agricultural prices would rise—in which case the cost of production would be seriously increased—or if agricultural prices remained stationary, while prices of other commodities roue, agriculture ■vould be more depressed than ever. If the dumping of bankrupt stock in England was stopped the dumped goods would go elsewhere, and enable the manufacturers to undersell us in a neutral market. A MISCONSTRUED REPORT. SYDNEY. Dec 10. Mr Larke, Canadian Commissioner, stated that no report was for warded by him which would bear the construction mentioned in the cable. He thinks there is a good feeling in Australia for" Imperial trade, but the question is one for the people, who did not yet. as a whole, understand the subject.