FISCAL REFORM.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVI, Issue 125, 31 May 1904, Page 3

FISCAL REFORM.

;. ITS RELATION TO IMPERIAL UNITY. LONDON, May 29. At a banquet tendered to him, in response to urgent requests to express his opinion on the fiscal question, Mr Irvine, ex-Victorian Premier* said that though personally a Free Trader, he felt it right to say that the vast majority of Australians were in hearty and thorough accord with Mr Chamberlain's proposals, though he was doubtful if they fully understood their precise effects. Many considered there were wider issues involved than those of any fiscal question. Many realised that Australians were gradually "ting further away in their interests and political developments from the country of their origin, and were beginning to live their own life. He was doubtful if the ties of sentiment possessed the degree of permanence necessary to bind the great Empire, and therefore hoped that either fiscal , - or closer constitutional means would b«r found to draw the colonies and the Motherland together, the colonies contributing a larger and fairer share of the burden of defence and receiving a large voice in the control ' of the Empire. Without wishing to suggest the difficulties ahead, he -~ said thoughtful men were able to conjecture as a result of the war " the formation of a great dominant Mongolian alliance in the Far East. If so, circumstances might arise con- '•'■ siderably jeopardising the maintenance of British supremacy in Austra- . lia. It was only right to regard possible futuro troubles, since it was safer to face them as a united Em- • pipe.