The Daily News THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 1905. THE AUSTRALIAN LABOUR CONFERENCE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 7734, 9 February 1905, Page 2

The Daily News THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 1905. THE AUSTRALIAN LABOUR CONFERENCE.

, The resolutions of the Australian Labour Conference, which we published ill our cables of yesterday, mask a decisive advance in the Liberal and Labour policy- of the Commonwealth. The miserably depressed condition af Australian industries j which has been, to a great extent, coincident with the establishment of Federation, has in many quarters been attributed to that cause. This is a view which will not, however, bear the test of close examination. Considering the work it does, ami the duties of which it has relieved the various State Administrations, he Commonwealth Government is an economical administration. Its _ liicf fault is that, hampered by i State jealousies, it has not been permitted to take over such depnrl{inent.s as those which control the ( railways and the lands of the conti•'nent. As things are at present, I there is great unnecessary expense ;incurred in the administration of six I 'different railway departments and as many departments of land and sur|vc,v. Furthermore, it is certain that • had the Federal Government been empowered to administer the debts " of the various States it would ere now have formulated a scheme which would save to the people of Australia some millions yearly, and many more millions in the ultimate re- ,. demption of their liabilities. 'Hint • the Federal Government will ere long I be compelled for the sake of Australian credit to step in and regulate the borrowing of the Stales is almost a certainty. The debts of some J of them have in recent years increased at a terrific rate, and without prudent administration the day is 1 not far distant when one or more of the Stales may shock English investors, and do New Zealand as well as n Australia irretrievable damage by making temporary default lin the meeting of their financial responsi- - billties. At the bolloni'of all Australia's difficulties lie two serious errors in the early policy of those who ruled the colonies—the want of native manufacturing industries, approximately capable of meeting Australian wants, and the alienation of the public lauds in huge areas to "' persons whose successors now hold them lo the injury of the Commonweal, These are the bed-rock faults of Australian political life, and it is i f chiefly at thwn that the Labour Conference has directed its attention during the recent conference. Talk on 5t other matters—and too much of itthere has also been ; but in lornuist lating a policy which will favour the it establishment of factories of all sorts, owned by Australian men, and _ worked by Australian operatives, the Labour Conference is on the right track. A condition precedent to this establishment of home industries is a system of drastic taxation of foreign 'imports of all kinds, which B can possibly be manufactured in Australia. Given a tariff like the Mcl" Kinley tariff of the United States, and a systimi of local manufactures, Australia's cities would soon be hives of industry. Add to this a new set of land laws similar to our - own, with an equally democratic and forceful administration to see theiii carried out, and the country districts within the well-watered areas would no longer languish and strug- ' gle. At the present time in nil the States the enormous bulk of the arable land is absolutely not under cultivation. Within less than an hour's train ride of Sydney or Melbourne there are thousands upon thousands of acres of good land which has never known the plough, and is simply held in large grazing areas by untitled lords, wlio give employment 'to a mere handful of menials and hangers-on. Let this laud be resumed and cut up among the men whose earth hunger and indusi, try drive, them lo light flood and drought in the baekcounlry for the sake of a crop once in years, and I Victoria and New South Wales would both soon know what real prosperity means. Every good New . Zi-aland democrat must wish • the Labour Conference every success in ir its efforts to concentrate the great strength of its intelligent party upon these grand and essentia,} reforms.