RULING THE COUNTRY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 243, 19 November 1909, Page 2

RULING THE COUNTRY.

THE LORDS AND iUii BLDUET. LORD LANSDOU-Nt.3 AMENDMENT APPRO VED. "A CONSPICUOUS ACT OP STATESMANSHIP." POOD TAXATION: A FRANK AVOWAL. By Cable.—PrcßS Association.—OopyrlgW Received November 18, l> |un. London, November 18. The National Union Conservative Constitutional Association's conference at Manchester emphatically approved of the terms of Lord Lansdownc'» amendment' U> the Budget, and thanked Lord Lans--1 dowuo for his conspicuous net of statesmanship in enabling the Lords to sliow eonllilence ill the wisdom u.ul juugmenl

of the people. 'lllic conference elected Jiarl Derby president, and unanimously adopted t.ic resolution of Mr. Henry Chaplin that .•> view of the growing unemployment tariff reform should be no longer delayed.

Mr. Chaplin remarked that the enemy would doubtless concentrate its attack on the question of food taxes. Ho.. : ■ meet the attack must he by a frank avowal that if duties were imposed <n manufactured imports we must have some taxes, however small, on imported food. That was essential for the polioy of colonial preference. It waa equally essential in justice to Uritish agriculture. We must next readjust the existing taxes to prevent augmentation of the proportion of taxes borne by wor' era.

Lord Derby declared the party was united on the general principles of fiscal reform.

'•THE INSISTENT ISSUES." TARIFF REFORM FIRST. MR, BALFOUR AT MANCHESTER. Received November 18, 10.55 p.m. London, November 1«. Mr. Balfour (Leader of the Opposition) received a tremendous ovation at the Free Trade Hall at Manchester.

Among what he described as " the in- , sistent issues of the present crisis," he ( gave, amid cliccrs, firet place to tariff reform. "I am told," he aaid, "that i the feeling in Lancashire in favor of tariff reform is more lukewnrm and les» ardent than it is certainly found in other great industrial centres. I am told that some Unionists feared that fiscal changes' would increase the cost of living to the working men and throw a burden upon the industries upon which they were engaged, and would react unfavorably as a whole on the cotton : ' dtistry. I do not believe a word of that. (Cheers.) Of course anything diminishing the prosperity of the working masses would alTcct not" merely them—and they aro the most important clement in the country—but all others. I shauld never adhere to any fiscal change of importance which was calculated to, or could, increase the worker*' ordinary cost oi living. I am also told that Lancashire is struggling for an existence in the neutral markets of the world, and would no longer be able to hold its own if tliere is any reform of the import duty or a balancing import duty is imposed. lam told that despite Lancashire's prestige, knowledge, education, and its best machinery, and because she is less happily circumstanced, other countries will gain on us, and that the imposition of the import duties required for revenue purposes are going to destrov our trade, but we see less happilv situated rivals' with far greater duties ini|n-"d upon them and successfully compel iii!r in the same markets as we once held."

THE VALUE OF THE COLONIAL MARKETS. Received November IS, 11.40 p.m. London, November 18. Mr. Balfour, continuing, said thin Germany was gaining in the markets of central Europe in the matter of the cotton industry, partly owing to the proximity, hut largely to effective treaties. He proceeded to prophesy that Lancashire would gain in two ways—firstly, by commercial treaty, which n* cal reform alone could give; secondly, by colonial preference. He next pictni .'si the enormous potentialities of the preference offered By the colonies, and ur,red freetraders to remember how Germany, formerly subdivided into States with different tariff systems, pained through economic unification and effective commercial treaties. TTc also urged them to consider the wisdom of dninsr their utmost to extend lHt'iin's economic bounds liv briniriim the dominions into {veer ceonmnii- relations, and thus preserve some of the greatest and best markets whereon they had to depend.

London, November 17. The Time-i Mvs a cluster of lines not rule the country, but prevents nil nrl>iirtirr rulin" l>y nnottlcr cluster The ni- ; n<-ii)fil function of the Lords i* to L'ive the nation freedom fo 3<*idc it., ii'vn deatinv. Other iiewsnnpers comment on party hues. __Tlie Daily Mail comments on Mr. _ AVinstiin Churchill 1 * characteristic precipitation in anticipating Mr. Ani|inth with li!s portentous manifesto.