The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 11, 1911. THE LINK THAT BINDS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 94, 11 October 1911, Page 4

The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 11, 1911. THE LINK THAT BINDS.

Gallons of taik have been spilt on tli siibject of Imperial trade federation. Th average politician uses such eloquen phrases as "drawing the bonds ck>Ser, : and "the silken thread of kinship" wit! pathetic iteration. Any time durinj the last twenty years when the fit tool the politicians they have again discover ed that Australians and New Zealander are kin, that an advantage to the Com monwealth is an advantage to New Zea land, that a New Zealander is not : foreigner in Australia and an.Australiai is not an alien in New Zealand. Bu there is no real affinity under the pre sent trade system, and both countries, al though their leading men affect to re gard each other as dear brothers anc fellow workers in the one great Imperia scheme, still regard their goods as .' menace. A customs tariff is specifically devised to make it difficult for the taxe( commodities to obtain entrance into tin country imposing the tariff. That is t( say, the New Zealander does not rcgan the Australian as a brother, but as ai exploiter trying to beat him for busi ness. John Bull, who does the bigges business under the heavens, has no tarif wall in the sense that the dominions un dcrstand it, and if he were as suspicion about the introduction of colonial good as one colony is of another colony'i goods, he would be cursed from' Dan ti Hcei-slielxi as a hard-hearted old hunks On paper there appears at present to > a remote chance that Australian ant New Zealand statesmen will phiy witl reciprocity. They will, probably, followinj precedent, juggle with a' few lines nov mentioned in? the tariff's lists of botl countries and make the formidable list : little more complicated. At present thi tariff lists pf the Commonwealth and tin Dominion are fearful and wonderfu things, supposed to exist for the .protec tion of industries that arc due to com mence in the glorious future. There ii no considerable free trade party eithc in the Commonwealth or the Dominion because, curiously enough, every State y. jealous, of even- other .State, and tin good of the public is apparently of lesi importance than that of the individual and no colonial reciprocity, short of trm and free interchange of goods withou let or hindrance, can be entirely satis factory. This is so foreign to colonia ideals that there is no hope of realisa tion. Both the Commonwealth and Domin ion possess formidable tariffs, obviousl; designed to assist manufacturing indus tries, but neither of the two eountriei has made any grave attempt to use thei various raw materials, without doinj which they cannot compete with oversiei rivals. It is, however, in the impositioi of customs taxes on products of the soi from which the boasted spirit of inter colonial brotherhood is absent. Thi system of taxation of our brothers' pro duce has the effect of making edible that are common and cheap in mos countries high-priced luxuries. Tlier is nothing more important to a com nvunity tlinn cheap fowl, and coloniia free trade, or even liberal colonial reeip roeity, would at least relieve the situa tion. Cnder present conditions the die of the people is restricted on account o the dea.rness of many common commodi ties, the price of which might be sensibl; diminished if intercolonial competitioi were permitted. It is curious that ther exists a reciprocal agreement betweei New Zealand and Canada and none be tween the neighbors of New Zealand, am the Commonwealth. Mr. Fisher, Com inonwealth Prime, Minister, has, witl statesmanlike vagueness and futility, de flared that ''lie hoped that in a few year New Zealand would be linked with Aus fralia. and associated not only in defence but in commercial progress"—the sor: of statement that has been launchw amidst a chorus of "hear, hears" at in tervals during two decades. Commereia expansion other than the production oi raw mntn'riiils and our leading lines h ireatly hampered by the shyness of capital and tire difficulty of obtaining worki'l's for specific industries. Tariffs have liei'ii useful, not in the protection of inliistry. "but in adding to the revenue. It might be held that a liberal removal of •ustoins duties would have a grievous ■fleet on the revenue, but a keener con'ciitratiion on land settlement—the most .-1 l;i 1 matter that can be considered—ivonld quickly even matters up. In the ueantime the vague conventional utterinces about drawing the countries closer ogether will enthuse no one. Human ove for a distant brother is mainly a natter of "jKicket and stomach."

CURRENT TOPICS

MAOIU LADY CRTTIC. Maggie Papakura, of TJotorua (described in English papers as -'the Maori Queen"l. has been handing to ■British journalists some smart conclusion* on things in general. It will be seen from. Maggie's remurks that she has some tact: "There are bad ones, I know. T do not think of them. But a goodl Englishman—ah, he is the man! He is chief among men! What i* there in you that is goodV Well, vou are strong; you are restless, ambitious, clever, always scheming what you shall do next. Vou have wrested the secrets from, the earth. You have made the metals vour servants. You have brought light. You have driven away the fear of darkness. You cannot tell how much that means to a Maori—the fear of darkness. I feel it now, sometimes—though with this lovely English twilight, w-hieli we never have at home, there seems to be hardly any darkness at all. . . . Although I hear so much about the advance of women, and. as you know, in New Zealand women have the vote—l have one myself, as a landed proprietor—the English suf- , fragista might learn something from the happiness and power of the Maori wife in her own sphere. . . . There is one t'ting in which I have to express my disappointment with the English. This is the. tendency to hypocrisy. My mother, ; as an old-school Maori, taught me to be absolutely natural and simple-hearted. Rut I go to your 'at homes' and I find people who have been saying they hate one another a moment before throw their arms round each other's necks and tell all sorts of falsehoods. Wc Maoris never do that. If we do not like anyone we recognise that there is no need to say bo, but we don't make protests of affection. With Us, of course, personal likes and dislikes don't count so much as with you. It is a question of the tribe. Then there is the power of kindness, both in laws and in the home, which vou don't seem to quite understand. "When, for instance, a girl or boyis found doing wrong he or she is rarely punished, but, on the contrary, pitied and forgiven. And generally the offence n«ver happens again. Theft we simply do not know, for the stranger is always welcome to what wo can give him. He may take what he likes, and there is no word in our language either for 'Please' or 'Thank you.' To us it is natural to share our goods. We have no locks, and in most cases no doors. The. result is that there are no Maori poor and no unemployed. Nearly all Maoris are landowners,'aiuY if they are not, the tribal feeling is too strong for a Maori man not to work—on a settlement, I mean, for in the towns, of course, many get corrupted 1 . In the old days the Maori warrior Was ashamed to work, but now it is the other way." Some of Maggie's information about Maori men will be just as new news to New Zealanders as it is to Londoners.

BY XBW METHODS.

The newest method of invading Australia's little-known Northern Territory is by motor car. The first traveller to Miter the Territory in »■ motor ear was Mr. P. B. Powell, a" mining engineer, who has just completed a prospecting survey in the neighborhood of the McArfclrur river, nearly 500 miles from the Queensland lwrder. Mr. Powell was sent out to inspect some silver-lead deposits, and his methods form a striking contrast to those of an expedition which visited the Territory only a year ago for a similar purpose. The earlier expedition travel- , led from Queensland by sea and had' a : most unhappy experience, the small sailing vessel employed being buffeted about for some days in the Gulf of Carpentaria. An arduon™ river voyage and a slow journey with packhorses added to the troubles of the party. Mr. Powell met with no such difficulties. Following the mail track, which provided a faiT road, he accomplished comfortably within a few days an undertaking which would have occupied months if he had adopted the old methods of travelling. Leaving the Queensland border he travelled north-west for ,'i;>o miles, passing through a region which he describes l as good stock-cmintry. Sub-artesian water is found at a depth of 250 ft. The country is stocked lightly with cattle, but Mr. Powell s.iys that the few settlers are convinced that it could be made ideal . for sheep if it were opened up. Within a radius of fifty miles of McArthur river there is promising mineral country, which requires systematic prospecting. ; Zinc. and lead are found in large, and continuous outcrops, but the metal values are small on the surface, though Mr. Powell thinks ; that extensive prospecting would l>e well ; repaid. The Northern Territory Mines and Exploration Company holds leases of large areas in the McArthur river dis- . ' trict, and the expert has urged the eompnny to test its properties thoroughly. ' .It is probable that the company, which : has its headquarters in Melbourne, will : adopt the recommendation. Access to , its properties could be made fairly easy, 'and if its tests prove satisfactory the 1 prospects of the development of the mining industry in the Northern Territory i will be improved.