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Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 180, 29 January 1912, Page 4

OUR AUSTRALIAN COUSINS. Mr. Fisher, Australian Prime Minister, is, one hopes, very sincere in his desire to more closely unite the Commonwealth and this Dominion commercially and socially. Short of freetrade—a not undesirable ' goal—-a, reciprocity that removed trade restrictions, and the suggestion that one country is for ever trying to "get at" the other, would effect a commendable change. To regard New Zealand in Australia as a commercial friend, and Australia in New Zealand as a relative instead of a rival, is a consummation "devoutly to be wished," and by wide reciprocal arrangements the related people of both continent and Dominion might benefit very largely, live much more comfortably, and discover that a sovereign could be made to do much better work than it is now capable of. Apart from popular and commercial gain, the idea that Australia and New Zealand should go hand in hand in respect to matters affecting the social structure of both is distinctly good. By reciprocal arrangement Australia and New Zealand have already advanced, and this is especially noticeable in the two countries' dealings with wife deserters and other criminals. Mr. Fisher's suggestion for an Australasian old age pension scheme, whereby people moving from one country to another would not be deprived of the dole, would be a matter of simple arrangement. The interests of the New Zealander and the -Aus-tralian-are wrapped together. The two peoples are largely occupied in producing the same things, and there is a numerous population that is equally at home in Australia and the Dominion. > The exchange of both people and goods between the two countries is most beneficial, and there could be l quoted many cases where men, unsuccessful in New Zealand, have become successful in Australia, and vice versa. It is certainly true that New Zealand gives to Australia many of her most promising young men, mainly because Australia offers so wide a field. Reciprocal arrangements whereby the commercial brotherhood was made closer would greatly aid in dissipating the idea that an Australian is a "foreigner" in N#w Zealand and a New Zealander an interloper in the big Commonwealth.