GENERAL CABLES.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10261, 13 June 1911, Page 3

GENERAL CABLES.

j United Press Association ——y Electric i Telegraph—Copyriynv. IMPERIAL COUNCIL. sir wilfridTaurier's PROPOSAL. CRITICISED In"aUSTRALIA. (Received June 12, 9.30 a.m.) MELBOURNE, June 12. Mr W. M. Hughes, Commonwealth Attorney-General, regards Sir Wilfrid Laurier's proposal for an Imperial Council to endow the Dominions with powers to make treaties with foreign countries as completely opposed to the Imperialistic ideal. If the proposal were adopted, Mr Hughes said, it might happen, and io the case of Canada it would happen, that some portions of the Empire would have better tariff terms with a particular country than other portions had. This would make for the disintegration of the Empire. NEWSPAPER COMMENTS. (Received June 12, 9.40 a.m.) SYDNEY, June 12. The Sydney Morning Herald says that the result of the debate on Mr Harcourt's proposal to the Imperial Conference for a standing committee of Dominion representatives is a matter for grave regret. The journal adds "We share with Sir Joseph Ward astonishment at Sir Wilfrid Laurier's dread of any intei'ference by the Imperial authorities with the Dominions. The Dominion Governments would have had exactly as much independence under such an arrangement as they have now, together with the added power of being able to co-onerate with the United Kingdom with a knowledge of what was needed."

THE INSURANCE BILL. (Received June 12, 8.5 a.m.) LONDON, June 11. Mr Lloyd-George, • Chancellor of the Exchequer, addressing a gathering of four thousand people in the Birmingham Town Hall, met with a great reception. The Chancellor explained the National Insurance Bill. He said that workmen at present paid more than the foiivpence required for insurance to pawnbrokers. The benefits now offered were only the beginning; the rest would accrue without additional charge to the employer. »Mr Lloyd-George added: "The first essential is to clear Britain of the foul habitations in her great cities. I would treat a man receiving rent or ground rent from insanitary dwellings as a receiver of stolen property."

SIR JOSEPH WARD HONOURED

(Received June 12, 9 a.m.) LONDON, June 11. The University of Oxford yesterday conferred the Dpctorship of Laws on Sir Joseph Ward, Mr Botha and Mr Morris, visiting Premiers. The ceremony took place in the Sheldonian Theatre. Doctor H. Gondy, D.C.L., Regius Professor of Civil Law, in introducing Sir Joseph Ward, referred to Ne\v Zealand's offer of a Dreadnought to the Mother Country, which he said, bad induced competition from other Dominions. Though Sir Joseph's proposals at the present Conference were too great for immediate execution, they revealed a far sighted statesman able to discern the germ of a greater united Empire.