THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. TUESDAY, APRIL 9, 1912. HOME RULE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10603, 9 April 1912, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. TUESDAY, APRIL 9, 1912. HOME RULE.

The fate of the Home Rule Bill is [ awaited almost with the same anxj iety in the overseas possessions as it [ is iu the Motherland. Indications are not wanting that the Bill, a® framed, does not meet with the approval cf the Irish members. The raiost' critical point is, will the Bill give Ireland fiscal freedom—absolute •controlof its own finance? Mr J. M, Robertson, the "Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade* says it will not. In a recent speech, * Mr Robertson said:— "He did not see how they could answer the Unionist Who said that to give Ireland' complete fiscal autonomy meant -the disintegration of the United Kingdom. To these who argued for such autonomy' he pointed out that not one of the States in the world had ever dreamt of it, and that to advocate it would mean the end of the talk of federal Home Rule altogether. There j would be no basis for federation, and he saw no possibility of. arguing Home Rule if they were to give way to this appeal. Beyond the argument that the present system weighed too heavily on Ireland, he knew of no suggestion of any ground for fiscal autonomy. The objections were a-bsolut el y in su r mou n-ta ble. They would have no hope of carrying, a Home Rule Bill on such a footing. The Irish Home Ruler must rise to -the level of universal politics, and plan for the future and for the race, as well as planning only for Ireland. If lie did not, Ireland.might meet the fate of tie Italian Republics or Greek Republics, and other States, which had destroyed each other by perpetpal failure to agree. They had ho answer to those who said that fiscal autonomy was separation, and there was no kind of answer to Ulster if they allowed it. He hoped

that Home Bailers in Ireland and elsewhere would realise that, whatever might he its theoretical attractions, fiscal autonomy was outside practical politics." The problem of the hour is—Will the Irish members accept a Bill shorn in tin's way? There are many.straws which indicate that the problem ct Ireland is to be settled on federal lines. Mr Asquith, the Prime Minister, himself declares it in Nash's Magazine, where he says:— 'The constnutional problem—the greatest of all the constitutional problems in the immediate future—is to set free the Imperial Parliament for Imperial affairs, and in matters which are purely local to rely more and more upon local option aud knowledge. Ireland is by far the moat urgent case. The goal is inevitable. Are we to go on, generation after e*?aeration, treading with blind steps the .same old, well-worn, hopeless track which zig-zags between coercion and conciliation, but always returning to the point at which we started? Or—and this is the only alternative—shall the British people be brought to a higher and wider point of view, and recognise that in Ireland, as elsewhere,' it its in the union of Imperial | supreimacy wiiih local autonomy tihat ■the secret and l the safeguard of our Empire are to bo found?' A Bill on such 'lines apparently would Q ot be opposed by Mr Austen Chamiberlam, ] for on January i&nd, at Bury, he said:— "Parliament is overworked, and there is a case made out for an extension of, kcal government.. That -'has always, been' the Unionist:. ,pol-' .icy;"; '-'l% is 'well known.''that an'ag- ; reemei.-it on Home Rule was practical ally reached .by the Liberals and Unionists during the'famous Conference art the time of the Constitutional struggle., Twq rival forecasts of other features of the Home Rule Bill hiave been made by the Times and the Chronicle—bait they contradict each other on the vital point of fiscal control. A very intelligent anticipation of the actual Government Bill is given by the Leeds Mercury, which says: ---"The Government's policy has in view the establishment of a strictly subordinate Parliament—such a Parliament as would prove useful in England, Scotland, and Wales, and as would bJajve the same relation to the Parliament in London as the provincial Parliaments in Ontario, Quebec, and the oilier provinces of Canada have to the Parliament at Ottarwia. The Irish Parliament would 1 not have powers that would in any I way exceed the powers of these subordinate assemblies. It is possible that the question of education in Ulster will be placed under the control of a separate body." If the Irish m'emlbers accept a Bill drawn on these lines no crisis need arise—hut will they accept it? The- majority of the men behind Mr Redmond want freedom to levy protective duties against British manufacturers. They want this not only for encouraging local industries, hut because they think it would be by far the most convenient and popular means of, raising money. Ireland now import's mianu(flaictured goods to the value of £30,000,000 yearly. An average ten per cent, tax upon these goods, chiefly English, would bring into the Dublin Exchequer ahout • £3,000,000 a year." Such a Bill is now known to be impossible. What 'will happen P i