OUR CANADIAN LETTER.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXV, Issue 35, 10 February 1904, Page 2

OUR CANADIAN LETTER.

(From Our Canadian Correspondent.) VANCOUVER, 8.C., January 18.— PREFERENTIAL TARIFFS. The Canadian Government is constantly receiving communications from both Australia and New Zealand concerning the tariff and the proposed preference within the Empire. Two laic documents in this line have been given considerable attention by the press. One is from the commercial agent of the government a.t Melbourne, the other from a large importing firm at Wellington, N.Z. The first says: — "Preferential trade is in the political air. It may be only a question of a few months when the Australian Government may follow .the example of the Dominion. That a preference in customs duties will be extended to Canada upon a reciprocal basis is almost beyond question. What the latter means to Canadian exporters can easily be realised by a study of the enormous increase in recent years of Australian importation of goods from the United States. If not before, at least with the preference in duties will come the direct cargo steamer service to Australia, which will place exporters upon a footing which at present is so much desired/ The New Zealand firm also refers to this same increase in United States trade with the Antipodes. It suggests that the new tariff bill passed by the New Zealand legislature should be minutely studied in this country and advantage taken of its provisions. The firm remarks that the New Zealand preference to British and Colonial goods should be of immense advantage to Canadians, and should, to a very laru. extent, affect their importations from the United States. They expect that much of their American business will be transferred to England and Canada because of the new tariff. The firm is now anxious to hear from Canadiau manufacturers, especially of office specialities and printing papers. it cannot be said that up to the present Canadian manufacturers have taken much advantage of the New Zealand preference, neither are they as wide-awake as they should be to obtaining Australian trade. The merchants "down under" take far more from this country than do Canadians from .the south. This is shown particularly when the manifests of the Australian liners are studied. One finds all sorts of products of Canada going to the southern seas, but only light cargoes are brought from there. As the politician says, it is time for a change. CANADA AND THE CHINESE LABOUR PROTEST. Irrespective of political party Canadians generally endorse the reply of Sir Wilfred Laurier to Mr. Seddon, the New Zealand Premier, regarding the employment of Chinese in the Transvaal gold mines. The Prime Minister declines, on behalf of his Government, to join in protest which Mr Seddon's suggesed should be made by the self-governing colonies. Sir Wilfred says it is "not the policy of the Government of Canada to interfere in matters outside of the Dominion." British Columbia, being the chief sufferer in Canada, because of the "yellow peril" is, of course, the most interested part of the Dominion in the question. Here Liberals and Conservatives alike agree that the Premier did right in refusing to join the impetuous Mr. Seddon. ; The Victorian Colonist," one of the strongest Opposition newspapers on the Pacific coast, dubs the suggestion another of Mr. Seddon's indiscretions, and says the proposed interference in the internal affairs of the Transvaal would be most indiscreet and injudicious, not to say without constitutional warrant. It finds it difficult to understand how Mr. Seddon could have supposed that the Colonial Goveyiments would entertain such a proposal, and playfully remarks that it can only imagine that the Premier of New Zealand for the moment dreamed that the consolidation of the Empire, which is looked forward to as the goal of Imperial sentiments, had already achieved. The "Victorian Times," which speaks the mind of one of the members of the Laurier Cabinet, notices as remarkable, this opposition approval of Sir Wilfred Laurier, and agrees that self-governing colonies must be the sole judges in matters of internal economy. AUSTRALIAN'S SUICIDE, Very determined was Rodolphe J. Metayer, of Sydney. N.S.W., and 31 Rue dcs Petits Ecures, Paris, to commit suicide. He tried twice—once in San Francisco, unsuccessfully, and the second time in Montreal. In the Canadian city he managed to cut his throat from ear to ear. He inflicted three terrible gashes and bled to death. Metayer arrived in Vancouver froni Sydney per the Aorangi on October 2.lth last. He was sulTerinp: from the effects of alcoholic excess. After a week's stay here he went to San Francisco, and put up at the swell Palace Hotel. There his actions were so peculiar that the management had him taken to the French hospital. There they said his nerves and mental condition required looking: after but tli"y allowed him considerable liberty. He manasred to secure a razor, aud had already slashed his throat slightly when an attendant entered tils room, threw himself on the would-be suicide, and took the razor away. Metayer was placed under restraint for a time, but was able to leave the hospital just before Christmas. He came here again and went east to Montreal. There he secured a room in the Savoy Hotel, aud ended his own life early this month. In his pockets were a <rold watch, ten pounds, and some papers. These showed that he represented a French wine firm in Sydney, Australia. The Ereneh Viee-Consul. at Montreal, said his attention had been called to Metayer a few days before his suicide, and arrangements were being made to place him in a gold cure institution. It was only on the tinderstanding that he was to be so treated in a few days that the Savoy Hotel allowed him to temporarily remain there. Metayer, it appears, lay down in an easy chair and. to use a ptnnge, expression, killed himself comfortably.