AN AUSTRALIAN STATESMAN.

Evening Post, Volume LIX, Issue 11, 13 January 1900, Page 4

AN AUSTRALIAN STATESMAN.

Tho Right Hon. G. H. Reid has for years played a leading part in the politics of the Mother Colony of Australia, and there is every reason to believe that ho will figure prominently among the leaders who will have to guide the newCommonwealth in its early days. His political experience and his powers of observation lend a special interest U» the instructive interview with him pub - lished in another column of this issufj. His views of New Zealand deserve t)ie attention of our colonists, and are msi.i Iced by clear insight. His opinions of t,he conditions prevailing here are on the whole favourable, although he raise 131 3 a note of warning on the subject of our heavy taxation, and shrewdly points, out that the test of our labour legislation will come when the margin be'oT/een population and natural resources be/oomes small. As one of the moulders oL the Australian Commonwealth, Mr* Reid speaks with great weight on Federal questions, and it is evident fro.'ji his remaks that when Australia begi ns its new career this colony will have to face a more or less hostile tariff. There is truth as well as humour in hifj statement that as far as he could ssoe there was only one joint upon which "IS few Zealanders were quite clear, and thata t was to get as much out of the movf'ment as possible without any self-sacrifro c. Many will feel reassured by Mr. Rewi's refusal to believe that the Imperial Government would encourage membors of the Atistralasian Contingents to settle in South Africa instead of returnj ng to their homes. The interview will well repay perusal, for it is good tc- hnve an able observer's views on our colcfiy and our conditions of life.