FUTURE OF TARIFF REFORM.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIX, Issue 72, 28 March 1910, Page 8

FUTURE OF TARIFF REFORM.

MR. CHAMBERLAIN INTERVIEWED. FULL POLICY OR NOTHING. (From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, 11th Febiuary. The Morning Pos>t had some good "copy" on Monday in the shape of a two-column interview with Mr. Joseph Chamberlain, who is now in London for a few days prior to leaving for the South of France. . . Mr. Chamberlain had something to say about Scotland and the North, where he thought the land taxes and the Budget were popular, but, he continued :—: — "Tariff reform is, and must remain, the main object of our policy. Where we have won, we have won on Tariff Reform. Where we lost, Tariff Reform was still our best friend. There are no doubt exceptions, but speaking gener-ally-we did best in those places where Tariff Reform had been preached longest am) most boldly. We fared worst where t local leaders had been most vacillating or most timid." Referring to the proposal to drop the food taxes, Mr. Chamberlain said :—: — "If they drop Tariff Reform, what do you think they are going to put in lta place ? Even from thfrir own point of view they arc wrong. Tariff Reform is the mo3t popular part of our policy. They will find nothing to replace it. But there- are the ■wobblers. There are always wobblers when a great policy is proposed — men who are frightened at its greatness and cannot see that in its greatness lies its strength We have had too many wobblers. They are no good. Men who are frightened themselves cannot put strength into others. Bob there will be fewer wobblers in future. la many parts of the country the working classes are far ahead of their leaders on Tariff Reform. This isn't as it should be. Some of the local leaders and some of the speakers have been afraid of the food duties. It is no good waiting till you are asked questions about the food duties ; it looks as if you were afraid of them ; you must deal with them boldly and straightforwardly. They are very simple to explain, and when explained are always understood. But, after all, we have overcome our greatest difficulty in regard to them, for people can't go on repeating the same lie, and the little loal and black bread lies are now played out, and I don't think we shall hear much of them at the next election." THE FULL POLICY OR NOTHING. It seemed to Mr. Chamberlain that a majority of the Lords were in favour of reforming their own House, and he was prepared to go as fay as to agree that while on the Liberal side the tendency was evidently towards a single chamber, the aim ot the Unionists should be to strengthen the House of Lords by a reform of its constitution. The people had evidently made up their mind that the Upper House should be reformed, but while in theory it was difficult to defend the constitution of that House, it must be admitted that the country would probably not obtain by any change a Second Chamber which would work so Well in practice as the House of Lords nad worked. Reform would make the House of Lords stronger, and as a "House of Commons man" }|w Chamberlain was fully able to sympathise with objections to any change which would greatly strengthen it, but an effoctive Second Chamber was ob- \ iously essential to the good of the country. •"But," repeated Mi. Chamberlain, "1 \ am not going to say what course I should take at the present moment. It is for the Liberals to make tho first move. They will have great difficulties with their Labour and Irish allies. Personally, 1 am strongly of opinion that the Unionist Party should not make any effort to obtain the support of either the Labour or the Irish Parties." Mr. Chamberlain concluded : "The Imperial side is its strongest side. The working classes aie Imperialists. I have ppoken to them often on the Imperial question. They always respond to such au appeal." He considered it ridiculous to talk of "a measure" of Tariff Reform. "There can be no measure of Tariff Reform — it is a broad and deep policy affecting the British Empire as a whole. We must have the full policy or nothing."

The finding of the missing British Indian Steam Navigation Company's steamer Loodiana, on Cosmoledo Island, reached New Zealand almost at the same time as a letter from Mr. M. Henry, formerly of Petonr, an engineer on the Eastern Telegraph Company s s.s. Sheraid Osborno. From the letter it appears that there is a mistake in the cablegram, for Mr. Henry refers to her as having left Zanzibar* for Colombo, and not Colombo for Mamitius, "The night before the cyclone," he writes, "we were up the town, and met several men from the B. I. tteamer- Loodiana. They left the next day for Colombo along with another ship, the turret Oalavale. The day after they left was the day of the rvelone, and they ran right clean Jnto the middle of it. The Galavale returned to port the day after in a terrible state — down by the head, leaking, steeringgear broken, two boats gone, one man lost overboard, condenser door burst in, and to cap the lot, the skipper had his two daughters with him, and they were locked in a bathroom along with other passengers, so they must have had a lively lime. She and tho Loodiana were in sight of each other until 9 o'clock at night, and that was the last seen of her. She had eighty deck passengers (natives) fo<' Bombay, and we were expecting to net awny that day for Reunion." Howover, the tiherard Osborne, luckily, did not get away, and the Loodiana has been found. The cost to the Otago Rugby Union of providing alcoholic liquor for visiting football teams was a subject upon whirh a question was preferred to the chairman of that body at the annual meeting, reports the Otago Daily Time*-. Mr. Leonard was* the delegate who sa-k-ed the question, and he said he thought the item wan one that Miould be done iiuay with. Ue did not think it right for any athletic body to provide liquor for youin; men. This sentiment was greeted with some applause. Mr. Campbell, in replying to the question, said it had been a time-honoured custom that when ii team visited Dunedin they should be received by, the president of the union and the committee and their healths drunk. Of course, the men were not asked to t*ke it if they did not want it, and he was very pleased to hay that he had noticed, particularly in the case of visiting teams, that a good many of the men did ,not take anything but what was called "aoft stuff. ' He thought it was not a practice of the Rugby Union to spend money on alcoholic liquor — that was a thing they had always put their face against — but on a team visiting Dunedin there wats some little formality to be gone through. In regard to the custom of Sunday drives to visiting teams, also, the chairman added that it was the expressed wish of the New Zealand Union thai these should be discontinued.