"GENEROUS TONGUES" AT TUNBRIDGE WELLS.

Evening Star, Issue 11693, 26 September 1902, Page 4

"GENEROUS TONGUES" AT TUNBRIDGE WELLS.

SIR. EDMUND AND MR SEDDON DIFFER. [FBOH OWE SfKCtAL CORBESPONDKNT.] . LONDON, August 16. Yerterday afternoon Sir Edmund Barton tend Mr Soddoa and their ladies were the gues;s of the Tunbridge Wells people. They wer? first driven to “Ye Pantyka,” then by ■vruT of Eusthall and. through Spealdhursfc to Brooml-ill, where they had tea with Sir David and Lady Salomon; The ladies remaining at Broomhill for dinner, the Pte> imers went on to the Pump room, where they were banqueted by the Farmera* Gab, end “sang ior their sapper” with the usual speeches. Hard indeed it has now become to discover in the postprandial utterances of our visitors something new, and right dad I trow will Sir Edmund and “ TtTng Dck ” be to find themselves once more tn board ship, where reporters cease from troub.ing and weary tongues may rest. Sir Edmund, after the usual flatteringremarks concerning English hospitality and Ml appreciation thereof, spoke at some length on ihe glories of sell-government in the colonies. It was, he said, according to *he genius of the British race that they should never surrender their citizenship. Selfgovernment had been given to such places as Canada, Australia New Zealand, and many other, places. Those who had once received such a gift, being Britons, meant to stick to it. There was nothing in <*»■>*•■ feeling which was incompatible with -the close adhesion of the Empire. The Empire was in a very large sense a federated one, and it would remain federated by the recognition of the genius of race which made tt»« union of Governments practically independent in their domestic affairs, but by n« means inclined to ally themselves to others in respect \o projects of Empire. They had been discussing at the instance of Mr Chamberlain a numoer of questions affecting the .progress of the Empire, and he thought they had made somr headway of which they need not be ashamed. There would always be projects, framed wi.h the best of intentions, _ which examination hi the light of possibility for a number of separate units wou.d show to be too high in their aims. The.- must recognise th..t when proposals of any kind were put forward on the part of self-governing units and adopted by conference, the failure to carry them out in any part of the Empire as a consequence of that adoption was always a set-back to the very project they were. intending to advance. Ihey must therefore lock for what was common ground, try to ascertain to what extent public opinion coincided in various parts of the Empire upon matters, and work as far as poss.ble upon those lines of agreement. If, then, they sought to do too much and took the differences of the Conference "nto the great arena of Empire and got their ideas rejected, the Emp re as a whole would suffer. On the other hand, the Empire would gain if they t oulJ reach .some common ground, and proceed step by step with thore matters concerning which there was mu iual agreement. They must not imaging because he spoke in this way that h< thought they should be timid. He felt no timidity about Imperial progress, but ha wanted to sc© the British Empire grow closer together, and to see that position achieved by the only means they knew of and which they were acustomc-d to use. This was by submitting successive proposals of sufficient importance to the consideration of the various Parliaments concerned, so that steps gained might be. gained in perfect good-will. When some generous tongue 1 laid be ore them the proceedings of the recent Conference, and they examined them in the light of what he had endeavored to put forward, they would think that the results of the Conference were not sufficient to cause any great disappointment to anyone, b;cause these results showed tbat the members of the Conference had appreciated the fact that they were in common as far as they could be in keeping these matters before them. They had done something in this Conference which would tend to the greater cohesion of the many parts of this great Empire. He greatly appreciated the lact that colonists were to be allowed to participate in the provision of sailors for tbo < navy, so that whilst, for instance, the ships were distinctly Australian in the sense of blood, heart, and muscle, they were yet to b; Briiiih. With regard to the Imperial Zollverein, he desired to say that if it meant that there was to be freetrade between various parts of the Empire in the products of the Empire, in the present state of the development of the self-governing colonies he did not think it woffid be so beneficial as many people supposed. They must cut their coat acording to their cloth. They must ro: lose sight of the fact that as several of these Parliaments were autonocould not compel them to become Fieitradeis or Protectionists. In con(,lusi n, he ton bed truth- on the Coronation, and said that if the function lost some of its splendor by the absence of representatives fiom other European countries it was certainly rendered more Imperial. MR SEDDON’S SOLO. Mr Seddon placed himself on good teyms with his audience, by making a comparison which was sweetly “odorous” to those about the festive board. The Premier cf New Zealand had often heard in the past that in the country districts of the Mother Country the people were much slower than in the large centres of population. When ha returned home be would have to say that there was an advancement in the country districts which he bad never witnessed in the large centres. The spirit of hospitality in The country was remarkable. So he paved the way to a- good reception f or a slightly improved version of bis' now famous solo “ Wake up,” in which he ventured to take a different view of the colonial statesman’s ob.igations in regard to maintaining silence on the do me.-tic policy of the Mother Land to that adopted by Mr Ban on. As Premiers of Dominions beyond the Seas, said “King Dak,” both Mr Barton and himself formed part of a great Empire, and if anything happened to imperil the stability of the Empire, or if anything happened tbat was likely to weaken the position or injure those who were their kindred at Home, it was the bounden duty f of every man upon whom responsibility was I cast to speak out bo dly, and prevent In- | jury, if possib’e.—(Cheers.) It was well, more particularly when differences might be anticipated, that cars should be exercised, and the speech of Sir Edmund, he felt for the moment, was like a brake on the motor of New Zealand. When Sir Edmund them with reference to what was transpiring at the Conference, and with regard also to what was transpiring within the various colonies, saying that it was not wise to quicken the pace, he disagreed with him entirely. If they kept the pace slow they would never make progress. All reforms were difficult to accomplish, but the colonies bad shown the Mother Country that she was going too slowly. The experiments they had tried hid proved to be to their advancement, and yet in those colonies they labored under the same difficulties as thex kindred in the Mother Country. When they found that the trade of the Mother Country was injured by the trade of the colonies going to other countries, it was the duty of the colonies to point that out for the benefit of tbeir kindred at Home. The farmers of England supplied the food for the manufacturing community, but if those supplies were derived from other sources the farmers of Great Britain must inevitably suffer. They in the colonies depended largely upon the Mother Country as their market, and if that market were lost to them it would be serious. In that respect thev were doubly interested, and if anything- the co'onies could do or say would stop that state of things which was now rampant, it was Ihe outy of the colonies in their own interests as well as in those of Great Britain to ■••peak out boldly, and stop it if they could. Thev were competitive producers of foodbut at the same time British agriculturists must not look with disfavor upon that competition. Thev were not ab’e to supply all that was needed, and they should see that the additional surp'ies needed w-re secured from within the’r own Empire rather than . from forei n pr-rducers. He was one of those who could unhesitatingly cay that larcer supplies could come from the colonies beyond the seas. He believed that within the United Kingdom there could be a larger production, if on’y the agriculturists would follow the policy oTthode in New Zealand, and unite. Other mbb*

tries were rapidly increasing their trade with the colonies, and the colonists therefore urged England to inquire into the system.