TARIFF AND TRADE.

Mataura Ensign, 15 March 1909, Page 3

TARIFF AND TRADE.

"THE CHANGES TO COME." U* ELKCXKIO TELEOHAI'II COI'YHII»UT. 1 I'KB UN11E1) JTUSB3 ASSOCIATION. JjONUON, March 13. Mr Baliuur, us tho guest of the Kx•ocutivo Committee of the Tariif Hoform League, remarked that no doubt .Fiscal Keforni was th« lirst plank of their platform. (Cheers). It was j the mutter whereto any Unionist Go--vernmcat must lirst address itself. Mr Balfour referred at lougth to Mr ►Churchill's declaration as regards ro<to,liating, and quoted extracts from «the speeches of Ministers, who claimed that retaliation was really protection. It .was, he said, another indication, irrespective of party, that tho old system must bo changed. These were symptoms that that opinion wus spreading beyond the Unionist ranks, and ho predicted that when tho changes came they would produco no undue shock to national industry or, tho course of national trade. Mr Balfour added that tho' • changes would be commousenso, moderate and reasonable. COLONIAL PREFERENCE. LONDON, March 13. The Council of the London Chambers of Commerce resolved that the preference accorded by various self-governing colonics would be a distinct advantage to British manufacturers and that its withdrawal would bo most detrimental to trade.