The Marlborough Express PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. FRIDAY, JUNE 8, 1906. THE FEDERAL PARLIAMENT.

Marlborough Express, Volume XXXIX, Issue 133, 8 June 1906, Page 2

The Marlborough Express PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. FRIDAY, JUNE 8, 1906. THE FEDERAL PARLIAMENT.

The last session of the present Federal Parliament was opened at Melbourne yesterday. The Speech fromthe Throne, which covers a pretty wide extent of ground, is interesting to us generally inasmuch as it concerns a great people closely allied to us by ties of blood, inhabiting the only land which may be described as contiguous to these islands, and destined, as we hope and believe, to form for all time a member of that Imperial nation to which we are so proud to belong. But the Speech possesses an interest for us of a special character, because it deals directly with two subjects upon which the Prime Minister of this Colony has impressed his personality; Mr Seddon's part in the deliberations upon the New Hebrides question is explicitly mentioned in the Speech,-, ,and .though, the .nature of the communication forwarded to the Colonial Office is only faintly sketched, we .shall not be far out in supposing that the despatch embodies the line laid down by Mr Seddon at a recent interview with the members of the Presbyterian Mission. It will be remembered that Mr Seddon expressed himself in favour of acquiring the islands if possible, or, failing that, of delimiting the French and British claims. He scouted the suggestion that the present system, of joint control should be continued. It has been objected that the Prime Minister's partition proposal, if; acted upon by the Imperial authorities, would strengthen and make permanent the French claim, which, like our own, is at present only shadowy, and that the best solution of the difficulty, with an eye to the future, would be to keep the question open. By and bye, when the population of .the Commonwealth has trebled or quadrupled,.the problem could be remitted to Australian hands with a surer hope of securing a settlement in accordance with Anglo-Saxon ambition. There may be something in this, but we need hardly hint that it is not Mr Seddon's way, of doing .things. If France could be'induced to accept Mauritius in exchange, well and good, hut the Premier is not the man who bejieves m waiting to> see what will turn up. * * The other question in which we take more than a neighbourly ..or family concern is, of course, reciprocity. And on this the Commonwealth Ministers, speaking through the Governor-Gener-al, ai-e necessarily cautious. " The negotiations," we are told in the language of diplomacy, " for preferential trade with South Africa, New Zealand and other parts of t the Empire, have been advanced tentatively as far as desirable, in view of the present position of the Tariff Commission inquiry," but it is hoped that a Bill will be introduced during the session providing for the extension of commercial relations with " other peoples of British birth." This language implies that a larger scheme than reciprocity with New Zealand is in contemplation. Mr Chamberlain's policy of ■Imperial preference has always been popular in th 6 Commonwealth, and it may yet happen that what the bungling Unionist Party,- led, or rather misled, by two leaders, utterly failed to do ? will be accomplished by the Colonies employing an entirely different set of tactics. The cause of Preference was not fairly presented to the- British electors at the last Election. It was accepted as a negation of Free Trade, whereas its obvious intention was to promote a more complete freedoriv If Mr Chamberlain's hands had been clean in other respects, unsoiled, for instance, by the dirt of South Africa, the result of the poll might have been different. But one mistake does not make disaster, any more than one swallow makes a summer, and the trade principle that is best suited to the requirements of the people of the whole Empire will assuredly be the one that will be ultimately adopted. It will be some satisfaction to New Zealand to feel that she has had her share in forcing the momentous issue.