The Marlborough Express. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. SATURDAY, JUNE 17, 1911. ADVERTISING NEW ZEALAND.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLV, Issue 139, 17 June 1911, Page 4

The Marlborough Express. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. SATURDAY, JUNE 17, 1911. ADVERTISING NEW ZEALAND.

To some people it may seem that the constant banqueting of the Colonial representatives at the Imperial Conference is a sad waste >of time, and_ occasionally one hears a would-b© •c^nic' 'waging sarcastic over -this "continual dining and wining which is going oh in ikHidon." Such allegedly "comic papers" as .New Zealand possesses! delight to picture poor Sir Joseph Ward as "gorging" at some big banquet whilst the affairs of "New Zealand are neglected. We notice, however, ir^lrat£ in some of the Cana<dian papers' similar ' cartoons' appear in which Sir Wilfrid Laurier is treated in th^.same way, and those who read the Bulletin with any "regularity 'know thait tho English banquet is a "stock joke with that, journal's clever artists. But the social side of the Conference has a distinct; value of its own. The "dining and wining" is after all a mere excuse for speech-makingjj and although some of this post-pranmal oratory may not be of a very high order, many excellent speeches are often delivered by representatives of the Dominions, ex-Colo-nial Governors, and British statesmen and politicians specially interested in the study of the, great problems of Britain's Oversea Empire. The most ■ notable of ,thesg jspeeuhes are generally I very fully reported, not only in the London press, but in many of the leading proviiiqial dailies, and by this means a very 'decided fillip is necessarily given to the interest taken by British people in Colonial questions.' The educational value of these banquets is therefore by no means to be despised. Wehave been led to make these remarks 'through reading the; cabled report ,of the t New Zealand' ■Dinner held in London*-the other day. Nominally an annual function, organised by some of the more progressive of the many New. Zealanders who are living in London, ihe New Zealand' Dinner, in a Conference year, is in r vested with a special importance which-.} it does not .^possess on ordinary, occasions. This.yiear -the guests included, not only Sir/Joseph Ward and Djrv Findlay, but Mr-W. P. :Reeves, the! ex-High Commissioner, Lords Plun- r ket and Ila>if]ir,ty, ex-Governors of I the Dominion; Mr Lewis Harcourt,', Secretary of1 State for the Colonies;/ Mr Fisher, tjie Australian Prime Min-1 ister, Sir E. MoniSagae Nelson, a mag-i nate of iho meat ' indiistry. and of' course the various -High Commissioners and Agentfk-General. The New; Zealand Prime Minister made a pomt5 of the fact that the work done by the Conference could/not be\judged bythe bare resolutions passed and 'reported in the, tiress. It is easy to understand that, the interchange of views between the various Oversea representativesl and the heads of the great Imperial Departments must be of very material benefit to both the Home Government and the Oversea States. Thejse tprirate negotiations, which in some instances*have extended over several cfoiys, are not reported ; but they-jare none the less of very, great value in tending to remove misconceptions on both sides and to convey information, which cannot fail to, be of considerable advantage to State both ' British and Colonial. Mr Harcourt's^spQech included a graceful reference.;'to the "Dreadnought" gitt, which is now so fashionable a subject for sojfrn *hl derision by certain of our Opp<#i£ian contemporaries, but which nevertheless has probably done more to impress the British people with a sense of New Zealand's importance; and of her, loyalty to the cause of Empire, than any other event ot the past decade. Mr Harcourt was also very happ^ in his reference to the Conference. His declaration that the keynote of future Imperial development ttotokl be'not centralisation but co-operation,\ was probably a reference to the wisely-devised new sys- • i £& whA c}l *> wo*k <>f the Colonial Office is to be carried out on much 51*2° S^i-essive. Jiaes than in the v w tnW"*! Council which Sir Joseph Ward desires to see may not /come for some years; but the,concession T b r the ImI?eml Government Of fcir Josephs point that the Oversea States aa'e'now to be considered and treated not as dependents upon but as actual partners in ,the Impwial gov-ernance-partners possessing an equal share oi rights and responsibilities with what we hiay call the nominally dominant partner-is a very im?o? by Ins speech that he will not be deterred by his recent failure to conl™t th^Gfeferenoe of the value of t^nv 1 Coun 9 1l fr<Vn. continuing L^-S rar*f> 1 the'lmperial sy^ SSnTfS* be w beheved woukf be found i Hls Pr°Ject was, so we considered, premature, and unworkable m its details; but it is by no ns. to be inferred that later on some better-plannetl schemes, oii the same mam Imes, may not be devised and adopted. Mr Haroourt's reference to New Zealand's scheme of closer settlement was marked by what is manifestly an error. We refer to his statement that since January last ■STwv milh<yn a*res I[>f land had been S Wvi^ n xfor sf^enjent. In all pi obabihty two hundred thousand acres was the total .mentioned,, the two millions" being: an error in cable transmission^ English people, with whom Mr,-Fisher is evidently very popular, will.no doubt note the Australian Prime Minister's complimentary reference to New Zealand, which, he said, had! "led the world in social legislation, Australia following her example and now perhaps taking a step ahead." It was a graceful and well-deserved compliment, and one which affords an- answer to those stupid attempted belittlings of Liberal legislation in this country which form so monotonous a feature of Opposition diatribes against the present Administration; The various speeches would be reported in the English P^ess, andpias we have pointed out, +Pu -city nasa very userul end, contributing as it does to a more extended knowledge of New Zealand "attairsiM . .-.:;.;'- \ .:-.■: :•;■