SIR H. C. BANNERMAN AND PREFERENCE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLI, Issue 51, 13 March 1906, Page 4

SIR H. C. BANNERMAN AND PREFERENCE

A WELLINGTON MEETING AND A DENIAL. Prominence is given in the London papers to the receipt by 'the Premier of a congratulatory message from New Zealand, Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, speaking at Crieff on Wednesday night, said that before ho left home that day he received a telegraphic message reperting a large meeting in Wellington, New Zealand, for the purpose of congratulating the new Government here on its succession to power, and declaring that they would have nothing to do with a system of preference as a condition of their loyalty. They were opposed to anything which would bind or hinder their fiscal freedom, and above all that they were opposed to Chinese labour in I any part of the dominion. This was not | the first message of the kind, but the Premier thought it was the most significant that he had received. These were the colonies which they were told had been wringing their hands and tearing their hair because they thought the Conservatives were going out of power; and these men who \ <re bn !-.n to pieces just now by the public opinion of the country, were the men who had been telling them that the Empire would go to pieces if they were not there to prevent it, and that our trade would follow the Empire, and that we should be left naked and ashamed before the world The publication of this statement by Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman has caused some correspondence to appear in the London press. For instance, Mr J. Thorntog Wilson, of Christchurch, N.Z., writes to the "Daily Express"; "I am a native of New Zealand, and I say unhesitatingly that this so-called . 'large' meeting does not represent the views of more than 1 per cent of New Zealanders. Ninety-nine New Zealanders out of every hundred are Protectionists ,and are heart and soul in sympathy with the great and glorious scheme of Mr Chamberlain. I. fought all through the great Boer war with the First New Zealand Contingent, and I want to see this great Empire of ours bound together more closely and strongly. Sir HenryCampbell-Bannerman stands for 'Little Englandism and no ammunition.' which I abominate. Again, Mr G. M Gillington, writing from Bitterne, Southampton, says:— ''On behalf of the loyal inhabitants of New Zealand, I beg to protest against the grossly misleading statement made by Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman as to the general feeling in that colony i I with regard to Imperial Freetrade. Mr J Seddon, the Premier of New Zealand, has repeatedly and in more emphatic language expressed the views of his Government iin favour of colonial preference, and measures have actually been passed giving preference to British exports. There is in Wellington a strong body of Irish Home Rulers, and It is, I presume, from these Irish gentlemen that Sir Henry has received the cablegram on which he lays so much stress. He has omitted to mention whether he haß received cablegrams of the same congratulatory nature from the manufacturers of Germany."