THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. SATURDAY, AUGUST 20, 1898.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 10836, 20 August 1898, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. SATURDAY, AUGUST 20, 1898.

The proposal in tho Financial Statement to make a remission in the tariff of 5 per cent, on British goods, has, not unreasonably, excited a good deal of attention. Tho proposed amount of remission. is itself trivial, and would have very little effect one way or anothor, but tho principle is of importance, and raises issues of the greatest value. Indeed, it is probable that the suggestion is but of the naturo of a. pilot-balloon, sent up to see which way the wind is blowing, and on tho result will depend whether and to what extent expression will be given to tho growing desire to foster closer commercial and all other ties with England. Mr. Seddon has brought the idea to us as one of the inspirations of the Jubilee season in London, and it cannot be denied that the inveterate enmity and commercial jealousy of some of tho foreign Powers, more particularly Germany, towards the British Empire and its irrepressible growth, have stimulated a strong desire in the colonies to favour British trade, and to build it up by fiscal or any other form of political favours as against tho foreigner. Wo have beforo us a German journal called "Export Trade," in which is an article headed "Germany's Supre--1 macy in the World's Commerce, and , England's jealousy," and filled with the vilest diatribes against English methods and the British race. We aro told that "England always followed her own cunning roads outside the other nations," and "the star of Great Britain seems to be going down rapidly," and "the British merchants in China seem to be disappearing," and "the influence of the English merchants is visibly going backwards;" and we are gravely assured that " the enormous increase which the German merchant fleet has experienced during the last docennials is another cause to make our neighbours across the Channel uneasy." While all through this article and several others of the ! same issue the readers are stirred { up to the patriotic duty of resisting i tho expansion of English commerce. I It is needless to refer to the incessant I attacks on Britain and the British race ! and objects, in the Cologne Gazette 1 and other leading German newspapers, as well as the unconcealed intriguing ! to baulk British interests. in the Far ' East. And yet -to these " people we throw open our ports' on exactly the same terras .' as ; we do ! to England, which is defending us with her.fleets, and. the whole "of;the■ vast, territory protected '■ by the flag of England in every quarter of the globe, which cost: I blood and treasure to win, is as free to these Germans to live in, and exploit, and develop, and amass wealth, as ' it is to ourselves of the vile and cunning. ;■;■'»

British race. The situation is' unparalleled in the history of nations, • for all the time these foreign Powers protect their own colonies by severe fiscal tariffs against us and in favour of themselves. Nor is this the most startling thing, but the very merchant steamers, French and German, that carry the trade to Australian ports, are masked warships, with their ordnance and martial equipments in their holds, subsidised by their several Governments and held in" reserve, to serve as cruisers when required; and should war break out between one of those Powers and England, the guns will be taken from the holds and mounted in their places, and these fast cruisers will be employed to destroy . our commerce, All this we know as indisputable facts, and this being the difference in our relations with those foreign Powers and with England, we are invited to make a humble concession of 5 per cent, of Customs duty in favour of the trade of our mother land, which has vowed to protect us with her last ship and her last man— and we are threatened with reprisals if we do ! Of course, the proposal of ,a mere 1 5 per cent, remission is for practical purposes ridiculous; but as a tentai tive thing to see how it " takes," and for the discussion of the principle, it is as good as any other sum. It will bo noticed that there is not proposed any fiscal increase on the articles of a foreign country, but a remission of duty on those coming from our mother land, and we should like to hear by what right a foreign Power calls in question our making any domestic) arrangements that wo please between the members of our own Empire. We do not call in qustion tho fiscal favours as between one German principality or Kingdom or State and another within the Zollverein of the German Empire. Nor should wo think of calling in [ question tho fiscal favours of Algeria - or Madagascar or Tahiti to France, as against the world, nor those of Kaiser Wilhclm's Land or the Cameroons to Germany; nor yet should we express a wonder at our kinsmen of Ohio or i New York extending favoured treatment to their fellow-citizens of the , Kepublio in Kentucky or Pennsylvania, which they do not offer to the world without tho boundary of the Republic. The talk of reprisals—should wo deem it right to make fiscal concessions to our fellow-subjects within the Empire which we refuse to give to strangers and potential enemies—is an absurdity that arises out of our folly in allowing foreign nations and peoples to think that they have a right to the run of the whole British territory like ourselves. As to the ■ principle of our right to make such i a concession to Britain if we please, nono but a fool or a charlatan could , rniso a question, and if for objects of national or Imperial policy, we deem it conducive to our own safety and [ the safety of the Empire to make re- , mission of Customs dues in favour of British goods wo are entitled to do so to the extent of the entire remission of the tariff. But there are other considerations to bo reckoned with. Five per cent, may do to assort the principle and to test tho working, but even in the as- . sertion of the principle an effort should bo made to have uniformity of action in this respect among all the colonies. And then the question will arise, if to England, why not to England's colonies J and if British goods | are to be favoured in the tariff to the extent of 5 per cent., on what principle should the same rule not hold in respect of the imports from our fellowsubjects in other portions of the Empire. This is not an insoluble difficulty, but it has to be considered as ono that must necessarily evolvo out of this proposed preferential relations with England. Another rather untoward phase of it is in the fact that unfortunately it would seem to strike a blow at our kinsmen of the United States, when tho strongest desire of ourselves as of the whole British race is to do nothing to damp the kindling feeling of kinship between the two 1 families of tho Anglo-Saxon race. Of courso there would be nothing unfriendly in it, just as we do not regard tho high fiscal tariff of the United States as other than a legitimate means for conserving their own industrial and commercial welfare. But it would not be congenial to tho prevalent feeling of friendship with the United States, to set up a distinction that would seem to indicate the American citizens as grangers. This may ' be but a sentimental difficulty, but it will weigh with many, and must be reckoned on. But as to what foreign--1 era may think of it, or what they will do in return for our remission in 1 favour of England, it is not worth a moment's consideration. It would be only doing what they do to us in their own colonies and territories whenever they have the cluince, and we have not spoken of reprisals, But if they ' apply reprisals, we can meet them there. God Almighty has given us the best and biggest and richest portion of the world, and if we allow foreigners to exploit the Imperial domain, and they will not play fair, then can they stay at home and keep their trade. The British Empire can really do without them, and is all suffi- • cient for itself did the volume of its trado require to be increased an hun- : dred-fold.