VIVID MEMORIES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23015, 18 April 1938, Page 11

VIVID MEMORIES

PEIZE FROM DICKENS BRIGHT AND CHAMBERLAIN AGRICULTURE AND FREE TRADE "British agriculture was ruined by free trade, and it has never recovered jet," declared Mr. L. C. Tipper, of Moseley, Birmingham, who is now on a brief visit to New Zealand and is staying at the Hotel Cargen. This is his third visit to New Zealand, and he declares that this country and its people, including the Maoris, are the finest he has ever met in his wide travels. Mr. Tipper is a retired veterinary surgeon, and an enthusiastic Birmingham and Midland Counties man. Ho will be 83 next month, and retains countless vivid memories of the political contests of the 'eighties and 'nineties and later, in which he took a prominent part. When he first became active in politics John Bright was the senior member for Birmingham and Joseph Chamberlain the junior member. Fair Trade League Further back still Mr. Tipper cherishes the memory of the Birmingham Town Hall on a prize-giving day in the late 'sixties. Charles Dickens was that year president of the Birmingham Midland Institute, and it was from Dickens' hands that the boy Tipper received the prize he had won for chemistry. It was in his teens that Tipper formed the conviction that free trade was all wrong, and hi} was instrumental in founding the Fair Trade League in opposition to free trade in 1881. Joseph Chamberlain directly opposed the idea for many years, and it was not until 1902 that he became a convert to the cause of tariff reform and Imperial preference. "Agriculture in England has been cursed and ruined by overseas competition," Mr. Tipper asserted, but he is one who believes that with high preference to the Dominions there would still bo plenty of scope for their produce to enter England. Gambling Discountenanced Mr. Tipper expressed amazement at the amount of gambling he has noted going on in New Zealand, for he regards it as the enemy of any sport with which it becomes Eissociated. "It is becoming a disease Jill the world' over," he said, when reminded of the football pools in England. Mr. Tipper is now the oldest member of the Central Chamber of Agriculture of England, a Fellow of the Royal Empire Society and a member of the Overseas League. He h;is had great pleasure in meeting members of the Birmingham aud Midland Counties Association in Auckland, and is keenly looking forward to renewing friendships in the kindred association in Vancouver. He is leaving lor Vancouver by the Niagara to-morrow.