THE COMMONWEALTH POLICY

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 4259, 19 January 1901, Page 4

THE COMMONWEALTH POLICY

The Hon. Edmund Barton has lost no time in redeeming his promise to take the public of the Commonwealth into tbe confidence of its Government. Tiio federal policy is, therefore,, before us in detail, front the question of the capita) to that of old age jieusions. .It is regrettable , that the. anno'uncempn.t wps accompanied by a- '“whitewashing” •of Ministers. But < the' 'inoo'ds ahtlytenses of, Australian politics .-are, such that there need be no; surprise at, the Federal Premior ‘ thinking it: necessary to notice apparently unimportant charges of improper political intrigue. It must be a drawback to him that he has thus informed the rest, of the -Empire of

something whispered only in the purlieus of the Sj'dncy Parliament House. But if ho considered it necessary to tell .the world at the outset that none of his colleagues is politically dishonest, nobody else has any right to complain. "

The pith and marrow of tho feaera) policy lies in the tariff question, which the Federal Premier has handled with comprehensiveness, if not with masterly force. To this country his .manner of dealing with the subject is especially interesting. New Zealand has been trying for years to got an assurance from Australia of readiness to enter into reciprocal commercial relations. For years the answer has been growing less and less evasive, and more and more hostile, until it culminated the other day in Sydney in the downright refusal of nearly every Australian politician of eminence to consider the question at all. It is, therefore, an agreeable surprise, to find that the federal policy includes “preferential treatment of British goods where possible.” New Zealand is as British as any other part of tile Empire, to which this large statement of policy applies, and will no doubt feel that a good! deal of the,difficulty in the way of making up her mimi,about federating with Australia is about to be removed. It is, of course, plain that if Imperial reciprocity is established by the Australian Commonwealth, the entry of Now Zealand into the Commonwealth will not bo forced by commercial ■ pressure.

In its purely Australian aspect, the tariff announcement of the Federal Prime Minister covers" the whole position. By including every possible tariff principle, except the purely revenue principle .adopted’ by the freetraders as the strong point of their fiscal policy, Mr Barton has in all probability thrown the freetraders of Sydney permanently out of the federal running. 'With his pronouncement for a “white Australia” ho has not only pleased 1 the continent, but especially satisfied North Queensland, but. for whose strong vote at the referendum of July, 1899, the colony of Queensland ’would not have entered the Commonwealth.’ ’The other points of the policy are adult suffrage and old age pensions. Here the Federal Ministers have promptly come into line with the most advanced -liberal thought of the day, in a way that will induce the democracy of the continent to rally round

them at the polls, and to trust tnem to quickly clear the tar;ii question out el the wav of the cld ago pension seneme. The probability is that, if Mr Bartons promise to dispose quickly or tbs qt.cslion of the capita! site, is decently redeemed, the broadly progressive policy ho Ims announced may give Ins Government; not less than ten years security of cilice.