EDITORIAL NOTES AND COMMENTS

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXI, Issue 8962, 11 December 1905, Page 1

EDITORIAL NOTES AND COMMENTS

Mr Hf.rdjian still pursues his policy of .-ropim: in the dark for something to urge against the Government, and to account for Ins defeat. He told a. Press interviewer that ".Mount Ida had been calmly coerced into supporting the Government nominee liv a literal distribution of promised roads :md bridges." Mr Herd man, now that the election is over, -would do well to act in iccord with the spirit of his last address at Xaseby. TheTe are two fallacies in the sentence we have quoted. For instance, Mr Macphcrson was chosen by a meeting it- Xasebv. acting on liehalf of the Mount Ida electorate, before lie was approved by the Government. Then, as to the corrupt ■ ironiises of public expenditure, did Mr Herdman rot ask lor this expenditure? Why did he ask for it if he considered that it would be corrupt 1 If what he isked was justified, then it- was justifiable /or the Government to promise to grant it. The circumstance that Mr Macpherson was a candidate and that he might beat Mr Herdman if the works were undertaken, ou-fht- no: to liave deterred the Government, from doins; what was necessary. The same :i:;iy be said of the promise of Otekaike. Mr'Herdman asked that it should be taken, .-iiicl. when it was to lie taken, he complained that it- would help his opponent. Mr Herdman only shows that all the acts of the Government "are popular. Then, there was a replica of Mr Duthie's cock-and-bull storv about the fatal antipathy of the publicans for the Tories. Mr Herdman says t-lmt lie himself suffered from it. Why? He has never in his life done anything publicly for liquor reform. As he liiniself admits, lie is iiot a prohibitionist. -As is well-known. Mr Macpherson is more sympathetic with the cause. Hut- can Mr Herdman explain how the publicans "plumped,' - as lie said they did, "for Seddonism?" He ought not t> say such things on the assumption of public ignorance. There can be no such thing as ''plumping" under our electoral system, and everybody knows that. Then 'he had "practically a block vote of the Catholics against him,'' :it least so he told the interviewer; and so he divided the electors up into sections and explained that it- was because he was not popular that- lie lost. It was his politics and his political environments that caused his unpopularity. Xo one objects to him on any other ground that we are aware. But the people do not want hi Parliament men who would merely adorn a drawing room or the social circle, whilst in polities thev are all adrift. Mr Herdman says that "his defeat matters little to him. He will now devote his time to his profession." Xow. thc-Te is some sense in this idea, and, seeing that Mr Herdman's exclusion from Parliament matt ere so little to him and Mr Macphersoivs inclusion matters so much to the colony, all should feel gratified that the. result of the contest will be so advantageous to everybody concerned.

Mil Chukciiii.i.. M.l'., shaking on behalf of a Libera! candidate for llampstead, denounced the Ministry for persisting in governing tin- country in defiance of the people. In regard to the fiscal question, he contended that what hampered the growth of trade within the Empire was iiot free trade, but the protective policy of the colonies. With all his great political wisdom, Mr Churchill appears to be ignorant of the fact that, if the colonies were to adopt free trade, their markets would be swamped by importations from the world's factories of commodities, produced with hilmr paid so cheaply as to create poverty and degradation in the ranks of the workers. If it were not for the. duties, for instance, levied on foreign woollen and alleged woollen products, the colonial manufacturing industry

would become extinct. We cannot coml>ete with the older communities in price, and. though we can as to real value, it is necessary that colonial purchasers should l>e tempted as little as possible to patronise, nooda from abroad which are apparently cheap, but which are, in reality, dearer than those of colonial manufacture. To the ideas of the. British Lil>erals we may

safely apply what the frogs said to the ljoys': what is play to ihem would be i de'at)] to w.s. They are taking a view of the position that, entirely leaves colonial interests out of the. question. The British jiolicy is to buy foodstuffs in the cheapest markets, hence colonial products are brought into competition with those from tho Continent. Russia, America, and elsewhere, which, by reason of their less distance from the British markets, cheaper freights, lower wages, or advantages arising from immensity of producing areas, are more favorably situated than the colonies. The problem of an inter-Imperial Zollverein is beset with difficulty, but, if the Mother Country Is to enjoy the trade of her dependencies exceptionally, she must [yield something, even though she may, in the process, disregard time-honored tiicories. Certain of her offspring, including Now Zealand, have already offered her some encouragement to make the plunge.