The Oamaru Mail. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 1909.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXVII, Issue 10243, 4 September 1909, Page 3

The Oamaru Mail. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 1909.

Mi: T. K. T.wi.oit, M.P.. was cjnitc witi'in his lights in Tlia protect inii, at the Chamberlain recent mooting of Message- the Lyirclton Harbor Board, that the reply to the Boaid's message to Mr -Joseph Chamberlain on his hir! he: ■;-.•. gave i; a significance which was cm holy unwarranted. As the neeossni iiy sent through Airs Chamberlain. «■:■:, merely personal, it was, therefore, quite inappropriate that a reply should have been forwarded bv the Imperial 'l'ariif Reform League. ' Clearly, then, there was nothing to shew thai the Board bad been inlluouced by certain { newspapers, who were inspired bv the League. The d-sire of those who signed the cablegram senL by New Zealand journals was to express "sympathy which should cheer the stricken statesman in his enforced retirement." This is the view which the Christchnreh Press expresses and it will he echoed by ail the signatories of the message, ii was the lumonncomont that a demonstration was to be held at the Albert Hall to do honor to a jjroat public man, who, whatever opinion:, may lie held as to his views on Imperialism and preferential Trade, hi'S been in the foicfrout of modern economic reform —it was this and the announcement thai .Mis Chamberlain would be present at the meeting that actuated the journalists in sending the complimentary cablegram. But Mrs Chambei lain was not there, because the meeting was, it appears, held, not so much to bono?' Air Chamberlain and to console him in his affliction as to glorify tariff refer:::, and in taking the message as a complin'''].i to itself, the League perverted the meaning of New Zealand's verbal tribute and the design of the.senders was subordinated to political purposes. How such an obviously personal expression of kindly feeling could have been La ken to mean approval of the League in its tariff aspirations is-a niyst-'i'v: hut it is clear that there was no excuse for any such erroneous interpretation, and that the League had no right to appropriate it r.r.cl to send a response. Mr Taylor is, therefore, in error in supposing that "the messages were instigated by the League," and wre sent at the suggestion of certain CV sensitive newspaper editors in this city" [Christchurchj. The general character of the message 1 sent by tin newspapers emphatically condemns tier view. What was done was evident', finite in'order, and the Board .as a ;■■ preventative New Zealatid institution liad a right to express in the language of its cablegram, its appreciation of the services which the distinguished si itesman rendered the nation till lie war no longer able to bear armor in th( battle.

No one would charge the Arstr.°l>au Pastoralists' Review New Zealand's with being sympath.--Pre-STr.inenD3. tic with the Government of New Z"aland. Hut llr R. E. N. Twopenny, the editor of that paper and well-known in this Dominion as a gentleman- < .'' Conservative tendencies, has supplied a most effective' rebuke to those _in opposition to our Government and <■•*'!_•- try. He has just returned from a visit to' the Argentine and has given in his paper his impressions of that much debated country. It 'appears that Australia, great as it is, is but little known bv the people of that region of mutton a.iid wool, but that all the talk is about New Zealand, 'i bey have a. notion, indeed, that "Marvellous Melbourne" 's r.towed away soi-'owlkm-c in our tight littl- islands, end that, therefore, the great continent is confined within the same narrow bounds. However, what is still more interesting to those who are endeavoring to maintain a cheerful confidence in the little Dominion's future is the statement m«dc bv Mr Twopenny that "a small number of New Zea landers have come over here with station experience,'and those-of them who are worth anything invested in camp land to advantage, or obtained better appointments as station, managers than they could have hoped for on our <-. ; de of the world" ; but that "none the less, their aim is to return to New Zealand as soon as they have made money enough." for "they remain New Zealanders in exile, and do not become Argentins." Thus from the pen of one of "the very class to which Mr Massey and liis foolish detractors of this country belong, is New Zealand still shown to lip as popular as ever. No one disputes that our voting men, some of the (best, of th'i:— 1-ave us to try their fortune in distant lands. Hut i ■• only natural in those who conic of ;.vch enterprising stock The colonis:'g instinct is as '•— "n in these scions if. Vwas in their fathers, and, so long as there is a wilderness to be subdued, there they will .be found displaying their pluck and energy.