The Oamaru Mail. TUESDAY, MAY 9, 1911.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXIX, Issue 10762, 9 May 1911, Page 3

The Oamaru Mail. TUESDAY, MAY 9, 1911.

A variety of signs in the air enable us to gauge the

The situation with Politioa! Situation so mo thing apin London. preaching certainty. First there is the Veto Bill which has passed the Committee stage ill the House of Commons and is to shortly try its chances in the Lords. There, with the certainty of a new creation of peers to spui'-the old ones on in the right path, it is pretty sure that the Bill will pass. We confess we arc disappointed at the prospect, because the creation of tlie new peers would have made the balance of the progressive reform policy—tlvat remaining after the passing of Home Rule, Welsh Disestablishment, and the •Invalidity and Cnemploymeiit Bill — ever so much more certain of good practical sensible progressive treatment. Still the time saved, if the Lords are too sensible to kick against the pricks, is something. Payment of members is in sight ana the redistribution of seats ought to be, for the system of distribution is worthy of a~South American. State in its results. Neither in Britain, nor in South America, Mexico, or Central America is the voice of the people of the value which belongs rightly to it. In Britain the districts are gerrymandered, and in Latin America the principles of freedom are on the lips of the ruling politicians while their hired hravos are abroad keeping obnoxious electors from the polls and murdering the enemies of the party •acting for the time as "top dog." The methods are different, but the end is the same. Therefore it is certain that the moment the Liberals get tlie' chance there will be a redistribution, and after that there wjill be Adult Franchise. These things will be forced through the House of Lords at the point of the bayonet made by the Veto Bill. Then will come the work of building a Second Chamber as a Second Chamber ought to be. That there is to be a Second Chamber, not a dominating solitary House of Commons, is evident from the course of the Veto Bill during the last few days. It is now impossible for even the most inveterate Ananias ofthe political world to impute to the Liberal Government a desire to force a Single Chambered Constitution on the people of Britain. When the new Constitution is on the Statute Book the era of justice and free opportunities will be fully inaugurated, and the advanced Socialist will be like the colored gentleman in the play who lost his billet on. a/ famous occasion. To "the friend of humanity there are few things so welcome as the prospect now opening out for the making of many long-desired and frequently r postponed reforms. When the programme of these is set fairly going the world will realise to the full what an awful incubus the House of Lords has been for some centuries. The success of the Irish envoys draws attention to the outlook in these countries with more point than one might imagine who did not dive into the interiors of things. Home Rule for Ireland is the keynote of the Imperial Federation of the not distant future. That is what • gives ,to the cause the glamour which is round it among us. When that departure has been followed out to its logical conclusion, and Home Rule is an' accomplished fact for England, Scotland, and Wales in the wake of Ireland!, then tho potentialities of federation'will be realised with a force amazing to those whose experience is only of the. present state of things. A united Empire is sure to do much towards filling up its waste places in the manner most enlightened and just to all interests. The result must be the grandest and the strongest Empire in history,, and the Empire with the longest permanent chance. Here we see a condition favorable to the brotherhood of mankind. There is no uncertainty as to the path to. be followed by progress after federation, of the British . Empire. It -is - already marked out by the negotiations for , the arbitration treaty between Britain and the United States. When the English-speaking nations are. thus united in an alliance which, on a day not distant, must become defensive, and, after that, ..if need'be, offensive- for the unique purpose of preserving law and order among tho nations, the sequel is not difficult to imagine: a stampede of a.ll ,tn.e nations-for the boundaries of the. milleniiium traced for the first time by the agreement . of ■' the - English-speaking people. .

The Prime Minister : is riot content to • wait for the ConferSir Joseph Ward ence before he will in London- do anything to for- ' - ward the interest of the country of which he is the first citizen. . He takes, on the contrary, every opportunity for placing; the position' and the sentiments of this Dominion in their right light. Arrived in London, he spoke of the. coming Conference with knowledge and a diplomatic skill. Immediately afterwards he had, as third speaker at the Guildhall —the other two being the Prime Minister of England and his Leader of the Opposition —his chance, and he gave the sentiments of the oversea dominions / about the arbitration project of Pre- ( sident Taft with great modesty of .. demeanour and firmness of touch with the facts. Later, lie descended on the "able editor" —the editor of the Financial News, no less —and made him a magnificcn t conduit pipe for the conveyance of good sense and an intimate knowledge oi our real position to the British masses, and the British money J market —a body as perverse and "peri nickety" as the people itself. The , usual critic has been apparently telling the usual fable about us and decrying the proposal to pay off the national debt ■according to the terms of the Extinction Act of last session: Sir Joseph spotted 'him with his eagle eye and gave him an interview and merciful slaughter—rapid and pointed: began by exploding his fallacy that the last two seasons are abnormal —showing on the contrary that this country by dint of its public works policy is now cpme into its own, which is the faculty for unlimited expansion of its remarkable resources: and ended by proving the easy feasibility

—in view of tlie resulting elasticity of our revenue—of the financial operation so curiously denounced by the financial magnates last year hero and in London. Sir Joseph we remember delivered a remarkably lino exposition of the Extinction Act, in the House of Representatives. Ir his exposition to the shining bird of freedom financial—the freedom of loose statement and perverse writing—was only half as good, we can leave the feelings of that able editor to the poorest imagination within the four seas of this beautiful Dominion.