EDITORIAL NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXIX, Issue 10777, 27 May 1911, Page 1

EDITORIAL NOTES AND COMMENTS.

After the preliminaries one may eajiily gather that the start The Imperial has been good. How ' Conference..' good'the Times puts it

in its article oil [the day of 'the meeting: Tlie way, according to that, authority, has bee'n .cleared * byr the acceptance all round on the ground of sentiment, that the Empire must: be held together. That is the common'ground on which' the five nations meet—which have come : to the Imperial determination. In that sense the Conference will be another of the ' epoch-makers. ,'The next' stage is tlie stage of formality. It is the duty of the Conference to arrive at .some step to lie taken for that purpose. Tlie urgent, want of the hour is of tlie method i by which tlie. agreement oi the five nations: can be practicnlly effected.' The corollary to ' "one .sentiment" is ' one policy." Who is theie '..lint, will give us that policy ? If we pay ntt.'iitibii". :to the babble of tlie old Whigs we .shall accept the pohey of 'Taihoa.'' According to; "tile"'Daily News tlie . lof party,'there''ought ijiothing inore at the Conference ihau niie •addition to' tlie marks imprint i \ the fervent spirit'which' aerrpi d t ?:o ■ sentimentof unity;' Sneering p.Lir ;ifc the Prime' Minister Of Xeiv 7,v»Uv:-l .for •his suggestion - of the - method or •methods between which the choice' lies' this' oracle declared'that there -may he ■a new secretary in some brick street of the metropolis, and insisted thai nothing more could "possibly be reqtiired. The only effect , possible is to remind us that the Whigs are reduced to the last ditch of "laissez' friiro." Countering the feeble thrust'of this effete champion of a ' discountable cause, the Prime Minister Zealand,, just before the meeting, outlined with very considerable care tlie ideas that' he is to ■put before l th : e' Conference. As; there 'is •110 one else'putting forward ideas, all others • apparently being inoculated' with the Old' Whig serum of tlie D'hily News, Sir Joseph, "Ward Will probably' be the central figure at the Conference! Indeed the Titties,' indicates almost as much /frith its - Heclaration that something substantial must he done before :tbe Confererice separatesVfor the Times, 'ill common' with 'everybody'else, is quite aware that Sir Joseph Ward has taken the lead; "It is not improbable that the King himself is of that opinion, if we may judge from the precedence accorded to Lady Ward" at the Royal luncheon. At'any rate the New ZealauVl Prime Minister is the only one who has la' plan at the moment when a plan is 'declared the necessity of the hour. The plan is definitely before the Conference, having been moved by Sir Joseph. We find it is the motion referring to tlie Advisory Council which was placed on the tabic of the" House of Representatives last session. That disposes of the question raised by the speech delivered ill Sydney by the Prime Minister_after his arrival in that city on his way Home. How the proposition''.will'be received it is too soon as yet to state positively. Rut that Sir Joseph lias hit on a plan which :s striking and sure to commend itself to public opinion may be taken now as demonstrated. It is notable that the representation in the proposed Council is to be open to all the dominions oversea whether representative or otherwise. That may prove its strongest recommendation for the present." But ill the future .it will handicap any proposal ' for a federal'legislature, for it is impossible to conceive of a legislature' in which the Indian subjects of the Emperor-King can meet on equal terms his subjects of the self-governing dominions. Moreover. India is governed from London and will, for many years, perhaps centuries, have to be governed from the same centre, governed by the representatives of another people.,to-whom'they-are responsible, not to tlie people of the country The federation, when there is one, must, succeed to the Imperial functions of the British Parliament anU this government of India is one of tlient. Therefore the Advisory Council may, after all, have' to he content to start its career''without representatives from any but the representatives of the selfgoverning dominions oversea. We regret the resolution to close the meetings to the Press. But we recognise the danger of fiery speaking of the Jingo character, which might do more harm to the peace of the world than all the good to be expected by the Empire from the Conference. .

Mi; Hkrhiks, as usual, showed himself the master of the

Mr Herries at Opposition side. Palmerston North. He abstained from vituperation. He refrained from ' attacking either tlie •red it of the country or the honor of " its Judges. The fact is. of ' course,' creditable to him, but what'- shall be said of an' Opposition which leaves tiie' way open for such a statement to be made? Mr Herries, being a .mail of sense, is obliged to admit tliat a;very great amount of usefulness was diie to the policy of the Ballance and Seddon Administrations—those which his party have spent all the years of their life of "outism, —to coin a convenient word —in ■ denouncing, and want how to be regarded as favoring and as' having favored from the first. In this we regret that Mr _Herries shares in the ' effrontery of liis wilder colleagues. Neither, is he ariy better in Ms' announcement of the policy of the party. So far as he unfolded it, it. is a policy of sound finance for the local bodies; which means, according to the .Palmerston deliverance, the granting of subsidies all round: with intimation : to the local people to make any appropriation' they please. then, is the light from Heaven ror which we have been waiting, for many months! Moreover, it is regrettable that a man so' clear of vision should have misunderstood the ' new policy sr the Government so substantially as he has done. Because the son of the Prime Minister has taken advantage ot the National Provident scheme established on the motion of-his. father s Government, ' he would have us believe that the policy is i.nten'dsd to serve only the rich' and' the well-to-do. If tnis. means that the policy of all democracies is to exclude anybody anything from all chance of . benefit we understand the position of Mi-- Herries to Ite the position of th'e satirist wlio wants to confute the eneniy with the; reduction to the absurd. On tlie ptherliand, if this is not the ln'eaniiig of Mr Herries' kisdom, it has noiie, and, therefore- may. ho. left to liis own .devices. With''his* denunciation of the Leenslatije 'Council 'we are disappointed. We Mo expected something original,. something which «;ould justify the hopes of his friends that'the genius; of the member for the Bay of Plenty will one day shine fprth 'with. brilliant, lustre in the ;fore-fi-oiit of',politics, and-even, perliaps,;. on the Liheral sidfi,." :, But, there .is ijo doubt at all • eyefits', . -'th-e " latter .niust alwavs be'a Vain" dfeam. Can there be anything mo're, nndemqcratic than the aspiration of .Mr Herries. for handing over all tlie'/functions :,of government to irresponsihlo hoards? [ very well to protest that lie is clear (if all the Toryism of the past; Butwhen he sets, up such a terribly tionarv Conservatism he places liinic.elf voluntarily in the old days of the Tories, when they were unrecreneriifc and without hope of any kind. With shell a declaration of faith Mr Herries is for ever out of the Liberal pale._ Tt matters nothing, then, what he' thinks of the Second Chamber. Even if one understood what ho thought. But when lie says that he would rather have no Second Chamber .than one with a stronger leader than the leader for_ the time in the House of -Representatives, w»* confess that .w.e .can make neither head nor tail of his remarks.