The Timaru Herald TUESDAY, JANUARY 2, 1906. THE BRITISH ELECTIONS.

Timaru Herald, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 12868, 2 January 1906, Page 4

The Timaru Herald TUESDAY, JANUARY 2, 1906. THE BRITISH ELECTIONS.

With the approach of the elections 4 , which are expected to take itlace in <he United Kingdom this month, the issues to, be decided are being rapidly narrowed down. The cablegrams published elsewhere in this issue make it clear that the broad question to be submitted to the people will be that of fiscal policy. , Mr Chamberlain and other opponents of the Government are making desperate efforts to discredit Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman iu the eyes of the English and Scotch public by representing him as an advocate of immediate Home Rule for Ireland, the necessary corollary of which, according to their assertion, is the disruption of the Union. The Prime! Minister himself, in his speech at Dvtafennline the other day, made it clear that Oe would be no party .to ,disruption, and that any legislative body he may in time provide for Ireland will be subordinate to the Imperial Parliament. But for thq present at any rate Home Rule is out of the sphere of practical politics. vSir Edward Grey, states that there will be no Home Rule Bill without another special mandate from the people, and even Mr Balfour's former Cabinet colleague, the Duke of Devonshire, has no apprehensions afrout the solidarity of the kingdom in the event of a Liberal victory at, the forthcoming polls. "If there is still danger to the Union," he says, "it is in the remote future." Apparently the Nationalists have acquiesced in this sinking of the Home Rule issue, or at least they are throwing their influence against Mr Balfour and his party, and Mr Chamberlain is talking in a rather excited manner about their leader having been '"squared." All this points to the fact, insisted upon by Sir Kdwnrd Oiey at Belmont, that the Liberals ate fighting this election on the question of freetrade. ■The apostle of fiscal reform appears to* be conducting hi» campaign with all his customary vigour, but he is scarcely likely jio make much headway with his policy. J especially when he so boldly; proposes a [tax on foreign com. It would be difficult to imagine a more unpopular proposal, or a more inopportune time to make it than just now when so many thousands can barely obtain a' subsistence without any tax on food «tuffs. Nor is Mr Chamberlain quite honest in the return he offers to the British operatives far this tax on -their bread. "Two shillings a quarter on foreign com only," he says, " would not be a heavy price to pay for pieference on Bradford manufactures which the great colonies could give security for. as the woollen trade would command their ever-growing markets." Mr Chamberlain ought- to know perfectly well that the colonies have their own woollen factories, which are p:o----tected by a fairly stiff tariff against these Brudford manufactures, which, he is telling his English audiences, wonld command the cblopial markets. The colonics are on developing their own industries, and while they may, like Canada, give preference to British goods as against the products of foreign -countries, tliey are no more disposed to have tbeir industries ruined by Britain than by Germany or any other nation. Fortunately. British manufacturers appear to be more than holding their own against foreign rivals, as was indicated in an extract which we published the other day from a letter received by the superintendent of the Department of Industries and Commerce, but in any cose the English tnrvo.yer could j scareey be expected to ?fford protection j

<o the agricultural produrfsofthe ecfoxKeftl when the colonies persist in placing » heavy impost oa~ ilefmanufacture* cf lie Motherland.