The Rambler.

Thames Star, Volume XXVI, Issue 8080, 27 June 1895, Page 3

The Rambler.

[By '/Free Lance."]

I wonder if it is intended to introduce any special legislation during this session which will deal witli our produce export trade. So many avtnues of trade are now opening up to New Zealand and the Australian colonies, that our exports are a matter of the greatest importance. The trades in frozen meat, in dairy and farm produce, in butter, wool, timber, livestock, etc., all unfold enormous possibilities for this colony, and it only needs wise and vigorous action on our part to regulate and thoroughly develop them. The Government have already filled a long-felt want in providing for the systematic grading of butter, but improved methods are needed in other \ directions, Take, for instance, the frozen meat trade. "We send our meat to the Smithfield butcher, and he, after paying us the usual price, makes a magnificent profit by labelling and selling our ai tides as " prime English." Nor do the consignees of other produce act any more fairly towards the producers than do the gentleman of historic Smitfifield.

But, after all, this is to a great extent our own faalt. Producers have the remedy in their own hands. The only way to get over the difficulty is to decentralise our frozen meat trade at Home, and extend it to the provinces. Mr Nelson, who is perhaps the best authority in England on the subject, has already approved of this proposal, and I am convinced that, if some such scheme could be adopted whereby the supply could be regulated and middle-, men's profits reduced to a reasonable figure, -the frozen meat trade, notwithstanding freights and popular prejudice, would prove amply remunerative to all concerned. And the same remark applies to all our produce export industries. The present Government, owing to its secure position in the House, has practically a free hand, and it lies in the power of Messrs- Seddon and party to do much in this direction.

There is yet another and a still more cogent reason why we should bestir ourselves to develop our exports, and that is the opening of fresh fields for colonial produce in th c East. During the last year, while our established industries have been making speedy progress—.while the American and British markets have been eagerly accepting our paving blocks and bringing prosperity and activity to our timber trade —new markets hitherto untouched have been opened to us at a stroke. I refer to the markets of China and Japan. Previous to the war Japan, with her great manufacturing; resources, was comparatively unnoticed; while China, closed to the world by Mongol conceit, was = partly inaccessible. But what have we now ? Japan has risen to be a great Power, has claimed her position among the manufacturing nations of the world, and has thrown Chinese ports open to foreign commerce. And what will be the result ? The report of a sub-committee of the Adelaide Chamber of Commerce puts the whole matter in a nut-shell. In the words of this report, and according to the Anglo-Japanese treaty, the growth of manufactures in Japan has created a large demand for food supplies and for raw material, and therefore these colonies, owing to their nearness, should be the first to benefit. If Japan is going to manufacture at cheaper rates than the western world her goods must be purchased by Australia ia preference, and a resiprocal ■ trade must become a necessity of existence.

A necessity of existence ! That is indeed the point to which reciprocity between Australia and Japan is coming. We, being the nearest producers, must supply the Japanese with the raw material, and they must manufacture it. Now how would it do to arrange a reciprocity treaty with Japan ? Here is a chance for Treasurer Ward.

In the excitement which has fol-

lowed the downfall of the Rosebery • Ministry one little matter has, I fancy, s been lost sight of. I refer to the r ; action of the British House of Commons in connection with the proposal • to erect a statue to Cromwell. What

a lasting reflection it is on the British people that, after the lapse of tw« blind unreasoning prejudice ■should still prevent their representa- * : tives from doing even formal justice to a national hero! For^such, loth though I am to admit it, is the truth. "After the House of Commons, by the ; .miserable majority of 15. had resolved ; to erect the statue outside 'Westminster Abbey, even this meagre tribute was - withdrawn because the Government, tottering on its base, could not proceed in the matter for fear of the Irish ? party. What a disgrace ! To think that the desire of an enlightened Chamber, in enlightened times, to erect a statue to the greatest of all our rulers, should be measured by a majority of fifteen ; To think that a Liberal Government should back down and allow the work to be done by public subscription ! Well may we blush for both. XX X

As far as Cromwell's historical reputation is concerned, the present matter will have no weight at all. Thomas Carlyle has, in his great work, vindicated the character of the Lord Protector for all time. From the hour when the bodies of Cromwell, Ireton, and Bradshaw were dragged from their orraves and hung on the gibbet at Tyburn, until the appearance in litera-

hire of Carlyle, the character of this the greatest and most conscientious man in history was subjected to every possible mis-representation. But now the gre»t Scottish writer lias set the rseal on the Protector's fame for ever, and no monument other than Carlyle's tribute is necessary.

How delightful it is to hear from the lips of Wm. Redmond that the Irish regard Cromwell as a murderer and a hypocrite. The members of the Irish party, split in two and spilling their country's life blood by their unseemly quarrels, are, of course, neither murderers nor hypocrites. They are heroes, and the greatest injustice of which they can form any idea Is that their intrepid compatriots of the dynamite fraternity should be shut up in gaol and prevented from joining in the play. But with Cromwell it is different. Cromwell is a murderer and a hypocrite because at the storming of Drogheda and Wexford he put a number of rebels to the sword " in order that thereafter much slaughter might be avoided." Andit is to be noted that by this means much slaughter was avoided. Under the iron rule of Stafford and Cromwell, when the dissension t almost universal throughout their history was impossible; the Irish were more prosperous than at any other period within the last three centuries. And, even though Cromwell's methods in dealing with them were severe, the name of " hypocrite and murderer " is a gross slander.