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261

Mr. ASQUITH : It was that of the Legislature.

Ninth Day. I May 1007.

I'REI K.UFVI'IAI, TRADE.

Mr. DEAKIN : It was that of the Legislature, but not of the Government, and it was that of the Legislature in the last days of the Session when time did not permit of its full consideration. In fact, the circumstances under which it passed, as I have said, not only at the close of the Session, but at the close of the Parliament, united to make it impossible for us to prolong our sittings with a view to its reversal, because, owing to the great distances that separate us, members were already leaving for their constituencies some 1,500 or 2,000 miles away. The House was therefore, in view of the General Elections, so to speak, disappearing by degrees, and there was not the possibility that would ordinarily have existed of obtaining the necessary time to reconsider it. The Government had no choice, as I have said, except either to lose the Bill or-take it in its present form; we took the Bill under those special circumstances, but that measure will be entirely misunderstood if it be supposed that it expresses either the intention of the Governmemt, or even, I will venture to say, the deliberate will of Parliament. Another reason why there was the less objection to the unusual course which we followed is that the new Parliament, which has since been returned and whose sittings have been a little postponed in consequence of this Conference, directly it meets will consider the revision of the whole of our customs tariff. In that revision of our customs tariff an excellent opportunity for reconsidering our position will occur, not only in regard to that Bill, but our position generally towards preferential trade from the Australian point of view. As soon as my colleague and I return, it will be our duty to lay before Parliament the proposals of the Ministry for an Australian tariff. One of the chief advantages of our presence here, and cause of our interest in this discussion, is because we could give almost immediate effect to any alteration that may be desired in our fiscal system. In Australia we are never very long without fiscal amendments of some character, but this is a major alteration implying a re-examination of the whole of our customs schedule. We shall have an opportunity, such as but rarely occurs, of reconsidering these questions and of dealing with them afresh. This is not the place, of course, to outline our Ministerial policy, except to say that it involves a reconsideration of this Bill. It w 7 as because it appeared to us best, both in order to bring the question vividly before the minds of the electors who were then about to be appealed to, and because it was the fairest indication of our own views of the matter, to accept that measure as i stood rather than consent to see it go with the "slaughtered innocents, that it was allowed to pass in its present form. It stands therefore as an adumbration or indication of what we are aiming at. It was never more than an instalment. It w r as never our proposal for preferential trade with Great Britain. It was simply one of those practical means of taking what you can get when you cannot' get all you want, which have to be adopted continually in constitutionally governed countries. We thought it fair, we thought it necessary, when bringing forward the New Zealand Treaty, to give this slice of the preferential proposals affecting Great Britain, which we would have submitted completely if time had permitted, and quite independently of that Treaty. As it was they had to be dealt with together. The House had before it the changes for the benefit of New Zealand, proposed to be made in our customs tariff, coupled with certain changes which we lelievcd would balance those changes, and more than balance them for your benefit. The one caused and conditioned the other. It is hardly necessary to remind the Conference that preferences may be of all kinds, degrees, and extents. They vary and will vary from time to time