Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-10-31
FOR A TARIFF REFORM
English People Are Guessing
Over Recent Speeches.
LEADERS RECUPERATE
A NEW PENSION MOVEMENT THE
LATEST LONDON ENTERPRISE.
Comment Over Transfer Of Harcourt
Estates Retrenchment in Australia
Menaces oAacial Fees.
LEADERS RECUPERATE
Special Correspondence of The Evening Star.


Special Correspondence Of The Evening Star.
LONDON, October II, 1904.
MI Chamberlain has gone away to Italy
to recuperate in order to continue his. cam
paign for tariff reform. Both he and Mr.
Baifour have delivered themselves of
speeches recently, one at Edinburgh and
the other at Luton. ard now the people on
both sides Of the controversial fence are
busy guessing what the leaders of the two
tariff wings mean.
All Mr.. BaHour's commentators. free
trade and protectionist, have agreed on a
common Interpretation of his speech. In
threatening to abandon the lead of the
party If protection were persisted in as its
policy Mr.. Balfour was not threatening Mr..
chamberlain, say the protect.onists, for
Mr. Chamberlain also lays his hand on his
neart and declares at Luton that he is not
protectionist, but tariff reformer, and
Will not impose tax, but merely levy
toii, ana so, by agreeing to call the old
.iins py a new name he and the prime min
lster are IN entire accord. There is. in fact,
only one difference between them say the
protectfonists, and that is a slight one
MI Balfour wishes to have an election
nrst ana conference called afterward. If
Inc unioniStS are returned to power at the
next election he will then summon n colo
mai conference, and if a colonial conference
agrees on scheme for imperial preferences
then there Will be another election to ratify
the conclusions of the conference. That is
Mr.. Balfour's plan, but obviously it is not
and cannot be Mr.. Chambcrlai1l's for it
would see Mr.. Chamberlain on the highway
toward being an octosenarian before he
came IN sight of his preferential promised
land.
And so Mr.. Chamberlain pretending that
the point is a mere detail, insists that one
election is enough The point is, of course,
of the first Importance Mr. Balfour wants
to defer committing his party to the cry
OF food taxes at the next election; Mr..
Chamberlain wishes tie contrary, and when
that trivial point is settled, the capture
of Mr.. Balfour will be complete Nobody
believes that the unionists will come back
TO power next election, and so the point is
TO that extent an academic one for the
country generally; but It is vital to the
l1nionist party. for on its settlement de-
ponds who leads that party at the next cleo
ton, and what will be its policy And how
1t will be settled we shall see at the forth
coming election at Southa mpton.
If Southampton adopts Mr.. Balfour's plan
OF shelving the preferential policy the
official creed and cry of the unionist party
at the next election. then it is shelved for
good, seeing that some years of free trade
government will follow, with Mr.. Balfour
leading an opposition uncommitted to food
taxes. On the other hand if Mr.. Balfour
is made to yield on the trivial point Of
which shall come first, the hen the egg,
the mandates the conference, ne w II have
conceded everything. including the leader
ship of the party; for once Mr.. Chamberlain
has his policy officially stamped and ap-
proved, he would take regular position as
the leader of the opposition, and as the
champion of an official policy which. he
would say, had been temporarily interrupt
ed by free trade victory, but which still
held the field for his party. So the appar-
emily trivial point involves a good deal.
Cotton in British Central Africa
There are prospects Of a very extensive
cultivation of a high quality of cotton in
British Central Africa. Last year. accord
ing to an important official report issued
today, so successful was an experiment to
grow fine quality of cotton at a moderate
cost that the planters cultivated at the
end of the year a much greater area, ex-
tending, indeed, over 5000 acres.
This cotton was sold at such good prices
as to bear out the opinion that good cotton
grown locally from Egyptian seed is worth
from a penny to twopence per pound more
than standard American cotton. 1t is an
interesting fact that the highest price yet
recorded for British Central Africa cotton
is for crop produced by relative of the
late DR.. Livingstone, on plantation owned
by Mrs. Bruce, the great travellers daugh-
ter DR.. Livingstone was the first to call
attention to the possibilities of British
Central Africa as cotton-produc1ng coun-
try.
The planters are assured that so long as
the price in Liverpool for the kind of cot
ton being grown in the protectorate does
not fall below i'd. per pound In cultivation
will be remunerative. AS the chief expense
IL the cultivation of cheap product is the
cost of transport it seems probable that,
should the industry develop largely in this
part of Africa, the localities likely to be
NEST in favor are those bordering on the
lower Shire river. where the crop can be
put straight on board barges, thus saving
the expense of land carriage through the
Shire highlands
,yca Nv oh CT IA
put into cultivation some 60O0 acres near
Chiro on the bank of the river. When
these local freight difficulties are overcome
there is nothing in the ocean freights to
present cotton can be transported from
Chinde to Liverpool for f2 a ton.
New Pension Movement.
I hear that the new pension movement
known as the National Old-age Pension
rrust is likely to become successful enter
prise. Already the 5000 foundation men,
bers whose contributions required for
limited time to form the necessary deposit
of 100000 with the government have been
enrolled and hundreds of persons of all
classes are joining the trust every week.
They include doctors, bank managers,
solicitors chartered accountants, clergy
men, schoOlmasters, farmers, soldiers,
sailors, farm laborers and all sorts of
|laborers.
Efforts are now being made to start
branches in many parts of the country.
The movement is started under the auspices
of the Spurgeon Memorial Sermon Society.
The maximum contribution is Is. week.
including the cost of management expenses.
The maximum benefits offered are los. a
week pension for members over the age of
sixty on ceasing their employment and 3s
a week to those continuing their employ
ment, s1OO payable to the next of kin on
the death of non-pensiOner, 913 payable