108 WITH MR. CHAMBERLAIN IN THE 



practical development of the illimitable resources 

 of your country, which has just been opened up by 

 your magnificent railway. You want to get upon 

 the land at the earliest possible time an industrious 

 and active population who will 



WORK YOUR MINES AND FIELDS. 



A tariff unnecessarily high — understand, I do not 

 presume to offer any opinion upon your tariff — 

 (laughter) — I merely make the general observation ; 

 I do not say whether your tariff is or is not un- 

 necessarily high, that depends upon how you feel 

 it — (laughter and applause) — but I say that a 

 tariff which is unnecessarily high must have a 

 tendency to shackle precisely the agricultural in- 

 dustry you wish to foster, and divert from it labour 

 which will go into other industries stimulated by 

 its operation. I am ready to sympathise with the 

 inheritors of a new country in their reproduction of 

 any idea that their country shall be one in which 

 their industries shall be monotonously confined to 

 a single occupation. I see the need for various 

 pursuits and occupations, but in the case of Canada 

 any anxiety on this score is surely premature. The 

 first object is to get the population to own the land. 

 When you have multiplied the industrious pro- 

 ducers, you will find you have secured a vast popu- 

 lation of consumers, and that a variety of industries 

 will spring up and prosper whether there be any 

 tariff or not. (Applause.) Gentlemen, you will 

 see from what I have ventured to say that I am in 

 favour of the widest possible commercial union — 



