My vote would be for the Cardiff Series A. The Shimano reels don't have very impressive freespool out of the box, but if you degrese and lightly lube the ends of the spool spindles, the freespool will be as good as you could want.

The clincher for me in this decision is the drag systems. The Cardiff Series A just has a smoother drag IMO. There is a little less play in the gears on the Shimano as well. I fished the original Cardiff 300 hard for several years and they were still good when I upgraded to TE's. I fished the Induron 250 and it was ok but I didn't like the drags and it just felt kind of loose.

Note also that the Induron 250 is almost exactly the same spool size as a Cardiff 300 if you do decide to buy the Induron but want a 300 sized reel. I only mention it since you're comparing a 400 to a 300.