PROGRESS or RETROGRESSION. WHICH IS IT TO BE?

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1661, 13 September 1887, Page 3

PROGRESS or RETROGRESSION. WHICH IS IT TO BE?

On Monday week next the electors throughout the whole of New Zealand will be called upon to discharge a very important duty — to exercise the franchise which has been coferred upon them by legislative enactments. Important as this duty is on all occasions, it is more than ordinarily so on the present instance owing to the magnitude of the interests involved m the issue. On the day named the electors will be asked to say by their votes whether the colony shall adopt a Freetrade or a Protective policy. We have, on previous occasions, shown that Freetrade has been tried by the Mother Country for close upon half a century, and has only produced disastrous results — so disastrous, m fact, that those who clamoured most loudly for its adoption — the citizens of Manchester and Glasgow —are now clamouring equally as lustily for a retracing of the step so hastily taken, and for a return to Protection. We have shown that while Great Britan opened her ports to every nation under the sun, who poured m their goods and manufactures to the value of tens of thousands of millions sterling to the detriment and impoverishment of her working population, not one of them reciprocated, but, on the contrary, did their best to exclude British manufactures from their markets, by imposing imports duties on them as high as 72 per cent, on their values. No wonder that Great Britain — the only nation on the face of the globe that tried the experiment — grew sick of this one-sided liberality, giving away every conceivable concession, and receiving nothing but kicks m return. The only wonder is that m any community laying claim to civilised enlightment, there should be found men advocating a similar policy, seeing that an ounce of fact is worth tons of. theor/. Yet this is unquestionably the issue between the two parties m the field at present competing for the reins of Government, for it was the Tariff proposals of the present Administration proving distasteful to the Freetrade Section of the late Parliament which compelled them to appeal to the cctsntry. These Tariff proposals were framed m the interests of the farmers, the local industries and the working men. It was, no doubt, a ticklish task for the Opposition, representing as it does, the interests of the natural enemies of the working man — the capitalists and land monopolists — as well as the importers, to set about wooing the sweat voices of those m whose interests the Tariff proposals had been framed. They knew they had no chance of being accepted by the manufacturers or the working men, but they thought there might be a chance of beguiling the farmers if they could only persuade them that the Tariff proposals of the Government which had professed to have their interest at heart, would not benefit them m the least. To a certain extent, at least for a time, by persistently inculcating this lesson, they succeeded io shaking the belief of the farmers m the dona fides of the Government's profession of caring for their inlerests. Sir Julius Yogel, however, effectually removed their doubts on this point, and by quoting a long list of goods, on which he proposed to increase duties, as the raw material could be produced as well and as cheaply m the colony as elsewhere, to the farmers' great advantage, proved beyond a doubt that m framing the tariff he had considered and cared for their interests. The Treasurer's sympathies are with the farmers whom he rightly regards as the backbone of the country, though the Opposition would fain have them be lieye that he was their enemy, and was doing all he could to oppress them. Sir Julius, however, fully proved the falsity of such a supposition, and there is not one who was present m the Oddfellows' Hall and heard him speak but was convinced that m the Treasurer the farmers had a trusty friend, who would not let any opportunity of doing them»a good turn slip by unavailed of. The great attention paid by the existing Government to local industries is too well known to need commept. Under its fostering care these industries have been enabled to successfully and profitably carry on their operations, and by so doing have done the colony good service, not only by causing the money to be retained and circulated within the Colony which would have been sent out of it m payment for imported goods which they now produce, but also by affording employment to hundreds of hands who would otherwiso have been idle. Bad as the times have been of late, they would have been infinitely worse if it had not been fpr our local industries. Freetrade, however, would admit admit these articles free, and thus destroy our local industries. Progress would thus be knocked on the head, and a period of retrogression initiated. There are minor issues to be decided by the ballot-box on Monday weel£ as well as this principal onß, with which they are intimately connected, but the subject is too extensive a one for this present article, we shall therefore reserve their consideration for a future iswe.**." Mail.".

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