The Daily Telegraph. WEDNESDAY, MAY 11, 1881.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3080, 11 May 1881, Page 2

The Daily Telegraph. WEDNESDAY, MAY 11, 1881.

Two or three years ago it was generally though by N"ew Zealand politicians that the question of free trade versus protec-tio-i -would be at an early date one of the most prominent subjects of debate in our House of Legislature. We are glad to kiiow that other questions of more immediate importance have hitherto pushed tbia one asiJe, but, probably, only for a time. Ia the colony of South Australia, however, it is the absorbing question of the day. Ia close proximity to New S luth Wales and to Victoria, where, in one, protection is the animating principle of its commercial policy, and in the other free trade is regarded as the basis of its prosperity, South Australia is halting between two opinions. An advocate of free ttade-, principles, the South Australian Register, a_mit3 free discussion in its columns upon this question, but it is forced to admit that the imposition of heavy duties in Victoria has materially fostered nunufactures. . . . What we maintain (says the Register) is that it has fostered them at an inordinatly heavy coot to the country. Some of the manufactures— t'-ose congenial to the conditions of the colony—would, we contend, have progressed gradually and satisfactorily without protective duties; the others are not worth tbe expense of rearing. New South Wales, for the most pirt, baa gone on the principle of allowing m.inufactuies to spring up and develope of their own accord ; and although they have not expanded to the same extent as they have in Victoria, they have developed to as large an extent as is benefj c'al. The colony may not be able to bo.ist of quite so many native industries a* Victoria, but she has a very respectable number. . . . Victoria exports a much larger quantity of manufactured articles produced in the colony, but it is an indisputable tact that some of these exports are disposed of at rates which are not remunerative to the manufacturer, simply to enable him to get rid of surplus stock, and be in a position to keep up the price in the colony. Tq another number of the Register a writer under the signature of " F.S." has contrasted the effects ot the fiscal policy of New South Wales and Victoria in a very able letter. He shows that in 1873 New South Wales exceeded Victoria in the value of exported articles grown or Dianufactared in her territory by the sum of £130,381. But in 1876 the boot was on tbe other leg, Victoria beating New South Wales by £416,902 ; while in 1879 the excess had increased to £993,216, or very nearly £1,000,000 sterling. In the item of saddlery, an industry for which New South Wales is well adapted, she imported in 1879 goods to the value of £56,122, while the value entered inwards in Victoria was only £6437. These figures and a number of other-*, perfectly well known to our r>-ader<s induce " F.S." to come to the conclusion that in the arts and manufactures V/ctoria is far ahead of and is leading New South Wales. The writer a (so points out that although the average sum to the credit of depositors in savings baoks is larger in New South Wales than ia Victoria, one-tenth of the population in this colony have accounts in these institutions while amongst our neighbors the proportion is only one in thirty-four, and that tbe deposits during 1879 were iv Victo'ia 34s per head of the population, while in New South Wales during tbe same period they only reached 14s for every inhabitant of that colony.