MR BLAIR AND NEW ZEALAND INDUSTRIES.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3933, 27 February 1884, Page 4

MR BLAIR AND NEW ZEALAND INDUSTRIES.

Mr W. N. Blair's very practical discourse upon New Zealand industries, however I palatable to the Manufacturers' Association, is likely to get him into the warmest of warm water with Gospel Tempcranco reformers and tho Blue Ribbon Army. It is all very well to advocate a sober and godly industrial policy, ono which has for its aims tho growing of wheat or wool, the manufacture of beetroot sugar, lemonade, and Strawberry jam, but when it comes to the distillation of spirits, the brewing of beer, and the growing of tobacco, our temperance friends will surely have a word to say._ It must apnear to them that Mr Blair is a jovial spirit, who intends the New Zealand of tho futuro to be a country peopled with jolly good fellows who have been v> caned upon whisky, cheap and good, and taught at a very early age to he fastidious as to the quality of their weeds. Looking over the pamphlet copy of the lecture I find the following:—"Two of the manufactures most likely to succed in New Zealand, aie the Clllti KUtion vf tobacco and the distillation of spirits. Tho duties on thoso articles in 1882 amounted to upwards of £700,000— nearly half tho customs revenue.'' This alone shows what a rollicking time we might have of it, if the above duties could only bo reduced by two-thirds or so, by tho manufacture of these luxuries iv the colony. Of course, the revenue would have to be made up somehow —as Mr Blair puts it, "the incidence of taxation must bo altered," and this might perhaps be done, although I am afraid it would be difficult to find another couple of imports stalwart enough to bear such a tax. Not content with these few remarks m au antitemperance direction, Mr Blair, ut different points of his lecture, indulged in other very severe digs at the Blue Ribbon Army, lie twitted them with the fact that despite their efforts, the annual consumption of imported buer is very nearly what it was live years ago, predicted that in course of time the interior of Otago, notably the Upper Clutha Valley, will bu ouo vast vineyard, and took our legislators severely to task for not drinking enough " beastily colonial" at Bellamy's. If this is the line to be taken by tho march of progress, I should be glad to have Mr M. VV. Green's opinion as to whether we had bettor march or just camp where we aro. If our temperance orators would rather see a man poor in harmless industry than rich as a wine merchant, or publican, surely the would prefer New Zealand to remain a wilderness, rather than see it owe its wealth to distilleries, vineyards, and hop fields. This is only illustrative of tho awkward manner in whim theoretical morality and business interests will clash.— "Civis" in Otago Witness.