THE Evening Star. TUESDAY, AUGUST 3, 1869.

Evening Star, Volume VII, Issue 1948, 3 August 1869, Page 2

THE Evening Star. TUESDAY, AUGUST 3, 1869.

One of the strangest developments of Australasian politics is the tendency to adopt the exploded fallacies of the old mercantile system. Victoria has taken the lead in retrogression, and has adopted protective duties. The tariff of New Zealand, on account of the necessity for heavy taxation, scarcely could be more protective than it is, with the single exception of there being no import duty upon food. So long as this remained untaxed, it retained the distinctive feature of having been framed for purely revenue purposes. It has many imperfections, and is unnecessarily burdensome and complex; but it was free from the vice of levying a fiscal war upon other communities. The present Treasurer has proposed to destroy this redeeming feature, and seeks to impose an import duty on

grain. This forms a singular contrast to the proposal of the Chancellor of the Exchequer at Home, who at the very moment that we are asked to adopt a system which all experience has proved to be essentially ruinous in principle, seeks to remove the last rag of protection by abolishing the registration duty of one shilling per quarter that has been levied since the abolition of the Corn Laws. It is difficult to imagine what influence has been at work to induce Mr Vogel to introduce this blot into our fiscal system. The amount he expects to derive from it is so trifling, that revenue cannot have been the inducement to adopt it. And it can hardly be supposed that so astute a man as he is, can really imagine that he is inflicting any injury on Victoria by such a course. Yet this is the professed object he has in view. His excuse for the imposition of a small import duty on grain is that Victoria has been guilty of similar conduct. Mr Vogel has for some time past shewn signs of wavering respecting the principles of free exchange. In fact it seems to be imagined by the generality of Australasian statesmen that there is no fixed principle in political economy, but that expediency is alone to guide us. M. Bastiat, commenting upon that doctrine, which was put forward prominently during the anti-corn law agitation in England and in the 1 rench Chambers, says, “ But to say, there are no such things as principles, is to “ descend to the lowest point of “ degradation of which the human mind “ is capable : and I confess that 1 blush “ for my country when I hear so mon- “ strous a heresy brought forward in “ presence of the French Chambers, “ and with their assent—that is in pre- “ sence, and with the assent of the elite “ of our fellow-citizens —in order that “ they may justify themselves inimpos- “ iug laws, on us, while in perfect igno- “ ranee of their reason for doing so.” It may perhaps be objected to the applicability of this quotation to the present proposal, that Mr V ogel gives a sufficient reason, when he says Victoria has adopted a prohibition tariff. But this is not a justification, on two grounds: First, That one country chooses a vicious plan, is no reason why another should do the same; and the very plea put forward for the course taken, implies a condemnation of the conduct in another that is sought to be adopted by ourselves; and, secondly, any one who knows what the operation of the duty must be, knows well that the tax is not any punishment to Victoria, for her producers will not pay that duty, as those who consume the taxed food pay it, and the consumers are our own population. Had it been broadly and fairly stated that it was intended by this fiscal process to raise the price of bread, in order to put so much money into the pockets of the agriculturists of New Zealand, —while there could be no mistake about the object, nor about the adaptation of the means to the end, there might have been the cpiestion put very pertinently ; What special claim has the agriculturist to have a tax levied upon all other classes for his special benefit? Why should miners, artizans, laborers, merchants, manufacturers, pay an extra price for bread ? They have to compete with the world’s market in their various callings. The soil of New Zealand yields more abundantly than any in the known world, and there are no special social disabilities to render such a tax necessary as an equivalent. The proposal placed on that footing would not have found acceptance with the population. It would have proved too glaringly that there is an increasing tendency to that class legislation which has produced such crime and misery in the Old world, and which, through the misconceptions of statesmen, has obtained an anuatural footing in the New. It has hitherto been the fashion to attempt to justify such departures from sound principles by reference to the course pursued by the United States in adopting a prohibitive tariff But short as has been the experience of that country of its effect, it should be sufficient to dispel the illusion. The manufactures intended to be fostered have not succeeded ; it had great share in producing a disastrous civil war ; and the wrong inflicted on the whole population is now beginning to be felt so severely, that an agitation as determined as that which took place in Great Britain has been set on foot, which is not likely to subside until the reversal of the system is secured.