The Evening Star TUESDAY, APRIL 12, 1870

Evening Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2163, 12 April 1870, Page 2

The Evening Star TUESDAY, APRIL 12, 1870

Though agreeing mainly with the principles enunciated by Mr MTndoe in his politicaflprogramme, there is one vague expression that really requires more definite and resolute grappling with, than has yet been given bo it. Mr M'lndoe is reported to have said —“ Although in principle he was a “ free-trader to the fullest extent, yet “ he thought the circumstances of a “ new Colony demanded that in the “ first place a certain amount of pro- “ tective duty should he imposed on “ those articles we produced ourselves, “ to prevent other countries that had a “ surplus from sending their stuff into “ this Colony, and then putting on it a “ value beloAV which figure it would “ not pay the grower to produce it “ here,” Very strangely, immense numbers of Colonial politicians professing free trade principles, have allowed themselves to slide into this delusion under the plea of the u circum- “ stances of a new Colony.” It would be much more satisfactory to everyone if this vague expression were so lar defined as to make clear what those “ circumstances ” are which justify, even on the score of expediency, a system of class legislation. The circumstances which present themselves to our mind are simply these:—there is a land, no matter where, unoccupied. A number of men or families find it difficult to obtain a livelihood in some long and densely peopled country, and they resolve to leave it, to go and settle in that wilderness. During their sojourn in their native land, they have followed different occupations. One has been a farmer, another a miner, a third a shoemaker, a fourth a carpenter, a fifth a blacksmith ; others may have followed literary, clerical, and scientific occupations, or they may have been printers, or handicraftsmen and laborers. At any rate, on their arrival they land equally entitled to make the best use they can, on equal terms, of the gifts, or talents, or acquirements, or property they have brought with them. Of course the soil is what they all look to for the supply of their needs. But no sooner are they comfortably settled down and their houses are built, than they find out that the demand for the produce ot their labor is so limited that each man can do more work than is required. Now the sensible mode for remedying this state of things would be to increase the number of customers, either by inducing a large number to join them, and thus to keep up a constant demand for the increasing supply of labor, or to find a market outside of the Colony for the surplus produce. Either of these avouUl bo an effectual and lasting remedy. But there are

some amongst them, such as the farmers, who conceive they are specially useful to the community, and cannot see that farmers in other countries should have the chance of supplying their fellow colonists with food, at a lower price than they consider they ought to have for their produce. They may have farmed badly. Instead of skilfully increasing the natural capabilities* of the soil, they may have exhausted its productiveness. They may have selected farms in situations where land carriage was so expensive to convey their produce to where the greatest number of colonists lived, that it was cheaper to bring food ten thousand miles by water than they could supply it. All these things they do in new Colonies, and yet, though they get possession of the land in fee-simple for the rent they would have to pay to landlords in old countries, they come forward and say to their shipmates, “ Un- “ less you pay me more for my grain “ than you can buy it for elsewhere, I “ cannot grow it for you. You must not “ let anybody else’s growth come into “ the country.” The reply, if put to an individual, would be, “ I am forced to u take the market value for what I “ make or what I do, why should I “ give you of my earnings to make “ you rich 1 We landed on equal “ terms—l am forced to make the best “ I can of my position —you must do the “same” Now what is true of one is true of all. Wo have selected the farmer merely because, although it cannot be called a new calling, he is always put forward as the first to require what is falsely termed protection but the same argument applies to anyone asking to be helped to success in his undertakings by a tax laid upon all the rest. It cannot be denied that there are cases in which it is desirable to give encouragement to the introduction of new forms of industry, for the more varied the occupations of the people, the more uniform and constant is the demand for labor. By judicious measures great encoui’agement may be given to the establishment of manufactures by dovernmerits. The objection is not to giving such encouragement, but to the manner in which it is given; and to the examination of this point we shall devote a future article.