The Evening Star. SATURDAY, AUGUST 20, 1870.

Evening Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2274, 20 August 1870, Page 2

The Evening Star. SATURDAY, AUGUST 20, 1870.

We have lately had a rather unexpected convert to free trade. The Oamam Times , for so long a time an advocate for protection, has found out its inconvenience and injustice, and has become eloquent in favor of its abolition. True, it is only on the ground of advantage to Otago, and Oamam in particular. But the arguments our contemporary advances are just as applicable to the removal of international as of interprovincial impediments to exchange. M. Bastiat, in his valuable work refuting economic sophisms, says:— “ I have remarked that unfortunately, when we place ourselves at the point of view of the producing interest, we cannot fail to injure the general interest, because the producer, as’ such, only wishes for difficulties, wants, and obstacles.” Hitherto our contemporary has placed himself in that position, and viewed the question of protection only from the producer’s point; but at length the inconvenience has been brought home to him by the Canterbury Government refusing to remove the ptohibition to Otago cattle crossing the Waitaki. Canterbury can give very plausible reasons for that. That convenient bugbear, pleuro-pneumonia, that once was played by the settlers of Otago against importation of cattle from Victoria, is now with equal diplomatic skill directed against Otago by Canterbury. Our contemporary can feel the evil of the infliction now, because the producers, the cattle breeders of Otago, are shut out from the Canterbury market. One of the deputation proposed, as an act of reciprocity, that sheep from Canterbury should not be allowed to cross the river into Otago, and argued very plausibly that the squatters in this Province had as much right to guard against the introduction of “ scab ” as the cattle owners of Canterbury had to protect themselves against pleuro-pneumojiia. One would have thought our protectionist contemporary would have jumped at this suggestion as a boon to the squatter —as an excellent plea for raising the price of Otago mutton. But licit would not suit Oamaru. It happens that Oamam has a meat-curing establishment, is consequently a large consumer of mutton, and requires to buy it as cheaply as possible. When therefore the report of the deputation published by the Daily Times reached our contemporary, he waxed eloquent in his denunciations of retaliatory measures, and showed with much force of argument the great advantage of the removal of all restrictions upon the interprovincial trade. We congratulate him upon his conversion, only we fear that when a thousand miles of water are to he crossed instead of a thousand, yards, his vision is not clear enough to see so far; and to perceive that it is just as much our interest to have unrestricted intercourse with our neighbors across the ocean as between Otago and Canterbury. We quite agree with him that it is not to the interest of the people of either Otago or Canterbury to prevent the importation of beef and mutton, although the squatters of Otago and the grazier Deputy-Superintendent of Canterbury might be gainers by having the e*clugive privilege of supplying their own Provinces with sheep and cattle. But when our contemporary next advocates the imposition of protective duties for the sake of a class, we recommend him to look at his own article for a refutation of the sophisms that he must use in support of a particular theory, and to print it side by side with them. There never was a more pertinent illustration of M. Bastiat’s apologue of Stulta and Puem than is now afforded by the relations between Otago and Canterbury. “There were,” says he, “ it does not signify how situated, two

“ towns, Stulta and Puera. At great “ expense they constructed a road join- “ ing/ |he two towns, , fWlietfiit “ Puertt is “ insri§? produce ; I jimist “ atol k created ‘rind paid a body of pre- “ vMii/ijp'- aq called because their busi- “ ness was to put obstacles in the way « of the amvrils of goods from Puera." Here at present the parallel stops ; but if Otago were to make an obstacle of “ scab,” it would be perfect to the end “body of preventives as well.” We need not supply the remainder of the text, for common sense condemns the folly of cheapening intercourse between towns, provinces, and countries by making roads, building bridges, and providing a steam fleet, and then rendering our efforts comparatively useless by restricting trade.