The Evening Star MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 1872

Evening Star, Issue 2976, 2 September 1872, Page 2

The Evening Star MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 1872

New Zealand, in relation to other Australian Colonies, stands pretty much in a similar position to that of Great Britain with Continental Europe, It is evidently our interest to be on terms of friendship with all of them ; for as they advance in population and wealth, ready markets will be opened up for our surplus produce. Whatever occurs there to cripple resources or retard development, to greater or less extent affects us even now, and will act more detrimentally on inter-colonial trade the more intimate our relations become. Being thus bound up in the welfare of the Australasian group, their doings one toward another become more interesting to us than the more gratification of curiosity. We have ever considered the policy of Victoria to a certain extent aggressive. There is an assumption of superiority which in the end must recoil upon herself. But selfishness has boon met by selfishness on the part of New South Wales. Some three or four years ago, this selfish spirit led as nearly to a war as any two British Colonies would be allowed to go by their respective Governors. The quarrel was tided over by a compromise respecting the border duties, by which a certain amount was made payable to the other. The agreement was for three years, and that term having elapsed, the old quarrel is revived with equal virulence as at first. It is easy to understand the effect of jealousy in the case of individuals, but not so in that of nations. The spirit of rivalry that leads one man to attempt to rise upon the downfal of another seldom leads to success. It is far more frequently observable that the frank and open competition that seeks to succeed only by honest and straightforward transactions, is the true secret of prosperity. This may be and often is lost sight of in individual effort; but it is reasonable to suppose that where thousands are concerned the error will be corrected. Perhaps this might have happened had the quarrel about the Border Duties been really one of revenue ; but it goes beyond that : it is really little more than merchant against merchant and storekeeper against storekeeper. It is another development of protection—a trial by the merchants and storekeepers of New South Wales to prevent the merchants and storekeepers of Victoria supplying the unfortunate occupiers of territory on the Border between the two Colonies. The case is simply thus : There is a very large district of country under the government of New South Wales some three or four hundred miles distant from Sydney, access to which from that port is tedious and difficult, because of no attempt having been made to form means of cheap and rapid communication with it by means of railroads. But the people of Victoria have been wiser and more enterprising. Though nearly as far distant from Melbourne as from Sydney, the Government of Victoria has extended its railway to the very limit of the Colony, and thus has afforded theinhabifcants of Biverina and the settlers on

tin Murray banks the means of ob taining supplies and of transporting their produce to a market at a moderate cost compared with what it would have been, had they been compelled to deal only with Sydney. It is this difference of cost that the mercantile interests of Sydney wish to cover by a side wind. They would be glad to see Victorian imports made so dear as to bridge over the extra expense of transport from Sydney. In the Senate of New South Wales they are not usually very choice in their language. Very frequently rare specimens of oratory might be culled from speeches there. It may therefore be hardly considered surprising that in the discussion of the subject in the Legislative Council, Victoria was spoken of as a “ foreign power” by a Mr Docker, and the unfortunate people whose interests are being played with by the two legislatures were characterised as a “ lot of persons who preferred to sell their goods to foreigners” on their own border instead of sending them to Sydney. Naturally enough the Victorian papers condemn this language towards subjects of the same Queen, but do not seem to improve in spirit by the exhibition of the ugliness of selfishness in New South Wales. Retaliation is spoken of, and it is gravely proposed to impose a duty on the importation of stock from beyond the Murray. The effect of such a suicidal policy is thus described in a recent number of the Australasian ;

The proposal, if carried out, would at once raise the price of meat to every household in the Colony. It would also extinguish our important meat-preserving industry, or drive it beyond the Murray. It would do all this in the interests of a class who are not generally considered to possess such claims u-mn the public as to justify such sacrifices. The proposal arose with the Border Treaty difficulties, and in its fluctuations appears to depend very much upon them. We do not at present desire to discuss the economical reasons against such a tax as this. In fact, they address themselves with sufficient cogency to every householder to make their discussion needless. It is more to the purpose of this article to point out that the proposal is palpably one hostile to the neighboring Colony. The incidence of the tax would be almost wholly on New South Wales imports. It would be felt in that Colony as being exclusively levelled against it, and its imposition would tend to supply a serious cause of irritation between the two Colonies.