RESULTS OF PROTECTION.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2218, 5 April 1881, Page 3

RESULTS OF PROTECTION.

[From the " Press."]

Protection in Victoria is rapidly working its own cure. The attempt to carry the system to its legitimate conclusion by protecting everybody against everybody else, and compelling each section of the community to live on the necessities of other sections, is producing such fantastic results that it cannot be maintained much longer. Already, in fact, it is breaking down. For example, the project of establishing tramways in Melbourne has been strenuously opposed by the cabmen, who, basing their petition expressly on the protective policy of the Government, have demanded that the construction of the tramway should be forbidden. They make this request on perfectly logical grounds, Everything that they use in their business, notably the corn on which they feed their horses, is subjected to a heavy protective duty, in order that they may bo compelled to contribute to the profits of local producers. They are willing to pay these taxes so long as they also are guaranteed a monopoly in their own line, but they say they cannot pay them, if they, and only they, are to bo exposed to competition. These views they urged almost in these words

on Mr. Berry, but ho refused to entertain their complaint on the ground that protection was not intended to hamper enterprise. Ho could hardly have given a worse reason. Whatever it may be intended to do, it manifestly does hamper enterprise, for its principle had to bo abandoned in this very case, before an enterprise of great public importance could bo instituted. Now let us turn to another case, even more striking. Victoria suffers from a great want of good building stone, and it has always been the custom there to import stone from Sydney, Tasmania, or Now Zealand for any specially fine work. There is stone in Victoria, however, though of bad quality, and it has occurred to the owners of quarries that they have as good a right to protection as other producers who are enabled to dispose of inferior articles at a high price, through tho market being closed to superior articles of foreign production. They have therefore moved Mr. Berry to put a protective duty on freestone, and he has admitted the reasonableness of their demand, and half promised to comply with it. This brought tho Operative Masons’ Society to their feet. This large class of artisans saw ruin staring them in the face, and they forthwith sent a deputation to Mr. Berry to protest against the raw material of their trade being taxed. They alleged that the effect of protecting stone would be to compel people to abandon the use of stone, and to build only in brick ; but they pointed out that many large buildings, which would not bo completed for years, had been contracted to be built of imported stone, and that, if the stone were taxed, either tho contractors would be ruined or the buildings would be spoilt. The deputation, who consisted of skilled and experienced masons, assured Mr. Berry that no Victorian stone could compete with either New South Wales or Tasmanian stone. Mr. Berry, who, of course, knows everything, denied that Victorian stone could not compete with the imported material. All that was necessary was protection, to stimulate enterprise and to force people to appreciate tho productions of their own country, ‘‘ instead of importing comparative rubbish from tho other colonies.” He did not actually say that protection would improve the quality of the stone found in Victoria, though he implied as much, but he declared ex cathedra that the prejudice against that stone was quite unfounded, and would soon pass away under the genial influence of protection. In proof of this, ho stated that the stone used in the front of the Parliament Buildings was so bad that it had to be renewed before the work was finished, and that the Treasury was crumbling away. It may seem an odd sort of proof of the good quality of Victorian stone, to show merely that bad stone had been imported at various times from other places; but as it was the best proof that Mr. Berry had to offer, it is not worth while to cavil at It. Unfortunately, however, a member of the deputation happened to be rather better acquainted with this subject than Mr. Berry, and he calmly informed that gentleman that the stone used in both of the cases he had mentioned was Victorian stone, and was certainly very bad, so bad that it had been replaced by Tasmanian stone. A more complete “ crusher ” for the protectionist Minister could hardly be conceived. He was, indeed, somewhat abashed, and ended by giving the deputation an assurance that he would not impose a tax on freestone at present, but would “ proceed by way of bonus, as he was doing in connection with the now Parliament buildings.” Here again, it will be seen, the principle of protection had to be abandoned, simply because its consequences were too injurious to be submitted to. Yet it is not more unreasonable to say that all the people in Victoria shall either get their stone from particular quarries or else build in brick, than it is to say that they shall get their oats from particular farms or else use maize. The principle is exactly the same. The only difference is that its application is more startling in one case than in the other.

Mr. Berry, having mentioned the employment of a bonus as a means of encouraging local industries, wo wore rather curious to know how they managed these things over there, and having now learnt all the facts wo may say our curiosity is amply satisfied. What they call a bonus in Victoria is what we here call a job, only the Victorian institution is much larger than anything of the kind that we have ever had here. For example, Mr. Berry was anxious to “ proceed by way of bonus ” in encouraging the production of building stone, and this is how he set about it. He agreed to the contract for building the new Parliament Houses being altered so as to admit of Mount Grampian stone being used for the front, instead of New South Wales stone, and he allowed the contractor an additional sum of £11,190 to make up the difference in expense. This, however, was only a small part of the “ bonus.” It was obviously of no use to open up the Grampian quarry merely for one building. The object was to establish a permanent industry. The Government, therefore, agreed further to construct a tramway from the quarry to the nearest railway, a work which is estimated to cost with rolling stock £35,000. The “ bonus,” then, consists of a gift to the owners of the quarry who are strong political supporters of the Government, but that is neither here nor there—of £11,190, and a tramway costing £35,000, or £45,190 in all. The newspapers are, not unnaturally, crying out at this profuse outlay of public money, but their weightiest grievance seems to be not so much that a gross job is being perpetrated, as that, after all, the new Parliament Houses are to be utterly spoilt. If the Government would give their friends the £45,000 and let them keep their stoae into the bargain, the public injury would be limited to the mere loss of money. But as it is, the juiblic are not only to lose the money, but are also to have the finest building in the colony made a hideous eyesore “ for all time.” The Mount Grampian stone is described as quite nnsuited for fine work, on account of its containing flinty particles which fly out in working, leaving holes that have to he plugged with cement, and oxide ef iron, which spreads on the exposed surface, leaving unsightly blotches. The front of a Court-house built of this stone is stated to appear “ as if it had been attacked by a whole regiment of tobacco chowors, who had expectorated upon it ad libitum and that is precisely the appearance which the Parliament Houses will present, as the result of the spirited effort of the Government to protect the stone industry by a bonus of £45,000. Facts like those are more potent than any arguments, and there are ample indications that they are really telling on the popular mind in Victoria.