Hawke's Bay Times. Nullius addictus jurare in verba magistri. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 1870.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 16, Issue 876, 25 November 1870, Page 2

Hawke's Bay Times. Nullius addictus jurare in verba magistri. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 1870.

Foremost amongst the fallacies which the hon. Julius Vogel has propounded for Colonial acceptance stands the most remarkable assertion that an advance in the price of flour to the extent of £1 per ton does not affect the price of bread; that, in fact, it takes an advance in the price of flour to the extent of £2 per ton at least to raise the price of the loaf one half-penny. Mr Vogel must have given the colonists of New Zealand credit for the greatest obtusenes* pf intellect possible before he could have ventured upon such an astonishing absurdity. Whether bread advances or not, together with an advance in the price of flour, depends more on the ratio previously existing between the prices of the two articles than on the aniount of the rise itself. 1 f this were not so, and Mr Yogel's theory were porrectj flour, might advance any number of pounds per. ton—one at a time—and the price of bread be still unaltered; an absurdity so glaring needs, no exposure. Bat it is not true that a tax of «£1 per tpn on the imported article means a rise in the New Zealand market to that extent only. The intended and necessary effect of the tax is to check the importation, of flour, and thus to cause an advance in the price of the home grown article, which advance must depend on the lessened quantity in the Colonial market at any given time. The tax will induce an artificial scarcity by keeping foreign produce out of the market, and the rise in the price will represent the difference, between abundance o,f an open market and scarcity induced by fiscal obstruction, ft is amusing to see. the way in %hich Mr V ©gel's theory \n. applied by gome of the. supporters of this policy, to raise thft price of bread, but it fakes a rise, of £2 ox <£2 10s to do this.

the latter sum represents the true amount of duty the Government should impose on the imported article, in order to give the home grower Jthe full advautage of the scheme : the whole adyanjbageofthe difference between the two sums being gained by the retailer, and not by the grower or by the public,— forgetting at once Mr Vogel's idea that the public will not fee), the pressure of the lesser sum.

It ib now certain that an attempt wjj.l be made during the next session of the General Assembly to impose this most unju»t and impolitic tax upon the Colony as a bribe to the agricultural interest of the Southern Island; and this is to be done by men who know that the tax cannot benefit even that interest, but must from its very nature operate injuriously upon the whole body politic. Each one of the Minis* try telJ us they are free traders in principle, and only adopt this mode of raiding a certain amount of rev enue because in this way they believe they can stimulate a local industry, preferring to "tax those things we can produce" for this double purpose than " those we cannot produce" for the single one of I'aining a revenue. We shalj expose this specious fallacy in a future article.