Home and Oversea Preference.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 1 August 1910, Page 4

Home and Oversea Preference.

Mr P. J. Haiiitoii, late director of Agricultural Co-operation in Cape Colony, in the cour.se of a letter to The Standard, writes:—"Since my return from South Africa, I have devoted the whole of my time to a study at close quarters of tho conditions affecting certain productive iiuli'jitries in England, wit Hi more particular reference to the extent to which the employment of skilled workers is lessened through competition in the presence of free imports iu British markets.

"I have selected twelve branches of British manufacturing enterprise in all of which the skill of the operatives is admitted to havo reached, the highest standard of efficiency, •ind the business organisation with reference to which is without question as nearly perfect a.s economic consic!<>rati< us permit. The aggregate import of articles, all free of any duty whatever, and of the kirn's embraced in the twelve trades with which I am dealing, -was, dniringthe year 1908, in round figures, forty-five millions sterling. After an exhaustive analysis of the competitive values of the imported articles, taking earful account of quality and price, I am convinced, -and in this I have the fullest support of expert opinion, that, of this total, thirty-six million pounds .sterling worth could .have been produced in this country without necessitating any very exceptional capital expenditure.

Now I ventiiro to submit that no sell-respecting man or woman in this country, in faeo of the pitiable depression which confronts one everywhere, can contemplate, with ■equanimity lllie enormous national less which arises from a wholesale indifference to the merits of our own products. "While lam absolutely satisfied that the only satisfactory .solution of our great industrial problems must be sought in the complete modification of our fiscal policy, I feel at the same time that the. pronlo of (his cmiiiitry themselves can do, in t,lie meantime, imniaiiso service to British industry by siring, everything else being equal, preference to Home aivcl Ovorsea products. The duty of eofieentrating puiyiic thought on this .aspect of industrial development seems to he so imperative that T conceive it to be criminal not to encourage the sale and consumption of onr own workers' produce in profe.re.nce, tc foreign articles—a-t all events wh-oiv no monetary sacrifice is involved. "The suicidal regime of the open floor to all coiners into our markets from behind their tariff walls has slowly croatwl n kind of foreign owssion of tihe national mind 'from the glamour of which it is difficult to escape; but. pending the recognition by the State of the- rights' of industry as an essential part of public policy, there is the clear obligation to our conntrv ami our own people, which must ho fulfilled,"