Marlborough Times. FRIDAY, AUGUST 20, 1880.

Marlborough Daily Times, Volume II, Issue 148, 20 August 1880, Page 2

Marlborough Times. FRIDAY, AUGUST 20, 1880.

Of the many Royal Commission Re- ; ports presented to Parliament during j the present session, one of the most j important is that on 'Colonial Indus- j j tries. The recommendations and sug- j gestions of the Commissioners as well j as the evidence of witnesses upon j which they are'based, are worthy of | ! serious consideration. From the re- j ;J port it may be gathered that the Com- j j missioners are individually in favor of j 1 free trade rather than protection, but j

that the evidence brought before them shows that encouragement to native industry is absolutely necessary to the progress of the country, and they are so strongly convinced of this as to recommend a bonus or guarantee being given by Government of five per cent on certain industries for a period of four years. To the protectionist it matters but little whether the direct support given to local manufactures is called a bonus or guarantee, or any-' thing else. So long as the young men of tho Colony have the prospect before them of being trained to useful employments in which they can earn a livelihood, and perhaps something more, instead of being unfairly handicapped by the productions of other countries to the depreciation of what can be just as well produced here, the object sought to be obtained will be accomplished. The report points out the following as industries to be encouraged :—-The production of sugar, linseed starch, mulberry and olive growing (for which grants of land might be made.) They recommend that earthenware should be carried cheaply on the railways, that material for the manufacture of carriages should be admitted into the Colony free of duty, that as an experiment the Government should purchase 100 tons of locally made cement in order to test its qualities. They also are in favor of the bonus system being applied to local manufactures of sulphuric acid, sugar refining and silk. Special attention is drawn to the success of the Christchurch Exhibition, which proved that the existing tariffs are not those best suited to the sustentation and advancement of infant manufactories of any kind. A Dunedin hat manufacturer says in reference to this branch of trade . “We cannot sell them to the importers cheap enough ; as I have said they go into the English market and buy. We cannot com- | pete with them. But if there was a heavier duty, the importers would j come to us, and the public would get j their hats at the same price they do I now.’’ The same witness also says: I <l In England there are six months of ! what we call the busy season, and six | months of bad season. It is in this bail i season that the importers go to the factories at Home and get them to i manufacture a lot of hats, which are

sent out here only if they can just clear expenses. Of course we cannot compete with that.” On the question of upholstery and cabinet making, Mr Walter Guthrie, managing director of Messrs Guthrie and Larnach’s New Zealand Timber and Wood ware Factories Company, makes the following common sense and pertinent remarks :

“ It is granted' as essential to a young country that her internal resources should bo developed, it must follow that inducements should be extended to capitalists for the establishment of manufactures, by providing for the consumption of their products ; and to successfully encourage such enterprise a protective tariff is, we believe, tin: only course. It is true that, even without protection, manufactories will lie instituted ; but these will, we venture to affirm, never reach the stage of development which is essential to render a country independent of outside assistance. The manufactories my linger on in a struggling condition ; lmt they will never form what is essential to our condition —employment for the rising generation, an attraction to overcrowded British workman, factors in building up the State by enlarging tho population and revenue, in encouraging a spirit of ■ invention and emulation, and in raising the standard of the country’s workmen. The common objection to a protective policy is that it places the country at the mercy of the manufactures as to prices ; but this is a fallacy which American and even Victorian experience has overthrown. “Were protection to become the policy of tho colony wo believe it would be found that prices would not increase, but rather the reverse; becahse, first, the entire colonial market being open to local maim facturers, the increased consumption would necessitate increased output, and this would imply greater advantage to the manufactories and consequently less cost to produce. The natural law of competiton would effectually regulate cost to eon-, sinners and prevent monopoly. Second, the increased operations in the factories would offer increased means of occupation to the present inhabitants of the colony and inducements to foreign workmen, who, by augmenting the population, increase the country’s revenue and wealth. . This increase would eventually compensate for any loss of revenue by the discontinuance or decrease of importants. 'flic money at present sent out of the colony would circulate in it—a most important consideration. As affecting ourselves, we may here enumerate some of the more important industries which are at the present moment either non-existent or suffer by the competition with importations: —The colony possesses in an unrivalled degree the staple for making the cabinetmaking industry second to none. The The native timbers are almost without exception admirably fitted for the work, easily procured, easily wrought, rich in figure and color ; and yet the local-made article is comparatively little used in the presence of the imported article. 2nd.— Wooilwarcs, comprising doors, sashes, tubs, buckets, cheese-moulds, churns, butterfirkins, washing-machines, washing-boards knife-boards, wheelwrights’ wood, ladders, &c., and all equally capable of being manufactured locally, but have never been able to take tliei place of the imported article, 3rd. —The Government have hitherto imported the passenger railway rolling-stock, although local manufactures could as efficiently have built them from local, timbers. Considering that the latter course would hove employed men in the bush, in the vessels, and in the workshops: hero, the lo.vs to the colony must have been serious in this particular alone. It cannot he urged that the colonial workmen are not equal to the task of construction* ~lf evidence were ueeded to refute that, it would be found in the-most-casual ’inspection of colonial workshops.” ,_ , - /'/ .l Here we have a gentleman of long Colonial experience and practical skill laying down in a few words a jyreris of tile ‘ Protectionist platform. He says in effect: : —We want our own

labor, and intelligence om ployed for the good of New Zealand. \Ve have nothing to do with the employment of foreign labor ; our duty i s the promotion of New Zealand s prosperity. One serious obstacle to the success of our industries lias been shown by tins manner in which Govomiuent officials call for tenders, by mixing up in the same specification articles which can he locally produced, with others which must for the j>resrat he of foreign manufacture. Tins system shuts out all but the importer from competing. Mr Oldham, a manufacturer of matting from New Zealand flax, says:—“ I have applied to the rail way authorities to allow me to con I -act for the supply of all they require, whereby the Government would he saved fid per yard on all the matting used, but I. am told that all the store contracts are let to one man for a particular class of gc xls, in which matting is included, and he is an importer.” On this part, of the subject the Commissioners speak very plainly They think that in all cases where locally made articles can I,'n utilized by the Public Works or any other Department, those articles J Mdd he preferred provided they are of equally good quality suitable for tlm purpose, and are procurable at as low a cost. The (fovertime it should 1,„ the last to he influenced by any prejudice against Colonial made goods and tliey should not allow the crotchets of officials, whether the heads of departments or suboulinates, to stand in the way of the fair encouragement of local industries.” It will he seen that the labors of this Commission have been of a most important description, and we have little doubt, in spite of their apparent sympathies in the direction of Tree-trade, that the publication of the evidence will become a powerful weapon in the hands of those who advocate moderate Protection to local industries with the view of making New Zealand at no distant date; a great manufacturing country.

Knoouuaoincs news is being received from the local goldfields. Our Wakamarina correspondent, whose letter appears in another portion of our columns, informs us that Jones and party, at the Forks, have had another washing up, which has resulted in a return of 3500 z. for eight weeks sluicing. As our correspondent justly remarks, these men richly deserve their good fortune, for they have spent £I2OO on the claim before it returned them any profit, ami they have done a great amount of very hard work. Work at the Gorge claim at [)(*cp Creep is being proceeded with, and on other parts of the field there is appearance of reviving activity, though with the exception of the returns from the Forks no large yields are reported. From the Upper \V airan there is a steady return of gold of superior quality, but up to the present time, in small quantities only. Next summer an increase in the number of miners in tins locality may be expected, and the ground u ill lie more thoroughly tested than it has hitherto been, and we shall not be at all surprised to hear of satisfactory results. At the same time it will be well to bear in mind that the country is not at all adapted to “ new chum ” miners. Experienced hands will be those most likely to succeed. There are now three storekeepers oil the ground, and flour, meat, and all the necessaries of life can be procured at reasonable prices. Whilst deprecating a rush being made to this new FI Dorado until 11101 c ceitain evidence is obtained of its capabilities in sustaining laigenumbers of people, thcie is at all events sufficient to warrant the belief in the probability of a payable goldfield being ultimately developed in the distnet, and -it the present time nothing is more calculated to give a stimulus to the trade and commerce of the place, and to promote general prosperity than the discovery of such mi opening for liibor und the investment of capital.