Protective Duties.

Manawatu Herald, 8 July 1902, Page 2

Protective Duties.

We expect that Greater Britain will be disappointed in their desire to secure some sort of protective duty upon their exports to the Old Country in return for a preferential duty on English goods. The arguments on one side appear good till the ether side is heaid, but people at Some

;vro aecustqmed to take a broader view of the position on account of ■ho, better knowledge they possess. Millions appear to ns largo sums, because we are not accustomed. to do business that way, but in British trade it requires the use of many millions to express its volume. Now whilst we, in this colony exported in the year 1903, over : thirteen millions of pounds worth of produce, and the value of goods imported amounted to a little over ten millions worth, it appears to us that we are doing a large trade and entitled to consideration ; but when We find the whole of Australasia, including Fiji, exported £85,482,021, and the imports of the same area reached £29,812,890, making a grand total of £64,744,911 of trade, we are apt to believe we are entitled to the first consideration. It is' thus best get at the view of trade and concessions as understood in London, for it may soften tlie disappointment in store for us at not getting our own way* and enable iis to appreciate the reasons for otir dpponeiHs dot giving Way to us. As against Australasia’s total of sixty-four millions odd, we find that the total trade of Great Britain is £877,448,917, which makes our claim particularly pmalh The Bally NeWs enquires i “ What Is the essence of this appeal ?” and answers its own question thus : “ It is, that we should ad pt a protective attitude toward foreign nations, risk their fiscal reprisals* and deprive our* selves of their food and raw materials in order to haVe duties to rel&s in favour of, and that We may become a preserved market for our colonies.” Supposing that we open our hearts to consider the claims lor prefereritial treatment .by the whole.of tlie Colonies and dependences of Greater Britain would thus make the question any easier? We find that the total imports into Great Britain, some 413 millions, come from,foreign countries and only 109 millions from Greater Britain, and the same disparity exists in the exports, some. 94 millions going to Greater Britain whilst over 235 millions go to Foreign countries. By making these comparisons it is easy to see. as the writer in the Daily News says, “If the trade with those which are agitating for preferential treatment were doubled,.it would not compensate us for the loss of the far richer foreign markets which now buy from us twice as much as our. colonies;”