The Manawatu Herald. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 9, 1906. THE KIELING OF RECIPROCITY.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXVIII, Issue 3719, 9 October 1906, Page 2

The Manawatu Herald. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 9, 1906. THE KIELING OF RECIPROCITY.

The manufacturer, the trust magnate, the gentleman with the hooked facial feature who is apparently a necessity or life in this country, is at this moment patting himself violently on the back and congratulating himself that a rich business man is the Premier of New Zealand, Also he is hugging himself and not weeping to any large extent at the demise of the Reciprocity Treaty which was to have made it possible for the people of New Zealand to obtain necessities of life at a less cost than formerly. It could hardly be expected that a commission set up to enquire about the benefits or otherwise of colonial reciprocity would find for the people when the people were not examined. Only the people for whom the state of close protection exists in New Zealand — the manufacturers and trust mongers—were examined as to the benefits, and found that there were to be no benefits to the manufacturer and the trustmonger aforesaid. It is alleged that people who as consumers would be beneficially affected by a reciprocal tariff between Australia and New Zealand were not examined by the Commission whose finding induced Parliament to slay the Treaty, because they did not turn up to be examined. It could not have made the least difference if they had.

The manufacturer and the gentleman with the over-shading nose were going to be bumped a little by the Treaty, and the average person knows well enough he has no chance in evidence against such a one. A pitiful House which pretends to represent the people fired a few wretched shots in support of the Reciprocal Treaty, which might have brought a very necessary cheapening of commodities to New Zealand.

Parliament which' is paid by the people and not by the trustmongers, threw in its lot with the latter. New Zealand talks about her manufactures as if they were the most sacred thing under heaven. The tariff wall that makes necessaries dearer in New Zealand than in any part of the Empire, was erected entirely to preserve these sacred manufactures, The reciprocal treaty between sister countries would bring the New Zealand trustraonger on a level with the Australian merchant —he would have to reduce his prices. He objects to reduce his prices. His objection is more sacred to the representatives of the people in New Zealand than the whole of the people. The people did not kill the Reciprocal Treaty. They were not so mad as to refuse a reduction in price of the necessities of life.

The evidence of the trustmougers killed the Treaty, They all moaned that such and such a tariff removal or reciprocal adjustment would ‘kill’ their particular industry. None of them said .anything about the people who are being killed by the bowelless aggression of the manufacturer and trustmonger in New Zealand. Many of the manufacturers and trustmongers in New Zealand have not the interest of the colony at heart. They of course oppose any scheme that may reduce their profits and bring relief to the people, and it is to be expected that a Premier who is himself very largely interested in business would oppose a scheme that would help to break up the system of trade aggession that is a deplorable feature of the life of New Zealand.

In the large towns of New Zealand there are ‘ Trade Associations, ’ It is another name for‘trust.’ All tradesmen in a certain line agree as to a price and the man who undersells gets a bad time. The man who refused to ob,ey the mandate of the Flour Trust was fined /50 only a few days ago. A Jew firm manages to get the butter market. The Jew firm runs nearly all the little grocers shops and keeps a hold over them by giving them the necessary credit. The firm refuses the credit if the little grocer sells anybody else’s butter. Even the sinful Chinaman is a taustmonger. One Chinaman in Wellington last week cornered all the orange supply. No white man could get oranges.

Do not allow any reciprocal treaty to be agreed to, because under it it might be made possible to take the wind out of the trustmonger’s> sails and make the Jewish aggressor look down his nose. It is a shame that in “ God’s own Country the fruit of God’s own earth should be made too dear for God’s own people, in order that people who certainly have no reason to claim the Creator for owner, should wax fat. This is however the result of a Conservative Government under the title miscalled ‘ liberal ’ is achieving, by still hanging on to the fetish of protection to the fat at the expense of the lean.

High protection in a new country against trade aggression by an older one which manufactures' extensively may be very well, but to place restrictive barriers and to maintain them between parts of the same Empire, when there is a chance for commercial federation, is retrogression extraordinary. The people of New Zealand, in time of dearth of supplies are forbidden to take advantage of an overplus in Australia, because forsooth it is deemed necessary to ‘ protect local industries ’ which always means protecting about one per cent of the population and hitting the ninety per cent hard and often in the pocket. & ( -!; # It is deplorable that the influence of wealth in New Zealand is able to control Parliament and that the men who misrepresent the convictions of the people should send forth their decisions as embodying the public wish. The people of New Zealand have become so used to being exploited by trade sharks, helped by Parliament, that they continue to pay through the nose for everything they get without a murmur.

We believe the late Premier in framing the Treaty which the Parliament killed had in view the suppression of the trade faker and trustmonger *in New Zealand and the advantage of the bulk of people. It is only possible in a time of comparative prosperity for a people to pay the high prices now ruling for necessities and should a slump set in—and it is within the bounds of possibility—the tariff would have to be altered with a vengeance. In the meanti : ! e the people are j being forced into doing their best

to make a few persons rich quickly and the chance that was put before the peoples’ representatives to partially relieve a great burden has been lost. It is unfortunate that Parliament has not the gift of seeing questions with the eye of the people they pretend to speak for.