The Manawatu Herald. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 1907 PREFERENTIAL TRADE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 3756, 28 February 1907, Page 2

The Manawatu Herald. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 1907 PREFERENTIAL TRADE.

ThERE is no- chance during the present British Parliament of the passing of an act conferring the benefits of preferential trade with the colonies on Great Britain. The Commons have lately scorned the suggestion, and if you come to think of it, there is no doubt that the Commons gauge the feelings of the people in Britain very skilfully. The British worker is not guided by any feeling of loyalty or affection for the colonies. He knows little or nothing about them. His sole trouble is to get the best possible value for his small wages, and it has never been proved that if foreign countries were taxed through the customs and the British colonies were not that the British worker would get cheaper goods. In fact there is a possibility that he would have to pay a higher price. Whatever benefits real or alleged protection and preference would confer on the colonies, there is no doubt free trade is the thing that Britain wants and has decided to keep on having. Britain will take all the raw products the colonies can send to her if the products are cheap enough. If they are not, well, the markets of the world are open and Britain wouldn’t cry if all the colonial ports were shut. Business is distinctly not a matter of sentiment. Those persons who in unbending advocacy of protection, put down the sorrows of England to free trade, should remember that despite free trade, there is no country under, heaven so rich or so commercially sound and goahead as

Britain. They should also remember that Britain hasn’t the least intention of crippling herself in any way by granting priveleges to the colonies. The necessity for preference of colonial' raw-materials in' Britain isn’t greatly apparent, simply because everything we can hope to raise for many years to come is but a “ fleabite ” in the great markets and we cannot produce fast enough to make any appreciable difference even in the one great market of London. The benefits of preferential trade would not make our wool grow any faster nor would the passing of an Act increase the lambing percentage. If preference were passed in the Commons to-mor-row there wouldn’t be a single blade of flax extra and bur position would be exactly as it was before. But if owing to the imposition of duties by Britain ou produce other than colonial, it was possible for colonial produce to get a higher price, it would follow that Britons would not love the colonies for increasing their bills. Which after all is the chief point. Give Britain what she wants at a cheaper price than anybody else can do it and Britain will wave the New Zealand ensign ‘or the Union Jack.