The Manawatu Standard (PUBLISHED DAILY.) The Oldest Daily Newspaper on the West Coast. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 1885. PROTECTION v. FREE TRADE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume X, Issue 1561, 20 November 1885, Page 2

Manawatu Standard (PUBLISHED DAILY.) The Oldest Daily Newspaper on the West Coast. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 1885. PROTECTION v. FREE TRADE.

A »reat discussion has taken place m Dunedin on the vexed question Protection v. Free Trade. Among the speakers was Mr Bradshaw, M.H.R., who made the following remarks. — Mr Hallenstein had said that people went from Ireland to America because the latter was a Protection country. Now, as amatter of fact, the people went to America because they had been driven out of Ireland, and they knew they could get a home m America. But for the enormous number of people settled on the soil m America the industrial portion would have ruined that country. In the United States there were two million of people out of work at present/and very recently 100,000 people m the iron trade were out on strike. In six years m the most favored district m the United States there were 78,800 women and children killed by overwork : and, more than that, at the same time there were 150,000 people sick m bed from overwork m the mills. These were facts taken from a lecture delivered by the Rev Joseph Cook, a v,ery good authority. Things were quite as bad m that respect m England m 1825, when it was a Protectionist country. In tlie Agricultural portions of Belgium everything was prosperous and the population happy ; but m the industrial districts immorality was rife, wages was wretchedly low, and the people half starved. The same was the case m France. All this cry about Protection arose from selfishness. He was a Freetrader m principle ; but so far as concerned himself, he was a Protectionist. (Laughter.) As a broker he would go m for Protection, but it would be proper Protection. He wanted a monopoly, and he was prepared to pay for it. There were fifteen brokers m this town. If the Government wouJd get a law passed to send the other fourteen brokers to heaven — which was the best place he could wish them to go to — and leave him here, he would pay them handsome} v for the monopoly. He would give them £2000 a-year. ( Laughter.) But the Protectionists of the present day wanted Protection without paying anything for it.