STATE AID TO INDUSTRY.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume III, Issue 67, 20 March 1868, Page 3

STATE AID TO INDUSTRY.

To the Editor of the NeL3on Evening Mail. Siu —l do not profess to be a political economist; I know little of Adam Smith, and still less of John Stuart Mill and M'Culloch ; but, coming to the practical, I have a family of sous and daughters to bring up nud educate ; and after they have received their education for ihe life of me I know not what to do with them. Can you tell me, or can you suggest such legislative eifactmeuts ds will produce a state of things by which a family may become a blessing, mid nor, n. burden to a man ; and by which diversified employment may he found for the many skilled and unskilled people who are now undergoing all the ilia of compulsory idleness in this colony? I come to you —not to Bugjiest anything new, for I am an ignorant man —hut to ask, in all hnmility aud earnestness, whether you are quite sure that you tire altogether right on ihe questiou of Free Trade, especially with reference to State aid to industry, your remarks upon which in your yesterday's issue I redd with grp.it interest? Is it not possible for you to be theoretically risiht and practically wron^? You recollect the story of tlie first steamer that crossed the Ailan-tii'?=»-ho\v it was demonstrated ih:>t it was a scientific impossibility that the thing could be done? Well, notwithstanding the scientific demonstrations to the contrary, the thing was done ; and the doing of it proved that scientific calculations may be very unreliable. May it not he so in the case of Free Trade ? Is the doctrine of Free Trade an infallible truth, capable of universal application? —as suitable to the circumstances of a young colony as to those of an old, consolidated and wealthy country? Or does it embody principles, some of whieli are suitable for practice in certain countries at certain epochs in their history? I submit that in the latter question lies no small portion of truth. I do not underatan I the abstruse question of imports and exports, the balance of trade, and all that sort of thing ; but common sense teaches me that, call it by what name you will —'Protection,' or anything else —it is not only possible, but eminently practical, to foster and encourage native industry, to the immense advantage of all classes ia the community. In Ireland, if I am correctly informed, the owners of flax mills were subsidised for many years, until the flax trade was fully developed, when it could stand without any artificial propping. Why not do something of the kind here ? Were the Government, for instance, to assist in the erection of a mill or rnilb for crushing linseed, linseed would be grown. It is not grown now because there is no mill, aud there is do mill because it is not grown. Would thore be any doubt about the success of youi* favorite hobbj', silk cultivation, if the Government gave its practical support to the scheme which you advocate ! a short time ago ? Why should we send our wool to England, to undergo the process of manufacture ? Simply because there is no manufactory. Wero a manufactory established, as h seems they propose doing in Otago —say for a few years —the process of manufad iure would go on until that point in perfection and cheapness would be reached which would enable us to undersell the imported article. Tha granting of laud to railway, iramway, gas, aud other companies, comes within the scope of the! principle. But whether it can stand the test of thescieuce of political economy or not, I know not, nor do I care. This I; believe, that it attracted, .in the face of a! bloody aud devastating civil war, and is > still attracting millions of population to I America. It developed tha woollen,

worsted, and cotton manufactures of England, the fisheries of Scotland, the flax trade in Irelaud ; and, I believe, in spite of your well-written diatribe against it in yesterday's Mail, that its judicious and extensive adoption here would make this coiony second to no country under the sun; I am, &c, Paterfamilias. Nelson, March 20, 1863.