THE RESULTS OF PROTECTION.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4419, 19 May 1875, Page 3

THE RESULTS OF PROTECTION.

(From the Kynetan Guardian, Victoria, April 28.)

Protectionists complain loudly of the unfairness of their free-trade opponents in charging upou’the fiscal policy of the past ten years the present almost unexampled state of depression which exists throughout the colony, and they point triumphantly to the fact that in England and other free-trade countries there are always recurrent periods when' industry flags and trade and commerce stagnate. It is claimed that even at the present time the condition of Great Britain is not, relatively speaking, more prosperous than our own ; and it is asked why, if free-trade is powerless to prevent depression in one country, protection, should be expected to be more successful in another. For the purpose of our local controversy the answer is very easy. No freetrader has ever claimed that the adoption of his policy would operate as a panacea for all social and commercial ills. He simply urges : that as H is the natural ahd common-sense policy it .: should be adhered to, and contends that ■> any interference with: it, or any substitution of an artificial and restrictive system, must ' inevitably ■ tend to - evil-"in-stead of to good. 'Ho believes that a free and natural interchange of industry and commodities is as essential 1 to the .welfare And prosperity of nations: as it ,is of individuals; hut he does not pretend that this free and natural interchange: will' prevent the ' evils arising from overtrading, excessive speculation, or the other exceptional influences y/hich affect communities as they do mdividuals. ; ' With him free trade is not a nostrum. 1 - He simply asks that a nation should be allowed to grow in accordance with natural Taws, and he protests against the use of unnatural stimulants by means of which it is,sought to strengthen one portion of the body politic at the expense of the other. But the position of the protectionist is essentially different.' The adoption of his pdlioy is virtually a substitution of artificial for natural means, and when he fails he is not entitled to thb, excuse that under similar circumstances nature might have faffed also. It is the very essence of his doctrine that his success should be beyond doubt, or his interference is unnecessary and an impertinence. When protection was first preached in Victoria, it was claimed for it that it would be the means of establishing those industries and manufactures for which the colony was specially adapted ; that it would tend to the development of our natural resources ; that it would provide a profitable outlet for capital ; that it would furnish remunerative employment for our population ; and that it would stimulate our growth as a nation by attracting to our shores thousands from the over-crowded countries of the old world. At first it was alleged that all this and more would he accomplished in a very few years. Then when it became evident that the accomplishment was still in the far future, a further trial on a much more extensive scale was asked for and obtained, and now after an experiment of ten years what do we find 1 How many of the predictions of the protectionists have been verified ? At no period of the history of the colony have we had less reason to be satisfied with our condition. At no time have our natural industries been in a less satisfactory state. A diminished population upon our goldfields has been followed by a more than relatively diminished yield of gold. Agricultural settlement has been so far from successful that thousands of holdings have passed and are passing into the hands of the largo proprietors. Tho establishment of manufactures has increased at no more rapid rate than under a free-trade policy, and so far from affording employment to thousands from other countries,

our large centres of population are represented to he crowded with men unable to bud work, and this notwithstanding the hundreds of thousands of pounds wluclrflre yearly expanding in railways and other public works. "With an increasing: expenditure, we a.,,declining revenue, and are anxiously casting about for new sources of taxation. Merchants are crying out in the metropolis, and traders are echoing their , cries in ; the provinces. Whilst the colonies on either side of us are making rapid strides, we are standing still, where we are not retrograding. In every direction the condition of the colony is exactly the reverse of what, according to the averments of the protectionists, it should be. And it is no escape from the difficulty to assert that this deplorable state of affairs is not directly traceable to our protective policy. It would be a very simple matter to prove that it is so, and that the depression under which we labor is the natural result of attempting to supersede natural. laws by artificial agencies. But it .is quite a sufficient reply to the protectionists to remind them that if they have not caused our difficulties they have certainly failed to prevent them, and that, therefore, judged by their own standard, their policy is a failure. The colony is in the position of a man who having been in strong and vigorous health with every prospect of his health continuing and his strength increasing, places himself under the control of an empiric, beguiled by promises that if he will only undergo a course of treatment for a given number of years, he shall find himself free from all the ills which flesh is heir to, and who at the expiration of his time of trial discovers that he is suffering from almost every possible combination of undesirable diseases. Such a man would find scanty satisfaction in the assurance that he would have been iu just as evil case if he had had nothing to do with his quack adviser ; and even although' he might not be able to prove that his condition was the result of the treatment to which he had submitted, he would be justified in charac* terisiug such treatment as a delusion ami a snare, and would be a fool if he gave it a further trial.