The Oamaru Mail. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE NEW ZEALAND AGRICULTURIST. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 21, 1879.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 1094, 21 October 1879, Page 2

The Oamaru Mail. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE NEW ZEALAND AGRICULTURIST. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 21, 1879.

We revert once more wish pleasure to the cause of tiiat rising party iti the four great

centres of our population—our conteinporiiry's notwithstanding fur it i.+ the cause of truth and right iousness. Having, moreover, already intimated the fundamental conditions upon v.itich alone we are free to aid this movement, we are in no danger of being misunderstood, and we are perfectly free, therefore, to enter the lists, and shall break a lance without misgivings with our contemporary. He will have it that all who espouse the cause of native industries are " interested persons." But is this generous 1 How ; does he know ? Is the ex-Premier or the present Premier, or other prominent members of the House, interested ? Is the Lyttelton Times or other journals who Have espoused this cause wc our3elv cs among the number —interested ? This is indeed one of the mildest of the expletives our esteemed contemporary piles mountains high. It is fortunate indeed that such big words as he sometimes employs break no bone - Their effect upon ourselves is sedative rather, and not " all the drowsy syrup 3 of the world" are more potential in sending 113 to sleep. Interested persons, forsooth I Of course we arc interested ; but that which interests us supremely in judging of such a movement is the welfare of the Colony at large, and of every individual and every

c { aa3 —the great brotherhood of industry which goes to form the common wealth. Our contemporary, too, bewails the "selfishness" of the protectionist part}-, who, " regardless of the lessons of experience," and for the sole purpose of "stuffing their own purses,'" are desirous of committing the Colony to such a policy. But he fails to point the moral. To the experience of what nation does he refer such benighted enquirers ? Is it to England, or America, or Canada, or Victoria? Or is it to Continental nations? A writer so well informed cannot surely be "crassly ignorant " of all that i 3 going on in those countries. Contemporaneous literature is familiar to him likewise, and we challenge such an investigation in order to discover what the " lessons 'are which advanced nations of the world really teach us. Is it that free trade is an unmixed blessing ! Are there no indication* in England of a reversal of the free trade j.o!ic\ to lucct the altered conditions of tiie country ? Is Sheffield or Birmingham as entirely enamouredof free tradeasthey were a short decade ! Are her advanced thinker?*, like Wallace and other prominent writers in her periodical literature, as much in favor of free trade as ever ? hat is all the hue and cry about reciprocal duties but protection in disguise'? Docs not the symptoms reach us in a variety of forms of growing uneasiness and widespread disaffection J Are skilled workmen unemployed in the streets of Sheffield no protest against the encroachment of America I They have a voice surely, and our contemporary will do well t" listen to what tht-'V have to say. It he is gifted with any prescience, and can discern aright the sigua of th~ times, he must have some - "'•' landmarks ; he must realise thai he is s.-.tltii',' in a sinking ship, for there are tho.-e in higu places who predict the rapid of tireat Hritaiu as the result of a and intoiierant adherence to a principle which, to have any value, must be universal a principle, nevertheless, which lias never had any warm admirers beyond the limits of the Mother Country. England indeed teaches her own significant lessons. Her trade t'clipsed ; her people starving ; that imposing structure, her commercial supremacy and industrial greatness —the admiration and the wonder of modern times—in imminent peril Or i3it to the " lessons" of America he refers us I And what of them! Does any considerable party in that great country seriously propose a reversal of her fiscal policy under the ausoices of which her industrial resources have been developed with such wonderful and bewildering rapidity ? Has she not been advancing with leaps and bounds I Glance at her exports competing successfully with the oldest countries in Europe, and driving their manufactures out of their own markets. Obtuse, indeed, must be the student or the' statesman who can glean any other " les3on" from such marvellous industrial progress than the one which our friends, the leaders of this rising movement, have already deduced from it. That policy which has done such marvels for America can have no terrors for us, and all iti vain, therefore, ear contemporary's

Sound ami furi.-. signifying nothing. Is it to Canada he rciVrs us ? Ami what example does she atl'.-rd I During all those years, while her neighbors were advancing with such rapid strides under a protectionist policy, she was stationary. She ha 3 enormous resources, but her obsolete policy ha 3 paralysed all improvement. Her industries seemed as if smitten with a plague. At lengthher statesmen are awakening r.s fn-rn a long dream and adopting a protectionist policy as the only surviving hope forindti3t rial enterprise within her borders. Is it to Germany he points us ? and what £< lessons" does Prince Von Bismarck, who stands forth conspicuously as a king <•!' men—as great itt Council as in war—in cor-piest upon ! the gory fields as in the more peaceful walks of industry—and he, too, announces a protective policy. Is it Belgium, or France, or Holland I If we desire to get any glimpses of the policy

which so enamours our contemporary, we must traverse beyond the bounds of civilisation and survey those barbarous nations upon which the light of civilsation | has never shone. It is to Africa or New | Guinea, or Timbuctoo we must turn our j weary eyes ! Does he indeed desire this | country to revert into a sheep walk, in whirh industrial proem's have no I Is this tin- if.--"-.; ">nr contem- j f«n»rv o.v-ires to teach >'ev. Zealand. Or shr.il v.'e g>> to Victoria, that shocking example of unparalleled progress I At "his Mini of day in is perfec'ly sickening to have to teach educated men the rudiments of a science and the elements of a truth. He tells us that in that benighted country there is " an extraordinary increase in the cost of living," and other choice statements which must have blunted the edge of his weapon. He imagines that, like lobsters, we can only be broken in our shells, or he would be more chary of his strictures. But what an atrocious libel upon \ ictoria. We challenge any comparison lie chooses ! Is bread dearer, or sugar, or tea, or clothing, or boots ? No. Can he enumerate a single article the cost of which has increased as a consequence of her fiscal policy ? We defy him to the : proof, and point him to " Hayter's" ! statistics for the last quarter of a century. We shall gladly lend him this vadc inccum so interesting to the student of such erudite mysteries. He will discover that he has conjured up a host of phantoms ; that his facts and figures exist alone in the recesses of his disordered imagination. Hayter will tell him in figures, that cannot lie, that the cost of living has enormously decreased, and that not only have wages been increased absolutely, but—what is of equal importance have increased relatively likewise in their enhanced purchasing power. It is the fashion for such writers to postulate that the taxation of that colony has increased and the country become a terror to the workingnian. Ask the workingmen ! They are educated up to the standard of replying intelligently to such enquiries. Do you ever hear him complain of protection ? Or docs lie complain that he pays more to the revenue than heretofore ? Ho will point you to Hayter, whom he studies profoundly, and he will tell you, fortified by such an impartial authority, that the taxation is less since the introduction of a protectionist policy. Will our contemporary accept; the challenge ? Say, rather, would he consign local industries to the bottom of the Pacific." We implore him to be merciful. Let some less dreadful sacrifice mollify his wrath. Nay, v.-e hope he will live to sec the error of his ways, and become another illustrious example of the repentant sinner. Wrapped in his philosophic mantle, his calm spirit will survive the wreck of his prejudices, and he will rejoice with us in a state of things which might gladden any diviner, and may most appropriately become the subject of an}- prophet's prayer. He is neither a Nero nor a Caligula, and we arc well assured that some less deplorable disaster than a whole class consigned to the depths of the Pacific Ocean will serve as a holocaust to one so gifted by nature, possessed by such kindness of heart and such unbounded philanthropy.