The Oamaru Mail WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE NEW ZEALAND AGRICULTURIST. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 1879.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 1116, 15 November 1879, Page 2

The Oamaru Mail WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE NEW ZEALAND AGRICULTURIST. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 1879.

Ir is extraordinary with what facility | wmt . well-meaning and usually wellS informed writers fall into mistakes in dealing with protection as applied t'> eommr.iritr.ttM, and more especially :vi txistins in Victoria. This is owing ■ wry much to the mas; unfair ami partial commentaries of the very veracious writers in the Ar„'«.* ami Australasian. Of curse it is unfortunate that on the very threshold 'of this discussion wo must come into such conflict with a portion of the Press : eminently respectable and unquestionably most influential. There is no disputing !this, and uur appeal in such a case— it : mere authority is to decide the question—must be to papers equally honest and able on the other side. We trust our reader* have got beyond the stage s»> beautifully idealised I>y"the poet laureate— An infant crying for the H^rht. An infant crying ii; the night. With nothing bat a cry. ; If they judge for themselves, mere authority will have little weight in deciding such a very matter-of-fact question, and otvr object is rathor to lay IUII a substratum of argument, end, s.j far as we cm, aid tho community in judging for themselves. The last example of_ .nidi unconscious misrepresentation is afforded bv our contemporary the Ocago Daily : Times. Victoria is a terrible example of the evils of protection, says our conceroporarv. Why, we ask J W hat are the proofs ? " Hercommerctal decadence ! almost exactly coincides with her protective policy" we are told. It has become the fashion to write disparagingly of the commerce of %ic«oria and base a string of arguments tip-n such a foundation. We entirely object to the assumption. For a period which will very soon reach a decade. ietona h;ts been ruled by a protectionist policy, i, Has her commerce sutlered in c>nsefqueneel Desirous of putting the matter I fairly, we admit at once, and frankly, that mistake*—tfraw mistakes, even—were perpetrated' in introducing such a policy. Sand" ne*vi>'ss injury was inflicted upon the I intercolonial trade" of Victoria. What we ! maintain, however. is that. Living made allowances t'-r such oversights—such departures front a purely protectionist policy a* were perpetrated—the commerce «>f Melbourne—it local industries are allowed f,. form a part of that policy—has prodi- . 'iotislv increased. The figures are easily procurable, and, if our contemporary will take the trouble t.» verify them lor himself, he will discover that what we say is perfectly correct. The misuko to which VV( , rt ;fer as luring been committed in the application of Victoria's protection policy i ts that of levying duties upon all such commodities as could not be manufactured in the Colony, and which were of Elicit a character as could only be operated in from open stock. Hence the cumbrous, svstem of drawbacks. Hence, also, the! nVeitless increase in price to the local consumer of some articles which there was no prospect whatever of their evei tic'.m" able to produce in the Colony. We h tve ever carefully limited our advocacy „f protection by this one among other fundamental conditions, viz., that the local article shall be as good and as cheap as th*» foreign article, and, given that condition, it is simply impossible that any dutv, however extravagant, necessarily enhances the cost of such commodities : for the tocal article, equally cheap anil -nod takes the place of the excluded foreign fi-ticle. In this larger and mfmiteiv itk>>re important senae—recognising locally manufactured goods as well as iruods that are imported a3 forming the commerce of ictoria —we* are 'free to say, without mis"ivin"3 that not only is Victoria more prosperous in this particular department since the introduction of her protective policy, but, we go further, and defy comparison with any Colony in the Australian sroup. We can appeal to ti 'urcs, and, if necessary, shall not fail to do so. That no mere " policy" affords absolute immunity from commercial or | central depression we have abundance of | evidence, and, had 2scw Zealand introI duoed protection a year ago, we are quite i certain the depression at present arising i froui causes outside herself, and operating ! all ov.-r th»» '-'lobe, would have been traced by some shallow theorists to her protection Livim* as we do in such a glass hotwt, we can hardly afford to throw stones at our neighbors, who after so ;u - ;ty veara are just as wedded t" protection" as ever. If Victoria is sutlenng somewhat from such universal depression, ao too surclv,arcwe. Wearesuffcrmgeven "wW than she is. If Victoria is a " shockin.' exaiitphi ' to the freetrader,so. too. t,r. us remind our contemporary, >ew Zealand mav, with equal fairness, be elevated a ahoekitisf example of free trade, i •> those who care to g > beyond the European causes of the present disturbed state of tfcc commercial and financial world, ana «*-.> are prepared to patiently investigate mlwr causes of depression in Victoria, they are not, after all, far to seek. The tremendous falling off in her gold returns would alone embarrass any country, however otherwise prosperous. The figures are enormous, and the wonder is that Victoria stands it as well »s she does. Then,

the drain upon her agriculture has been very great. In spite of legislation to defeat the designs of grasping monopolists, whole districts have reverted into sheepwalks. Selectors and farmers have been induced to sell out to the squatters. It is the farmers —not the mi natters —who are crossing the Murray, takin-.! much wealth with them, and occupying fresh fields and pastures new in ti.u jifi-jS- oring Colony, where land is so much c>'»- tper. The vast territory of New S'>ll r . i .des enables her to offer superior .'nducenients to the sorelv tempted farmers of \ ictoria, whose limited areas may be getting worked out. Such are the present conditions as applied to mining and agriculture in Victoria. Arc -ich r.-~ to ••-.arrant any great atir tint of prosperity Commerce must mr.ro or less depend upon such industries. It is unreasonable to suppose that the highest place can be maintained by the commerce of any country in which two [ such important sources of national wealth ! are existing under such unfavorable conj ditioiis. The marvel is that Victoria's I. ..mmerce and manufactures arc so vast--j so eclipses those of her free trade neighi bor, New South Wales, where such a favorable condition of other industries exist. New South Wales is draining Victoria of her fanning community, where sheep are rapidly taking the place of men, and yet, somehow, Victoria doc* more than hold her own. How is this ? We affirm that it is owing to her protection policy, ami, had it not been that so much capital and labor were being employed in developing the natural industries of the country, the position of Victoria would to-day have Keen a very deplorable one. Protection has saved her. Xt is a misfortune, some say, that the people so accumulate in large towns, but when the choice is between that and leaving the colony altogether, what then ? In Tasmania the people have no industries 'o turn to, and they, equally with those of the exhausted goldfields and other pursuits not having a sufficiently expansive capacity to absorb a growing population, all contributes to the ever-grow-ing manufacturing centres. Of two evils, surely this is the least. If we cannot occupy all our people in the healthful, happy pursuits of agriculture, are we t.. lament because a less desirable occupation otiiv is open to them ? Our business is to rrfleet that pcoplu must do something for a living. Our Dunedin contemporary professes himself puzzled by the eagerness of the workman for protection. He knows fits own business —this intelligent workman—depend upon it. The Times can understand the master desiring protection—" but why the man I" The man knows that, however good and cheap the commodity he can produce may be, no capitalist will invesc freely in pursuits which may be swapped with foreign manufactures. He knows that a protective policy means steady employment as well as ateadv watro3, and how important both are. He knows that it does not suit his purpose to walk about the streets ; and he knows, alas ! how his wife and children suffer in such a case. "Why the man i" He would be blind to his own t interests, which are likewise the best interests of tho community, if he for a moment tailed to support a protective policy. If he has lived in protected Victoria, lie will tell our contemporary* that rent, too, is les3, and so are the prices of all ho eats and weal's lower tfiere than they are in this country. Our contemporary reiterates the oft-exploded argument that the imposition of increased duties means increased prices. In America, a recent writer in the Saturday Review, m exposing this fallacy, pointed out that some commodities were being sold there /■„>• than the duty. And the same "economic law- operates universally. If you begin by complying with the condition wo have insisted upon, it will follow, as the night the day. that local competition will be enormously stimulated, local consumption increased, and commodities become cheaper. It must infallibly be so, and yet this is the one elementary truth which is so constantly overlooked. A duty on wheat does not raise the price of the 4lb loaf, and why I Uecatise we produce more grain than we can consume. It would have the opposite effect in England, for there they produce less than they consume. hv cannot our contemporary see that, for precisely the same reason!! a duty on boots or woollens could not raise the local price. We produce the raw materials necessary for these industries in abundance,and thereisnofear of enhanced prices as the result of a protective policy. Our contemporarj should take 1.-w"ns from the working men of Victoria, f'-r .'i-: eksss they are educated up to'a : • fr m which they are ,d>le to inteHi-_'..::rtv."i , >r>'i:--r.d and defend their own problem*. l iv.-w many newspaper writers can we say so itiucii I