Untitled

South Canterbury Times, Volume XV, Issue 2070, 10 November 1879, Page 2

It is satisfactory to find that the subject of ahering the tariff in such a way as to promote the establishment and ensure the success of new and struggling' industries is likely to be relegated to a Royal commission. The advantage of an inquisitorial tribunal of this nature is that it places the evidence of various individuals and interests before the Legislature and Ministry in such acompe,ndious form. This is all that the most ardent, freetrader or protectionist, if he believes that (lie cause is a just one, can possibly desire. The subjecr is an important one, and it requires to be handled carefully. 13y taking evidence in the way proposed, placing parliament in the position of a jury, and leaving the Ministry tojpcrforin the directory and-J suggestive functions of judge, the bast judicial results attainable may be secured. ,If it is possible to supply New Zealand with something, the acknowledged absence of which has been a source of commercial weakness —a manufacturing backbone —the experiment surely deserves a trial. One of the greatest drawbacks to our prosperity is the want of a proper adjustment of contending interests. We have had many producers and comparatively but few manufacturers, and the result has been felt severely at certain seasons in the chief centres of population. In a well regulated condition ot society, human labour, mental or physical, is fully occupied. In a young colony, teeming with undeveloped resources like New Zealaad, there is something radically wrong when an outcry for employment is raised. Wo are living in a progressive age, and we arc working, not simply for the present, but for the future. Every hour, every minute of idleness, means a loss irreconcilable to posterity. This is a matter that is too lightly realised, too seldom comprehended, A unit may seem infinitessiraal, but this unit exercises its reactive influence on the whole body. It is the pebble dropped in the ocean. Inconsequential as the disturbance may seem, it moves and displaces the whole mass. Between the producer and the manufacturer wo require the balance so nicely adjusted that, unless wilfully and perversely, the skilled artisan and the unskilled laborer will rarely bo ablo to raise the cry of want on behalf of himselt and his family through lack of employment. We look forward with much confidence to the results that may be achieved by a Royal Commission on Native in dustries.