MR GOLDWIN SMITH ON CANADIAN POLITICS.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 221, 24 September 1887, Page 1

MR GOLDWIN SMITH ON CANADIAN POLITICS.

Mr Goldwin Smith writes to the Standard, under the date of the 9th ult., with regard to the various questions now agitating the Dominion — the Protectionist tariff, the Fisheries question, the Secessionist movement in Nova Scotia, the revolt against the Pacific railway monopoly in Manitoba, and above all. the movement in tavour of commercial union with the United btates, which are intimately connected with each other, nnd collectively indicate the approaching breakdown of an attempt, in the supposed interest of the empire, to isolate the provinces of which the Dominion is composed commercially from the continent to which they belong :—: — " To make my point clear, I cannot help repeating what I have said elsewhere. The four blocks of territory of which the Dominion is mado up— that is to say, the maritime provinces, Old Canada, comprising Ontario and Quebec ; the North- West and British Columbia — are connected, as a glance at the map will show, by no natural bond of union, geographical or commercial. The maiitime provinces are separated from Old Canada by an irreclaimable wildorness. Old Canada is separated from the NorthWest by another irreclaimable wilderness, and by the fresh-water sea called Lake Superior ; the North- West is separated from British Columbia by a triple range of mountains. Each block, on the other hand, is closely connected, economically as well as geographically, with the portion of the United States immediately to the south of it : the maritime provinces with the New England States ; Old Canada with Maine. Vermont, New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio, the last named States being the source of our coal supply ; the NorthWest with Minnesota, Dakato, and Montana, from which it is divided only by an imaginary line ; and British Columbia with the Pacific States. Of the four divisions of Canada no two would naturally trade with each other, while each would natuially trado with the adjacent part of the United States. The four great industries of Canada need tho American market for their goods. The farmer needs it for his farm produce, especially his barlej ; the lumberman for his timber, the miner for his ore, the fisherman for his fish. The Americans want to buy what the Canadians have to sell. They also want to share the fisheries; while a share in the American coasting trade is a vital object to the shipbuilders and mariners of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. Nova Scotia also desires the American market for her bituminous coal ; the Canadian farmer want? American machines and implements, the Canadian miner wants American machinery for crushing ore. There are articles, such as first-class printing presses, which only the richer and moro scientific country can produce, and tho lack of which interferes with progress in the poorer country. It is haidly possible to maintain a first-class bookshop in Canada, because we are cut off from our natural centres of distribution. "Up to this time, however, statesmanship has been struggling in the supposed interest of the Empire, and at the same time in the interest of a political party here, to unite what nature hab divided, and to divide what she has united. The two instruments of this policy have been the political railroad and the Customs House. In the Intercolonial Railroad Canida lias been made to sink 40,000,000 dollars, and in the Pacific Railroad she has been made to sink 100,000,000 dollars, not a cent of which in either case will she ever see again in any shape. As to the protective tariff, you will hardly noed to be told that it h a dead failure. One of the advocates of the policy, a great dealer in cottons and woollens, admitted the other day that the capital invested in our protected manufactures, were protection withdrawn, would not now be worth more than a third of ita par value, and at the same time that Canada was unable to make goods which would for a moment bear competition with those made in the United States, so that twothirds of the interest on the protocted capital must be paid by public taxation ; and we are not only prevented from selling in a good market, but forced to buy in a bad one. To force manufactures into existence in Ontario, which has no coal, a protective tarrff is imposed ; while to reconcile Nova Scotia to the protective tariff a duty has hitherto been imposed on imported coal. The settler in Manitobct, who, having to contend against a very severe climate, cannot afford to be weighted, has had to pay a tax on his imported fuel, as well as to send a thousand miles for the materials of his shanty, and for his canned provis ons, when he could got them on the other side of the line across which he shakos hands with his American neighbour, and not only with his American neighbour, but with Canadians, of whom there are now large numbers in Minnesota and Dakota. "Nature and man are now in revolt against this system. Commercial union is rapidly becoming the question of the day, while Manitoba is in arms against -tho exclusive privileges of the Canadian Pacific Railway, and bent on opening her communications with the United States, instead of being condemned, as the Separatist policy condemns her, to have no outlet for her produce but Montreal, which is 1800 miles off, and is not a winter porb. The commercial unity of the empire has been definitely abandoned in the case of Australia as well as in that of Canada. We must now take the other system with all its consequences, and allow each member of the empire to arrange for itself according to its circumstances, which in the case of Canadia are those of a countrj on the American continent, interlocked with the territory of the United States, and lying alongside of a highly protected nation. Though I am not what is called an Im-.j perialist, I would forfeit all I possess rather ! than vote for what I believe to be really injurious to England ; but I am thoroughly convinced that the opening of freetrade between Canada and the United States not only would do England no injury, but would in the end most certainly redound to her advantage. 1