The Daily News. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 4, 1903. THE FISCAL OUTLOOK.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XXXXV, Issue 262, 4 December 1903, Page 2

The Daily News. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 4, 1903. THE FISCAL OUTLOOK.

The fiscal controversy still drags along, and the cables each clay bear evidence of the earnestness of the struggle 'gjoling on. Strorjg men stand up for and totally strong) mc-n oppose Mr Chamberlain's suggestions regardi'tng the tarilT. Writing on the day following Lord Rosebjery's great speech at Sheffield, the London Daily Mail expressed surprise that the great Liberal leader Should have made his avowal of belief in free trade after ho had been understood to condemn it ut Burnley. He had insisted that Mr Ohamlxirlain's policy wus one based only on hypotheses and assertions : e.\-

pressed disiflplief in the efficacy of retaliation ; and appeared to dread a conflict with the civilised world as the result of that policy, compared with which Armageddon would be a friendly joust. Yet, a dispassionate note was apparent in the speech. Lord Roselfyry deplored the fact that the question had inn . iu ; ' o id into' the arena of party politics ; but for this the blame rested on Sir Henry Camp'i)),'ll-Bannerman, who had lushed in with premature criticisms end attacks, while other men waited to hear Mr ChaimjUerliai'n's case. His assertion, however, that under five trade Engfiand is prospering could scarcely be substantiated. Agriculture, as Lord Rosetoery himself had pointed out in his Burnley speech, has suffered cruelly under free trade ; British exports of manufactures have declined in the last thirty years, and that the total volume of British trade has increased at all is due to the colonies ; and apparently thp rapid strides made by foreign competitors under protection was lost sight of. Twenty years ago there was reafsonuWe room for douM whether protection was a blessing or a

curse, since in ten or fifteen differ- ' ent instances it has prevented foreign countries from, achieving far greater progress than England, The : size of a market is all-important in ■ modei|n 'industry, -ajnd in protected England the manufacturer has no market to himself, while he is shut out from foreign markets by perpetually growing tariffs. To pronounce against retaliation, or the policy of hitting back, would be to oppose the only means of securing fair treatment for British trade. England is not yet reduced to a pitch of humility which compels her to surrender to mero threats; and those who suggest that an Armageddon will be the result if she treats the i'orejgner as 'he treats her forget, that Engjland is now the best c'ustpmgr of gyery country in the wprld, and, that' these c'p|iptr'i'es are not likely tp sacrifice hpr gootbyijl merely because she follows their example. As flfl i'SSlie at the next ejection, -fair trade may be doomed, todefeat, but it will not be U'aten on its merits. It will be beaten t>ecause the appeal to the country will be complicated by the outcry against the Education Act, and the indignation pi'OVQked by the, report of the War Commission, Pij| protection alone will not provide a cure of all the evils which British trade is suffering. Nor will better education alone achieve such an end, though if Lord Rosebery's party returned to power their remedy would be tested. There would be great difliculty in providing funds fpc an education scheme such as Lord rtosebiiry's party desires. In pronouncing against taxattion of foreign manufactured imports, which could he carried to a point far beyond that proposed Mr Ohaniberilailjn, who would thus -be able to make further remissions, of existing food taxes', Lord Rosebery has cut himself -and* his party oft from a most productive and valuable source of revenue, which* is the more indispensable "because the national income is showing a depressing lack of expaiisiveness.