The Daily News SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 17. AN INDUSTRIAL OBJECT LESSON.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 81890, 17 November 1906, Page 2

The Daily News SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 17. AN INDUSTRIAL OBJECT LESSON.

It docs not concern T;ir,inaki much ihat the tramway men 01 Auckland jit objecting to t> ach students. the an ul dnvi.ig an electric cai, but ihe objection points a mural and a moral that has .i national and 1101 paroc.i'al significance. Tin: objection of the Auckland tramway mm to allow anybody else ill Auckland the right to .<'aui their wvn business, and thus imperil their own billet., is a common tailing- elsewhere than in Auckland. Fur instance, iliat variegated good and evil aw, compli ed in the Conciliation and Aibiuation Act, makes

u diliicult for more than a few boys —according' to tlie proportion of adult walkers —10 be employed by any firm. The peop'e who object to more than a small number of boys learning any specific trada were obviously permeated with the selfish views it seems the Auckland tram mm are worried with. It appears to be the conclusion of a number of people in Now Zealand that they are going to live for ever, and that in conseciuence they muH have a 1 the work that is going" kept for them.

THE old-time system of "giving a mate a helping hand'' petered out and died under the new system which makes a man see in every other man who learns a trade a possible riva . Rivahy is the life of trade and of every form of endeavor. The good man dues not fear rivalry. It is 1 only the wa-ter who gets hot ab.uit 1 the throat and writes to the English papers ciylng "stinking" fi-h'' about | this colony, who fears rivalry. De- 1 spite the fact 'hat many men d.i all in their power to keep the busineso( the country from expanding by keeping everybody off their preserve*, New Zealand persists in becoming" a manufacturing country. Ihe tu;ure ot the country lies in its ability 10 u-e its own raw material 011 the spot. The Customs revenue of the country is no criterion of the success of the' country, but the use of the country's own grown products, manufactured by the country's own labor, is the real criterion of the progress of the country. It is gratifying for one to read that New Zealand has exported a tremendous quantity of first-cla-s wool to the Old World at a sal- - price, but it would be innnitelv more satisfactory if New Zealand had sufficient workers in tli's colony to make it unnecessary to send a -ingle bale away.

To be plain, it would be better to semi the finished product to clotlw tie' back's of our Briti-h brothers than that our English brothers should it back to New Zea.and to cloth' 1 us It cannot be done to any vuy large extent while the many selfish ones of this country retard progress bv showing an indisposition to icach anyone che the commercial arts and by preventing by statutory means killed workers from coming to this eountrv. Even with this retarding

legislation, we really are making greater strides in manufactme than one would think po-sible under th. circumstances. The Government tells US that there are more than •0.000 people working in the factories. but it should be remembered that almost anv p ace employing a couple. •1 bands is called a "factory ' in New Zealand. In th e Old Land the description would of course be augliocl at, but, all the same, it is the beginning of big things in a countn that has a great future before it. not only as a producing country, but as a manufacturing one.

IN the race towards nationhood, New Zea'and has got to remember n'QC hundred thousand people owe more than -ixtv-six pounds per head to the monevlendei ,an ' that the more quickly produce is u-ed by herse f, the more quicklv will the debt be decreased. Also that the industries cannot be developed properly will the few people who are here and that the more people there are. tile easier will it be [Ol them to bear the better spread burden. New Zealand must keep on boa-ting of her revenue as long as she ia dependent on other countries for the finished supplies. It would pay this country better in the long run to import men to make certain necessary goods than to pay a .arge ptice for imported goods plus heavy duty put on them to protect local industries that don t always material-

The man who hales to teach his fellow colonist a trade is a bom protectionist. He has every right to be a proteciijni-t if he is protecting everyone in hi- own country. But the sentiment is moiio ofufn local than national, more selfish than progressive. It is cowardly for a people to fear the influx of skilled workers. It is braver t> becomi< skilled and beat the other fellow at his own game. The farmer who grows a poor crop of turnips doesn't want to prohibit any other farmer from growing turnip; because he ran grow a belter crop. He should want to copy hi- methods and reap his rewards. The dairyman i-n't thinking of getting the successful cowman deported because his butter-fat test is points ahead of hi- own. His business is to weed out poor cows, buy covers for his milkers, use a Babcock on the vielcl of each cow, make a silo pit, and otherwise hustle to beat the other fellow.

I So it should be with tradesmen who ar- at the moment howling becau-e other pejp'e have a desire to make a living in a county that is carrying onlv one-twentieth of the population it was designed for. Apart fiom the purely manufaciuiing side of the que-tion, the Government's policy is designed to settle the country mite thickly, so that in time the said manufactures must of necessity in.ciease to support the additional population. The Government during the la-t few years has purchased nearly one hundred and sixty big estates ajid has cut them up. This policy naturally depletes the towns — a very excellent idea.

ll' also attracts the trade-men from the tjwns and miphasi-es the necessity of lilling their places. If the policy of many people in New Zealand—that of prohibiting the learning- of trade —wete carried out, increase of land setilemcnt would mean 1 vll greater dependence on the Old World for finished products. Majbo y<Hi have figured out wliai this dependence on Ihe Old Word would ne an in '!c event ofannedaggre-si"n against either liritalo or Austala-ia. If you haven't fi.uured ;t out. have a g iod think. 1: behoves us 1101 to be : "iitent wiih jur present skill, our present population, our present manufactures. It behoves us to wipe out tha ! national d'bt at a greater rate than we are doing at present. ll behoves us to learn frjm tho-e wlio by experience are able to teach us iha* wi- are not yet at the zenith of our feme or power, and that New Zealand jor people is a poor ambiiion.