The Temuka Leader SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 1882.

Temuka Leader, Issue 922, 25 February 1882, Page 2

The Temuka Leader SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 1882.

Amongst the English telegrams to hand is one wbiqh states that Sir Henry Parkes is now fully satisfied that the reduction of the United States tariff on wool is utterly impossible. Our readers will remember that we predicted that this would be the result of the efforts that were being made to get the American Government to abolish the duty on Australian wool at the time Sir Henry Parkes was commissioned to negotiate the matter on behalf of the Australian Colonies. The experience of the. American people has taught them, that Protection is. good, and anyone who is simple enough to believe that they can be talked over into giving it up makes a great mistake. Protection has made America the. greatest producing country in the world. Through the great growth of trade and commerce they are paying-off their national debt by tens of millions of. pounds yearly are able to reduce the. taxes, ind in a few they will be, free from all liability. In a. recent speech the President announced, that bonds, to the extent of 123,969,250d015., or about £26,000,000, had been redeemed ; that there would be a surplus of about £27;000,000 to. go to pay off more of the National Debt, and that in ten years they would have wiped off the National Debt altogether. It was consequently recommended to. abolish all internal taxation except the taxes on spirits and tobacco, This is the result of Protection. There was a time when America was so encumbered with debt that it was thought she could never get over her liabilities. In 1860, after the Civil War, the National Debt of Amerioa .vas £555,785,175, but she has been reducing it at. such a rapid rate since then, that now w,e are told in ten years she.w.ijl: not owe a pqnny, Compare this svith, England's Free Trade policy. Her Na-

tional Debt seetas .to increase annually, till it has risen to such a degree that it takes £25,000,000 to pay the interest on it, This is how Free Trade works. Hoi land, in which a Protective policy has been long in operation has not a penny of national debt. Now, is it not time tha t such results as these would open the eyes of those who are affected with the Free Trade mania ? Mr Gladstone in a recent speech said that so long as America carried on her pernicious policy of Protection, English manufacturers had no occasion to fear competition with li6r in the markets of the world. We ask «my man to reflect and ask himself whether this is not a great delusion. Up to the preseutthe Amerioan people were heayily taxed, the cost of living was dear, the rate of wages was high, and yet they have competed successfully with the English producers, If these taxes are wiped away and the cost of Jiving and the rate of wages consequently become cheaper, what hope is there left for English producers who have to make up their £25,000,000 annually 1 The answer must be obvious to anyone. America will in a few years have n monopoly of trade, and be able to sell her goods in the English markets at a price that will destroy English industry. This is beginning to be recognised already in England. In a telegram received yesterday it appears that Lady B.ective is making efforts to induce English people to wear nothing but English - made articles, manufactured of English material, no doubt because she recognises, that very soon the Home industries will he undersold by outside competitors. How fruitless this will prove to foaler Home industries must be obvious to everyone. Men may be very patriotic in election times, and make speeches bcastful of their patriotic sympathies over their wine, but when it comes to choose between two articles which they want to patriotism is left altogether out of the question, and the cheapest and best is bought. The limes condemns the movement—and very wisely, too, because it is useless—but the Mairqu's of; Salisbury supports it. Let him. He can neither do much good nor harm by doing so. The only way in which English industries, can be improved is by protecting them from American competitton. Let us look nearer home. The advocates of Free Trade point to Victoria, and Sew South Wales as examples of Protection and Free Trade. What do we learn from the most recent news from Victoria, but that a deficit of £700,000 has been wiped off in eight months. Has New South Wales ever made such progress as this ? The struggle for political power between parties has kapt Victoria, in the background for several years, but now that she is being, governed by wiser, and more moderate men, sh.eis recoyerijig from the great depression, which she underwent not because of. her Protective policy, but because of the. strife between political parties, fighting for- political supremacy. All that is done away with, now, atad the result is that, the colony of Victoria is enjoying a degree of prosperity never before experienced, and reducing the National ]>.ebt with the money of such colonies, as wish to 3end goods to > her markets. We confess that we j cannot understand how it is that ' people are led away by the superstition of Free Trade to such an extent as the} 7 are. We have been taken to task recently by an editor of a certain widely circulated newspaper on account of advocating Protection. Perhapa it is, not generally known that these very newspapers which are so. loud in their denunciations of Protection, are Protectionists so far as their own business is concerned. About 2£ years ago, the principal papers, of New Zealand, combined together into a Press Association for the purpose of exchanging news with; each other, and. now they won't let any newspaper into that Association without paying a fine of, we believe, £SOO tor a morning paper and,£2so for an evening paper; What is the object of this,? simply to prevent newspapers being started in opposition to. them, and yet these very papers are loudest in their denunciations of Protection.. If there is an industry in the world that should be free it is the newspaper industry, but that is not thecase in this colojy ; While we have free trade in. everything else we have self-conßtituted protection, for newspapers. They accuse us of being the enemies of the. farmers and the laboring classes . through advocating rPotection We deny it. If we thought thought that Protection would not improve the position of the great majority wo should not advocate, it but we are convinced that it would and therefore until we c-\n be shown thcr we are wrong we mean to make it our policy

Tiie Government are taken to task by the Oamaru Mail, as follows : —" Fob. ' ways that are dark and tricks that are vain,' the Government bid fair to outrival the heathen Chinee immortalised by Bret Harte. Those who are called upon to pay the Property Tux are aware that the jire instalment of the tax for the current financial year becamo due on the 15th instant ;,but they are not aware that the Government have arranged in connection with it a very nice little scheme for increasing the amount obtainable from the tax.;. By. an Order-in-Conncil, or some other means, it has. been, determined to imposo a penalty upon all who have not paid the first instalment of the tax by the

Ist March. No notice of such a proposal has been given to those who are affeotod by it. But -we have obtained information of the neatly laid scheme, and we haaten to warn the public of the trap so cunnin *!y laid for them. We have received from the Property Tax Department an advertisement reminding taxpayers that a " penalty of 2s in the £ will be chargeable upon all amounts of the first instalment of the tax due 15th February which remain unpaid after Wednesday, Ist March." But our instructions in oonneotion with this are to insert the advertisement .in our last issue prior to the In March —in other words, too late to . warn the public of the impending penalty. The only conclusion that we oan possibly arrive al is that the Government, having through pressure reduced the tax in one d rection, have determined if possible by underhand means to again increase that burden. We are tojd, but with what truth we cannot aay, that it is intended to add 10 per cent to. the amount of the second instalment of the tax which becomes due on the Ist March remaining unpaid on the sth of the anme month. Reasonable people would naturally conclude that the first duty of the Government would be to notify to the public as early as possible of the risk they run in deferring payment of the tax ; but such a conclusion would be founded upon the hypothesis that the Government study the interests, of the p.ublic, and experience has shown that the present Ministry are not actuated by any consideration of what is good for those whose servants they should be. We have called, the attention of our readers to. the master ito order- that they may frustrate the. designs of oux rulers. The tax may bepai'd at the Post Officii, and we would strongly a,dvise aU who. are burdened with the obnoxious tax to p;\y th,i;ir amounts before the office closes; on the Ist March." We may add to this that we have also just received a. similar ad-. vertisement with, instruction nob to. insert it until the-last issue of our paper prior, to, the first of March. It may be too, much to say that the Government have adopted this plan for the purpose of taking people, by surprise, and increase thereby the revenue by the infliction of a fine the notice of which, does not give time to pay before the people become liable.. Still such a conclusion may reasonably be come t 0... It is certainly an, extraordinary piece of business to give only 24 hours notice of Buch,a matter as.this,, but as we now give it full publicity our readers will, have only t=h exnsely.es t,o blam.e if they render thomselves, liable to the fine by- delaying payment until; after the Ist March,