The Temuka Leader TUESDAY, JANUARY 11, 1887. FRREETRADE IN ENGLAND.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1538, 11 January 1887, Page 2

The Temuka Leader TUESDAY, JANUARY 11, 1887. FRREETRADE IN ENGLAND.

We ImVe been shown a loiter received by Mr W. U. Eut.lund, of Temuka, from his brother, Mr Jameß Rutland, by itiie- laetf|nail>fro ( mf Er/glaridi We;may say that Mr James Rutland, who has been an' arcHitejctV contractor, and large employerjof labor for,;4Q years, ; .;ißi in a good position'to form an opinion on the subject he disciißsep. .Ho is. dleo, and has been for the last 16 years, Secretary io. the South of England Antiquarian and Archaeological Society, and in that position has travelled/ 'the. /whole country. His views, therefore, cannot be said to be influenced by the condition of trade in his.own locality. He has varied and extensive experience, fbe result.'of which is embodied in the folio wing extract from the letter he hu6 written to hisi brother : • "Tsuppose you do riot have any "Primrose" meetings out there'? \Ve have them in almost every village j we are all getting very Conservative; we see nqw to our cost the fallacy of a one-sided " ( freetrader; we are swamped with foreign goods, also workmen, more especially Germans. Our own people are wandering about with nothing to do. Some of our shops have nothing but foreign goods to sell. It is all very well to have ; clieap,goods for the well-to-do class, but it is very different for the working .When they have no worktthey have no rnojey, and a cheap article iR of no avail, to them if they have no money, to purchase it. What they want is employment, and how are they, to find it if all manufactured goodsaret,o'be imported] If we could send our goods into the foreign marketslas free as we receive them 'here we could stand our own grounds Our farmers are. nearly all ruined'; rents cent, cohsequently.'the price of land is proportionately down. When, the farmer cannot pay his rent we suffer all round. Agricultural laborers are now taking ,Bs, : and 10s per week, man and wife 13§. : Then th'e landlord cannot imiproveme'bts'either'on hhown home or.on his farms,., consequently prudes of jail kinds Buffer. The' millions of hard cash we send out of the'eountry instead of our own manufactured articles is enormous, which gives emplbymeut to'foreign'workpeople, whereas if it was spentjftjhome our people would find employment and be,sati»fied. We have Charity Organisations in ! nearly every jare detested by:the industrious working rrian, who only wants work, and not to be fed •as a pauper; Why should England ;be the catepaw (for the .whole world because' a few well-intentioned men, such j -asOobdnn, Bright, and Villiers, and a jEew others, some 40 years ago, propounded I th£t scheme of Freetmde, which appeared 'tV answer very well for about 10 years, but for the last. 30 years has been ithe greatest curse to us that could have happened 1 We have loet our position injtbe markets of the world, and have been the means of improving almost every other nation oil the face of the earth. We ; are beaten in almost 'every manutactured article, aod why? Because in foreign countries labor is chenper,, artizans ,livo for. much >.less tlian lours do, and then the demand for their products in the : present markets ] of the worldis Buch that even with the aid of machipery we have no chance at all. We cannot send our' goods into any market now as cheap as they can make item themselves, therefore' 1 say t'ltatsFreetrade is a curse tothe,BritißhiWprking roan.!' ! W.e h»ye all *lopg,advocated Protection for this colony, but not touched (jn it M'regarcis England; We, ho'wbVer, agree, fully with Mr EnfiindV remarks. :F.reetrarle is ruining England,.and;i,t stands to re'ason/thatit mu?t do so. Almost every' nation with the exception of England is protected ; hor must pay'Kigh diity everywhere, yet she lets in the goods of all nation's fr,etvH It is net.consistent frith r.ommon secsß () that she, could under these .circunistnnces' compete successfully yeith other natiohs'in the "markets ; oi thb world, and hence a great deal of the .depfession from which s.he,suffers. But if Protection is necessary for Eiigluod how much'morp.. so must it be necessary for a young colony ! like Nuw Zealand, that needs to develop her industrial resources. We in jth'is" colony want Protection ten times more (Han England 'does, and UDIeBB we get it j soon we pliall' not only get froin; bad lp j worse but become bankrupt. There ip no j half-way house between 'Protect iqn jand ; National bankruptcy, and the Bdoner we \ ;i? j'j;

! ; i THE OTA.GO WORKMAN. We have received a new paper entitled The Otago Workman. It is a weekly publication, the sizeof this paper,;!issuedin the interests" of' working men. It'has a great deal of reading matter, and a fair, show of advertisements, and, it is very hopeful of success.. We sincerely hope it will succeed, but we doubt it. We have frequently seen similar enterprises started with good promises of support, but nol one of Ihem has ever lived. The wording men do not support them ; they support not hi rig which professes to be established for their special benefit, and it is; not likely, they wiir make on exception of (The Workman; However, there is room in New Zealand for' an independent weekly newspaper, and it is a great pity one can* not be established. The configuration of the colony is inimical to the formation of a sound public opiriidn. We have rio ; large centre like Melbourne or Sydney, from which papers .vould issue to; the whole colony. We have four large cen-. tres i»nd several smaller ones, and news-' .papers in these towns; must becomo stale before they cnn reach- beyond their jo'wh' districts. The consequence js.tbat pach district is• ■dependent on its. own, ideal paper,; and as .public opinion is chiefly formed by the public press, the,,.opini6n9 of each" district iimM be areflex ofj the orinions of the local-paper. Hence, th« chaoticTißJate; of-public opinion ia New Zealand.'," "For instance, Oflfriaru pipers may 'advocate 'Protection arid* Tirrwn papers Freetrarle; With the result that a Freetrader is returned for the latter, whiles Protectionist, is,returned for the former, and thus, what one, does is neutralised by the ;action of tbe other. Now this has averyb'id effect on politics, and ,if it were possible to establish a weekly paper that would find its way into the general of the colony liuich good might be done with it, pro : yjdefj it wbb "conducted n:operly. Bf»t Jhifl |s ft Ptopian idea that could; noj;

easily be realised, aod we are'affuid The Otago Workman is not destined to fill this loDg-felt want. «———■—■———————^——