INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1609, 19 July 1887, Page 3

INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT.

TO THE ELECTORS OF GLADSTONE,

DIFFERENT CONDITIONS.

I have so far tried to show that the economic principles which apply to England would not bo suitable to this colony, owing to the condition* of things being completely reversed. Let me give a few more examples. England cannot produce enough food for her population, and if she were to put on Protection the working cissies would be unjustly taxed. Here we grow all the food we require with the exception of luxuries, Tea, sugar, and tobacco are almost the only imports a poor man need use, and yet these are the very articles the so-called Freetraders propose to pnt duties on. These are the friends of the working man! They would tax

e exactly the articles he uses. The workini 3 man need not be afraid of Freetrade Mr G. A, Sala said Melbourne was one of thi cheapest cities to live in he had met in hii 3 travels. In Melbourne a man can get at ( 9 good restaurant a good meal for sixpence 9 The price of beef, mutton, bread, etc,, cannot 9 be affected by Protection, and the man whe talks of making the cost of living cheaper foi I a working man by reducing Customs duties 5 does not know what he is talking about, i What the working man wants is good wort , and good pay, and he cannot have these with cheap goods, i There is still another difference. England imports raw material from all parts of the globe and gives employment to her sons and daughters in manufacturing it into articles of use; and if England were to put on Protective duties the result would be that her factories would have to shut up, and her eons and daughters would be thrown out of employment. Observe the wisdom of England’s policy: She fossicks about from Polo to Pole like a good mother to sea where she oan get work to do for her children. Now Zealand, like a stepmother, exports the raw material for fear her own children would get work in manufacturing it, and then goes sniffing and smelling about from Pole to Polo to sea where she oan save a penny on the articles she wants. She is afraid that it she gave the work to her own children some of them would get too rich, and become monopolists, but she never reflects on the monopolists that she keeps in luxury in other lands, finoe the beginning of the colony New Zealand hae bought £43,000,000 worth of goods more than she hae sold. She paid for these goods with borrowed money, and by the time the principal and interest are paid the goods will ba dear, THE BROTHERHOOD OF MAN. There is a beautiful sentiment of which Freetraders hold a monopoly, and it is so humane, and so good, and so almost divine, that I think it a pity to demolish it. It is called “The Brotherhood of Man,”and it means that wo, the people of the earth, are brethren, that it does not matter to us whether a brother does our work in Kamsohatka or in Temuka, and that we should not give any preference to our own people before the inhabitants of foreign countries. This is a sentiment in which Mr Pecksniff would have revelled, and it is the sentiment which was contained in the magnanimous words of Mr Saunders when in a lecture he recently said Freetrade was the law of the Almighty, This would have been a grand law only that there is another law which over-rides it, Self-preservation is the first law of Nature, to provide for one’s own children is a natural obligation, and both laws demand of us to protect our industries. In England this sentiment may have some applicability, because England has a larger population than she wants, but here we want population, and without industrial development wo have not room for many more. Look into our schools; see the crowds of young colonists growing up in them. Where will they get employment ? or must they leave the colony and look for work elsewhere? Machinery is doing the work of the farmer, and if this is to be the only industry in the colony where will we get employment for our children, and how oan we increase our population f 1 cannot see that it ia possible, and therefore I think that we must give our own people the work we now got done in England. I feel as keenly for my fellow creatures as another, but “ charity begins at homo ” with me, and I prefer to give my work to my neighbor and pay him for doing it, than go sniffing from Pole to Pole to see where 1 can get a “ brother ” that will do it a penny cheaper, Is it not a very brotherly thing to seek out the “ brother ” that will do the work the cheapest and thus out down the wages’of the rest of my brethren ? What an enormous quantity of the milk of human kindness these brotherly Freetraders carry around with them. THE COBWEBS, I have so far striven to brush off the cobwebbs of Freetrade, and I think I have succeeded to some extent. 1 have not compared the statistics of a Protected country with those of a Freetrade country, for there are always excuses handy for not believing that the fiscal policy of a country has anything to do with its commercial position, For instance, I say “Look at America!” the reply is handy “ Oh, that is a world in itself; its enormous resources are the cause of its prosperity." No one thinks of what it would hare been if its raw materials were taken to England and brought back manufactured as was the case before it protected its industries, Had it not protected its industries the result would have been that the greater part of its industrial population would have been working now in England, and the Red Indian would have been roaming free over many parts of America which are now yielding its wealth of golden grain. If I say “ Look at Victoria and New South Wales,” I cannot bo met with the same answer there, because the latter country is three times as large as tbe former, but I am told that the gold industry is what makes Victoria prosperous. No notice is taken of the coal, and other mines, ot New South Wales, nor of many other things. The Freetrader has always some stupid answer for such a lino of argument, and therefore I resolved upon laying down bis own doctrines, as promulgated by tbe high priest of his creed, and the reader oan now judge whether these doctrines are applicable to the condition of this colony. It may be proved that my figures are wrong, and instead of £4,000,000 we shall be able to pay interest with £2,000.000. Btill there will remian tbe unalterable fact that if wa are not going four millions a year to the bad we are going to the b d at the rata of two millions, which, if not so bad, is certainly too bad to allow goon unheeded. And now what shall I say of the book-learned Freetrader, who reads and does not understand f He will give the excuse that our export* will increase and pay for all in the course of time. In 1877 we exported £6,078,484 worth of goods; in 1885, £6,591,911 was the value of our exports. At that rate it would take 40 years or so before our exports were sufficient to meet present demands, and if we continued to borrow the 4 i illiona a year in the meantime would we not bo in a pretty fit ? I should let off the book-learned Freetrader with a word of pity, but he is too mischievous a creature to overlook. He fills a large space in Parliament; he has a glib tongue that ha* not to bear the* weight of a thinking mind, and hi radios away, ex°rcinrg his ba'ftful influence without knowing it. ®ne of these Is Mr Heobie Mackenzie, who has made the extraordinary discovery ihat 16 years ago S r Robert Stout wrote strongly in favor of Freetrade, and who threw that in his face in the recent

debate, as if it were a crime. Wise men change their minds, fools never, for they hive no mind to change. Sir Eobert Stout has seen fit to change his, but lam afraid Mr Soobie Mackenzie will not for obvious reasons. Are these the sort of people who are fit to be elected to Parliament P What good are they? These are the sort of people who have brought the colony to the condition in which we find it. She has been destroyed by Professional Politicians, who have ruled her by the "rule of thumb," and have risen to fame and opulence on her ruin. It is not the people who have ruined her that can set her right, and I trust there is sufficient patriotism in the colony to rise equal to the occasion and check the party which has been the cause of putting the country to the expense of a double session in their uncontrollable efforts to reinstate themselves in offioe. J. M. Twomet.