PROTECTION V. FREETRADE.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2393, 1 September 1892, Page 2

PROTECTION V. FREETRADE.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir,—While allowing "A Working Man " to answer for himself the queries you put to him in your footnote to his last letter, will you allow me to ask you one question '( —" What is the use of putting a prohibitive duty on imported goods while imported labor is allowed to come in free ?" This is the weak spot in Protection, but I suppose if anyone were to propose the imposition of a poll-tax on imported labor he would have the Protectionists down on him like a thousand of bricks. The " Protectionist " is usually an employer of labor who clamours for the protection of local industries because of the large profits it enables him to make, but in regard to the importation of foreign labour he is a " Freetrader," because it supplies him with an abuudance of cheap labour. —I am, etc., Consistency.

[Our correspondent no doubt means Protection—not Prohibition. If we put on prohibitive duties, and prohibited labour also, we should not have men enough to do the work. Protectionists are not " usually 'employers." The assumption is wrong. The p'oint, no doubt, our friend wishes to emphasize is that it no good for the working man to get Protection for his labour, if labour is allowed to come in and compete with him. That is narrowing the question to a class, and putting it in a very limited sense. We must look beyond a class ; we must look to all classes, and in this colony, where more population is wanted, the question is pointless, and will remain so for a long time. It would, of course, be better for

all that the men should do the work here than in foreign countries. For instance, a pair of boots is made abroad for 7s Gd, and the money is lost for ever to the colony. A pair of boots is made here for 10s, and the money is spent with the butcher, the baker, the farmer, the tailor, the printer—in fact, everyone. The spending of money here creates employment here; money sent abroad creates employment in another country, and impoverishes this country. It would, therefore, be better for a working man to pay more for his goods, if made here, and get more work. A Protectionist is a man who prefers putting his hand in his pocket and paying his own neighbor a fair price for his work to going sniffing and smelling about from Pole to Pole to see where he can get someone to do his work cheaper. —EaJ