The Tuapeka Times. AND GOLDFIELDS REPORTER AND ADVERTISER. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 28, 1874. "MEASURES, NOT MEN."

Tuapeka Times, Volume VII, Issue 403, 28 October 1874, Page 2

The Tuapeka Times. AND GOLDFIELDS REPORTER AND ADVERTISER. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 28, 1874. "MEASURES, NOT MEN."

In a former issue, we pointed out the advantages to the country from the use of bonuses. Since we wrote, the Mosgiel Woollen Company, which was quoted as an example of success from such provisions, has published its first annual report. The enterprise so nobly launched in the first instance by A. J. Burns, Esq. , has now, in the form of a Joint Stock Company, become so successful that they have declared a dividend at the rate of ten per cent, per annum, and have passed to reserve fund for tear and wear in machinery £1,326 11s Yd ; and all this, though the machinery obtained by tho fresh capital has not been in use more than six months. This enterprise is now, we believe, fairly backed, and no further help is sought or looked for from Government. But to such extent only as was bestowed upon the Mosgiel Factory, do we advocate Government encouragement. Anything in the shape of protection, such as was apparently extended to distillation, we deprecate, and we are glad that that protection is now withdrawn ; and we feel that we cannot press too strongly on the community the importance of eschewing everything like protection. Wherever it is established, it damps energy and enterprise. It is like a crust thrown to a starveling who has not the honorable ambition to earn honest bread. The party who depends on pi - otection, looks to the general community to take his commodities off hia hand for so much more than they can procure them elsewhere — i.e., along with what represents the actual money value, he looks for a gratuity. Young communities are apt to fall into this vice. Amerioa, enlightened as it is on political questions, has not always been proof against the evil. The Australian Colonies have gone in for it, But we

hope the afty^MlH^Hant when New Zealand will have such measures. We cannot help^^BPhig that protection bespeaks a want'j^faith in man. It has no confidence in results, where there is a fair field and no favor. Its proteges are weaklings not fit to take their stand in tho grand battle of life, but must be bolstered up and guarded, lest they come to grief in fair figlrfc. It is not necessary that every country should produce almost every thing : nor is it necessary that any one staple should be put on a footing, that it must be established. We may not have the raw material to hand, nor the requisite skill as yet, or others may be able to produce it better than ourselves. Our advice is, let them ; and if after fair trial we cannot equal them, then let us take to something elso. We may succeed in that. We have offered these observations because, during the last session of our legislative bodies at Wellington, the question was incidentally raised in reference to the protection that had been extended to distillation. If they cannot distil in this country so as to compete with manfacturers of the article in other countries, without the help of protective legislation, then, we say, drop the manufacture. To continue it on the terms on which it was prosecuted, is for the country to impoverish itself to aid a class. So long as the arrangement lasted, so much less was being received ' for revenue, and only* two classes benefited — viz., the distillers and tho farmers. We question even if the latter derived any benefit from the arrangement. There is another question connected with this, viz., compensation to those who have risked capital on plant in faith of this protection, and whose occupation they say is now gone. Whether they deserve compensation is a question we do not now take time to decide ; but there is a significant warning in this claim to steer clear of all protective arrangements for the future.