WHO PAYS DUTY.

Waikato Argus, Volume IV, Issue 259, 15 March 1898, Page 4

WHO PAYS DUTY.

I v an article on the Federation Question, the Review of Reviews has the following : " The debate incidentally serves as a means of political education for the colonies. It has already effected a quite remarkable conversion amongst the protectionits members of the Convention. The most vexed point in the interminable quarrel betwixt Free Trade and Protection is the question of who actually pays the duty : the man outside the protected zone, or the man inside it? It has hitherto been the most sacred doctrine of Protection that the duty is paid by the foreigner. A high duty, it is contended, does not raise the price of the article on which it is imposed, or add to the burdens of the community protected. But in the case of West Australia, Mr Isaacs in the Convention itself, and the " Age," the literary organ of Protection in Victoria, contend that under a protectionist tariff, the community protected pays the duty ! West Australia, says the Age, ." at present has a Customs duty, which, of course, is paid by her own people.'' If the duties which yield £380,000 are, as a result of intercolonial Fice Trade, remitted, this exact sum will be left in West Australian pockets, for it would have come out of these pocketa if it had not been remitted ! If this contention is good it is final against the scheme of the Federal Convention.' Why should the other colonies combine to pay West Australia a sum of money which, after all, she has never lost ? But the principle that the man inside the protected zone pays the duty, is not, of course, confined to West Australia. It applies to all the colonies, and according to it, the huge sum raised by the Victorian tariff comes out of Victorian pockets. But this surely is an argument fatal to Protection !