THE WAIMATE ADVERTISER. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 1901.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume III, Issue 106, 9 February 1901, Page 2

THE WAIMATE ADVERTISER. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 1901.

What has New Zealand to gain or lose by joining the Commonwealth or remaining isolated ? If we join, the position, shortly, is this(l) We have to give up all our customs revenue. The Parliament is to keep not more than a quarter of it and hand back the' rest; (2) within two years there is to be a uniform

customs tariff framed for all the colonies for goods coining from abroad. This we will have to abide by. The Commonwealth Parliament will make our tariff for ns, and it will be the same for Australia as for New Zealand. (3) We shall have entry free of customs for our goods to all the Australian colonies, while, on the other hand, we must admit free all that they can send us. (4) We shall have to give up all our powers of self-government enumerated in our previous article 011 this subject, and various others not specially mentioned. Thus, our posts and telegraphs would be controlled from Australia. In addition, we should have to submit to whatever direct taxation the Parliament thought fit. Now, we propose to consider this matter from the point of view of three of the most important classes of the community : (1) The merchant; (2) the farmer; (3) the worker. To the merchant the prospect of federation may seem alluring. He may say, “ I could then import from Sydney or Melbourne duty free, and sell much cheaper than I can now, when I have to pay a duty on nearly everything.” Bat if he argued that way would he not be wrong? For nearly everything he imported from Australia would have been exported first from Europe, and duty would have to be paid upon it before it could be landed in Australia —a duty collected by the Commonwealth. The merchant here would have to pay the Australian importer the cost price, the trade profit on that, the customs duty, aad, as likely as not, a profit on that also. Now, Mr Barton, the Premier, and his Ministry have declared for a protectionist tariff—a tariff framed by the Commonwealth Parliament. So there is little or no hope that the New Zealand merchant could get bis goods any cheaper from Australia than he can now import them from Homo. And will he care to trust the framing of the customs tariff which is to be levied on the goods he requires to import to the Commonwealth Parliament ? Hardly, we think. The tariff that suits New South Wales or Victoria may not at all suit New Zealand, and if we join it is THEIR ! tariff we must accept. It is diffij cult to see what the merchant has to gain by federation. Almost the whole of the stuff imported is from Great Britain, America, and Europe. If he could get the same things now in Australia he would import from there, and save time and freight. Of what use is it to him, then, that he can import free from a country that can supply him with little or nothing ? The case of the farmer is much more difficult. The vast bulk of the goods we send to Australia is farm produce. For instance, to New South Wales in 1899 we exported £1,118,699 worth. Of that amount we find that gold (to be sent to the mint to be coined) comes to £466,046. Now, that leaves £652,653 worth of our produce or manufactures. Now, take the agricultural items. We find they are principally as follows :

£ £ Cattle .. 1,313 Doga .. 315 Horses .. 3,971 Sheep ~ 800 Bacon .. 2,668 Haras .. 6,700 Bran .. 11,428 . Butter .. 29,651 Cheese .. 43,825 Flour .. 8,160 Barley .. 10,079 Beans & Peas 3,764 Maize •. 19,512 Oats . • 96,774 Wheat .. 27,584 Hides .. 14,518 Hops .. 12,676 Malt .. 40,486 Meal .. 7j 188 Pr’seiv’d milk 2,030 Flax .. 14,065 Pollard and sharps .. 4,164 Potatoes .. 32,572 Grass & clover seeds .. 6,262 Sheep .. 3,226 Tallow .. 24,182 Wool (gr’sy) 18,457 Wool(so’red) 4,206 All these total up to £450,692, so that it will be seen that, so far as New South Wales is concerned, her trade is of some importance to the farmer. None of the other colonies take nearly so much from us. Victoria comes next, but last year our exports to that state were only about one-third of what we sent to New South Wales. Now/the farmer will naturally argue, “If we have freetrade with Australia and there are no duties to pay, I shall be able to sell these Australians' much more of my produce than I can at present. 11 At first sight that would appear reasonable, but nevertheless the truth seems to be. that the people on the other side only buy from

us when they cannot very well help themselves; that is to say, when their own stocks fall short, and they must supplement their supplies from some, quarter or another. When it is a lean year v/ith them they buy from ns. When it is a very’abundant year with us we send them, very cheap, some of our surplus. The customs duties hardly seem to affect the matter at all. We have prepared a small Stable to show our readers how the matter stands. We take our exports for six wears' to New South Wales and Victoria of three important lines —butter, oats, and potatoes.

Now look at the ups and downs in this table. Why is it that, while New South Wales takes butter to the value of £27,177 in 1896, she leaps up to £51,055 worth in 1897, drops right down to £17,154 worth in 1898, and in 1899 pulls up again to £29,651? There have been no changes in customs duties corresponding with these variations in value. It is clear that the Australians simply took our produce when they wanted it and left it alone when they did not, and that customs influenced the matter very little one way or the other. Exactly the same story is Jold by the figures of protectionist - Victoria. She takes £14,430 worth of butter, from us in 1897, leaps up to £25,829 in 1898, and in' 1899 drops to £11,607. Take the potatoes : In New South Wales column we find that from £18,607 worth in 1897 we went up to the huge figure of £102,874 in 1898, while in 1899 it dropped right down again to £32,572. Moreover, the largest year’s business we ever did with New South Wales (except one) was in 1889, when protection held full sway there. We sent them in that year £1,069,196 worth. Will, then, the farmer benefit to any great extent by federation, as far as his pocket is concerned, from the sale of his produce ? It is very questionable. We doubt it very much. It seems more than doubtful whether it is worth while to surrender self-government and the right of controlling ourselves and our affairs for so shadowy a phantom as a possible slight increase of our food exports to Australia. We shall take, a further opportunity of examining the subject from the worker’s point of view later on.

In another column Councillor John Cameron writes to “ correct” the conclusions we arrived at in our leader of Thursday. Briefly, we complimented this gentleman on his action in voting for the passing of the accounts, some of which had been objected to by his party. His explanation is indeed a weak one, had it come from any other source we would scarce have credited the statement that a gentleman with municipal experience of nearly a quarter of a century should vote" without knowing what he is voting on. And that at such a time too. Why, if Councillor Cameron’s party had been asked which motion they would rather be defeated on, the motion that the accounts be parsed would have been the last they would have chosen. At the suggestion of Councillor Coltman, the share of costs incurred by the Town Clerk in the late election were added to the accounts. The Mayor distinctly stated that the passing of the accounts was before the meeting. A motion that they be passed was proposed, in writing, by Councillor Dean and seconded by Councillor Sinclair, and was then distinctly read by the Mayor. Councillor Cameron was one of the iiraT to-hold up his baud as in favour of their passing. It is a pity he does not explain his reasons for thinking some other motion

Buxteb. Oats. .J N.S.W. Vic. N.S.W. Vic. £ £ £ £ 189 4 .. 455 4,072 49,530 15,054 1895 . 5,051 2,038 53,747 36,191 1896 . . 27,177 9,564 84,871 74,040 1897 . . 51,055 14,430 78,642 39,267 1898 , . 17,154 25,829 47,831 10,228 1899 . . 29,651 11,907 96,774 42,712 Potatoes. N.S.W. Vio. £ £ 1894 .. 2,758 89 1895 . . 6,800 50 « 1800 .. 8,209 20 1897 .. 18,507 1 1893 . . 102,874 2,2^4 1899 .. 82,572 323