The Wairarapa Daily. WEDNESDAY, MAY 28, 1884. PROTECTION.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 6, Issue 1696, 28 May 1884, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. WEDNESDAY, MAY 28, 1884. PROTECTION.

The Hon. G. M. Wateiuiouse considers that the remedy for the present depression in New Zealand is a bold resort to protection. We have always had a high opinion, of Loth the ability and integrity of the Hon. G. M, Waterhouse, and though we are anything but fond of protection, yet when he proposes it we are prepared at least to listen to him, There can be no doubt that protection is an antidote to depression; that it gives to any community an assured stimulus. It is the cost of the remedy to which we object. The finances of the colony might, indeed, get into such an embarrassed position that it might become imperative to adopt a protective policy. Mr Waterhouse holds that the colony has reached such a stage, but in our opinion we have not yet come to this point and other alternatives are yet open to us than such a desperate remedy. Protection is popular among many! Even working men will vote lor it; but in giving it their support they aie thoughtless as to its results, They see that it will bring grist to the wages mill, but they fail to perceive that it will indirectly tax their earnings all the year round; that when tbey buy a coat or a pair of boots they will have to pay half-a-crown more for them, that a shilling or two will be. added to the cost of every axoi or shovel that they require, and that their wives will have to ghe a higher price for almost every article of domestic utility, which they need from day to day. And with all this there would be some doubt as'to the result of a bold policy of protection! If it would render. a land incume or property tax unnecessary, we should not so much object to it, but there is no certainty that it would enable either the one or the other to be dispensed with. A new tax if it replaced a more objectionable old one might be welcomed, but if it will not do this, there is but little encouragement for every man in tho community to have to purchase a worse article at a higher price in order to inaugurate a protection policy, For some communities protection is a good thing. It has, we believe been beneficial in Victoria, but then New Zealand is a very different country to Victoria. For Netf Zealand to grasp at local industries by protective duties is as unwise >as it J \vould be for a farmer occupying a good block of land to take to shoetriaking to support his family. ! His land if he looks after it .will produce him a better income than any bandycraft, .and the land of the colony if freed from the fetters which bind it and turned to a good account win take us out of our difficulties more speedily and surely than any bold protective policy. ,' The land of New Zealand is our main chance.