THE NEW TARIFF.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VII, Issue 2029, 30 June 1885, Page 2

THE NEW TARIFF.

[From the "Timatu Herald."] We cannot pretend to glance, even in the most cursory manner, on the' present occasion, at all the iniquities of the proposed new tariff. The latter is very much more formidable than it appears, at first sight, owing to the artful manner in which it is framed. On the face of it, it looks as. if there were not very many iujyj imposed, people overlo,pki'n,g thei fact that every production ojf fte civilised world not enumerated on the list, bears a duty of nominally 10 per cent, but really 11 ■per cent ad valorem. We cannot however, refrain from just touching on the monstrous injustice of the tariff as effecting the agricultural community. The Government which consider that "the spirit of colonisation is dead," it anpe,i\ra, proposes to wake up that gm>ifc by taxing agricultural implement*, which have been exempt since the foundation of the colony. The Government winch thinks manufactures should be fostered, proceeds to foster them by artificially raising the. price of coal—tho first essential of manu.-factures-hy at least ga. (id op 3s a ten, fo* the special enrichment of one or two coal companies, who are having hundreds of thousands expended jn making harbors for their benefit at the public cost, Not 'an article whioli is used by the settlerbe he farmer or aquatter-who is carrying on the real work on colonisation, but will be materially increased in cost, When he asks what he is to get in return, he finds that a wise and benevolent Government has gravely ordained thatimportedcheese and butter shall bear a duty of 2d per lb, to protect him from the terrific foreign competition in these articles which apparently exists in the mind of the Colonial Treasurer. Wool, wheat, and oats, are not expressly enumerated, so that the shippers who are, of course, eager to flood New Zealand with, these commodities, in which it is so lamentaly deficient, will be jeterred from carrying out their intention by a protective duty of 10 percent,, which is here raising its aggressive front in their, faces.,; Truly the agricultural community -whicb was never in a more depressed condition - and-all professional Men,' traders, laborers, and persons with fixed incomes, have much to t be thankful, for

when they turn thoir attention to the Government that was to mako this colony progress "by leaps and bounds," All . the leaping and bounding it has done hitherto, has been in the direction of increased taxation, The Colonial TreaM. surer, however, thinks there must be'TfJ considerable amount of " ({ive and take** among the various classes of the community. He, of course, means that the; manufacturers and coal mine proprietors are to do all the taking, and the rest of the colony are to content themselves with: the giving. It is a pity that Sir Julius Vogel has, not-the honesty to say so plainly, instead of trying to conceal the. ■ matter in such a cloudof specious verbiage/ and we feel ashamed, for the credit of , the colony, that such a leaning politician 1 should have put forward such a farrago of nonsense as if he were propounding grave scientific truths,