PROTECTIVE FALLACIES.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Issue 2687, 30 August 1887, Page 2

PROTECTIVE FALLACIES.

[To this Editor.] ''' Sir.—Mr Holdaway, in a long and exhaustive letter in your'issue: of Aug. 27th, endeavours to show souie Freetrade fallacies, ■ and after a careful perusal I fail to find one distinct F/eetrade fallacy, but like all that :osft ates.froui Protectionists, it is with assertions and generalities and uot a verified fact to recommend it iu favor of Protection, only statements that show that the less tax we have iu shape of commissions, freights and part dues the more we get returned to the producers. Mr Holdaway deplores the profits of the middle man; well, if the middle man is not reasonable, w.e could by combination, form, a Ejjfctjar institution.to the Canterbury Fillers Cooperative Association, which'«'ould send home our produce and import what is not manufactured iu the colony. I.thiuk this will settle with the importer and middle man. Then, again, he says consumers have to pay from fifty to o«ie hundred per cenfc more than the cast ot.the manufacturer. Now. if this is so, it is a'omclujiye • arguraeut that New Zdaland rcquirea uo increase in. he;.customs...tariff foster local industries,' simply hecauß things that cannot bo profitably pro-.' duced .here, with the foreign manufactures, and handicapped:to - ; the extent of fifty to one buudred-per cent, is:no6 i; beneficial to the masses/it is only for the few, and will creates twin to'th« evil, we iu the land mjmopolist. Mr Holdaway is groat at'quoting comparisons botweeri Freotrade England and Protective America.' Well, now ■' for a verified fast. Out of: fifey 100,000 earning their bread in Aiuerica 82,00b works ten hours, a day; and the;;"' agriculturalists.wprk.fromsunrise till'' sunset. No thinking and. rational mini, 1' will .that this/comparison o£., England and America'is a stu'jitjjih, and absurd 6nn, ; for thiV reason* ::•. England is an old conutry, with. £ population of 290 to thp squire ; failed' while America ia cpmjiaritively' a .new country with a;pbj,ulstioii of ll;-7 td-fci

Square iftile. So I thinks that' cooj- . parison is odious.', But co.n> .pare. England - with the,. PfbtectJva . count) i'B of Europe, wbidhLavba pojm- ' iatio'n of alout p; to the aquine wile*: :and.whiit-dd_w«-findj -the relative con* '•: ditioiis of; the" wage afcrikitig, -anti the best-iaiithoritya 'unreservedly state that/lhe'; British ! artisans'do more in less timo than, those of Protected because they are better paid.and fed, I have never yet heard if Protectionist havo :the pluck tboonipHrethe two! ckate.- 1 . Perhaps Mr Hogg would. UVelffow is Protection goipg to employ our labor in fuce of whit an undeniable authority tells ustwo yearfcago:— that Manufactures of Protective, Victoria existed through getting long h»urs ot •cheap labor from women and children. This is how. Protection impresssd SirRobert Stout. Not more than tcm days days ago/the Victorian Govern•raent agve the sawmillers and sugar 'refiners increased.. : protection, and immediately a brisk ddiiiarid for protection! sprang up, and amongst the'applicants, to be spoon fed by the State was theViotorian shipping interests!- One;.: gentleman identified with, steamships objects to people travelling to' othet : colonies by land. The state, he says, htjs. no right to outer into competition private enterprise by county fed rait-" ways and cheap excursiou trains, such is the avaricious rapaoity of the proteo-

tive monopolist whorever lie has become firmly planted Then note the fact thai the Premier of Canada has applied to the {lonie Secretak o{ State for some thousandj of ijßei men to collect or enforoe the paying with bayonets ,tho customs duties on goods from the United States. Mr Holciaway desires to do the greatest good to the greatest number. • Well, ; I;>ill try and ixafeple to shown Protection won't'ao it. Sup. .pose- wo- have a prohibitive duty on. all carriages and vehicles,, but-thos material comes in free; well, we take one man, a r carriage builder, and k twelve' ojoutlis ho. builds" Cwelre expresses, the people who require' tjiose vehioleß will have to give that "man.his own price, or he must be. differenfc'to the ordinary run of human patura Ih'avo met. So Protection. here benefits one man and injures 12, but hejre the Protectionist say conipetition will soon alter ; fchat, Granted, ( b|| : , then you increase your, producing-' poorer, but not your cor.afimihg power; • Mr Holdaway seems jhe most infolli'.' >idst,j»M he seems reallv desiro'u^ta: do gqdilf but I must ask,hira tOffe deeperinto the. working of' Protection, and-he will B ee that industrieslbsterejj; under a heavy Protective 4WffanoV= natural barriers are lib overmßtiured/ ▼egetables unhealthy, and will noti stnnd a searohing ; tesU for taxing your space,' ■'■■_."■ ' I am, 40., T/A.iTom,./