The Wairarapa Daily. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 14, 1888. POLITICAL REST.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume IX, Issue 2847, 14 March 1888, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 14, 1888. POLITICAL REST.

Thebe is a fair prospect of. a political rest during the coming session, and a season of inactivity in politics is sometimes needed to allow time for parties to reorganise, and to enable the thousand and one persons who take a more or less active share in the work of law making to devote more time to private affairs and less to public contention. What is needed now is that every man in the community should work sedulously as a colonist, rather than as an agitator. In the coming session there will be no Sir Julius Yogel and no Sir George Grey, and in their absence the Government business may reasonably be expected to run pretty smoothly.. One element of discord; however, has to be faced. The Ministry are pledged to touch the tariff thistle, and the outcome of their interference with this question may give rise to an undesirable amount of friction. Many people in the colony are preparing for the fray. The big towns of New Zealand are organising to carry protective duties. TheDunedinProtectionLeague has prepared a new tariff. Half-a-crown a ton is to be put upon coal, the duty on cement is to be doubled, twenty-five per cent is to be placed on barbed wire, and a similar tax on heel and toe plates. It is said, too, that the league favors-the imposition of duties on agricultural implements. Of course scores of other articles are included In the Dunedin protectionist programme, but several of the items we have referred to are of special interest, because they show that grain and sheep farmers are likely to be called upon for additional taxation to bolster up the industries that the protectionists seek to foster. The fight will be one, of the big towns of New Zealand against country settlers. The latter practically have nothing to gain from a protective tariff. They have simply to provide for the heavy burdens of the colony and subscribe money to keep weak industries on their legs in large centres of population, It is true that in Victoria, where a protective policy has been worked out, there has been latterly a wonderful vitality, but Melbourne has prospered, not because of protection, but in spite of it. The vast mineral wealth of this great colony has been the real secret of its success. New Zealand has not the remotest chance of emulating Victoria either with or without a protective policy, unless some splendid mineral discovery gives her an unexpected impetus. We trust Sir Harry Atkinson will be true to the party which has placed him in power, and persist in a policy which will reduce taxation rathei* than increase it. All old settlers in New Zealand can bear testimony to the fact that the best times for one and all in this colony have been when taps were light.