Wairarapa Daily Times. [Established 1874.] WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 22, 1894. PROTECTION.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XV, Issue 4806, 22 August 1894, Page 2

Wairarapa Daily Times. [Established 1874.] WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 22, 1894. PROTECTION.

Jilt Hogg, M.H.11., has mounted that old hobby horse of his, "protection" and is asking the Government whether, in view of the glutted condition of the labour market, and especially the difficulty found by parents in securing suitable trades or remunerative employment for their familes, and seeing that large quantities of articles of foreign manufacture • the raw material of which exists in abundance in New Zealand —continue to be imported, they (the Government) are prepared to regard the placing of the tariff on a basis that will not merely encourage, but compel the expansion of the artsand industries for which the colony is manifestly adapted, as a question of emergency as well as expediency to be dealt with without further delay?

That Mr Ilogg is a sincere protectionist we do not doubt, as during a former residence in Victoria he imbibed the ideas there prevalent, and is of. tlio. honest opinion that New Zealand can be boomed as Melbourne Ims been boomed in past years. As a measure of immediate relief to the unemployed protection would be valueless, as local industries do not grow like mushrooms, and as a means of securing permanent advantages, it is very doubtful. What protection means is increasing the cost of living in this colony, in order to benefit a. few industries in centres of population, making colonists pay a higher price for a worse article. There is ample outdoor employment for every man, woman and child in New Zealand if employers of labour here were not lmrrassed, worried and distressed.by surprise legislation. Outdoor employment, too, is far better than shutting up people in workrooms and manufactories, We don't want little Cfrimy Manchesters and small smoky Sholliolds planted on our soil. In the manufacturing towns of the Old Country are to be found sm all stunted specimens of the human race who have degoneratedfrombeing cribbed, cabined and confined in gloomy workshops, We have ourselyessecn a group of fifty such men without discovering in the lot a single well developed specimen gf humanity. New Zealand ought tp ije aj)le to breed something better than this, and tlio Colony retrogrades wlion it encourages such a race. ' Mr Hogg believes in forcing the growth 'of | manufactures in centres of population, and if lie has his way, the next .time-a depression visits ui in this Colony tiero will be twice us many

unemployed as there are now, The Government are playing fust and loose; over this question, ami without bringing down any definite proposal, are encouraging j members like Mr Hogg to expect a revision of the tariff in the direction of protection, The Government have destroyed and impaired may local industries by their mischievous legislation, and possibly may recognise the necessity of taxing the Colony to start new ones, and are prepared to concede Mr Hogg's demand for substantial protective duties. It is, however, improbable that the Government will readjust the tariff this session though they may try to test the feeling of the House as to how far tliey may venture to go when they do take up the subject in earnest,