PROTECTION V. FREE TRADE. Mr Forrest's Answer to Nil Desperandum and all Free Traders.

Waikato Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2042, 8 August 1885, Page 3

PROTECTION Y. FREE TRADE. Mr Forrest's Answer to Nil Desperandum and all Free Traders.

TO THK KDirOR. Sin,— l shall fin boar to notice the ridicule that has been written by one or two upon this subject, further tlian tp remaik that the time of ridicule should be past and gone, when in the midst of borrowed milions we find such depresion. And for ft text for my letter I will iccomniend Free Ti.v Jeis to study the countenance given in Scriptures where it say-,, " Lay tubutc upon the stranger so an the children of the land may go flee." In my last I promised to point out the unhappy and fallacious statements of " Nil Deaperandum." He says England in 1883, M iinpmte4 from Anieiic.i of tho value of £<>2,500,000 more than ■she expoited t<> that country, and that neatly the whole of this amount was detained as interest upon English money invested in America." On, thundei ' I think I he.ir the Yankee say. Why this means that America has over £1,000,000,000 of English c.ipifal invested in her couutiy. Now I tmd from the North Bntish Agriculturist, dated January 5, 18815 that England srets by public and private money invested in foreign countries £u<i,oob,ooo annually. Yet " N.D." w ill try to ciam us that Ameiica pays £f>0,000,000 of this. The tiuth is, America wants little else than gold fiom England. Mark this ' At the session of Congress on December (i, 188T, thesccietaiy, Mr Sherman, reported that the large excels of exports over the imports rendered it piob.ible that they would sco a continuation of a large inciease m tho How of specie into their countiy, and fnither stated that the increase of coin and bullion in two years fioin January Ist IS"'> to January 18.S1, had reached the enoiinous amount of L' 27,000,000 dollars. Theiefoie this quite upsets "NI) s " Htatenii'iit. I also iefer "N.D' to the admission of Mich able man as Mr (Jladstoue and Prince Bis*irwrck, that the success of America can be traced to her protective policy— Mr (Uadstone m an article wntten by him aiul published in the North American Review of October 1878 entitled, " Km bqyond the sea,' and Prince isi»inarck"» expressions in the Reichstag of the 14th May 18.52, w hen he stated that the siicce«-s of the United States m niatori.il development is the most illustrious of modern times. In his judgment the prosperity of America is mainly due to her system of protective itlWt, and he urged that Germany imitate ttmtaiitf system of the United States. This a&vjce was acted upon and a cireei of piosperity has-et in such nsthecountivhad not before expei ienced. The condition of all classes has been vastly improved .md the revenues of the state are highly satisfactot j. And to confirm this, only a few week^ ago I saw a pingraph in The Waikato Tunes siting, that " smco Germany h.id denounced Fiee Trade principles her non workers had mciea^ed by Ki.OOO hands. "Now sir, li it not very remarkable how Fiee Tradeis fwnce louud sucli facts as the->e ? " N.D. ' and many Free Ti.ulera answer them by accusing us of being thriftless. We are told to farm on scientific principle-, build ourselves a -ugar factoiy, gn.vi tree, and plant «cv oral acres of gooseleiries for jam! Piofitable employment, no doubt, did a market e\ist. But our wounds aie too deep to be cuied with Mich s,ihe. I take it that we may all assume that employment of the people is the foundation of material prosperity, and it is ceit.unty the duty of our Government to give the greatest material blessings to the greatest number, to conserve by wise laws eveiy means of national industiy and employment. This is not done under the present system. In fact, the buying abroad of manufactured articles is a loss tv this country of the wages to produce, and a gain to the foieigner to reproduce, and herein lies the causo of agricultural and trade depression in this country. Is it possible for any country to become great when the means of creating it us being by absurd laws tiansfei red to other nations, leaving oui people unemployed clamouring and jwtitioning for temporary wages upon public works? This is why so many of our working men (brought here at so great an expense) (ire constantly leaving for Victoria and" Nevr South Wales, »nd for those that lemain employment is precarious, "because we would rather keep some foreigners family than to keep our own. It often strikes me how free traders believe m protection, perhaps without thinking of it, when their own business is to tlvj front. Look at the lawyers and the Law Practitioners Bill. Is their objection to this not protection for themselves ? Look again to the large ainnnnt of employment provided in every local government act {or the ncwispapei s. Is thin not protection, and do we heai them object ? If n->t, let them advocate that all be served alike. To go back n little, I w i-h to explain that lam not altogethei opposed to the theory that we may purhapH gain by an excels of impirts >ver exports, but this entirely depends upon what we impoit. For instance, if we impitit law matenals vciy largely, no doubt wo are the gaineis, bt.c uisu we are bringing in iti'iiali for our labour to work into in mufactuied aitioles ; but, on the other hand, if we import food and manufactured article-* in excess of exports and paid for in raw in ittTiaN, ceitainly we are the losers. and the country is being drained of its wealth. England's imports aie chiefly raw materials, ,<s out of 413 millions of imports, only 43 millions comprise manufactured ai tides. A few days ago a particular f i lend <>f mine came to try and convince mo that a piot»ctive policy was a mistake. His aiguments were these :— The pinponod woollen f ict >iy for Auckland, when elected, would, he t-aid, likely engage 300 hands, which means about 800 mouths to feed, and likely to consume annually .ilout £10,000 worth of faim produce, but to obtain this boon inotection asks us to tax ourselves to the extent of £22,">00, made up as follows . — The proposed factory would turn out Kl")0,000 ot goods annually, a 15 percent, pi oteclive duty upon this amount conies to £22,r>00, nnd as eveiything c mips out of the land my friend maintains that the fanner pays this £':>2,"i00 for the sake of the before-mentioned £10,000. Now I answer that no colonial factoiy is likely or will dare attempt to tnck on tho full amount of the duty upon the local article, besides it will take in a direct way about £30,000 to keep 300 families, and irany thousands will be en culated indirectly. But the best of all is, we keep our £150,000 to reproduce, and it is our own labour that is employed. There should be no faith put in Fair Traders— or leciprocitariaus. Their views aic leUhation, which only means a small benefit not worth the having, even if practicable. Let us havo something that will go a good length and give us a lasting benefit as «peedy as possible. I have a "tiong faith in the noble future of this country if our policy is well chosen, and if I have only obtained the attention of a few of your readers so as they may go on and think this question out further for themsuhe*, I am content. But above all let uh consider well how we can aid each other.— l am, yoms obediently, J. Forrest. P.S. — Mr Editor, will you kindly oblige and try to give tho best authority upon the two follow ing questions. (1.) Docs history teach us that a purely agncultural country is always financially a poor country '! (2.) is protection as a rule the policy of Libeials in the colonies ? J. ¥. Cambridge, ."th August, ]BS.">.

A Beautiful Painting. Mr G. ff. Green, of Wood bury, New Jeney, U.S.A., i« prnsenting todiuggists anclTtflliers in this country some \Piy fine pieties in oil of liis magnificent house y|h<l grounds and laboratory at that place. ' Mr Green is the proprietor of Boschee's ■German Kyi up and Gieen's August Flower, two very valuable medicines, which are meeting with great fa\our, the first as a remedy for Pulmonary complaints, and the latter for Dyspepsia and disorders of the Liver. These pieparations have attained an immense sale solely on their superior meiits and are sold by all druggists throughout the world. The price is the same for each, .'{3 6d per bottle, or sample bottles for (id The sample bottles enable sufferers to prove their value at a. trifling cost.

Little Flaxfv Hair— ' Papa, it's raining.' Papa, annoyed by work in hand —'Well, let it rain.' Little Flaxen Hair, timidly— 'l was going to.' Amonu the men seeking election to the French legislature at the handy of Ganibetta's old Belleville constituency is one Bcre/sowiiki, a " Labour" candidate. He is thus recommended by Felix Pyat • •• Workmen, Berezowski is a workman ! * Republicans, be is a regicide ! Citizens, he is a convict ! Assert then, for him, by him, in him, the right to Work, the right of the Republic ! Rehabilitate Duty ! jttouor the PUtol !"