FREE TRADE, FAIR TRADE, AND PROTECTION.

Waikato Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 2346, 23 July 1887, Page 2

FREE TRADE, FAIR TRADE, AND PROTECTION.

TO THE EDITOR. Silt, —As, free trade, fair trade, and protection, are now before the country. With your kind permission I would say that in India, some years ago, when I was there, the highest wages paid to a working man was about sixpence per diem, mechanic about ninepence, an agriculcural or farm labourer about fourpence halfpenny, a good strong boy about one sixteenth part of a rupee (2s) per diem. Nuw, sir, f should like to ask free traders, in general, in this country, or for the matter of that, in the old country as well, how farmers are to complete .successfully against a country like India, with the rate of wages as above, especially in these days of cheap, and rapid communication from one country to another. Not only India, but other countries as well, where labour is cheap and the surroundings differ. What I would respectfully suggest is, sir, that the whole colony combine, and invite other colonies to co-operate and bring pressure to bear on England, to alter her free trade policy for a policy of fair trade with all foreign countries, and in case of failure of the above, I think it is high time, sir, that this colony protected itself.—Yours truly, FairTuadk.