The Waikato Times AND THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE. Equal and exact justice to all men. whatsoever state or persuasion, religious or political. TUESDAY, MAY26,1891 The Waikato Times

Waikato Times, Volume XXXVI, Issue 2943, 26 May 1891, Page 2

The Waikato Times AND THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE. Equal and exact justice to all men. whatsoever state or persuasion, religious or political. TUESDAY, MAY 26,1891 The Waikato Times

It will I'O xemomborod that Mr (tosclioa some tiino lwck said in effoct that howovor much English statesmen might desire closer connection with tho colonics, ho was cortain that they would nevor, in order to i, r inT it about, attempt to impose duties on tho food of the people. This was in reply to tho proposal that tho colonios should imposo a differential duty on all goods im ported into the United Kingdom which were not tho produce of one of the divisions of tho Empire. In return tho colonies, it was proposed, should do the samo with regard to manufactures which did not originate in tho United Kingdom. At present, all the produce of the colonies excepting wine is admitted froe into tho Old Country, yet tho colonies tax vory hoavily nearly all manufactures which pass through their ports, and make no distinction between those of foreign or British origin. The Chancellor of the Exchequer in the course of the same speech from which we have quoted the above said, that the proposal amounted in effect to the colonios erecting a commercial boundary wall two feet higher against foreign than British goods, and in return asked that England should depart from her free trade principles and thus increase the cost of living to the people. The effect of this ■would of courso bo that the struggle against foreign competition in the markets of the world would become more severe. There are two main elemonts which conduce to the greatnoss of a country's inauufacs tures, those are, coal in close contiguity to iron, and ability to feed the population cheaply. The first is to some extent neutralized now that menus of transit by loud and sea have become so much loss costly and certain thau during the years whilst England was raising herself to the undisputed position of the foremost manufacturing country of the world —a position whicli she still retains, but with more difficulty year by year. This being so, it is manifest that no English statesman would propose to add to that difficulty by placing a duty on the food of the people. We colonists are given to imagining our own weight and importance much greater than it really is. In the matter of food supply, for instance, we are relatively very much in tho position which the fly in the fable held to the bull on whose nose he settled. We find by the returns for 1890 that the total importation of wheat to the United Kingdom was 60,47-I,lß6cwts. Of this enormous quantity only 13,297,624cwts were the produce of British possessions. Australasia contributed only 3,057,G93cwt5, British East Indies, 9,111,582cwt5, and British North America 1,128,349 cwts. The Atlantic ports of the United States contributed 6,427,253 cwts, the Pacific, 10,773,810c\vt5. Tho imports of flour amounted to 15,773,3. ( iGcwt5, which was all of foreign origin, except the small contribution by British North America of 933,422c\v15. It is unquestionably a fact that the imposition of a duty on foreign grain into tho United Kingdom would give an impetus to colonial cultivation, and would have the effect of causing a large influx of population from the old countries of Europe, and that of the most useful description that could possibly cast in their lot with those who have carried British ideas and British institutions to every corner of the globe. It is a sort of cant phrase with trades unionists that they are the only producers of wealth, whereas, in fact, they only hold a secondary position to the farmer and the miner. A British differential duty would unquestionably be a great boon to the inhabitants of these and other colonies, but the facts we have given and the deductions therefrom that we have drawn should convince every reasonable. man that to ask the parent country to make such a great sacrifice for the benefit of her offshoots would be both illogical and unreasonable.