The Evening Star. MONDAY, DECEMBER 5, 1870.

Auckland Star, Volume I, Issue 282, 5 December 1870, Page 2

The Evening Star. MONDA Y, DECEMBER 5, 1870.

The public meeting held in Queen-street on Saturday afternoon, under the aus-

pice 3 of.the Local Industry Leayue, will doubtless dispiiit some of the fainthearted. To have an amendment carrie negativing tlie main principle of tli* policy for which the meeting was expressly called, is, to say the least, not encouraging ; and if we were not convinced ot the absolute certainty oJ a pro-

tective poiiey being speedily the law of th*e land, the absurd resolution carried "by the meeting might be talcen as ' a rude blow from the public at which the League might fairly stagger. 3ut judging from the history of the question, elsewhere, and from the signs of the times, and feeling that the adoption-of a protective policy in New Zealand is as inevitable as the decrees of fate, the im practicable nmen<l incut expressive of the de-drcs i/f the loafers frequenting the pavejhents of Queen-street, and who alone as-

sembled r.mnd the platform attracted by 'the appearance of a man speaking, cannot be regarded as significant of anything. When protection was first mooted in •Victoria, a man who had the boldness to

proclaim himself a protectionist enjoyed the coveted distinction monstrari digito, but not in the coveted sense. And the

odium attaching to the advocacy of-what was styled the " exploded doctrines " of a protective tariff required an amount of moral courage that few possessed. That .policy, has since made Victoria the Queen, among the colonies! and politicians are .jyiryid a) ;.:■'■.:•!,aim themselves the followers of the " exploded -doctrines " The fact that; protection to native industries is embodied in tho policy of the Government .iurpowrtr, accounts tor a'good deal of tha*; want of iniereai, wliich the public show in the question, but there is not here that diffieutty to encounter «nd that trial to moral . courcrge which exalted at length into the position of popular heroes the first chain-

pions of protection in Victoria. The business of the Learni* is to dispel the prevalent ignorance and remove.the blatant clapt^Hp with which the people are blinded at times. Few as the speeches were on Saturday, they showed that thnse opposing the developing of home industries are still attempting to dp so by asserting that it will increase the burden-ol taxation, Tt will requir© efforts at the hands of the League to drive into stupid ears, the fact which has been so often shown that taxation is not to be increased, but merely re-distributed. The. Utopian p-oposal ef direct taxation by a properly and income tax, as resolved by the meeting on Saturday was, of eonrse, intends] to be ad a r ted to the caracitv and pas-ions of the loa rer class, who might have been expected to attend a meeting in snch a plac? and at such an hour. Let the members of the League tske courage. They hare backed the winning hors«; and can afford to bear with a little difficulty in the outset. Ard whether th-ir part in the wort be grest or small, the c»u«<* with which they have identified themselves will be as tri-am hant in New Zealand as it has been in Victoria; and the narrow-minded, and the loafer will both yet find that the cause of native industries has been the salvation of coloi nial interests.