IMPORTS AND EXPORTS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 245, 13 October 1908, Page 2

IMPORTS AND EXPORTS.

(To the Editor.} Sir, —In connection with this subject,: I- would beg yonr permission to point out that, in "the case of Rome, the excess of imports over exports was due" to tribute paid in many ways by the provinces to Rome. Every province had to pay tribute to Some; and the result was what? To the provinces, more or less ; of impoverishment and depopulation. Bui to Some, demoralisation, decay, defeat, and disgrace. Luxury, and ostentation, like that of the millionaires of America, and worse, was rampant; the work of Rome and the country around it was done by slaves drawn from the conquered provinces; while a. crowd of voters -were supported. Roiflan electors, who were paupers fed from the public funds, and kept quiet by means of the circus, "free bread and the circus." In the case of Ireland, the boot is on the other foot. Exports exceed imports; but it is due to the same cause, for Ireland has. to export her produce to pay tribute—rent. And, with what result? To Ireland depopulation, poverty, misery, and chronic, rebellion, scarcely suppressed by Coercion Acts and Land Purchase Acts. To England, a perpetual fear, a national disgrace, and the blocking of all social I reform at home. To the receivers of this tribute, the "pride that cometh before a faH."—l am, etc, T. L. STEVENS, Mt. Boskin.