A VOICE FROM THE WILDERNESS.

Auckland Star, Volume XLI, Issue 274, 18 November 1910, Page 6

A VOICE FROM THE WILDERNESS.

(To the Editor.) •Sir,—l spent three months in the be- I ginning of the year 1910 in Auckland; You, Sir, at that time allowed mc to cross literary swords with your able - 1 * penman, Mt. Colbeek. I occasionally .', read the Auckland papers, and wish to ' point out that a wrong policy helps Itoretard the -prosperity of a country. Ex- '■' President Roosevelt's advice "fill up your ] empty spaces" cannot be better car- 3 ried out than a manufacturing for all Our * own requirements. America was not sat- ' isfied in becoming a great agricultural - nation. She Wanted to become a great 1 manufacturing nation, also by the fos- i tering hand of protection, so Ithat her ' city population and her rural popula- < tion combined has given her a position « in which she dreads no nation on earth. <t Under protection, farm implements made a in Victoria were sold in free trade New t South Wales in preference to the ims ported American and Kuropean machin- « cry. Having a bro.bher in lowa I learned r from him that he bought in the United § States a plough for £12, which a Syd- s ney ironmonger asked mc £27 10/ for. <t Then, again, I bought a reaper and fi linder about twenty-five years ago r from a firm in Sydney for £65 a iash. Within twelve months I learned t that equally as good Teapers and binders s were sold to my brother and others in _ lowa for £22. I wrote asking him to c send a dozen at that price. Reply: ,fj 'Manufacturers here have a permanent a igreemenit to supply nobody in Austra- it ia but the merchant they deal with." t [f, like the United States of America, " we in Australia and in your Dominion 1 want to fill up our empty spaces, we -y nust go for the American policy of pro- a Section. True, England did build up a i lense population by free trade when she s lad cheap wages and little competition, t England has cheap wages still, and so 1 lave Germany, Belgium, Japan, and a nany other countries. Tic is because of fligh wages that a high tariff is neces- c >ary, arid if we were to adopt the policy fi )f buying the goods of cheap-wage coun-; b ;ries we could never do as the United' 6 States of America have' done, fill up I t >ur empty spaces and our big cities too. \ vi Both are necessary for the building up' a )f a strong nation. It is true that the ,n armers' hands want the same wages in It _lprotected industries as the onanufac- lb ;urers pay in protected industries, but w vhen the lands are subdivided into small p arms, and that farmer i».d_s own em- a

plOyer,; and his 'dfn wotknian, trie vrages and benefits of town and country ■life will Slid a common equilinriurd in spite of all the labour unionism in the If .the farmer./has to pay a high wage, -the price of .his products will be high: If farming is the best game many more farmers will start farming and cheapen products. If, on the contrary, wages in towns are better than farming, then the farmers will give 'life fanning and go Tor the high.town wage; aftd an over supply of labour in town \yill pull down pwages, so that all the aft of; unionists will not 6y'ercrMe the law of supply and defttand unless they art powerful enough to do away with wagfc-eaniihg altogether. ' The general voter will sboh leaf h by experience what is good and what is an evil policy for fchfcir country, but one thing the most of them know already is that thfey can l not defend their empty spaces ''vnthout augmenting their population.. But,if t__ trades unionism of the Dominion- or of Australia is ■ not satisfied with 30 per cent higher rate than the wage wheire our wool and iron are manufactured; then it is hopeless to expect the transference of the manufacturing business to our owii soil. Eveft a demand of a 40 per cent higher wage would leave the 30 per cent protection useless to your Auckland manufacturer. The 10 per Cent extra higher wages added to the 30 per cent higher wages the Auckland manufacturer Was already paying would compel -him to close' his factory doors, and give the manufacturing of your and our supplies into the hands of exporting foreigners, who may -be enemies of our Empire, having an eye to the capturing "of our empty spaces" for themselves. —I am, etc., JOHN FLANAGAN. Gunkur, N.S.W.