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Auckland Star, Volume XLIII, Issue 145, 18 June 1912, Page 8

ITo the Editor.) Sir.—With apologies for encroaching on your v-luahle space in explaining the obvious, permit mc, iv answer to Mr. SanforcTs denial of my contention that the payment for foreign luxuries and for the interest on external debt tends to increase the cost of living, to point out that imports of luxuries have to be paid for in part by exportation of foodstuffs, and the same rule applies to the liquidatiou of the annua] interest account trith the foreign creditor. For example, if one thousand tons of butter are shipped to pay for motor cars and bicycles, a million and a-half carcases sent away iv exchange for wines and spirits, ten thousand cases of tinned meats and cheese in return for musk-al instruments of torture, and 1 SO.OOO.OOQIof wool exported to pay interest on our gross debt in lieu of cash, surely, to a certain extent, a local scarcity must be occasioned unless production keeps pace with the increased necessity for export and for local consumption. That tho at present existing supply has not done so is proved by the unpleasant fact that Tjutter, cheese, bacon, mutton, and beef have appreciated some 33 per cent in as many years.

The late Mr. Seddon made much capital out of what he was pleased to term '-a free breakfast table." Unless one now lives by suction, where does it come in? Bacon "duty, 2d lb; jam, 2d lb; fish, potted 2d lb, sardines 2d lb. dried l_-d lb; flour, 20 per cent, ad val.; batter, 20 per cent; salmon, etc, 20 per cent -, other foods, n.0.e.. 20 p.c. ad val. Exempt from the tariff there is not one of these articles that could not be imported and sold retail at less cost than the corresponding local article. As for Mr. Sanford's Henry George's on landlords, mortgagees, surplus and spare values, such arguments are as caviare to the general and beyond the grasp of mere commonsense intellect.—l am, etc., HJ.