CORRESPONDENCE. WHAT HAVE OUR PROTECTIVE DUTIES DONE ?

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XXVIII, Issue 4721, 11 October 1872, Page 3

CORRESPONDENCE. WHAT HAVE OUR PROTECTIVE DUTIES DONE ?

To the Editor : Sir, — It has been truly remarked thafa " nothing can be made to lie so much as figures," and the leading article in your morning contemporary of Wednesday aptly illustrates the observation. It commences with some remarks about the " new duties " imposed on certain articles last session of the General Assembly, and, in endeavouring to show that the said duties press more heavily upon the population of the North, and upon Auckland In particular, than upon the boutb, quotes a number of figures, nicely arranged in juxtaposition, to prove the supposed injustice. But, unfortunately for the argument, the figures are derivable from returns antecedent to the coming in force of those duties, and might very properly have been used at the time to suggest the probable effect, but are certainly quite out of place now, and can be of no avail to prove the actual result. The entire article is in fact a flimsy attempt to throw dust in the eyes of the casual reader. The true stale of the case is that in round numbers £15,000 was derived from the duties in question up to June 30, 1872, of which the North contributed £6,500, and the South £8,500, being about an equal proportion to the population of each. — I am, &c., Truth. [Ourcorrespondenfs remarks are quitecorrect. The new duties are rery fairly balanced, pressing evenly upon all parts of the colony. ' • Truth's" comparison of the amount of duty paid by the two islands shows this, but we may illustrate it still further by quoting the amount of duty paid respectively by the two leading cities of the North and South Islands, Auckland and Dunedin. Of the sum derived from the new duties last year Auckland contributed £3,502, while Dunedin contributed £4,107. It may be added that the chief commodities upou which the new duties are felt in Auckland are breadstuffs, and this tax might be avoided altogether if the people of Auckland were content to use Southern wheat and flour only, as Otago and Canterbury do, until they are in a position to supply themselves with locally-grown wheat. We believe that the growth of wheat in this province nas been so much stimulated, and the importation of breadstuffs so far cheeked, that next year will show much more favourably than the last for Auckland. A demand for our timber in the South haa in the meantime been created such as our millowners have not known for many years, while employment has been found for the fleet of schooners for which Auckland is famed. The Southern journals, overlooking the petty interprovincial jealousies which seem to be so strongly developed in our contemporary, hail with satisfaction the increased use of kauri timber in Dunedin. and Lyttelton to the exclusion of Baltic and American lumber. Ib will be well for New Zealand when the prosperity of any district of the colony, and. the increased demand for its productions, are regarded with satisfaction throughout the -land as tending to advance the interests of the colony as a whole. Such a time, however, can scarcely be hoped for while journals stoop to the perversion of fact 3 and figures, in order to incite a contemptible jealousy of neighbouring cities, — Ed.]