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Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 5132, 31 January 1888, Page 2

Tut new school of political economists slowly growing up in this colony, and who talk loudly of Protection, t-carcely yet realise that if they wi>h tho public to pay any attention to their utterances, they "must have at least some consistent;v, and cannot afford to blow both hot ami cold at the same time. They :iiv i'i>r ever pointing to tho prosperity of Yit:torm, but as yet have failed to show that that is in auv way due to Protection, and they altogether overlook the fertility of that colony's soil as compared with its neighbor* on"tho island continent, make no allowance for its superior climate, and are equally forgetful of the great imjuitus it received from its mineral wealth. To make New Zealand urosperous \\k are now told we must increase our exports and lessen our imports, so as to emulate Victoria, and that run only be dono by the adoption of a Protectionist tarih". To-day New Zealand's c.\i>orts exceed thu imports, iind no one thinks we are prosperous. In 18S2 our imports exceeded our exports by two millions, aud the depression was notwith us then, and times were fairly good. , Turning to USS2, when Victoria was not the' envy of ht-r neighbors, we find that the then exports exceeded those of last year by no less than five millions, while tins unnorts in IWS2 and ISB7 were alike. Everyone now says Victoria is prosperous, so tho theory of lessening tho imports and increasing the exports as a factor in prosperity scarcely accords with the admitted facts. According to tho doctrino of the Protectionist that colony should be in a very bad way indeed, while New Zealand should be onjoyinir a good time, but the facts are the other way. The Protectionists have not solved the problem of how to secure prosperity by jauntily demanding tho decrease of tho imports and the increase of the oxports.