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Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 5302, 20 August 1888, Page 2

Tin; Government appear to be determined on a thorough-paced policy of Protection. Tho terms of the contract for the erection of the Pohangina railway bridge specify that the whole of (ho ironwork, cylinders, bolts, k<l., shall be manufactured in the colony, and that the contractor*, shall be permitted to import nothing beyond pig-iron. The consequence of this specification will bo that tendering must be limited to thieu or four firms, and the cost to the colouy will bo increased by some £0000. This extra cost will not be :i profit to the workmen, but n bonus to the foundry that gets the contract. We suppose some day it will be understood that Protection niinply means tho robbery of many for the benetit of the few. The refusal of the Government to put in hand tho railway from Paltnerston to the sito of the Pobangiiiii bridge will also greatly add to the cost of the latter work, at a time too when the colony has not a shilling to spare, j We are certain that if the connection of W'lodvillo with Pahnerstou had been left to private enterprise, and that if the name blundering iuditfcrencu to cost had been •shown a.-; bus been displayed by the Government, tli« whole box and dice of directors, surveyor.--, and engineers would have been sent about thoif business by tiie justly indignant i-hareholders. But tho Government can make the most frightful blunders simply because they have not to submit an annual balance-sheet of each work to the tax payera.