PROTECTION v. FREE TRADE.

Evening Post, Volume XXII, Issue 83, 6 October 1881, Page 3

PROTECTION v. FREE TRADE.

TO THB EDITOR OF THE EVINING POST. Sir— The facts shown by " A Eeal Working Man " are highly interesting and inBtructiyo, yet to conolnde that a free trade policy iB the beßt for any country at any timo would be a fallacy. Those facts prove without fail that free trade was adopted at the right time, when the use of railways and of steam-power and the manifold inventions and improvements in manufacture were revolutionising the trades, especially tho iron trado. The enormous progress and prosperity were in a great measure duo to those men of genius, like George Stephenson (once a poor working man), who found ways and means to benefit the whole community, j materially and morally. Farmers, merchants, in fact everyone, gained through the multitude of working bees in Great Britain's workshops. The time prior to 1840 was preparatory forthatgreatindustrialracein which Great Britain gained the first prize. Although in many respeots our position in New Zealand is different, yet on tho whole there is a great similarity to that of Great Britain. We want to do what they did at home, namely — we want to develop our natural resources, and we require proteotion so long as our factories are in their babyhood and childhood. After that let us have free trade with all the world, and New Zealand must become the Great Britain of the South. I am, &c, Another Working Man. sth October.