OUR NEW TARIFF.

Evening Post, Volume L, Issue 36, 10 August 1895, Page 4

OUR NEW TARIFF.

TO THE EDITOB. Sib— l am desirous of information, and the way I put it is this—" If it be a statesmanlike action to obtain a reciprocal treaty with South Australia and Canada on a Free Trade basis, what is the the action that objects to England participating, when the latter has always openly offered as much or more than the former?" lam aware that by the inclusion of England it would mean that Free Trade was to be the rule here, and why not? Let us look at America aad New South Wales — both pointing an unmistakable moral. In America, the McKinley Tariff was made openly for the express purpose of crushing English goods out of the markets there, and by giving a " twißt to the Lion's tail " at the same time, so increase the available work at home factories, that wages would go up to such an extent that champagne and diamonds, beloved of the Yank, would be in 'the mansion of every working man ! And the results? Alas, in less than five years wages went down, the employers of labour pocketed any increase in the price of articles. English goods still found a market, and the Americans took no rest until they gave a decided notice to the Legislature to repeal the obnoxious tax. We here see the main plank of the Protection platform (the raising of the wage rate) completely rotten. Now for New South Wales. Onoe a Free Trade oountry, it want by leapsand bounds, until in a weak moment it was led astray by the fascinating Protection, and believed in such stories as tbi9 I have just read:— " Marshall P. Wilder and Senator Blame oroßsed the Atlantic together. Coming into New York -Bay the sun was chining gloriously. 'Ah, Wilder,' said Blame, • did you ever see such sunshine in a free trade country?' ' Never, ' said Wilder, 'Protection'forevor ! '" Buta crisis arrived and Protection was found wanting ; it waß not elastic enough to relieve the country of the strain, so they have now unanimously gone baok to Free Trade and Progression. It may perhaps be kicking a dead dog to say that it appears curious to some people that we should object to the Chinese ooming here and at the same time emulate their exclosiveness ; but when wa see Sydney the centre of the trade of the Southern Hemisphere, we shall be able to point another moral to the blind and fatuous Protectionists of New Zealand. The ingenious remark of Nelson Moate and Co.'s manager that the consumer would not get the "penny" back but would get another " blend," is delicious. An examination in tea blending is the next thing we shall be brought to, ao as to discover whether we have reaohed our " penny " or not. For my part I prefer the bronze. I am, &c, Pboobbssivb. Wellington, August, 3rd, 1895.