MR HUTCHISON AND ROSLYN.

Evening Star, Issue 7233, 8 June 1887, Page 4

MR HUTCHISON AND ROSLYN.

TO THE EDITOR.

Sir,—The simplicity of the proceedings towards the close of Monday night’s meeting was quite charming. Mr Hutchison, when the requisition was presented to him, was “surprised and astonished,” and could not then reply, though common report says that he had been feeling his way for a fortnight. However, it appears that Freetraders in the Borough have now to fight, not only against the principles of Protection, but against its impersonation in Mr Hutchison. I hope we shall be equal to the emergency. What will the teetotallers who were on Mr Hutchison’s Committee on a previous occasion say to his suggestion for renewing distillation in the Colony ? Apart from the consideration that the benefit to the farmer even is very problematical, what do they think of the proposal to establish again the abominable distilling trade with the certainty of its attendant evils and the probability of having again to pay heavy compensation to vested interests to get the distilleries shut up when the country comes to its senses? The man who could suggest such an expedient—however tentative the suggestion till he saw how the cat jumped—is not worthy of a vote from the opponents of the drink traffic. Mr Hutchison’s quotation from John Stuart Mill re protecting new industries in young countries might have been supplemented by a little of the context. I hope that next time he gives an extract from that writer he will road a little more from the same chapter ; in fact, the whole of book v, chapter 10, section 1, might bo studied with advantage. Perhaps the League will reprint it and issue it when they begin circulating literature on the subject. One word more about the meeting. If the Protection League were really anxious that the subject should be fully discussed, why did they not adjourn the meeting when the expense of the hall for a second night was guaranteed by one of the spiakors? The sequel showed. I am, etc.. Pkrseus. Dunedin, June 8.