THE PROTECTION LEAGUE AT MORNINGTON.

Evening Star, Issue 7248, 27 June 1887, Page 4

THE PROTECTION LEAGUE AT MORNINGTON.

TO THE BDITOB. Sir,— Having had a long experience of Victoria, I beg fa offer a few remarks in regard to tho Protection Leagued meeting at Mornington a short while sinoe. Possibfy flijngs here may be benefited awhile by an ultra-Proiectjonist policy, but at what cost 1 Why, in the end by our having the necessaries of life and all requisites raised in cost 30 to 50 per cent, above the rates aj; presenj ruling, and employment of all kinds even less obtainable and Ices remunerative than now. From the outcry jrtfrde by the Protectionists, one would almost think th t scarcely any manufactures were carried on here; but, if totted up, they would really amount to a considerable number, With food cheap, and materials for further manufactures admitted at no more than a fair fiscal impost, these may be further increased, and men of small means be the better able to co-operate and start. What we have to consider in the future is Chinese competition, not British or European. Besides, Britain needs our industries. As one of your correspondents pointed out, our exports are about on a par with the imports. Our specie is drained by interest on loans, and excsptional educational and civil administration. No Chinese should share our advantages unless they become bona fide settlers of acceptable morality. For the sake of argument, let us concede that ultra-Protection has been established. What then? Emplovmentforatimebecomesrnoreabundaflt j wages and commodities go up; artisans

ave attracted hove from other countries ; workmen settle hero, ami in duo course raise families. In time competition becomes so keeu that wages are forced down and the workman is obliged, after a struggle, to accept what the manufacturer offers. This is unquestionably what has happened and ia happening in America. For example, look at the manufacture of Amerio mi organs, clocks, pianos, and hardware Ask experts what the American workmen rec-ivo out of the proceeds of the s.ilo of these goods. At the Mornington meeting the other night statements with regard to Victoria were hazarded with the greatest effrontery. Some of the pictuies drawn were very eouleur de rose. I advise my fellow-workmen to go to Melbourne and give it a trial there. They will find rent dearer; meat twice as high as here; bread 15 to 20 per cent, higher; butter, cheese, and ham dearer and inferior ; eggs, groceries, vegetables, etc., not one whit cheaper. There are many evidences also that Victoria has nearly run the length of her tether. Where she has had much advantage is in not having committed herself to much borrowing and misappropriation. Her statesman generally have probably been better men of business. What did Colonel Sargood say here a short while since and lie is a gentleman well respected by all classes?—"that our land carried the cake !" Plow often- oh, how often !—has the writer, and others like him, at Footsoray, Sunbury, and Castlemwnc, or Ballarat, had reason to anathematise the Victorian wattle-tanned leather, in toil, heat, and dust, or in ordinary businesb. Go and ask governesses, music teachers, and proprietors of pianos about hours of anguish endured from instruments of colonial manufacture, whose glue joints unless done in the winter season cannot be depended upon. All this misery had to bo submitted to in order that a comparat vo few may be benefited. The real promoters of all this hue and cry in many cases are the manufacturers and professional legislators. I say encourage local industries as far as practicable, but without further taxation. Cut down all extravagance so that the destitute may be provided with employment in timber planting, in making roads, and in attending to works ef general utility. With the observance of proper economy, and with wlonty cf land available for the bona fide small settler, there ought to be a return of prosperity. To my fellow electors I say beware of the professional politician who comes to yon in the guise of Esau, but whose words are those of an "oily " Jacob. If you heed him we may lose our fa'r heritage for a comparative mess of pottage.—l am, eta.. Ex-Victorian. Llunedin, June 24.