NOTES.

Evening Star, Issue 7290, 15 August 1887, Page 3

NOTES.

If one can judge by the speeches of the candidates for the Dunedin Protectionist representation, they, with one p r ?7 ot exception, think that, the s ' industrial classes are easily bamboozled. All but one who have come forward as fit and proper to go to Parliament assume it sufficient to say " We are advocates for protection to local industries." It used to be imlke not local; but that is changed, we suppose, on the principle adopted by the Port Chalmers Dock Trust: "Spend the money herein this lo a!ity—we don't care for the Colony." Not one Protectionist has yet told his hearers how Protection is to give work. Of course the cost of providing work, if it ever came after such a fashion, is altogether kept out of the question. It must be plain that to lay extra duties on goods already manufactured here is nonsense. Those industries a>-e established. Like brewing, it is proved the Colony can make them pay, because of its natural adaptation for the purpose. It must, therefore, be the intention, by levying heavy duties on some goods not made here, to induce some people to invest their money in industries that will not pay, unless helped out of the public purse. Let us see how this agrees with other election cries : Firstly. " Retrenchment." This means pulling down expenses. Secondly. "Protection." This means adding to cmr expenses hy making everything dear, and paying for local industries. Thirdly. "Railway Construction." This, if it means anything beyond spending money, purports to cheapen the cost of production and transit, so as to encourage commerce. Fourthly. "Custom-house duties" are to be made use of to discourage commerce, and render railways to some extent useless. Fifthly. The Property Tax paid by people who have wherewith to pay, is to be repealed, because of its tendency to prevent

thrift. Sixthly. The Customs duties are to be increased, although they are mainly paid by the laboring classes earning wages, by the halt, the maimed, the blind, the struggling fathers of families, who, because of heavy taxation, have not wherewith to exercise thrift. Seventhly. These glaring contradictions only form part of the follies advocated by Protectionists, who should, before receiving votes of confidence, be asked to reconcile them satisfactorily. Eighthly. Protectionists have never yet told us why consumers' interests should be left out of sight while producers only are to have their special patronage. Let them show, if they can, the justice of saeririiing the many to the few. This would open a field for some originality. Thus far, Sir Julius has been their fugleman, and, like parrots, they have repeated what he said. Mr R. S. Hawkins, who is wooing the suffrages of the electors of MasOurSentN terton, has the knack of exmeiits also, pressing his thoughts in plain, vigorous Saxon. He is specially sound on anti-Protection and on the education question. To those candidates who place great value on the " olog.es" and affect to believe that the salvation of the Democracy depends on ruining the existing educational machine "at all hazards" wo commend Mr Hawkins's remarks on the dignity of manual labor, and hope they will be pondered, as they deserve to be, by every elector :

I tell you that whatever ia wrong in this education system will never be changed till you make up your minds yourselves as to what it is you want. Do you wish your sons to be all assistants or clerks in shops and batik offices or in the Civil Service, or are you content that they should follow handicrafts and do farm work? What is it you aim at in the education of yout daughters '! A great deal of the present system of instruction is based on the assumption that all handicraft labor is undesirable, and that the object of education is to enable the young to escape from it. Foolish people think it fine to tneer at heweis of wood and drawers of water. My own feeling is that handicrafts offer as large possibilities to industry or intelligence as any pursuit, and I would rather see my boy in shiitsleeveH ii a workshop, a clever worker in wood or iron, than in a rrasher dress fitting in a chair in a Government office in Wellington, and I would ten thousand times sooner see my daughter making butter in a countiy dairy than earning 12s a-week in a Melbourne shop factory and living in Melbourne slums.

A couple of days ago we published a para graph stating that considerable Satisfactory a pp reu ension had been caused Insurers, among insurers through the refusal of a Sydney office to pay the sum of LC7S assured by a policy infavor of a man who, having met with an accident, required to submit to a surgical operation, under which he died. The reason given for the refusal was that a clause in the policy provided that if the holder died under an operation the contract would be void, It was further stated that a similar condition existed in most policies. From explanations offered to the Wellington Press by Mr Luekie (head of the Government Insurance Department) and Mr Gilbert (representative of the Mutual Life Association of Australasia) it would appear that the case in question was an insurance against accident, and not life. The condition relied on by the insurance office does not attach to the policies of any Australian life assurance companies ; and Mr Luekie, in making the same disclaimer in regard to the Stateguaranteed institution, says : " Such a condition would be a gross fraud on the true principle of life insurance," and he expresses regret that the public are not acquainted with the name of the ofiiee that is said to have sheltered itself under "such a shame-

le3s condition." From the initiation of her railway system up to June 30 last, the Colony What a of Victoria has expended the Contrast! large sum of L 26,714,110 on her railways. With what results? At the end of 18S4 Parliament had authorised the construction of 1,100 miles of road ; Bince then 196 additional miles had been opened up for traffic, and 410 more miles are under contract at this moment. At the end of the current year it is anticipated that 200 more miles will be opened for traffic, and at the end of the financial year—3oth June, 1888—140 more miles of line; or, altogether, 340 miles. That will make, partly open for traffic and partly under contract before 30th June next, 946 miles. And Premier Gillies believes that before the end of the financial year the increased number of lines open for traffic will be 510 miles. "That is remarkably good work," said he In his Budget speeoh, to be done since December, 1884, and it has never been equalled in any former period of the railway history of the Colony." Of that twenty-six odd millions, a trifle over twentyfour millions are borrowed money, The net returns, after paying working expenses, for the year 1888-87 were equal to L 1,040,000, while the interest on the w»t of construction was L 085.603. Thus there was a clear profit of L54,4fi6\ notwithstanding that during the year the Railway Commissioners had been able to reduce the rates by a sum equal to LIOO 000. Unleso the Prahran and vv lndsor accidents coat the Colony a large sum the Commissioners expeot next year to be on the right side of the ledger to the tune ot LIOO.OOO. The railways of this Colony have cost about twelve millions J but they are far from realising the hope of the author of the Public Works policy, that they would yield enough to pay the interest on their cost of construction. What have they yielded during the last five years? In 1682-88 they returned £8 8 2 per cent. In 1883-81 .. .£2 911 „ In 1884-85 „ £3 15 i „ In 1885-88 „ Ml2 0 „ InlBS6-S7 „ *3 2 7 „

Though since 1885 we have increased our mileage by 143, the receipts continue to show a shrinkage; and to-day they yield only L 300.000 towards our annual charges for interest/ But Victoria has precious few " political" lines ; her railway system aims at opening up the country, and, with the exception of the Geelong line, does not compete with water carriage ; and the' administration of the system is removed, from the region of pqlitical control and entrusted to capable men, who. work them on purely commercial principles. Does anybody believe that Mr Richardson's mongrel Railway Boards Bill, the chief aim of whioh appears to be to provide berths at three guineas aday for a few individuals, will ever achieve similar results to those obtained by Mr Speight and his oolleagues ?

During the hearing of a case in the Bankruptcy Court, New Plymouth, on Thursday, it transpired that a large quantity of bad 1 butter had been sent away from New Plymouth to ,the Sydney market. Mr Samuel said it was a pity there was not a law .to prevent the shipment of, bad butter, as it would give New Plymouth a bad name. Mr Mynott remarked . that the butter shipped this year had been particularly inferior, over 1,000 kegs not being fit for human food having been sent to Sydney, which would have to be iißed M tallow.