NOVA SCOTIA DECLARES AGAINST PROTECTION.

Evening Star, Issue 7332, 3 October 1887, Page 1

NOVA SCOTIA DECLARES AGAINST PROTECTION.

Some months ago a Reuter cablegrambald and imperfect, as such messages too frequently are—startled the public with the news that Nova Scotia demanded severance from the Canadian Dominion, and threatened union with the American Republic. The news came just at the time when onr kinsfolk across the sea were discussing a grand scheme of Imperial Federation. It seemed incredible that any part of the Empire should even consider the question of changing the flag ; and, indeed, such was never the desire, nor in the thoughts of the Nova Scotians. " What the inhabitants of " the Arcadian peninsula want is repeal of " the Union with Canada, and commercial " reciprocity with the United States." An article in the ' Nineteenth Century,' from the pen of a resident, gives the reason why. Those of onr New Zealand statesmen who entertain a sentimental leaning towards Imperial Confederation, or even incline to join a Federation of the Australasian colonies, may learn a lesson from the fate that has overtaken Nova Scotia. The debt of that Province in 1867, when she entered the Confederacy, was from eight to nine million dollars—less than two millions sterling. In eighteen years her share of the Dominion debt—which has advanced daring that period from £19,000,000 to £56,000,000 —has swollen to £5,600,000. And the Dominion's annual expenditure, which at the time of Confederation was £2,600,000, has, "to the dismay of Canada's wisest statesmen," already reached £7,000,000, and is still increasing. "Of this charge " Nova Scotia pays a tenth, and of her con"tribution a large portion is spent outside 11 her borders, and in ways that benefit her " not at all." Her Premier, Mr Fielding, tells us that "previous to the Union, Nova " Scotia had the lowest Tariff, and was in " the best financial position of any'of the "provinces. To-day she has the highest " Tariff, since she pays some three dollars " more in every hundred dollars' worth of " imported dutiable goods than her fellow- " provinces," and is, the same authority assures us, "in the worst financial position." These, then, are the causes of the dissatisfaction and discontent which exist. Canada, like New Zealand, has been launched upon a career of extravagance, borrowing, and a Protective Tariff, and is suffering more or less throughout the Dominion, but in the outlying provinces most of ali. Newfoundland, which from the beginning refused to join the Confederacy, has reason to regard with gratitude ths farsighted wisdom of her statesmen who kept her out of it and preserved her financial and fiscal independence. If we do not profit by the warning thus opportunely thrown in our way, it will be the worse for our people. Nova Scotia has been crippled by what the writer of the article referred to summarises as " unduly heavy taxation, unequal diatri- " bution of its prooeeds, and enforced isola- " tion " —the latter being one of the bitter fruits of Protection. "The condition to "which Nova Scotia is reduced is that " which all sound political economists would "expect, that she is indeed an 'awful " example' of the hideous folly of reverting "to Protectionist principles. Her taxation "is swollen some 150 per cent., and the "tariff being purposely framed to bar ont "foreign trade as much as possible, does her "serioas injury; albeit Protectionists on " her side of the Atlantic labor with a zeal "worthy of a better cause, to make her "people believe that an imported article " which formerly came in free, or with only a " 10 per cent, duty charged, is no dearer " now when a 25 to 35 per cent, duty is "paid." There are a number of persons in New Zealand—some honest, but ill-informed ; others the exact reverse—who wonld fain persuade us to take the fatal leap into the gulf of Protection, Those who are in the first category are merely the dupes of those who are in the second. At the bottom of every attempt to bring about a system of Protection by means of import duties, there is always to be found selfishness and the desire to foster some particular trade or industry at the public expense. All such attempts bring about their just retribution. The American navigation laws have ruined the shipping industry, whioh they were designed to protect. In Victoria, heavy import duties have rendered the manufacture of woollen ! goods unprofitable. From Nova Scotia j comes the same tale. The wharves at I Halifax have so deoreased in value, under the maleficent influence of Protection, that we have it on the authority of the AttorneyGeneral: "those which once could not be " purchased for 50,000 dollars, now will not "sell for 20,000 dollars." Another significant circumstance is that in Nova Scotia, as in Victoria, vast numbers of the young and those in the prime of manhood leave her shores for other countries. "The exodus," we are told, "m "sometimes, apparently for political pur- " poses, denied, though the inhabitants of " the Province are well aware not only of its "existenoe, but of its magnitude." The natural industries of the country all. Buffer. In four counties, representing the four leading industries of coal-mining, farming, shipbuilding, and lumbering, the assessment rolls fell from 11 million dollars in 1868 to less than 8£ million dollars in 1884. The Halifax Chamber of Commerce maintain that those are "cruel and unjust laws." which restrict trade between " natural customers," and truly say that "commercial "relations between British colonies should "be free." Desperate are the devices to keep uplife in the inert theory of Protection. We learn from the Halifax * Chronicle' that 500,000 dollars have been spent in establishing a sugar refinery, "every cent of whioh is lost"; also that 350,000 dollars have been sunk in a ootton mill, "which "is probably worth ten cents in the dollar," and has never yet paid a dividend. "To keep life in these "and other bantling industries, the Do- " minion Government impose pretty stiff "duties on imported sugar and cotton;" so that the people pay more for their sugar and ootton, and reap no advantage whatever from the extra taxation. Some things similar to the following have happened more than once in the Australasian colonies: —"Among other efforts, some colonists, " foolishly relying on that spirit of private "enterprise which it seems to be the " paternal mission of Protection to thwart, "once sought to rival Cross and Black- " well by seting up a pickle factory. The "vegetables were cheap and plentiful "enough, but the duty on imported glass " bottles was sufficient to cause the industry " to die that premature death to which most "of the infant industries seem doomed " whose misfortune it is to be Protection's " foster-ohildren." Similarly in Victoria, as Mr Pclstord tells us, their woollen manufacturers 15 per cent, protection, which, it must be remembered, is in addition to the "natural protection "of 10per cent, representing the. savings resulting front, having the raw materials on the spot, and. the market likewise. Yet in 1886 the position of this industry was so serious that a great agitation was got up for an enormous increase of the protective duty. Specific duties were asked for in addition to the ad vtUorem, " so that in all it was foand that " on some descriptions of woollens a protection of 100 and up to 150 per cent was "asked." Mr Munro, speaking in the Assembly, said " the mill with which he was. " connected lost the whole of its capital of; " £19,000. The state of affaire,"!* declared, " was Buch that no man is the " Colony would' be so foolish as to invest "his money in the woollen industry.. "... It was stated that the Ballarat "mill was a Buocess, but for the last fivfr "years that mill did not pay any profit.'* " And"—interjected a member—" £40,000 invested 1" Referring to the proposal to> increase the duty to 90 per cent., Mr M?npbp said : " Five per cent, increase in " the duty would only enable the "»"■ to " struggle on for a few years, and then they " would die an agonising cteatbT? '""?"/"

Everywhere the same results may be traced to the same causes. Protection is draining the life - blood from the United States, notwithstanding that within her own borders the most absolute Freetrade prevails. It is strangling Victoria, and ruining Nova Scotia. It is crushing the working men of Germany to the dust—grinding their bones to make the bread of their taskmasters. And woe betide New Zealand if ever our rulers and law-makers are so infatuated as to apply its cruel provisions to our fiscal system. .