A PHASE OF PROTECTION.

Evening Star, Issue 7480, 26 March 1888, Page 1

A PHASE OF PROTECTION.

Among the advocates of fiscal reform just now in New Zealand, it is evident from their utterances that there are many who, whilst not able to accept the theory of Protection pure and simple, hold that under existing circumstances modified or limited Protection should be adopted. It has been urged over and over again in the Home Country and the colonies that the evil effects of this policy may be minimised, and the good enhanced, by a due regard to certain conditions, the principal of which is that the protection granted must be temporary or tentative in character. The working out of the system, to be seen in the United States and elsewhere, makes it clear to demonstration that the inevitable effect in the long run is to " impair the equality of the distribution of the results of production," as a leading authority observes, or, in other words, to tax the many for the benefit of the few, to make the rich richer and the poor poorer. Eicardo, referring to France, says: " The for* " tunes of the ironmasters and cotton- " spinners increased enormously under "a system of artificial prices, while "the condition of the mass of the "people advanced less rapidly than "in any other country in Europe." It takes time, no doubt, to develop this particular economic mischief; but it is certain as fate, and equally so, that skill must degenerate through lack of competition, and prices rule high by reason of restricted supply. In the present position of the question in New Zealand, it is difficult at first sight to comprehend how the artisan and working classes should, to any extent as to numbers, be induced to favor Protection, which must infallibly so heavily mulct them. It must be. remembered, however, that these classes are both consumers and producers. The working man, in his character of producer, frequently figures as the supporter of " Protection " candidates, because they promise him high wages, although it must be patent to him, on reflection, that he will suffer in private in his character of consumer because of the high prices ensuing. This is one of the points so ably put by President Cleveland in his Message to Congress, in which he shows clearly that a protective tariff, affecting to give with one hand, takes more than it so gives with the other; and that the advantages gained by the producer are, in regard to the large masses of the people, more than counterbalanced by the increase of prices to the consumer. It is difficult, however, even in countries suffering under Protection, to wake up the consumer to a sense of his position. Where Protection is threatened, the facts staring him in the face are frequently ignored, and consequently, as a force in politics, the producer is at great advantage. Manufacturers, employes, artisans, and their widely ramifying connections, who expect to reap the benefit of the protected industries, have uniform and compact interests; whilst the interests of consumers, as such, are multiform and heterogeneous. Force, in the one. case, small in the aggregate is condensed and strong; in the other, whilst large in the aggregate, it is dispersed and weak. Cobden has recorded the expressed opinion of Napoleon 111. on this point, which is worth quoting, as exceedingly apropos: —" The difficulty is this : the monc"polists may be few, the min"ority—their interests are not to "be compared with those of the "nation; but they are an organised "body, a disciplined army, and the "great consuming public is only a "mob"! Those who support the movement in favor of Protection under the idea that it may practically be only temporary or tentative, if experience as well as common sense are to be taken as guides, will most assuredly find themselves mistaken. An industry once planted becomes a vested interest; and the claims of vested interests are certain in the natural order of things to be specially persistent and dogged in those cases where the wrong industries have been fostered—where the experiment in short has had a negative issue. " The producer," as an eminent pam* phleteer writes on the subject, "be» "comes the more loth to yield up "his claim to State Protection "for his venture the more he is "persuaded that the industry so set up " will never face with success the keen "air of free competition. Thus a " fresh burden is entailed on the com- " munity, either of undoing its own "gratuitous or of abiding the " sufferer of its own acts." It must be borne in mind that it is just the industries which cannot stand alone for which Protection is demanded. The example o. e Victoria proves that the promoters of such industries are the veritable " daughters of the horse leech " in clamoring for more protection even after having been for twenty years subsidised by the public. It is often, plausibly argued that limited protection, which we choose to conJ sider in itself an anomaly, is an unmitigated good for a young community; where, whilst many of the conditions are similar to those of the Old Country, there are other conditions superadded which are entirely different. These conditions, however, to pur mind, point rather to absolute freedom of trade than to the setting up of those curses of the Old World countries vested interests. The effects of Protection, like the eternal truth, must be the same everywhere and under all conceivable circumstances; it is as much a curse to anew country as

to an old. In the words of the eminent political economist from whom we have previously quoted : " It cuts " up, turns, and destroys the natural " roads to wealth; by maldistribution " of wealth it fosters the growth of a " pauper class; it avowedly seeks " justification for its gross interference "with political freedom; and its "sure outcome is the erection of "powerful vested interests of a " peculiarly mischievous character. "It brings in its train a sense " of weakness in the society, and soon "produces a distrust in the future "which disheartens and discourages "fatally the enterprise of a society." Notwithstanding fallacious appearances and the loud-mouthed asseverations of those immediately interested in their maintenance, it may be depended upon that failure is eventually in store for young communities which adopt protective policies. Their great vitality may enable them for a long time to conceal the symptoms, but the break-up of the constitution is sure to come about, possibly with a suddenness which may prevent remedial measures. Are there not already indications that a crisis is approaching in a neighboring colony 1 Who can say what even this year may bring forth when once the spurt of the Centennial Exhibition is over!