FREE TRADE IN ENGLAND.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 5557, 8 December 1879, Page 3

FREE TRADE IN ENGLAND.

. The JSzirpjpean Mail says : — "Free trade has perhaps never passed through severer trial than that by which its value has bean tested during the last five years! On every hand the trade of the country

has suffered - a reverse-' b'i- $lie -pre v'lo'us ; semi-decade. The couritr-y 'is much poorer [than it was when Mr Gladstone, on leaviing office, ' left behind Hmi'- a 'surplus :of between and six millions. But we do not fiiid that there lifts; been anything ;like the distress which might have been jexpected from the depression of our industries conjoined with a succession of ;b"ad harvests.. Mr Shaw. Lefevre, in a papei: read before ,the British Association, at' Shef&etq, .correctly observes that within 1 .the meirio'ry of living niSiif 'there 'lias been no such confc(iirence ; of ;bad seasons.. ".four last";""' seasons " : hdv le'I e' yielded' results' of front 25' : per cent, to #o '' per cent; '.below the average, and this with: ;an increasing population ,to feed. JBut prices have .not risen as they did formerly. sTlris 1 ,- 'ho 1 sloiibt, Indicates 'a. loss to the : ■tenant farftiers, trut is ft gain "to the country at large. Whrtt would have been the ; state of England .'during; .the last four pr five -years if, with its-'undustriea depressed, and with a succession of bad harvests>- if had riot been able to -draw its supplies" of food ffpely': : from; other coitn-' tries'? . The;' countries' which ! hate- tnaintained.thesystein of protection have been considerably Worse off 'than' ourselves: With all, ;her natural wealth, and with the.' immense; exportation' .of food which she has Bcnt ; to England, America has been a much -greater sufferer. To a Very large extent; the depression of ourindustries has resulted from ,:the collapse p{ those of the United States. It is due, in a great measure, to the prostration of her. other industries that has been able to export to us such large supplies of food. But, even >vith our markets open to her agriculturists, they have felt the strain of bad times more severely than we have. The turn of the tide, however, has commenced in America. It has already reacted upon us, and it may be expected that there are better seasons in store for our tenant farmers than the disastrous one through which they are now passing. But, come what may, we, know; as.- an indisputable . fact that- we have been able to weather the storm.: of • bad - times by the .'enlightened policy; which threw- the system of. protection overboard once and for ever,, and that our suffering in the evil days through which we have passed has been slight in 6omparison with" that of other nations which have refused -' to follow out?' example." - ; „ .. *""