Hawke's Bay Herald. MONDAY, JUNE 22, 1885. THE CUSTOMS TARIFF.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXII, Issue 7195, 22 June 1885, Page 2

Hawke's Bay Herald. MONDAY, JUNE 22, 1885. THE CUSTOMS TARIFF.

The financial proposals of the Ministry are now before the country ; but if the representatives of the people are true to the people's interests, they will never consent to a great part of Sir Julius Vogel'B scheme becoming law. We have not now the apace to deal with the Financial Statement as a whole ; but that part which refers to the increase of Customs duties should be alone sufficient to cause the downfall of the Ministry. It is a dishonest and deceptive Statement, and does not set out on its face its true meaning. To judge from the verbiose remarks on the tariff one would suppose that only a few alterations were proposed in the direction of "encouraging local industry," but as a matter of fact the changes are little short of revolutionary ia character, and, while devised with Protective ideas kept steadily in front, contemplate the additional taxation of nearly every necessary of life. In the Statement itself Sir Julius gives no information as to the specific changes he proposes. He buries that information in a long resolution, to understand which it is necessary to spend some hours in comparing the proposed tariff with the one now in existence. We have gone to the trouble of making such a comparison, and we print the results elsewhere, for the benefit of those who have neither time nor inclination to wade through the intricacies of the tariff for themselvesWith the exception of sugar, almost every article of daily. consumption which is imported is to be heavily taxed. The taxation on these articles is, indeed, already very heavy, and the imposts now proposed would be better described as crushing. In articles such as are largely used by those classes who can least afford to pay more for what theyluse we find the duties increased on raady-made clothing and apparel, blankets, boots and shoes, candles, drapery, farinacious food, preserved fish, fruit pulp and preserves, pickles, woollen goods and soap; and heavy duties are proposed on the following articles of daily household use now admitted free : — iEcated waters, arrowroot, bacon and hams,basketsand wiokerware, butter and cheese, coals, cork soles, glue, groats, and preserved provisiana. The average increase in the duties on these articles is at least ten percent., and the burden would be a most serious one to those with small means and large families. If the late Government had proposed such taxation 'through the Custom-house there would have been a howl from one end of the colony to ihe other— and rightly so. The present Ministry dare not have made such" proposals did they not rely on the cry of " Liberalism " covering all financial sins, arid hiding from the eyes lof those who put them in power the true meaning of their proposals. Out upon suoh Liberalism, say we \ W^ have iaid that JtbV

way in which the proposed changes was brought down was calculated to deceive, : and we have given suffioient to prove that position. But worse is behind, and is coutained in a few words at the end of one of the resolutions. That resolution reads:— "Kesolved, that on all goods, ware, and merchandise not enumerated above, or in the table of duties of Customs annexed to the Customs Laws Consolidation Act, 1882, and not included in the list of articles exempt from duty to subsequent resolution, there shall be charged a duty of 10 per cent, ad volorem." This means that everything not in the list of dutiable or free goods is to be liable to 10 per cent. duty. There are hundreds of articles commonly imported not in that list, and all would be liable to pay 10 per cent, duty, or, to put it more exactly, 11 per cent., for that is the rate really charged. Hitherto articles not enumerated have beeu admitted free, p.a it i» right and proper they should be, and the proposal to tax unenumerated articles ia now made for the first time. How much additional taxation that would mean it ia quite impossible to say, but that it must mean something very material ia sufficiently evident. We object to the proposed changes in principle as well as in detail. We object to the extra taxation of the bulk of the people through the Custom-house, because they are not the classes vrho should be called upon to make good any deficiency in revenue ; but we object also on the broader if rnoro theoretical ground that the changes proposed are distinctly Protective in intention and tendency, and for the first time would commit the colony to an avowed policy of Protection. Sir Julius Yogel tried to hide the real object of his proposals under a cloud of words, just as the cuttle-fish obscures his movements by throwing out inky fluid to discolor the surrounding water. He tried to make out thai he was neither a Free Trader nor Pro> tectionist, but a kind of political hermaphrodite combining the excellences of both schools and free from the fa]lacies of either. He says, in specific terms, " We are, then, noither Free Traders nor Protectionists." He might have taken to himself the well-known declaration of Mr Hosea Biglow — Ez to my principles, I glory In heviu' nuthin' o' the sort ; I ain't a Whig, I ain't a Tory — I'm jest a candidate, in shout. That's fair an' square an' perpendicler, But ef the Public cares a fig To hey' mo an' thin' in particler, Why, I'm a kind of peri-wig. Sir Julius Yogel must hold the intelligence of honorable members at a very loir estimate if he believes that they, or their constituents, will be content with any such negative declaretion of principles. His Statement ia a Protectionist manifesto from beginning to end, and it is little short of astounding to see that valiant champion of Free Trade and cheap food, Robert Stout calmly consenting by his presence in the Cabinet to such a bare-faced attempt to commit the colony to Protection. If Mr Stout were not in the Ministry it would be worth a journey to Wellington to hear the way he would pick the Statement to rags and tatters, exposing its fallacies and "knocking shots" out of Sir Julius for his attempt to deceive the House and the country. Bat the Eobert Stout of to-day seems to be a very different man to the Eobert Stout of seven years ago. Then he stuok to his guns to the last, and fought right valiantly for the principles he professed. TSpvt he is content to bury those principles for the sake of office, or his views have undergone a kaleidoscopic change without anyone knowing of the metamorphosis.